Chalcis was a small ancient

Iturea Iturea ( grc, Ἰτουραία, ''Itouraía'') is the Greek name of a Levantine region north of Galilee during the Late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. It extended from Mount Lebanon across the plain of Marsyas to the Anti-Lebanon Moun ...

n majority kingdom situated in the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...

, named for and originally based from the city of the same name. The ancient city of Chalcis (a.k.a. Chalcis sub Libanum, Chalcis of

Coele-Syria Coele-Syria (, also spelt Coele Syria, Coelesyria, Celesyria) alternatively Coelo-Syria or Coelosyria (; grc-gre, Κοίλη Συρία, ''Koílē Syría'', 'Hollow Syria'; lat, Cœlē Syria or ), was a region of Syria in classical antiqui ...

was located midway between

Berytus ) or Laodicea in Canaan (2nd century to 64 BCE) , image = St. George's Cathedral, Beirut.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Roman ruins of Berytus, in front of Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in moder ...

and

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

.''Herod Agrippa II''
at Livius.org The modern town of Anjar in Lebanon is believed to be the site of ancient Chalcis sub Libanum, although this has not been definitively demonstrated. The ruins of a Roman temple are located a few kilometers south-west of Anjar near

Majdal Anjar Majdal Anjar ( ar, مجدل عنجر; also transliterated Majdel Anjar) is a village of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. Majdal Anjar is an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim town. History In 1838, Eli Smith noted ''Mejdel 'Anjar '' as a Sunni Muslim vi ...

. Other sources indicate that Chalcis sub Libanum is located at "Husn esh-Shadur" near

Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...

Independent kingdom

Originally, Chalcis was a city in Coele-Syria. When the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

influence in the area began to dissipate, the Itureans created the Kingdom of Chalcis, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to near Damascus. They made Chalcis the capital of their realm, Baalbek was the center of worship. The founder of the kingdom seems to have been Ptolemaeus, son of Menneus, an Ituraean dynast. During the time of

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξανδρος Ἰανναῖος ; he, ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judea from 103 to 76 BCE. A son of John Hyrcanus, ...

, Hasmonaean king of

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...

, Ptolemaeus had to cede part of his territory to the Hasmonaeans. This area was later known as

(Iturea, in an ethnic sense, covered a much larger area). In 64 BCE Ptolemaeus bribed the Roman general

Pompeius Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman Republic, Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the tr ...

to refrain from annexing his kingdom and allow him to continue to rule as Tetrarch. Pompey also returned to him the areas lost to Jannaeus when he brought an end to the independent Hasmonaean state in 63 BCE.

Roman vassal state

Chalcis was a vassal state under Roman rule during the remainder of Ptolemaeus' reign. In 40 BCE, he was succeeded by his son Lysanias. Lysanias supported the efforts of the Hasmonean scion Antigonus II Mattathias to take the throne of Judea in 42 and 40 BCE, allying with him against the Roman client king Herod, whom he temporarily supplanted on his Parthian-supported second attempt. Lysanias's anti-Roman sympathies eventually led to his execution by

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

in 33 BCE, at the instigation of

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

VII of Egypt, who had eyes on his territories. Though Antony gave Lysanias' territory to Cleopatra, a remnant realm of Chalcis persisted after this disaster, with the most important cities being Chalcis and Abila. Cleopatra leased it to Zenodorus, possibly a son of Lysanias, and following her suicide in 30 BCE,

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

initially allowed Zenodorus to rule as Tetrarch, only to depose him in 23 BCE for conducting raids into Trachonitis, which had prompted complaints from his neighbors. Augustus then gave some or all of his lands to Herod, including

Batanaea Batanaea or Batanea (the Hellenized/Latinised form of Bashan) was an area of the Biblical Holy Land, north-east of the Jordan River, to the west of Trachonitis. History Bataneaea was one of the four post- Exile divisions of the area of Bashan. ...

, Trachonitis and

Auranitis The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa field, to the s ...

. Little is known about Chalcis itself in the time immediately after Lysanias' death; Chalcis sub Libanum and its district may have been made part of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, while Abilene, the area around Abila, appears to have made up a separate statelet at least part of the time.

Division

The districts surrendered to Herod continued to be ruled by him and his

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

, who in time came to control the core regions of the former kingdom as well. After Herod's death in 4 BCE,

, Trachonitis,

Gaulanitis The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

Batanea Batanaea or Batanea (the Hellenized/Latinised form of Bashan) was an area of the Biblical Holy Land, north-east of the Jordan River, to the west of Trachonitis. History Bataneaea was one of the four post-Exile divisions of the area of Bashan. ...

Paneas Banias or Banyas ( ar, بانياس الحولة; he, בניאס, label=Modern Hebrew; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: פמייס, etc.; grc, Πανεάς) is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek g ...

and

became a

tetrarchy The Tetrarchy was the system instituted by Roman emperor Diocletian in 293 AD to govern the ancient Roman Empire by dividing it between two emperors, the ''augusti'', and their juniors colleagues and designated successors, the '' caesares'' ...

under

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who populariz ...

, one of his sons, who ruled as a tetrarch until his death in AD 34. Meanwhile, Abilene may have gone to another Lysanias, mentioned in the ''

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascensi ...

