by Paulo Barata
great builder Herod the Great), erected a long stoa on the east, and Agrippa (c.63 BC -12 BC) encouraged the growth of a new suburb south of this.
Antioch was a chief center of early Christianity. The city had a large population of Jewish origin in a quarter called the Kerateion, and so attracted the earliest missionaries. Evangelized, among others, by Peter himself, according to the tradition upon which the Antiochene patriarchate still rests its claim for primacy, and certainly later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul's first missionary journey.
Its converts were the first to be called Christians.
Antium
City in Italy (Anzio/Italy)
Antium in ancient times was the capital of the Volsci people until it was conquered by the Romans.
With the latter expansion of Rome it was just far enough away to be insulated from the riots and tumults of Rome. Leading Romans built magnificent seaside villas at Antium. The Julian and Claudian emperors frequently visited it: Gaius Maecenas had a villa at Antium; both Emperor Caligula and Nero were born in Antium; the latter founded a colony of veterans and built a new harbor, the projecting moles of which still exist.
Of the villas, the most famous was the Villa of Nero at Antium which cannot be certainly identified, but is generally placed at the so-called Arco Muto, where remains of a theatre (discovered in 1712 and covered up again) also exist. It extended along the coast of the Capo d'Anzio some 800 meters of seafront. Nero razed the former villa on the site, to rebuild on its foundations a villa on a more imperial scale, which was used by each Emperor in turn, up to the Severans.
Of the famous temple of Fortune no remains are known.
Apollonia
Port on the north African coast (Libya)
Apollonia in Cyrenaica was founded by Greek colonists and became a significant commercial center in the southern Mediterranean. It served as the harbor of Cyrene, 20 km (12 mi) to the southwest. The Greek geographer and mathematician Eratosthenes was born there.
Apollonia was one of the five towns of the Libyan Pentapolis. The early foundation levels of the city of Apollonia are below sea level due to submergence in earthquakes, while the upper strata of the latest Byzantine Christian periods are several meters above sea level, built upon the accumulated deposits of previous periods.
The ruins of Apollonia are sited by the modern town of Susa. The Apollonia (Susa) Museum houses many artifacts found on the ancient site, Appolonia appears to have been hit by the tsunami caused by the Crete earthquake of 21 July 365 AD.
Arimathea
Town in Judaea
Arimathea, according to the Gospel of Luke, was "a city of Judaea".
It was reportedly the home town of Joseph of Arimathea, who appears in all four Gospel accounts of the Passion for having donated his new tomb outside Jerusalem to receive the body of Jesus. Apart from the Bible, there is no record of a place called Arimathea existing.
Arwad
City in Roman Syria
Arwad located in the Mediterranean Sea, is the only inhabited island in Syria. The town of Arwad takes up the entire island. It is located 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) from Tartus, Syria's second largest port. Today, it is mainly a fishing town.
When Alexander the Great invaded Syria in 332 BC, Arvad submitted without a struggle under her king Strato, who sent his navy to aid Alexander in the reduction of Tyre. It seems to have received the favor of the Seleucid kings of Syria, and enjoyed the right of asylum for political refugees.
It is mentioned in a rescript from Rome about 138 BC, in connection with other cities and rulers of the East, to show favor to the Jews. This was after Rome had begun to interfere in the affairs of Judaea and Syria, and indicates that Arvad was still of considerable importance at that time.
Babylon
Al Hillah, Iraq
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state (founded in 1894 BC by an Amorite dynasty) of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babylon Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad.
All that remains of the original ancient famed city of Babylon today is a large mound, or tell, of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods.
Babylon was at first a small town which had sprung up by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The town flourished and attained independence with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Claiming to be the successor of the ancient city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the "holy city" of Mesopotamia around the time of Hammurabi, upon his death Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination.
Babylon again became the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 608 to 539 BC which was founded by Chaldeans and whose last king was an Assyrian. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of Babylon it came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.
Berytus
City in Roman Syria (Beirut/Lebanon)
Beirut's history goes back more than 5,000 years. Its antiquity is indicated by its name, derived from the Canaanite be'erot ("wells"), referring to the underground water table that is still tapped by the local inhabitants for general use.
The oldest settlement was on an island in the river that progressively silted up. The city was known in antiquity as Berytus.
In 14 BC, during the reign of Herod the Great, Berytus became a colonia and was named Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus. Its law school was widely known; two of Rome's most famous jurists, Papinian and Ulpian, both natives of Phoenicia, taught there under the Severan emperors.
When Justinian assembled his Pandects in the 6th century, a large part of the corpus of laws was derived from these two jurists, and in 533 Justinian recognized the school as one of the three official law schools of the empire.
