Iturea
Ituräa ( Greek Ἰτουραία , Latin Ituraea ) referred to a landscape in northern Palestine in ancient times . It comprised Lebanon , Antilebanon and the plain of Massyas with the city of Chalkis between them .
The landscape is named after the tribe of the Itureans ( Ἰτουραῖοι ), an Arab nomadic people who are identified with the Jetur people mentioned in Gen 25.15 EU and 1 Chr 1.31 EU . The Romans knew the Itureans as a predatory people. But their warriors were valued as archers.
In Lk 3,1 EU a Philip is named as the tetrarch of Iturea.
Roman auxiliary units
During the Roman Empire the following auxiliary units were recruited on the territory of Ituraea:
- Cohors I Augusta Ituraeorum
- Cohors I Ituraeorum (Mauretania Tingitana)
- Cohors I Ituraeorum (Syria)
- Cohors I Ituraeorum (Thracia)
- Cohors II Ituraeorum
- Cohors III Ituraeorum
Individual evidence
literature
- Georg Beer : Ituraea 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 2, Stuttgart 1916, Col. 2377-2380.
- Berndt Schaller : Ituraea. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 1492.
- Ulrich Huebner: Jetur. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.