Academic Discussion • Henry Innes MacAdam: Studies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia: The Northern Sector (1986)

These are extracts from a book that goes into much detail on the region, known from literary references with terms such as Trachonitis, Batanaea, and Auranitis. The author received an MA in Ancient History/Archaeology from the American University of Beirut and a Ph.D. at the University of Manchester.


He refers to the coordinates from Ptolemy's Geography:


Mt. Alsadamos is also given coordinates:


As is Damascus, along with other towns.


The first coordinate given is a longitude, with larger numbers further east. The second is latitude, with larger numbers further north. With reference to the significant city of Damascus, a traveler's landmark, from north to south:

Abila Lysaniae is given as 55' west and 20' north of Damascus.
Damascus is given as 69°00', 33°00'.
Mt. Alsadamos' mountain range midpoint is given as 2°00' east and equal latitude.
Gerra is given as 1°00' east and 50' south of Damascus.
Elere is given as 1°00' east and 60' south of Damascus.
Nelaxa is given as 1°10' east and 70' south of Damascus.
Adrama is given as 90' east and 1°70' south of Damascus.

Thus the mountain range associated with Mt. Alsadamos (said to be above the Batanaia country where Trachonitai Arabs live) is given as being to the east of Damascus, and the settled locations are all given as being to the south of Damsascus and less far to the east. This map shows some of this from Ptolemy. Note that the ancient geographer frequently errs as to scale and that the mountain ranges run in the wrong direction by modern definitions.



MacAdam notes that Damascus seems a little too far west, but "Whether by accident or design, Bostra appears to be properly located, particularly so with regard to the five place-names in Ptolemy's Batanaea. Since the identity of Bostra is certain, the identity of the four towns can be reasonably established." (p. 4)

"Gerrha, Elera and Nelaxa are plotted so closely together to the north and east of Bostra that we can safely look for them in the upland regions which actually lie there. Gerrha and Elera I would place in Trachonitis. Nelaxa is plotted slightly south and east, and is likely to be found in Auranitis. Within each region one may guess at a more definite identity. Gerrha might be either modern Buraq or Masmayah on the northern edge of the Leja. Elera (al-Era?) could well be modern ‘SAhira, transliterated into Latin in antiquity as Aerit(t)a.” Buraq and ‘Ahira are directly north and south of each other, respectively, and both are within the Leja. Nelaxa is plausibly modern Mushannaf in the Jebal Druz, where Waddington copied a building inscription attesting the place-name Nélkomia." (p. 6)

Many have identified Jebal Druz as Mt. Alsadamos, but since that is much further south than the coordinates offered by Ptolemy, MacAdam writes that, "There is good reason to think that the Jebal Says, at 690m elevation and the major landmark of this entire region, is the mountain known to Ptolemy as Alsadamus."

While Josephus gives various indications in different ways, sometimes speaking of Trachonitis as a reference point to indicate a larger area, MacAdam places an emphasis on a remark about Trachonitis being within Batanea (Vita 54 = BJ 2.481) as reflecting more closely Ptolemy's nomenclature with reference to Batanaea. A pair of inscriptions indicate that administrative Batanaea covered a substantial area in the region, governed by an 'eparchos and strategos'.

"But the extent of Ptolemy's Batanaea may be reflected in two Agrippan military inscriptions. A certain Diomedes the son of Charétos is attested as 'eparchos and strategos of Batanaea' (AE [1952] 246) near °Aqraba in the western Hawran and as 'eparchos of the great king Agrippa' (IGR III 1194) at Dayr al-Shayr in the northern Jebal Druz." (p. 9)

"While much remains to be done, it is becoming clear that work on one of the main roads from the Golan to the Hawran, i.e. from Caeserea Paneas to Bostra, took place at precisely the same time that the trans-Leja highway project began. Urman has published, for the first time the text of a milestone found in a village near the road and which he believes was taken from the roadside by the local inhabitants. It dates to 162 precisely, and parallels another Latin text of similar date from the Gadara-Adra-Bostra road published nearly seventy years ago." (p. 20)

MacAdam notes that "Between Bostra and Damascus only three routes are possible": west of the Leja, east of the Leja, and through the Leja. Yet, according to MacAdam, there is insufficient archaeological evidence to support the historical existence of a Roman road connecting the cities either west of the Leja or east of the Leja. And there is ample fieldwork documenting the Roman road running through the Leja, as a second century construction project.

MacAdam says that "the circumstantial evidence indicates that the Canatha-Damascus road on the Peutinger Table skirted the eastern edge of the Leja," (p.23) including the fact that the Bostra-Damascus road built in the second century does not run through Canatha according to the archaeological evidence.

Before the construction of the Roman road from Bostra to Damascus, there was a road between Bostra and Adraa, as well as a road between Adraa and Damascus. The caravan route known as the "King's Highway" came up from the south (the Red Sea) to connect Adraa and Damascus.

