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[German version] 1. A. Etymological and conceptual history The term A. as a name for the continent has got a long and ramified history. The term A. (see 3 below) could only be used by the Romans as a description of the continent of A., when the ‘area’ described by the Latin term A. had come to coincide at least in parts with that described by the Greek term Λιβύη ( Libýē) -- but, at the earliest, this happened in the 2nd half of the 3rd cent. BC, i.e. because of the related concepts of ‘Northern A.’ or ‘Punic A.’. Indirectly, via the ‘partial term’, the ‘full ter…

[German version] (Ἐδουμά; Edoumá, modern Dūmā). According to the Onomasticon of Eusebius (255,74) a settlement in the region of Acrabattene in Transjordan southeast of Neapolis (Nablūs). Leisten, Thomas (Princeton) Bibliography S. Herrmann, Die Operationen Pharao Schoschenks I. im östlichen Ephraim, in: Zschr. des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 80, 1964, 61, 67ff.

[German version] (Arabic Karbalāʾ). Shiite pilgrimage centre in Iraq, situated c. 95 km south-west of Baghdad; until right through to the 20th cent. the final station of caravan routes from Iran and the starting-point for Persian Mecca pilgrims. The name K. describes the palm gardens that surround the funerary sanctuary and the town of Mašhad al-Ḥusain. A town Kerbelā is already mentioned in the OT (Dan 3:21), but Shiite lexicographers explain K. as a combination of Arabic karb (mourning) and balāʾ (disaster). K. became significant for the Shiite Islamic world through the m…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | Coloniae | Asia Minor Town in the Biqa plain between Lebanon and Antilebanon, located at an elevation of 1150 m, 64 km north-east of Beirut. The town's name was changed to Heliopolis (Str. 753; Plin. HN 5,80), probably because the Ptolemies of Alexandria identified the god ‘Baal (Haddad) of Biqa’ with the Egyptian sun god Ra/Helios. After the temporary rulership of the Seleucids (2nd cent. BC), B. became the cult centre for the Itu…

(Πέτρα/ Pétra, 'rock') [German version] [1] Capital of the Nabataean Empire This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | | Commerce | Hellenistic states | India, trade with | Limes | Rome | Rome | Egypt Capital of the Nabataean kingdom (Nabataei) in Edom, about 80 km to the south of the Dead Sea in the Wādı̄ Mūsā (in modern Jordan). The city is first mentioned by Diodorus [18] under the name Pétra (Diod. Sic. 19, 95-98) as the Nabataei's place of refuge and assembly ('High place, rock'). The inscriptionally documented Semitic name of P. is Raqmu. Although the surrounding are…

[German version] (Arabic Banū Laḫm). Kings of the Arabian tribal confederacy of the Tanūḫ (2nd quarter of 3rd cent. - early 7th cent. AD). The seat of the L. was al-Ḥīra, a caravan centre in south-western Iraq, south of Kerbela. As vassals of the Persian Sassanids, the L. controlled the tribes of the Arabian peninsula, and joined the Sassanids' war against Rome, later against Byzantium and her Syrian allies ( Palmyra, Ghassanids). Some L. were Nestorian Christians ( Nestorianism); through their in…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Pompeius Town (mod. Quwailibeh) 15 km north-west of Irbid (Jordan). The ruins of A. cover an area of c. 1.5 km × 0.5 km, which comprises two hills, Tell A. and Khirbat Umm al-Amad [1. 1 f.] to the south. The settlement, which had been continuously settled from the 3rd millennium BC to the Iron Age, was refounded under the Seleucids. Polybius (5,69-70) noted its conquest by Antiochus III in 218 BC. Its inclusion in the  Decapolis occurred no later than at that time. Remains of a street grid with cardo and decumanus, a theatre and aq…

This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Syria | Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | | Coloniae | Alexander | Commerce | Hasmonaeans | Hellenistic states | India, trade with | Mesopotamia | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage [German version] A. Ancient Orient Oasis situated on the eastern edge of Antilebanon, watered by the undrained Barada, first mentioned in lists of Syrian towns of the pharaohs Thutmosis III and Amenophis III ( tmsq, Tamasqu) and then in the  Amarna letters ( Di/Dumašqu). In the 13th cent. BC too, D. was under Egyptian control. At the turn of the…

[German version] [1] Main town of Cappadocia, modern Kayseri This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Syria | Byzantium | Christianity | Zenobia | | Alexander | Hellenistic states | Hellenistic states | Asia Minor | Limes | Limes | Pompeius | Rome | Rome (Καισάρεια; Kaisáreia, Iranian or cuneiform Mazaka). Main town of  Cappadocia (Str. 12,2,7-9), modern Kayseri. [German version] I. Early History to Roman Times C. succeeded the nearby ancient centre of Kaniš (Kültepe;  Asia Minor), although that was still of importance in Hellenistic and Roman time…

(Βέροια; Béroia). [German version] [1] In Macedonia This item can be found on the following maps: Christianity | Macedonia, Macedones | Macedonia, Macedones | Education / Culture In Macedonia. Errington, Robert Malcolm (Marburg/Lahn) [German version] A. Hellenistic and Roman periods City in Macedonian  Bottice, east of the Bermium; now Verria. First mentioned in the 5th cent. BC (Thuc. 1,61,4), B. had its development, like many Macedonian cities, principally in the Hellenistic period; the Antigonids seem to have particularly favoured…