'' as tetrarch of Abilene in the time of

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. It is possible, however, that the reference to Lysanias in ''Luke'' is an anachronistic reference to the Lysanias put to death by Antony. In AD 37, Emperor

Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germani ...

gave

Herod Agrippa I Herod Agrippa (Roman name Marcus Julius Agrippa; born around 11–10 BC – in Caesarea), also known as Herod II or Agrippa I (), was a grandson of Herod the Great and King of Judea from AD 41 to 44. He was the father of Herod Agrippa II, the ...

the former tetrarchies of

(namely

, Trachonitis,

and

) and Lysanias (Abilene) with the title of king. His realm was subsequently augmented in AD 40 by the regions of

Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Gali ...

and Perea, formerly ruled by

Herod Antipas Herod Antipas ( el, Ἡρῴδης Ἀντίπας, ''Hērǭdēs Antipas''; born before 20 BC – died after 39 AD), was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch ("ruler of a quarter") and is referred to as both ...

(4 BCE - AD 39),Schwartz, Daniel R. ''Agrippa I'' Mohr 1990 and in AD 41 by the regions of

Idumea Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east ...

and

Samaria Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first ...

, formerly ruled by

Herod Archelaus Herod Archelaus (, ''Hērōidēs Archelaos''; 23 BC – ) was ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea, including the cities Caesarea and Jaffa, for a period of nine years (). He was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace the Samar ...

(4 BCE - AD 6) and then formed the province of Judaea (AD 6 - 41). Agrippa I ruled all these territories until his death in AD 44. Meanwhile, in AD 39, the district of Iturea was given by Caligula to a certain Soemus, who is called by Dio Cassius (lix. 12) and by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

(''Annals'', xii. 23) "king of the Itureans." Soemus reigned until his death in AD 49, when his kingdom was incorporated into the province of Syria (Tacitus, ''l.c.''). In AD 41, at Agrippa's request, his brother Herod was given Chalcis and allowed the title of ''basileus'' (king) by Claudius. King Herod of Chalcis reigned until his death in AD 48, whereupon his kingdom was given to Agrippa's son

Agrippa II Herod Agrippa II (; AD 27/28 – or 100), officially named Marcus Julius Agrippa and sometimes shortened to Agrippa, was the last ruler from the Herodian dynasty, reigning over territories outside of Judea as a Roman client. Agrippa II fle ...

, though only as a tetrarchy. Agrippa II was forced to give up the tetrarchy of Chalcis in AD 53, but in exchange Claudius made him ruler with the title of king over the territories previously governed by

(

, Trachonitis,

and

), and Lysanias (Abilene). In 55, the Emperor

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

added to his realm the cities of

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...

and

Taricheae Tarichaea ( gr, Ταριχαία or Ταριχέα), alternative spellings Taricheæ/Tarichaeae/Tarichee; Tarichese; Tarichess, is the Greek place name for a historic site of disputed location. It was situated along the shore of the Sea of Galil ...

, and Livias (Iulias), with fourteen villages near it, in Perea. The tetrarchy of Chalcis, previously surrendered by Agrippa II in AD 53, was subsequently in AD 57 given to his cousin Aristobulus, the son of Herod of Chalcis (). After the death of Aristobulus in AD 92, Chalcis was absorbed into the province of

. According to

Photius Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...

, Agrippa II died at the age of seventy in the third year of the reign of

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

(AD 100,

cod. 33 but statements of Josephus, in addition to the contemporary

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the w ...

from his kingdom, cast this date into serious doubt. The modern scholarly consensus holds that he died before 93/94.Rajak (1996), Iulius Agrippa (2) II, Marcus Following his death his realm as well came under the direct rule of Rome.

Rulers of Chalcis

* Ptolemaeus, son of Menneus, 85–40 BCE * Lysanias, son of Ptolemaeus, 40–36 BCE * Zenodorus, 36–23 BCE (initially under Cleopatra) *

Herod the Great Herod I (; ; grc-gre, ; c. 72 – 4 or 1 BCE), also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman Jewish client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his renova ...

, 23–4 BCE * Lysanias (Abilene), time of John the Baptist? *

(Batanaea, Abilene and other areas), AD 37–44 * Soemus (Iturea), AD 38–49 *

Herod of Chalcis Herod of Chalcis (d. 48-49 CE), also known as Herod Pollio King of Chalcis, Herod V, and listed by the ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' as Herod II, was a son of Aristobulus IV, and the grandson of Herod the Great, Roman client king of Judaea. He was th ...

(Chalcis), AD 41–48 * Herod Agrippa II (Chalcis), AD 48–53; (Batanaea, Abilene and other areas), AD 53–93/94 *

Aristobulus of Chalcis Aristobulus V of Chalcis ( grc-gre, Ἀριστόβουλος) was a son of Herod of Chalcis and his first wife Mariamne. Herod of Chalcis, ruler of Chalcis in Iturea, was a grandson of Herod the Great through his father, Aristobulus IV. Mariamn ...

(Chalcis), AD 57–92

References

{{Reflist Ancient Lebanon Roman Syria Former kingdoms

Independent kingdom

Roman vassal state

Division

Rulers of Chalcis

See also

References