Gibson (2014) notes that Samaria-Sebaste was destroyed during the First Jewish War (66–73 CE), rebuilt as a Roman colony by Septimius Severus in 200 CE, and was already deteriorating by the time Christianity became dominant, before being left in ruins after the Arab conquest in the seventh century CE. Within this sequence, archaeological reports suggest that a destructive event affected the city during the Severan Period (193-235 CE).

Reisner, Fischer, and Lyon (1924:218) report that during this period the Basilica and the Forum were entirely reconstructed, the earlier buildings having apparently stood in ruins with many columns overthrown and pedestals removed. Later excavations summarized by Russell (1980) and originally described by Crowfoot, Kenyon, and Sukenik (1942) uncovered a large house in the eastern insula where no walls survived above ground level. The foundations showed an earlier well-built phase later rebuilt in a poorer style, with rubble courses added atop solid foundations, indicating that the original structure had been destroyed to ground level, possibly by an earthquake. Russell notes that the basilica may later have been converted into a cathedral in the fourth century CE, but also cautions that the earliest excavations lacked modern recording techniques and a reliable ceramic chronology (particulalrly Late Roman and Byzantine ceramics), leaving the dating of the destruction uncertain.