(Πέλλα; Pélla). [German version] [1] City near modern Palea {{?}}Pella This item can be found on the following maps: | Coloniae | Diadochi and Epigoni | Alexander | Hellenistic states | Macedonia, Macedones | Macedonia, Macedones | Peloponnesian War | Persian Wars | Punic Wars | Balkans, languages | Education / Culture From c. 400 BC under Archelaus [1] the residence of Macedonian kings near modern Palea P., in Antiquity reachable from the sea by ship on the Lydias. By the 4th cent. BC the largest Macedonian city (Xen. Hell. 5,2,13), with a system…

[German version] Middle Persian xwarsārān, ‘[Land of the] Sunrise, the East’. Nowadays denotes the north-eastern part of Iran, with Mašhad as its administrative centre. In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic period C. included parts of Central Asia and western Afghanistan. It was under the Sassanids that C. first formed one of the four great provincial satrapies; it was ruled by a Spāhpat with his seat in Merv, having jurisdiction over the following districts (Yaqūbī, Tarīḫ I, 201): Nīšāpūr, Harāt…

[German version] (Arab. Kangāwar, Qaṣr al-Luṣūṣ, Pers. Kinkiwar). City on the West Iranian high plateau between Hamadān and Kermānšāh. Preceding settlements evolved on the trading route between Mesopotamia and East Iran from the 5th millennium BC (Godīntappe, Seh Gāvī). A sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Anāhita existed in K. (Konkobar in Isidore of Charax) from Parthian times (2nd cent. BC). Leisten, Thomas (Princeton) Bibliography G. LeStrange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, 1889, 188f. S. Kāmbakhsh Fard, Les fouilles de Kangavar, in: Bāstān-shenāsī va hunar-i …

This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | | Coloniae | Commerce | Hasmonaeans | Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pompeius | Aegean Koine (Βηρυτός; Bērytós). [German version] A. Phoenician period B., modern Beirut, is mentioned as Beruta in the  Amarna letters and in documents from Ugarit (14th and 13th cent. BC respectively), and as Birû in the annals of Asarhaddon (7th cent. BC) [1. 48]. Its identification with the Baurad of the Ebla documents is disputed [2. 68]. Sources document that the Canaanite B. of the 2nd millennium BC was controlled by By…

(Ἀφροδισίας; Aphrodisías). [German version] [1] City in  Caria This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Byzantium | Asia Minor | Marble | Rome | Education / Culture City in  Caria, 38 km south of the Maeander, in the left side valley of the Morsylos (present-day Dandalaz çayı); the modern Geyre. Traces of neolithic and early Bronze Age settlement on the acropolis; old name of Νινόη (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ninoe) preserved in the local cult ( Zeus Nineudios). A. was for a long time overshadowed by the neighbouring co…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Syria | Christianity | Zenobia | Commerce | Hellenistic states | Limes City on the west bank of the middle Euphrates (Arab. aṣ-Ṣāliḥiya, south-eastern Syria). D.-E. was founded c. 300 BC by Macedonian colonists as one of the Seleucid fortresses for securing links to the Euphrates. After the Parthian conquest c. 141 BC it rose to become a military station and important staging post on the caravan route to Palmyra. Trajan's advances against Mesopotamia restored the status of D.-E. as a Roman garrison city on the Syrian li…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | Africa | Wine | | Coloniae | Africa | Etrusci, Etruria | Commerce | Colonization | Limes | Limes | Pertinax | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage | Punic Wars | Punic Wars | Rome | Rome (Phoenician Qrt-ḥdšt, ‘new town’; Greek Καρχηδών/ Karchēdṓn, Lat. Carthago). I. History [German version] A. From Phoenician foundation to Roman colony According to Timaeus' report (FGrH 566 F 60), C. was founded in 814/13 or 813/2 BC -- on the site of Tunis' modern suburb of the same name. The colonist were …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Syria | Theatre | Christianity | Zenobia | | Coloniae | Legio | Limes Small town on the southern edge of the Syrian basalt desert (Ḥaurān). The modern name Buṣrā corresponds with the Nabataean and Palmyrenian version BṢR (‘fortress’). B. was a settlement from the early Bronze Age and, in the 2nd. millennium BC, had close relations with Egypt because of its role as a caravanserai and a staging-post on the road to northern Syria and to the Red Sea (…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Pilgrimage ( Ruṣāfa; in the Byzantine era also Sergiopolis). Ruins in central Syria, c. 180 km east of Aleppo and 35 south of the Euphrates. Roman limes fortress (Limes [VI D], with map) beginning in the 1st cent. BC. In Late Antiquity, the town, where the officer Sergius suffered martyrdom under Diocletianus (cf. [1]), became the central pilgrimage destination for Christian Arab tribes of the Levant and Mesopotamia. R. had churches from the 5th cent. AD on, including t…

This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | Dead Sea (textual finds) | Hasmonaeans | Pompeius ( Rabbath bnē Ammōn, LXX Ῥαββά/ Rhabbá; Pol. Ῥαβατάμανα/ Rhabatámana, Assyrian bīt ammāna; Philadelphia since the mid 3rd cent. BC; modern Ammān). [German version] I. Through the Persian Period Capital city of the Ammonites (Ammon [2]); the oldest traces of settlement come from the Neolithic Age (7th-6th millennium BC). The earliest important remains with rich tombs on the citadel date from the Middle Bronze Age (1st half of the 2…