The evidence indicates that "Bostra was an unimportant town within the Nabataean Hawran" prior to 106 CE and the annexation of Roman Arabia. Instead (p. 28): "The ancient city of Canatha, charter member of the Decapolis, held pride of place in the lava-lands and would have been the focus of commercial traffic in the eastern Hawran and an important stop on the outer route to Damascus. There is the evidence of the PT [map] itself to support this. The location and status of Adraa, another city of the Decapolis, meant that it fulfilled a similar role in the western Hawran and would have been a major stop for caravan traffic on the inner route between Philadelphia and Damascus."

Relating the comments of Strabo to the geography mentioned:


In addition to the literary sources (such as Josephus and Strabo), an inscription attests to the robbers who hid in the many volcanic caves and ravines of the region (p. 50):


An inscription evinces Roman administration of the Herodian territory between Agrippa I and Agrippa II (p. 55): "Al-Kafr is only three km north of Habran, where a Nabataean inscription dated to the seventh year of Claudius (Aw DS 47) indicates Roman administration of Herodian territory between the reigns of Agrippa I (d. 44) and Agrippa II (recognised as king in 50)."

An inscription attests to the location of Trachonitis and its 'metrocomia' (p. 55):


The author comments (p. 55): "Phaena is here twice-designated as metrocomia (mother-village) 'of the Trachon' -- this may be taken to mean the Leja: proper (Trachonitis), rather than the entire region under Roman administration."

The location of the inscription is south of Damascus, along the Roman road to Bostra (p.56): "Phaena is on the northwestern edge of the Leja, and is in fact the first village of Trachonitis through which passed the Roman road from Damascus to Suwayda and on to Bostra."

It appears that the importance of control over the trading route as it passed through Trachonitis led to increased military presence (p. 57): "The number of military-related inscriptions from Phaena is itself remarkable (one is in Latin), and the totality of epigraphy from the place demonstrates clearly that this community leapt from obscurity to a position of prominence precisely in the years following 160."

Another set of inscriptions indicates another village as the site of military activity protecting the area along the pre-Roman roads (p. 62): "The answer to that may lie in the significance of the other inscriptions from this village, and a closer look at a particular passage in the New Testament. The bulk of inscriptions from Eitha was published by Waddington. Others were published by Mouterde, Séjourné and Dunand. Many are dedications made by military personnel. A certain Chares styles himself "prefect of the cohors Au[gusta and strateg]os of the nomads" in an undated year of Agrippa II. Another dedication reads "Aelius Maximus, prefect, built for his native-village (something) by provision of a private citizen named Herodes and two village commissioners (epimilétai). A memorial is dedicated to a man named Praxilaus, a commander (?) of a cohors Ituraeorum which had once done a tour of duty in Moesia. An incomplete inscription mentions someone who apparently was born in Germany and was killed while serving in the ala Agrippiana. A metrical epitaph honours an eques (cavalryman) of the legio III Cyrenaica named Diomedes. This relatively high proportion of texts related to military affairs is in itself interesting These dedications span the Herodian and Roman eras, and when taken in conjunction with the striking title Caesarea Eitha and the actual location of the village, one is curious to explore the coincidence. The answer may well be that Eitha served as the main military base for the lava lands during the Herodian period, and was, more specifically, headquarters for the cohors Augusta mentioned above. This is plausibly the very same cohort noted in Acts 27:1."

Further (pp. 64-65): "To appreciate these observations, one must first note the geographical location of al-Hit. It lies just three and a half km directly east of the southeastern edge of the Leja, four and a half km northeast of Shuhba (Philippopolis) and two km northwest of Shaqga (Maximianopolis). The location of the village was roughly half-way between the Leja on the west and the equally rugged escarpment of the Qubai ie another volcanic plateau eight km east of the Leja which stretches some forty km northeastward to the slopes of the Jebal al-Says, a major volcanic peak in this area. Eitha al-Hit thus sits astride the narrow passage between the Leja and the Qura, and would be suitably placed to monitor north-south traffic from Damascus to Auranitis. Its western counterpart would be the Bathyra of Josephus, where Herod the Great emplanted a colony of Babylonian Jews to guard the territory west of the Leja... The nearness of Eitha to inhabited areas of the Leja and Jebal al-‘Arab, and its location on or near the only eastern road to and from Damascus, favour its choice as a garrison-centre."

Regarding Canatha: "Sartre has demonstrated that Canatha's territory in the second century was extensive enough to include the villages of Karak and Musafira some twenty-five km due west. If that is true, there is no reason to doubt that the city's territory was that large from the time of its incorporation into the Decapolis. Such a vast and agriculturally wealthy territorium explains why the city could place a full cohort at the disposal of the Romans." (p. 75)

Later lists including Phaena indicate its connection to the region to the south: "That these lists are not random compilations, but follow some geographical pattern, can be best illustrated by noting what follows the entry Phenutus/ Phaena in the Notitia. It reads consecutively Constantia, Dionysias and Canothas -- i.e. Burag, Suwayda and Qanawat, in roughly north to south order, and completes a semi-circle of community names, all well-established by the time the list was compiled, within or near the bounds of the former Herodian kingdom." (p. 84)

These extracts show how the archaeology done in the region is informative regarding the geographical references found in literary sources.

Statistics: Posted by Peter Kirby — Thu Sep 05, 2024 12:49 pm

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