[5] Palaestina Prima with its capital in Caesarea Maritima encompassed the central parts of Palestine, including the coastal plain, Judea, and Samaria.

Palaestina Secunda had its capital in Scythopolis and included northern Transjordan, the lower Jezreel Valley, the Galilee, and the Golan area.

Palaestina Tertia with its capital in Petra included the Negev, southern Transjordan, and parts of the Sinai Peninsula.

Despite Christian domination, until the 4th and 5th centuries Samaritans developed some autonomy in the hill country of Samaria, a move that gradually escalated into a series of open revolts.

[7] The following year Persian-Jewish forces captured Caesarea and Jerusalem, destroying its churches, massacring its Christian population, and taking the True Cross and other relics as trophies to the Persian capital Ctesiphon.

During the Byzantine period, Palestina Prima gradually became a center of Christianity, attracting numerous monks and religious scholars from the Near East and Southern Europe, and abandoning previous Roman and Hellenistic cults.

Written sources from the Byzantine period describe Ascalon and Gaza as important commercial hubs that exported wine to many places throughout the empire.

Jerome points out that the region was home to numerous monastic settlements at the time and had a landscape dotted with vineyards.