Bethany
Town in Judaea
Bruttium
Region in the south of Italy (Calabria/Italy)
Calabria was first settled by Italic Oscan-speaking tribes. Two of these tribes were the Oenotrians (roughly translated into the "vine-cultivators") and the Itali. Greek contact with the latter resulted in Calabria taking the name of the tribe and was the first region to be called Italy (Italia). Greeks settled heavily along the coast at an early date and several of their settlements, including the first Italian city called Rhaegion (Reggio di Calabria), and the next ones Sybaris, Kroton (Crotone), a settlement where the mathematician Pythagoras later resided, and Locri, were numbered among the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the 6th and 5th centuries BC.
The Greeks were conquered by the 3rd century BC by roving Oscan tribes from the north, including a branch of the Samnites called the Lucanians and an offshoot of the Lucanians called the Bruttii. The Bruttii conquered the Greek cities, established their sovereignty over present day Calabria and founded new cities, including their own capital, Cosenza (known as Consentia in the ancient times).
The Romans conquered the area in the 3rd century BC after the fierce Bruttian resistance, possibly the fiercest resistance the Romans had to face from another Italic people. At the beginning of the Roman Empire the region would form the Augustan Regio III Lucania et Bruttii of Roman Italy.
Buto
City in Egypt (Tell el-Farina/Egypt)
Buto (Tell al-Fara'in (Pharaohs' Mound) near the city of Desouk was an ancient city located 95 km east of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. The city stood on the Sebennytic arm of the Nile, near its mouth, and on the southern shore of the Butic Lake.
Buto originally was two cities, Pe and Dep, which merged into one city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet. The goddess Wadjet was its local goddess, often represented as a cobra, and she was considered the patron deity of Lower Egypt. Her oracle was located in her
renowned temple in that city.
Her image formed the royal crown, the Uraeus, worn by the rulers of Lower Egypt. It encircled their heads and the cobra flare and head extended from their foreheads.
The city was an important site in the Predynastic era of Ancient Egypt that includes the cultural developments of ten thousand years from the Paleolithic to 3100 BC.
Being called Buto by the Greeks during Ptolemaic Egypt, it was the capital town, or according to Herodian, merely the principal village of the Nile Delta.
The Greek historians record that the town was celebrated for its monolithic temple and oracle of the goddess Wadjet, whom the Greeks identified with Leto or Latona. A yearly feast was held there in honor of the goddess.
Byblos
City in Roman Syria (Lebanon)
Byblos (Greek) or Gebal (Phoenician) is located on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Lebanon, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) north of Beirut.
The name Byblos is Greek; papyrus received its early Greek name (byblos, byblinos) from its being exported to the Aegean through Byblos. Hence the English word Bible is derived from byblos as "the (papyrus) book." The city's Canaanite/Phoenician name "GB'L" derived from "gb", meaning well or origin, and El the supreme god of Byblos' pantheon. The present-day city is now known by the Arabic name Jubayl, a direct descendant of the Canaanite name.
Hellenistic rule came with the arrival of Alexander the Great in the area in 332 BC. Coinage was in use, and there is abundant evidence of continued trade with other Mediterranean countries.
During the Greco-Roman period, the city, though smaller than its neighbors such as Tyre and Sidon, was a center for the cult of Adonis. In the 3rd century, a small but impressive theater was constructed.
With the rise of Christianity, a bishopric was established in Byblos, and the town grew rapidly.
Caelian Hill
One of the seven hills of Rome
The Caelian Hill (Latin Collis Caelius) is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. Under reign of Tullus Hostilius, the entire population of Alba Longa was forcibly resettled on the Caelian Hill. According to a tradition recounted by Titus Livy, the hill received its name from Caelius Vibenna, either because he established a settlement there or because his friend Servius Tullius wished to honor him after his death.
In Republican-era Rome the Caelian Hill was a fashionable residential district and the site of residences of the wealthy. Archeological work under the Baths of Caracalla have uncovered the remains of lavish villas complete with murals and mosaics.
Caesarea Maritima
City in Judaea (Caesarea/Israel)
Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25 - 13 BCE. The city has been populated through the late Roman and Byzantine era. Its ruins lie on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, about halfway between the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, on the site of Pyrgos Stratonos ("Straton's Tower").
Caesarea Maritima was named in honor of Augustus Caesar. The city became the seat of the Roman prefect soon after its foundation. Caesarea was the "administrative capital" beginning in 6 CE. This city is the location of the 1961 discovery of the Pilate Stone, the only archaeological item that mentions the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, by whose order Jesus was crucified.
The emperor Vespasian raised its status to that of a colonia. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Caesarea was the provincial capital of the Judaea Province, before the change of name to Syria Palaestina in 134 CE.
Cafarnaum
Town in Galilee
Capri
Island in Italy, close to Naples
Cedron Valley
Valley on the eastern side of Jerusalem
The Kidron Valley is the valley on the eastern side of The Old City of Jerusalem which features significantly in the Bible. An ephemeral stream flows through it with occasional flash floods in the rainy winter months.
The
