Abilene (biblical)

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Abilene (Abilênê) or simply Abila was a plain, a district in Coele-Syria, of which the chief town was Abila Lysaniou (Abilan de tên Lusaniou). The limits of this region are nowhere exactly defined, but it seems to have included the eastern slopes of 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 CE.

Abilene, when first mentioned in history, was governed by a certain Ptolemaeus, son of Mennaeus, who was succeeded, about 40 BCE, by a son named Lysanias. Lysanias was put to death in 33 BCE, at the instigation of Cleopatra, and the principality passed, by a sort of purchase apparently, into the hands of one Zenodorus, from whom it was transferred (31 BCE) to Herod the Great. At the death of the latter (3 CE) one portion of it was annexed to the tetrarchy of his son Philip, and the remainder bestowed upon that Lysanias who is named by Luke (iii. 1).

Immediately after the death of Tiberius (37 CE), Caligula made over to Herod Agrippa, at that time a prisoner in Rome, the tetrarchy of Philip and the tetrarchy of Lysanias, while Claudius, upon his accession (41), not only confirmed the liberality of his predecessor towards Herod Agrippa, but added all that portion of Judaea and Samaria which had belonged to the kingdom of his grandfather Herod the Great, together (says Josephus) with Abila, which had appertained to Lysanias, and the adjoining region of Libanus. Lastly, 53, Claudius granted to Agrippa II the tetrarchy of Philip with Batanaea and Trachonitis and Abila – Lusania de hautê egegonei tetrarchia. (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 4. § 4, 7. § 4, xviii. 7. § 10, xix. 5. § 1, xx. 6. § 1, B. J. i. 13. § 1, xx. 4.) Josephus, at first sight, seems to contradict himself, in so far that in one passage (Ant. xviii. 7. § 10) he represents Caligula as bestowing upon Herod Agrippa the tetrarchy of Lysanias, while in another (Ant. xix. 5. § 1) he states that Abila Lysaniou was added by Claudius to the former dominions of Agrippa, but, in reality, these expressions must be explained as referring to the division of Abilene which took place on the death of Herod the Great. We find Abila mentioned among the places captured by Placidus, one of Vespasian's generals, in 69 or 70 (Joseph. B. J. iv. 7. § 5), and from that time forward it was permanently annexed to the province of Syria.