Zenodorus (Greek : Ζηνόδωρος) was the ruler of a small principality in the vicinity of Damascus described by Josephus as the "house of Lysanias", 23-20 BCE.
Though Josephus does not seem to know it, Zenodorus was actually the son of Lysanias, for a funerary inscription found at Heliopolis (Baalbek) was dedicated to "Zenodorus the son of Lysanias the tetrarch" (of Iturea). [1] He gained control, on lease we are told, of some of his father's territory (confiscated when his father had been executed by Mark Antony), but it is not clear exactly what his territory was for Josephus only gives us information concerning areas south of Damascus (Ulatha and Paneas, both, we are told, west of Trachonitis), while the center of Lysanias's realm was north-west of Damascus. He may in fact have held the lease on his territories as far back as the time of his father's execution (36 BCE), doing the work of administering the region while initially paying rent to Cleopatra, though we only have Josephus's indications to follow. [2] Coins minted during his reign describe Zenodorus as "tetrarch and high priest", a phrase also used on coins by his forebears. This indicates that for most of his possession of his father's lands, he was more than a lessee of the property.
Josephus reports Zenodorus was not satisfied with his earnings so he became involved in acts of robbery in the Trachonitis region south-east of Damascus as well as against Damascus itself. The Damascenes turned to the Roman governor to relieve their sufferings, which led Augustus to give control of the Trachonitis to Herod the Great, along with the task of bringing order to the area. Zenodorus went to Rome in an attempt to bring charges against Herod for the zealousness of his efforts in the Trachonitis, but returned, not having achieved anything.
Starting to despair for his situation Zenodorus sold a part of his lands called Auranitis for fifty talents, though this land had been confiscated by Augustus and given to Herod! Next he instigated the inhabitants of Gadara to make charges against Herod before Augustus who had come to Syria, but Augustus stood by Herod and the unrest dissipated. Zenodorus's problems were finally resolved when he suffered a ruptured intestine and died soon afterwards in Antioch.
Josephus's presentation of Zenodorus is rather negative and the interpretations he places on the events he describes may simply represent the propaganda of his major source for the period, Nicolaus of Damascus, an important functionary in the court of Herod the Great, who would have looked after Herod's best interests to the loss of Zenodorus.
Herod I, the Great was a Roman Jewish client king of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea. Among these works are the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the expansion of its base—the Western Wall being part of it. Vital details of his life are recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus.
Abilene or simply Abila was a plain, a district in Coele-Syria, of which the chief town was Abila Lysaniou. The limits of this region are nowhere exactly defined, but it seems to have included the eastern slopes of the Anti-Lebanon range, and to have extended south and southeast of Damascus as far as the borders of Galilaea, Batanaea, and Trachonitis. According to Flavius Josephus, Abilene was a separate Iturean kingdom until 37 AD.
Herod Agrippa, also known as Herod II or Agrippa I, was the last Jewish king of Judea. He was a grandson of Herod the Great and the father of Herod Agrippa II, the last known king from the Herodian dynasty. He was acquaintance or friend of Roman emperors and even played crucial roles in internal Roman politics.
Herod Agrippa II, officially named Marcus Julius Agrippa and sometimes shortened to Agrippa, was the last ruler from the Herodian dynasty, reigning over territories outside of Judea as a Roman client. Agrippa II fled Jerusalem in 66, fearing the Jewish uprising and supported the Roman side in the First Jewish–Roman War.
Herod Antipas was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea. He bore the title of tetrarch and is referred to as both "Herod the Tetrarch" and "King Herod" in the New Testament, although he never held the title of king. He was a son of Herod the Great and a grandson of Antipater the Idumaean. He is widely known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
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.
Lysanias was the ruler of a small realm on the western slopes of Mount Hermon, mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus and in coins from c. 40 BCE. There is also mention of a Lysanias dated to 29 in Luke's Gospel.
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.
Aretas IV Philopatris was the King of the Nabataeans from roughly 9 BC to AD 40.
Iturea is the Greek name of a Levantine region north of Galilee during the Late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. It extended from Mount Lebanon across the plain of Marsyas to the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria, with its centre in Chalcis.
Aristobulus V of Chalcis was a son of Herod of Chalcis and his first wife Mariamne. Herod of Chalcis, ruler of Chalcis in Iturea, was a grandson of Herod the Great through his father, Aristobulus IV. Mariamne was a granddaughter of Herod the Great through her mother, Olympias; hence Aristobulus was a great-grandson of Herod the Great on both sides of his family.
The Herodian dynasty was a royal dynasty of Idumaean (Edomite) descent, ruling the Herodian Kingdom of Judea and later the Herodian Tetrarchy as a vassal state of the Roman Empire. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great, who assumed the throne of Judea, with Roman support, bringing down the century-old Hasmonean Kingdom. His kingdom lasted until his death in 4 BCE, when it was divided among his sons as a tetrarchy, which lasted for about 10 years. Most of those tetrarchies, including Judea proper, were incorporated into Judaea Province from 6 CE, though limited Herodian de facto kingship continued until Agrippa I's death in 44 CE and nominal title of kingship continued until 92 CE, when the last Herodian monarch, Agrippa II, died and Rome assumed full power over his de jure domain.
Antipater II was Herod the Great's first-born son, his only child by his first wife Doris. He was named after his paternal grandfather Antipater the Idumaean. He and his mother were exiled after Herod divorced her between 43 BC and 40 BC to marry Mariamne I. However, he was recalled following Mariamne's fall in 29 BC and in 13 BC Herod made him his first heir in his will. He retained this position even when Alexander and Aristobulus rose in the royal succession in 12 BC, and even became exclusive successor to the throne after their execution in 7 BC.
The Herodian Tetrarchy was a regional division of a client state of Rome, formed following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE. The latter's client kingdom was divided between his sister Salome I and his sons Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip. Upon the deposition of Herod Archelaus in 6 CE, his territories were transformed into a Roman province. With the death of Salome I in 10 CE, her domain was also incorporated into a province.
Philip the Tetrarch, sometimes called Herod Philip II by modern writers, son of Herod the Great and his fifth wife, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, ruled over the northeast part of his father's kingdom between 4 BCE and 34 CE. He was a half-brother of Herod Antipas and Herod Archelaus and should not be confused with Herod II, whom some writers call Herod Philip I.
Batanaea or Batanea was an area often mentioned between the 1st century BC until the 4 Century AD. It is often mixed with the biblical Bashan as its Hellenized/Latinised form and as a part of the Biblical Holy Land, north-east of the Jordan River. But according to old explorations, maps and research the Batanea was much more a part between the two Trachones mentioned by Strabon. Many Maps reveal that the Ard of Batanea was at the east of the Leja.
The Herodian Kingdom of Judea was a client state of the Roman Republic from 37 BCE, when Herod the Great, who had been appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40/39 BCE, took actual control over the country. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the kingdom was divided among his sons into the Herodian Tetrarchy.
Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, also translated as Cyrenius, was a Roman aristocrat. After the banishment of the ethnarch Herod Archelaus from the tetrarchy of Judea in AD 6, Quirinius was appointed legate governor of Syria, to which the province of Judaea had been added for the purpose of a census.
This article lists historical events that occurred between 1–100 in modern-day Lebanon or regarding its people.