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The new province totally lacked geographic unity, since it essentially brought together the cities and allowed most of the principalities that had sprung up over time to remain. If some brigand chiefs had their heads chopped off (Dionysius of Byblos, the Jewish Silas in Lysias in the Apamena), other dynasts saved their lives and their states by handing over large sums to Pompey (Ptolemy son of Mennaeus) or his legates (Aretas III of Nabataea to Aemilius Scaurus in 62 BCE), or simply because their effective power sheltered them from a Roman military intervention (Abgar II in Edessa, Antiochus I of Commagene, Sampsigeramos in Arethusa). The province presented a strong geographic discontinuity: it consisted of most of North Syria (except the mountainous zones), the Lebanese coast (but not the inland area), and cities dispersed across southern Syria (Damascus, Canatha), Transjordan (most of the cities known as the Decapolis), Galilee (Scythopolis), and even the southern part of Palestine (Gaza). The Hasmonean and Nabataean kingdoms had sworn their allegiance, at least formally. As such, directly or indirectly, all of Syria had become Roman.