Lysanias

This article covers the tetrarch (s) of the 1st century BC. and AD. For the grammarian Lysanias see Lysanias of Cyrene .

Lysanias (* around 80 BC (?); † approx. 36 BC) was tetrarch of a domain on the western slope of Hermon , to which u. a. the cities of Chalkis and Abila Lysaniou ("Abila des Lysanias") belonged. The Jewish historian Josephus and coin finds attest to his government activity for the period from 40 to 36 BC. The father of Lysanias was Ptolemy, son of Mennaios , the ruler of the principality of Chalkis in Iturea .

Rulers of Chalkis and Abila

Despite the involvement of the Mennaid dynasty, to which Lysanias belonged, in a policy that did not fully conform to the interests of Rome (Parthian and Jewish-friendly), the Roman triumvir Mark Antony first confirmed the rulership rights of the son of Ptolemy, Lysanias, whom he held the royal title as ruler appointed by Iturea.

Later, however, after Antony had had a relationship with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra , she accused Lysanias, according to Josephus , of wanting to stir up the Parthians and let him in 36 BC. So that she could appropriate his land. However, this tradition is probably less precise than the report of the historian Cassius Dio that Antonius himself gave the execution order for Lysanias after Cleopatra had accused him of the Parthian king's son Pakoros († 38 BC) during his offensive against Asia Minor and To have supported Syria . In any case, the territory of Lysanias was transferred from Antony to Cleopatra. The Egyptian queen leased the share of Iturea allocated to her to the tetrarch and priest Zenodorus , who possibly also belonged to the Iturean ruling family.

Biblical relevance

In addition, the name Lysanias appears in the New Testament as one of the four sovereigns of the Herodian tetrarchy around 28 to 37 AD. The existence of a Lysanias in the 1st century AD, however, has not been proven with certainty. Lysanias is mentioned in the Gospel according to Luke , ( Lk 3,1  EU ). He is said to have been the sovereign of the Abilene region when John the Baptist first appeared. His reign therefore fell around the year 28/29 AD.

Extra-biblical mention

The ancient Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus mentions the city of Abila and its surrounding area "near Mount Lebanon" as an area which, in addition to the territories due to the descendants of Herod the Great, was guaranteed by the Roman Emperor Claudius to the Jewish King Agrippa I. Agrippa I had already received the area under Caligula in 37 AD .

The city of Abila des Lysanias is to be distinguished from the city of Abila in the Decapolis .

literature

• Schwyzer. In: Rheinisches Museum 1913, p. 634.
• Lee Strobel: The Case of Jesus . 1998, p. 112.

Web links

• Lysanias, tetrarch and high priest of Chalkis in Lebanon. Amici Populi Romani. Prosopography of the Foreign Friends of Rome, archived from the original on December 10, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cassius Dio 49, 32, 5.
2. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus, Antiquitates Iudaicae 15,4,1 (§ 92).
3. ↑ Cassius Dio 49, 32, 5, on this Christoph Schäfer , Cleopatra. Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-15418-5 , p. 156.
4. ^ Josephus, Antiquitates Iudaicae. 15.10.1.
5. ↑ Cf. Günther: Herodes the Great . Darmstadt 2005, p. 128.
6. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Antiquitates Judaicae 19,276. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014 ; Retrieved on September 7, 2018 (ancient Greek, English ( memento of February 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive )). 
7. ^ John Hogg: On the City of Abila, and the District Called Abilene near Mount Lebanon, and on a Latin Inscription at the River Lycus, in the North of Syria. In: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 20, 1850, pp. 38-48.