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For the city in northwestern Syria, see Baniyas. For the processor formerly codenamed Banias, see Pentium M.

For the Indian social group, see Bania.

Caesarea Philippi should not be confused with Caesarea Maritima, on the Mediterranean, (now Caesarea in Israel) or with Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia.

Banias (Template:Lang-ar pronunciation of Paneas) is an archaeological site by the uninhabited former city of Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon (Ba'al-Hermon, Template:Lang-ar, Jabal esh-Shaiykh) in the Golan Heights. The site is 150Km north of Jerusalem and 60Km southwest from Damascus. The city was located within the region known as the "Panion" (the region of the Greek god Pan). Named after the deity associated with the grotto and shrines close to the spring called "Paneas".

The temenos (sacred precinct) included a temple, courtyards, a grotto and niches for rituals was dedicated to Pan was constructed on an elevated, 80 m. long natural terrace along the cliff which towered over the north of the city. A four-line inscription in the base of one of the niches of the temenos relates to Pan and Echo, the mountain nymph, dated to 87 CE.

In the distant past, a giant spring gushed from a cave set in the limestone bedrock, to tumble down the valley and flow into the Huela marshes. Currently it is the source of the Nahal Senir stream. Whereas previously the Jordan River rose from the malaria-infested Huela marshes, it now rises from this spring and two others at the base of Mount Hermon. The flow of the spring has decreased greatly in modern times. The water no longer gushes forth from the cave, but only seeps from the bedrock below it.

Pagan associations

Alexander the Great's conquests started a process of Hellenisation in Egypt and Syria that continued for some 1,000 years. Paneas was first settled in the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemaic kings, in the 3rd century BC, built a cult centre there.

Panias is a spring, known also known Fanium, named for the Arcadian Pan, the Greek god, a goat-footed god of victory in battle , isolated rural areas, music, goat herds, hunting, herding, and of sexual and spiritual possession. It lies close to the fabled 'way of the sea' mentioned by Isaiah. along which many armies of Antiquity marched. Paneas was certainly an ancient place of great sanctity, and when Hellenised religious influences began to overlay the region, the cult of its local numen gave place to the worship of Pan, to whom the cave was therefore dedicated. The pre-Hellenic deity associated with the site was variously called Ba'al-gad or Ba'al-hermon.

In extant sections of the Greek historian Polybius's history of 'The Rise of the Roman Empire', a Battle of Panium is mentioned. This battle was fought in 198 BC between the Macedonian armies of Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Greeks of Coele-Syria, led by Antiochus III. Antiochus's victory cemented Seleucid control over Phoenicia, Galilee Samaria and Judea until the Maccabean revolt. It was these hellenised Seleucids built a pagan temple dedicated to Pan at Paneas.

Roman

Herodian city

On the death of Zenodorus in 20 BC, the Panion, which included Paneas was annexed to the Kingdom of Herod the Great. He erected here a temple of 'white marble' in honour of his patron. In 3 BCE, Philip II (also known as Philip the Tetrarch) founded a city at Paneas, which became the administrative capital of Philip's large tetrarchy of Batanaea encompassing the Golan and the Hauran. Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews refers to the city as Caesarea Paneas; the New Testament as Caesarea Philippi, to distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast. In 14 CE Philip II named it Caesarea (in honour of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus) and 'made improvements' to the city. His image was placed on a coin issued in 29/30 CE to commemorate the city's foundation. This was considered as idolatrous by Jews, but followed in the Idumean tradition of Zenodorus.

On the death of Philip II in 33 CE the tetrachy was incorporated into the province of Syria with the city given the autonomy to administer its own revenues.

In 61 CE, king Agrippa II renamed the administrative capital Neronias in honour of the Roman emperor Nero, but this name had a short life in usage, and was discarded several years later, in 68 CE. Agrippa also carried out urban improvements

During the First Jewish–Roman War, Vespasian rested his troops at Caesarea Philippi over July 67 CE, holding games for a period of 20 days before advancing on Tiberias to crush the Jewish resistance in Galilee.

Gospel association

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is said to have approached the area near the city, but without entering the city itself. While in this area, he asked his closest disciples who men thought him to be. Accounts of their answers, including the Confession of Peter, are to be found in the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in the Gospel of Thomas.

In Mark, they replied that Jesus was thought to be John the Baptist, or Elias, or some other prophet, but Saint Peter gave his own view and confessed his belief that Jesus was the messiah (Christ). Jesus predicted his destiny, and when Peter rebuked him. In Matthew, the Peter's expression of belief that Jesus was the Messiah is the occasion for Jesus designating him as the rock on which the Church was to be built. In Luke, the site where this is said to have occurred is located near Bethsaida, after the Sermon on the Mount, and Peter affirms his belief Jesus is 'the Christ of God'. In all three, the apostles are asked to keep this revelation as secret.

A woman from Paneas, who had been bleeding for 12 years, is said to have been miraculously cured by Jesus. According to tradition, after she had been cured, she had a statue of Christ erected.

Byzantium

On attaining the position of Emperor of the Roman Empire in 361 Julian the Apostate instigated a religious reformation of the Roman state, as part of a programme intended to restore its lost grandeur, pagan character and strength. He supported the restoration of Hellenic paganism as the state religion. In Paneas this was achieved by replacing the Christian symbols. In the history ofSozomen, there is a description of the circumstances surrounding the replacement of a statue of Christ:-

'Having heard that at Casarea Philippi, otherwise called Panease Paneades, a city of Phoenicia, there was a celebrated statue of Christ, which had been erected by a woman whom the Lord had cured of a flow of blood. Julian commanded it to be taken down, and a statue of himself erected in its place; but a violent fire from the heaven fell upon it, and broke off the parts contiguous to the breast; the head and neck were thrown prostrate, and it was transfixed to the ground with the face downwards at the point where the fracture of the bust was; and it has stood in that fashion from that day until now, full of the rust of the lightning.'

