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[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | Hasmonaeans | Pilgrimage | Pompeius (modern Umm Qais). Town in north-eastern Transjordania, east of Lake Gennesareth; traces of settlement date back to the 7th cent. BC. After the fall of the Achaemenid kingdom ( Achaemenids), the district of G. came under the control of the Ptolemies for a short period, but became part of the Seleucid kingdom under  Antiochus [5] III in 198 BC. For some time, the name of the town appears on coins as S…

(Ἀντιόχεια; Antiócheia). [German version] [1] on the Orontes Founded as Antigonea on the Orontes 307 BC, but after the defeat of Antigonus I by Seleucus I Nicator at  Ipsus (301 BC), the town was moved to the site of present-day Antakya (Turkey) in 300 BC, and renamed as A. in honour of the latter's father Antiochus. Capital city of the Seleucid kingdom; it developed under the Seleucids through incorporating numerous settlements into a tetrapolis, each with their own boundary walls. Thanks to its positi…

This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Syria | Christianity | Zenobia | | Coloniae | Commerce | Asia Minor | Limes | Pilgrimage | Pompeius | Rome (Ἔδεσσα; Édessa). [German version] [1] City in central Macedonia This item can be found on the following maps: | Macedonia, Macedones City in central Macedonia at the eastern entrance to the Kara-Burun pass from Lower to Upper Macedonia, today known as Edessa, formerly as Vodena. In previous times, E. was wrongly regarded as the old Macedonian royal seat of  Aegae [1]. E. was first men…

[German version] ( Sāmarrā; Theophanes Continuatus 3,36: Σάμαρα/ Sámara). Area of ruins of c. 60 km2 and modern town on the left bank of the Tigris, 100 km north of Baghdad (cf. map). At this site, known since the neo-Assyrian Period (Mesopotamia III D), the emperor Julian [11] the Apostate fell in AD 363 in battle against the Sassanids. It was in this area, mainly inhabited by Nestorians (Nestorius), that the Nahrawān canal, dug in the time of Chosroes [5] Anushirvan (period of rule 531-579) began, which be…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | Hasmonaeans | Pilgrimage | Pompeius (modern Ǧaraš). City located 34 km north of Ammān. Thanks to a stream with the ancient name of Chrysorrhoas, G. was a place of settlement from the time of the early Stone Age. It is therefore reasonable to assume that a settlement already existed when the Macedonians, mentioned in a Roman inscription, introduced the Greek element ─ contrary to legends that  Alexander [4] the Great,  Perdiccas, or  A…

(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…

[German version] (ἡ Δεκάπολις; hē Dekápolis). Term for a territory comprising a varying number of cities and with a predominantly Greek population, concentrated in northern Trans-Jordan, southern Syria and northern Palestine. Although some towns later to belong to the Dekapolis had already been in existence in pre-Hellenistic times, most of them claimed to have been founded by  Alexander [4] the Great. Archaeological investigations, however, have shown that the development of many towns into urban centres began only under Seleucid an…

(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…

(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…

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…

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 …

(Ἐπιφάνεια; Epipháneia). [German version] [1] City in Cilicia Pedias City in Cilicia Pedias (Ptol. 5,8,7; Steph. Byz. s.v. E., 274 Meineke), previously Oeniandus (Plin. HN 5,93), renamed E. after  Antiochus [6] IV Epiphanes. Road station (Geogr. Rav. 2,16,93; [2. 766]). In AD 260, E. was captured by Šapur I [1. 312f.]. After the restructuring of the province in AD 408, E. was seen as one of the cities of Cilicia II (Hierocles, 705,5). Its ruins (well preserved theatre and aqueduct) are c. 8 km west of Erzin in Gözene/Gözcucler Harabeleri. Sayar, Mustafa H. (Cologne) Bibliography 1 A. …

[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…