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[German version] [1] Harbour town on the north-western bank of Lake Genezareth (Greek Μαγδαλά; Magdalá < Hebrew Migdal Numayyā, ‘Tower’, Arabic al-Maǧdal). Harbour town on the north-western bank of Lake Genezareth, also known as Taricheai because of the production of saltwater fish there. Founded in the Hasmonean period ( Hasmoneans), Hellenized M. developed into one of the largest cities of Galilaea with a hippodrome and a stadium. Under emperor Nero, M. was annexed to the kingdom of Herod II Agrippa ( Iulius [II 5]). During th…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Arabia (Aksum). City on the Abyssinian plateau. Founded around the time of the birth of Christ, during the 1st cent. AD the kings of A. already managed to extend their area of influence as far as Adulis by the Red Sea. A. was Christianized by Alexandria under King Ēzānā in the mid 4th cent. In the 6th cent., King Kālēb Ella Aṣbeḥā conquered the kingdom of the Jewish king of the Ḥimyars, Yūsuf Asar Yaṯar (Ḏū-Nuwās) with Byzantine support. A. c…

[German version] Although A. owes its name to the word arab (Bedouins), the majority of its population was always sedentary. However, favourable climatic conditions for agriculture only existed in the south-western A. highland and large oases such as  Yat̄rib/Medina (Ḥiǧāz) and al-Yamāma in the East. Classical geography distinguished between A. deserta, which extended from southern Syria to the northern Ḥiǧāz, and A. felix, the southern part of the A. peninsula. The tripartite classification of Ptolemy, which added A. petraea, did not establish itself [1]. Since the earliest t…

(Βερενίκη; Bereníkē). [German version] [1] B. Maternal great niece of Antipater Born c. 340 BC as the daughter of Magas and Antigone, maternal great niece of Antipater [1]. Around 325, she married a certain Philippus, with whom she had two children: Antigone, later the wife of Pyrrhus, and Magas. Around 322, Antipater sent her (as a widow?) and his daughter Eurydice to Ptolemy I, who married Eurydice. B. quickly gained Ptolemy's respect, and bore him Arsinoe in 316, Ptolemy II in 308; other children of the …

(Νικόπολις; Nikópolis). [German version] [1] Town on the upper Nestus river This item can be found on the following maps: | Moesi, Moesia Town on the upper Nestus river on the road from Philippopolis to the Aegean coast (Ptol. 3,11,13: Ν. ἡ περὶ Νέσσον; 8,11,7; Hierocles, Synekdemos 636,5), near modern Goce Delčev (Bulgaria), founded in AD 106 by Traianus. From the 2nd to 4th cents. AD, N. reached a high economic and cultural level (minting from Commodus to Caracalla: HN 287; thermal baths, peristyle buildings, sculpt…

(Νέα πόλις/ Néa pólis, Νεάπολις/ Neápolis, ‘New City’). [German version] [1] Town on the northern coast of the Aegean This item can be found on the following maps: | Macedonia, Macedones | Moesi, Moesia Town on the northern coast of the Aegean to the west of the mouth of the Nestus river, across from the island of Thasos, modern Kavalla (Str. 7a,1,36; Ps.-Scyl. 67), probably a Thasian colony but the exact period of foundation is unknown. Early in the 6th cent. BC, autonomous silver coinage modelled on that of Eretria [1] (HN 196…