Livias was a city in Transjordan in Classical Antiquity. In the writings of Josephus (English translation), the name is presented as Julias. [1]
Numerous authors have presented a chain of evidence connecting Beth-Haram from the Book of Joshua (Josh. 13:27), considered to be the same as Bethharan from Numbers (Num. 32:36), [2] with Talmudic Beit Ramata (Hebrew : בית רמתה) [3] and Roman-period Betharamtha (Βηθαραμθα)[ dubious ] or Betharamphtha. [4] [5]
The traditional location of the Roman city is at Tell er-Rameh, a small hill rising in the plain beyond Jordan, about twelve miles from Jericho. [6]
In 2011 Graves and Stripling proposed that, while Tell er-Rameh was the commercial and residential center of Livias, the area around Tell el-Hammam, which grew in the Early Roman period, was the administrative epicenter of the city. This suggestion is based on the evidence from Tell el-Hammam excavations: a large Roman bath complex (thermae, 35x50m), several hot springs, aqueduct, Roman coins, Roman glass, Roman pottery, and a Byzantine church mosaic nearby. [7]
Archaeological evidence from Shuneh el-Janubiyyeh has shown the existence of a church in the diocese, dating from the sixth-eighth centuries. [8] A third Byzantine church was discovered between Tall Kafrayn and Tell el-Hammam (2.6 km or 1.6 mi west of the latter), with a large mosaic floor, now being used as a Muslim cemetery. [9]
Josephus (AD 37–c. 100) and others describe Livias as a city (πόλις polis) of Perea, [10] and specifically differentiate it from a small town (πόλίχνη polichnē) or from its surrounding fourteen villages (κώμας kōmas). [11]
A directional reference is the fifth milestone north of Livias located at Bethnambris (Bethnamaris; Bethnamran [12] ) or Tall Nimrin (TMP 749034E, 3532378N). According to Eusebius' Onomasticon , Livias is five Roman miles (7.5 km/ 4.7 m) south of Tall Nimrin[ dubious ]. [13]
These directional references, together with a statement provided by Theodosius that "the city of Livias is across the Jordan, twelve [Roman] miles [17.75 km/ 11 m] from Jericho" (Wilkinson) [14] to the east, provide east/west and north–south co-ordinates that when triangulated place Livias at Tall el-Hammam. [7]
The city of Betharan is twice mentioned in the Bible (Numbers 32:36; Joshua 13:27).
At about 80 BC, Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus captured a city later called by his son "Libias" from the Nabataeans; [15] it was then called Betharamphtha (Hebrew: בית רמתה). According Josephus, in the 1st century AD, Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, fortified the city of "Betharamphtha" with strong walls and called it Julias after the wife of Augustus, [16] whose birth name was Livia Drusilla, but who became known as Julia Augusta after adoption. Nero gave it with its fourteen villages to Agrippa II. [17] In the First Jewish-Roman War the Roman general Placidus captured it in 68, [18] [19] and the town was used to resettle deserters who had joined the Roman ranks. [20] After the revolt was quelled, the area was returned to Agrippa. He died without heir, and his territories were annexed to Judaea province. In later reorganizations of Roman provinces, it was included in Syria Palaestina (135), Palaestina (286) and Palaestina Prima (425), never gaining a colonia status.
In the time of Eusebius and St. Jerome the natives still called it Bethramtha. [19]
Livias was an episcopal see, a suffragan of the diocese Caesarea in Palaestina. Le Quien [21] mentions three bishops:
No longer a residential bishopric, Livias is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. [22]
Caesarea, also Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Palaestinae or Caesarea Stratonis, was an ancient and medieval port city on the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean, and later a small fishing village. It was the capital of Roman Judaea, Syria Palaestina and Palaestina Prima, successively, for a period of c.650 years, and a major intellectual hub of the Mediterranean, from the time of Herod I until the Muslim conquest of the Levant. Today, the site is part of the Caesarea National Park, on the western edge of the Sharon plain in Israel.
Azekah was an ancient town in the Shfela guarding the upper reaches of the Valley of Elah, about 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Hebron.
Beth-Nimrah or Beth-nimrah, also called Nimrin and Bethennabris, was an ancient city in Transjordan, which features prominently the history of ancient Israel and Judah. Tell Nimrin has been identified by Nelson Glueck as the last of three sites successively occupied by the ancient city.
Pella was an ancient city in what is now northwest Jordan, and contains ruins from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Canaanite, Hellenistic and Islamic periods. It is located near a rich water source within the eastern foothills of the Jordan Valley, close to the modern village of Ṭabaqat Faḥl some 27 km (17 mi) south of the Sea of Galilee. The site is situated 130 km (81 mi) north of Amman: a drive of about two hours, and an hour southwest by car from Irbid, in the north of the country. Pella's ruins – predominantly temples, churches, and housing – have been partially excavated by teams of archaeologists; they attract thousands of tourists annually but especially in spring, during which time the area is awash with spring flowers.
