Phoenicia came under the rule of the Roman Republic in 64 BC, when Pompey created the province of Syria. With the exception of a brief period in 36–30 BC, when Mark Antony gave the region to Ptolemaic Egypt, Phoenicia remained part of the province of Syria thereafter.[1] Emperor Hadrian (reigned 117–138) is said to have considered a division of the overly large Syrian province in 123/124 AD, but it was not until shortly after c.