Abila
A´BILA(Ἄβιλα: Eth. Ἀβιληνός). It would appear that there were several towns bearing this appellation in the districts which border upon Palestine. The most important of these was a place of strength in Coele-Syria, now Nebi Abel, situated between Heliopolis and Damascus, in lat. 33° 38′ N., long. 36° 18′ W. It was the chief town of the tetrarchy of ABILENEand is frequently termed, by way of distinction, Abila Lysaniae (Ἄβιλα ἐπικαλουμένη Λυσανίου). [ABILENE]
Belleye has written a dissertation in the Transactions of the Academy of Belles Lettres to prove that this Abilais the same with Leucason the river Chrysorrhoas, which at one period assumed the name of Claudiopolis, as we learn from some coins described by Eckhel. The question is much complicated by the circumstance that medals have been preserved of a town in Coele-Syria called Abila Leucas, which, as can be demonstrated from the pieces themselves, must have been different from Abila Lysaniae. (Eckhel, vol. iii. pp. 337, 345; Ptol. 5.15.22; Plin. Nat. 5.18; Antonin. Itiner. pp. 198, 199, ed. Wessel.)
[W.R](τὰ Ἄβιλα). (1) A town of Coele-Syria, afterwards called Claudiopolis, and capital of the tetrarchy of Abilené. It is mentioned in the N. T., Luke, iii. 1.
(2) A mountain of Africa, opposite Gibraltar (Calpé).
A Ptolemaic town in N Palestine, ca. 19 km N of Irbid, which attained importance in the Hellenistic-Roman period. It was conquered by Antiochus III (Polyb. 5.71; 16.39). At the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. it was taken by Alexander Jannaeus (Joseph., AJ 11.136), but freed by Pompey in 64 B.C., who made it autonomous. At this time, when it became part of the Decapolis, it minted its own coins. Seleucid influence is evident in the title Seleucia Abila, found on coins from the time of Caracalla. Eusebius (Onom. 32.14) knew the place as 19 km E of Gadara. In the Byzantine period it was part of Palestina Secunda. It has not been excavated, but surveys have noted the bridge connecting the two mounds of the site, the fortifications, a Roman temple, a theater, and a basilica.
BIBLIOGRAPHYF. M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine II (1938) 234-35; M. Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land (1966) 40, 96, 175.
A. NEGEV