Livias is a Catholic titular see. It was in Palestina Prima, suffragan of the archdiocese of Cæsarea. To-day Livias is known as Teller-Rameh, a hill rising in the plain beyond Jordan, about twelve miles from Jericho. Archaeological evidence from Shuneh al-Janubiyyah has shown the existence of a church in the diocese, dating from the sixth-eighth centuries[1].
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Livias is twice mentioned in the Bible[2] under the name of Betharan. About 80 B.C. Alexander Jannaeus captured it from the King of the Arabs[3]; it was then called Betharamphtha. Somewhat later Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, fortified it with strong walls and called it Livias after the wife of Augustus; Josephus calls it Julias also, because he always speaks of the wife of Augustus as Julia[4]. Nero gave it with its fourteen villages to Agrippa the Younger[5], and the Roman general Placidus captured it several years later[6].
From the time of Eusebius and St. Jerome the natives always called it Bethramtha. Lequien[7] mentions three bishops:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.