Name given by the Romans to Judah?
In 135 the emperor Hadrian joined Judaea (the Latin for Judah)
and Galilee and merged them with the Roman province of Syria. The
two areas were renamed Syria Palaestina. Paleastina meant land of
the Philistines. He did so because after a rebellion against his
anti-Jewish policies, he persecuted the Jews and wanted to root out
Judaism. He banned the Torah, executed ten rabbis and had the
sacred scrolls burnt. He changed the name of Judah because he
wanted erase the memory of Judah, a practice the Romans called
damnatio memoriae. The Jews were also banned from entering
Jerusalem, which he had renamed Aelia Capitolina. Aelia was the
name of Hadrian's clan and Capitolina referred to the fact that he
had dedicated the new Jerusalem (which he had rebuilt after it had
been destroyed during the First Roman-Jewish War, 66-73) to the
Roman god Jupiter Capitolinus.