Bethsaida, also known as Julias or Julia, is a place mentioned in the New Testament. Julias lay in an administrative district known as Gaulonitis. Historians have suggested that the name is also referenced in rabbinic literature under the epithet Ṣaidan.
Judaea was a Roman province from 6 to 132 CE, which incorporated the Levantine regions of Judea, Samaria and Idumea, extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Judea. The name Judaea was derived from the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah.
Perea or Peraea was the portion of the kingdom of Herod the Great occupying the eastern side of the Jordan River valley, from about one third the way down the Jordan River segment connecting the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea to about one third the way down the north-eastern shore of the Dead Sea; it did not extend very far to the east. Herod the Great's kingdom was bequeathed to four heirs, of which Herod Antipas received both Perea and Galilee. He dedicated the city Livias in the north of the Dead Sea. In 39 CE, Perea and Galilee were transferred from disfavoured Antipas to Agrippa I by Caligula. With his death in 44 CE, Agrippa's merged territory was made a province again, including Judaea and for the first time, Perea. From that time Perea was part of the shifting Roman provinces to its west: Judaea, and later Syria Palaestina, Palaestina and Palaestina Prima. Attested mostly in Josephus' books, the term was in rarer use in the late Roman period. It appears in Eusebius' Greek language geographical work, Onomasticon, but in the Latin translation by Jerome, Transjordan is used.
Zoara, the biblical Tzo'ar, was one of the five "cities of the plain" – a pentapolis at the time of Abraham, it was a highly fertile valley apparently located along the lower Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea plain and mentioned in the Book of Genesis. The city was said to have been spared the "brimstone and fire" which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in order to provide a refuge for Lot and his daughters. It is mentioned by Josephus; by Ptolemy ; and by Eusebius and Saint Jerome in the Onomasticon. The Catholic Encyclopedia called it "a flourishing oasis where the balsam, indigo, and date trees bloom luxuriantly".
Bethoron, also Beth-Horon, was the name of two adjacent ancient towns strategically located on the Gibeon–Aijalon road, guarding the "ascent of Beth-Horon". The towns are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and in other ancient sources: Upper Bethoron appears in Joshua 16:5 and Lower Bethoron in Joshua 16:3 and 1 Chronicles 7:24 and I Maccabees 3:16.
Beth-Zur is a biblical site of historic and archaeological importance in the mountains of Hebron in southern Judea, now part of the West Bank. Beth Zur is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible and the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus. The Battle of Beth-Zur took place here in 164 BCE.
Tel Maresha is the tell of the biblical Iron Age city of Maresha, and of the subsequent, post-586 BCE Idumean city known by its Hellenised name Marisa, Arabised as Marissa (ماريسا). The tell is situated in Israel's Shephelah region, i.e. in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of Beit Gubrin.
Bethharan, Betharan or Beth Haran, also Betharam or Beth-Aram, was a Hebrew Bible city, in the valley-plain east of the Jordan River. In the Book of Joshua, a city called "Betharam" is listed as one of the cities allotted by Moses to Gad, previously belonging to Sihon the Amorite. According to the Book of Numbers, "Betharan" was rebuilt by the tribe of Gad.
Judea, Judaea, or Judah is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel.
Mastaura, was an ancient Greek town near Dereağzı, Nazilli in northern Caria, not to be confused with ancient Mastaura (Lycia).
The Diocese of Scythopolis is a titular see in Israel/Jordan and was the Metropolitan of the Roman province of Palestina II. It was centered on Modern Beth Shean (Bêsân).
Amathus (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαθοῦς or τὰ Ἀμαθά; in Eusebius, Ἀμμαθοὺς. Hebrew: עמתו was a fortified city east of the Jordan River, in modern-day Jordan.
This article presents a timeline of the name Judea through an incomplete list of notable historical references to the name through the various time periods of the region.
Tell el-Hammam is an archaeological site in Jordan, in the eastern part of the lower Jordan Valley close to the mouth of the Jordan River. The site has substantial remains from the Chalcolithic, Early, Intermediate and Middle Bronze Age, and from Iron Age II. There are different attempts at identifying the site with a biblical city.
Tell er-Rameh or Tall el-Rama is a small mound in Jordan rising in the plain east of the River Jordan, about twelve miles from Jericho. It presently has a Muslim cemetery on the acropolis that prevents it from being excavated. It has been traditionally identified as the location of Livias. The team recently excavating at Tell el-Hammam however, is proposing that Tell er-Rameh was the commercial and residential centre of Livias, while the administrative centre was located at Tall el-Hammam.
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Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "BETH-ARAM (Josh. xiii. 27) or BETH-HARAN". The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.