Gaulanitis
Gaulanitis is a historical district located in the region of Bashan, situated to the east of the Upper Jordan Valley, which now forms part of the border between Israel and Syria. This area, known for its limestone plateau, is closely associated with the Golan Heights. In ancient times, Gaulanitis comprised a town known as Golan and was divided into upper and lower regions, which included fertile areas such as Beth-Maacah and Geshur. The territory passed through various rulers over the centuries, including Jewish kings like Alexander I Jannaeus and later Herod the Great, who played significant roles in its governance during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Gaulanitis experienced fluctuations in control, becoming part of the Roman province of Syria and later returning to Jewish rule under King Agrippa I and II. Significant events in Gaulanitis’s history include the rebellion led by Gamala during the First Jewish Revolt. By the late Roman Empire, Gaulanitis had developed into a recognized political unit, reflecting its growing significance and the increasing number of inhabited sites. The region remains an area of interest for historians and those studying the complex historical narratives of ancient Palestine.
Subject Terms
Gaulanitis
A district in Bashan to the east of the Upper Jordan valley, now the borderland between Israel and Syria; the Golan Heights perpetuate its name
In Biblical times, too, Golan had been the name of this limestone plateau (and a town it contained, later Gaulana); it contained an upper and a lower region, Beth-Maacah (mainly pasturage) and Geshur (rich and fertile). In the Greek period, like the rest of eastern Palestine, Gaulanitis was regarded as part of Coele-Syria (Hollow Syria); but c 83–80 the Jewish (Hasmonaean) king Alexander I Jannaeus captured Gaulana and two other cities of the region (Gamala [Jamle?] and Seleucia [Seluqiye?]).
In 47 Julius Caesar's kinsman Sextus Caesar, governor of Syria, included Gaulanitis in the command of the young Herod the Great, and after Herod had become king, he recovered it (in 20) from Zenodorus, the ruler of Chalcis Beneath Lebanon (Mejdel Anjar), to whom it had been temporarily assigned. After Herod's death Gaulanitis became part of the territory of his son Philip (4 BC), who established his capital (Caesarea Philippi) in the neighboring region of Panias. The rebel leader Judas `the Galilean’ may have come not from Galilee but from Gamala. On Philip's death (AD 34), Gaulanitis, like the rest of his kingdom, was incorporated into the Roman province of Syria, but it later returned to Jewish rule under Agrippa I (AD 37–44) and II (53-after 90s), though Gamala rebelled against the latter during the First Jewish Revolt (66). In the later empire (c 400), when the number of its inhabited sites had steadily increased to a maximum total, Gaulanitis became a political unit (clima) attached to the province of Palaestina Secunda (with the exception, perhaps, of a border strip detached to Arabia).