Thus, by exalting the Aeneid's author and characters, the Severan dynasty purposefully promoted a Phoenician-Roman connection.

[1] Tyre was the capital of Phoenice, but the Roman emperor Elagabalus (r. 218–222) raised his native Emesa (modern-day Homs) to co-capital, leading to a rivalry between the two cities as the head of the province.

This policy appears to have been continued during the third century AD, as seen in the case of Aurelian raising the garrisons of Phoenice to the normal strength of two legions.

[7] During the reign of the Emperor Philip I the Arab (244-249 CE), bronze coins were struck at Heliopolis in honour of the legions Fifth Macedonia and Eighth Augusta.

[24] In 238 or 239 AD, Beirut was first mentioned in writing as a major center for the study of law in the panegyric of Gregory Thaumaturgus, the bishop of Neo-Caesarea[25][26][27] The 3rd-century emperors Diocletian and Maximian issued constitutions exempting the students of the law school of Beirut from compulsory service in their hometowns.