The Byzantine Commonwealth: BEIRUT of LEBANON

City of Phoenicians, Romans & Greeks
Beirut was known as the most Roman city of East. Greek was used by all classes in every mode of verbal expression. Yet the Phoenician-Punic heritage marked the writings of religion and literature. Furthermore, Syriac language had gained a growing importance.
The city is situated at the cost of Phoenicia in the eastern Mediterranean shores. Its harbor linked between the north ports such as Antioch & Constantinople and southern ports such as Caesarea and Alexandria and into the interior trade routs of the orient.
Trade has brought wealth to the city. Artisans produced merchandises of textile; garments of a special ornamented silk. They enjoyed a level of autonomy in their occupation such as weavers, silk & linen workers and producers of purple dye. Artists who produced mosaics and mastered glass and metal. Agricultural products were imported from the interior country-side.
This trade has enriched not only the merchants but also those who supplied services and transportation to enhance trade and to Roman government of Constantinople who enforced law and order.
Beirut was a city of lawyers! It was a center of legal studies and training in latin language and literature. It has attracted many students from all over the Mediterranean from Egypt to Illyricum and Armenia, who wish to master the Roman Law from world renowned professors such as Libanius. Gregory on Nazianzus obliquely referred to Beirut as "the celebrated city of pleasant Phoenicia' the seat of Roman laws"
Beirut was all in one: A Roman colonia, a Greek polis and a Phoenician city. It had temples, Agora (market), bathes and theaters. A dream that had come true of a cosmopolitan city. A splendissima indeed!
There was a variety of religions were practiced surprisingly harmonically in Beirut. Every sect of the society had its heritage with them. The poet Meleager of of Gadara (1st century B.C.) had composed at his epigram
If you are a Syrian, I say to you 'Salam!', if a Phoenician -- 'Naidios!'
and if Greek -- 'Chaire!' and you return me the same.
(Greek Anthology vii. 419)
Christianization has not progressed rapidly due to the cosmopolitan nature of the city. The establishment of churches has enhanced Christianity; it's decoration by mosaics and it were visited by the law students every evening services. Furthermore services were attended by speakers of many languages. The Christians had the advantage of the philosophical survival of freedom of thought in an academics city. Such a thing that should not be taken for granted even in our own days!
Reference:
Roman Berytus: Beirut in Late Antiquity
Linda Jones Hall
Routledge; 1 edition (September 8, 2008)
كلمات اغنية اعطني الناي لفيروز
شعر : جبران خليل جبران
أعطني الناي وغني
فالغنا سر الوجود
وأنين الناي يبقى
بعد أن يفنى الوجود
هل إتخذت الغاب مثلي
منـزلاً دون القصور
فتتبعت السواقي
وتسلقت الصخور
هل تحممت بعطره
وتنشفت بنور
وشربت الفجر خمراً
من كؤوس من أثير
هل جلست العصر مثلي
بين جفنات العنب
والعناقيد تدلت
كثريات الذهب
هل فرشت العشب ليلاً
وتلحفت الفضاء
زاهداً في ما سيأتي
ناسياً ما قد مضى
أعطني الناي وغني
وانسى داء ودواء
إنما الناس سطورٌ
كتبت لكن بماء
Give Me the Nay (Flute, Lute) and Sing
(English Translation of the poem by Kahlil Gibran)



Give me the Nay and sing,
The secret song of eternity.
The laments of the Nay will linger
Beyond the decline of existence.

Have you, like me,
Chosen the forest dwelling
Rather than the castle?

Have you followed the stream
And climbed the rocks?

Have you anointed your body
With fragrance distilled in light?
Have you been drunk with dawn
In the goblets full of pure air?

Have you, like me,
Sat down at dusk,
Among the glowing languor
Of vines laden with grapes?




Have you lain down on the grass at night
And covered yourself with heavens,
Opening your heart to the future,
Forgetful of the past?




Give me the Nay and sing,
The song in tune with hearts.
The laments of the Nay will linger
Beyond the fading of sins.

Give me the Nay and sing,
Give me the flute and sing,
forgetting all ailments and cures;
for people are like lines on a page
--written down--but with water

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