Samaritan Revolts
| Samaritan revolts | |||||||||
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 Diocese of the Orient at the Byzantine period, where Samaritans largely inhabited Palaestina Prima (Samaria). |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Samaritan rebels Jewish rebels (556,572 revolts) |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Asclepiades and Rheges (484 revolt) Governor Procopius (495 revolt) Emperor Justinian I (ben Sabar revolt) Stephanus and Amantius (556 revolt) |
Justa (Justa uprising); a "Samaritan woman" (495 uprising) Julianus ben Sabar  (ben Sabar revolt)Samaritan and Jewish leadership (556,572 revolts) |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ben Sabar revolt: Severe casualties; | ben Sabar revolt: 20–100,000 killed 556 revolt: 100–120,000 casualties |
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The Samaritan revolts were a series of insurrections during the 5th and 6th centuries in Palaestina Prima province, launched by the Samaritans against the Byzantine Empire. The revolts were marked by great violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population. The events irreversibly shifted the demographics of the region, making the Christians the only dominant group in the Palaestina Prima province for many decades onward. Some historians draft comparisons between the consequences of the Samaritan revolts of the 5th and 6th centuries upon Samaritans to the consequences of Jewish–Roman Wars of the 1st and 2nd centuries upon the Jews in the region.
Samaritans fared badly under the Roman Empire, when Samaria was a part of the Roman-ruled province of Judaea. Though not directly targeted, Samaritans also suffered the severe consequences of Jewish–Roman wars in the area, during and after 66–135 CE.
Following the period of Jewish–Roman wars, the previously dominating Jewish community went almost extinct across Judaea and the shore of Southern Levant, remaining a majority only in Southern Judea, Galilee and Bashan (Golan). Samaritans and Byzantine Christians filled this vacuum in the central regions of Southern Levant, whereas Nabataeans and Christian Ghassanid Arabs settled the periphery.
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