Caliphate

In 635 Paneas gained favourable terms of surrender from the Muslim army of Khalid ibn al-Walid after it had defeated Heraclius’s forces. In 636 a, second, newly formed Byzantine army advancing on Palestine used Paneas as a staging post on the way to confront the Muslim army at Yarmuk.

The depopulation of Paneas after the Muslim conquest was rapid, as its traditional markets disappeared. Only 14 of the 173 Byzantine sites in the area show signs of habitation from this period. The hellenised city thus fell into a precipitous decline. At the council of al-Jabiyah, when the administration of the new territory of the Umar Caliphate was established, Paneas remained the principal city of the district of al-Djawlan (the Golan) in the jund (military Province) of Dimshq (Damascus), due to its strategic military importance on the border with Filistin (Palestine).

Around 780 CE the nun Hugeburc visited Caesarea and reported that the town 'had' a church and a great many Christians, but her account does not clarify whether any of those Christians were still living in the town at the time of her visit.

The transfer of the Abbasid Caliphate capital from Damascus to Baghdad inaugurated the flowering of the Islamic Golden Age at the expense of the provinces. With the decline of Abbasid power in the tenth century, Paneas found itself a provincial backwater in a slowly collapsing empire, as district governors began to exert greater autonomy and used their increasing power to make their positions hereditary. The control of Syria and Paneas passed to the Fatimids of Egypt.

Al-Ya'qubi at the end of the 9th. century reaffirms that Paneas was still the capital of al-Djawlan in the jund of Dimshq, although by then the town was known as Madīnat al-Askat (city of the tribes) with its inhabitants being Qays, mostly of the Banu Murra with some Yamani families.

Due to the Byzantine advances under Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces into the Abbasid empire, a wave of refugees fled south and augmented the population of Madīnat al-Askat. The city was taken over by an extreme Shī‘ah sect of the Bedouin Qarāmita in 968. In 970 the Fatimids again briefly took control only to lose it again to the Qarāmita. The old population of Banias along with the new refugees formed a Sunni sufi ascetic community. In 975 the Fatimid al-'Aziz wrested control in an attempt to subdue the anti-Fatimid agitation of Mahammad b. Ahmad al-Nablusi and his followers and to extend Fatimid control into Syria. al-Nabulusi’s school of hadith was to survive in Banias under the tutelage of Arab scholars such as Abú Ishaq (Ibrahim b. Hatim) and al-Balluti.

Crusaders

The Crusaders arrival in 1099 quickly split the mosaic of semi-independent cities of the Seljuk Kingdom of Damascus. Baniyas fell to the crusaders in 1148.

With the arrival of fresh troops in Palestine King Baldwin broke the three month old truce of February 1157 by raiding the large flocks that the Turkomans has pastured in the area of Caesarea Philippi (Baniyas). In the 1157 Baniyas became the principal centre of Humphrey of Toron's crusader Fiefdom, along with him being the constable of Kingdom of Jerusalem, after it had first been granted to the Hospitallers by King Baldwin. The Knights Hospitallers having fallen into a ambush relinquished the fiefdom. Humphrey in his turn was besieged in Baniyas, King Baldwin was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's ford in June 1157. The Fresh troops arriving from Antioch and Tripoli were able to relieve the besieged crusaders. within the Lordship of Beirut. It was captured by Nūr ed-Din on 18 November 1164. The Franks had built a castle at Hunin, (Château Neuf) in 1107 to protect the trade route from Damascus to Tyre. After Nūr ed-Din's ousting of the Crusader Humphrey of Toron from Baniyas, Hunin was at the front line securing the border defences against the Saracen garrison at Baniyas.

Ibn Jubayr the geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus described Baniyas:

This city is a frontier fortress of the Muslims. It is small, but has a castle, round which, under the walls flows a stream. This stream flows out from the town by one of the gates, and turns a mill…The town has broad arable lands in the adjacent plain. Commanding the town is the fortress, still belonging to the franks, called Hunin, which lies 3 leagues distant from Baniyas. The lands in the plain belong half to the franks and half to the Muslims; and there is here the boundary called Hadd al Mukasimah-“the boundary of the dividing.” The muslims and the franks apportion the crops equally between them, and their cattle mingle freely without fear of any being stolen.”

After the death of Nūr ed-Din in May 1174 King Amaury led the crusader forces in a siege of Baniyas. The Governor of Damascus allied himself with the crusaders and released all his Frankish prisoners. With the death of King Amaury in July 1174 the crusader border became unstable. In 1177 king Baldwin IV of Jerusalem ("the leper") laid seige to Baniyas and again the crusader forces withdrew after receiving tribute from Samsan al-Din Ajuk, the Governor of Baniyas.

In 1179 al-Malik al-Nâsir Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin) took personal control of the forces of Paneas and created a protective screen across the Huela through Tel el-Qadi (Tel Dan).

In 1187 Saladin ordered al-Afdal (his son) to sent an envoy to Count Raymond III of Tripoli requesting safe passage through his principality of Galilee and Tiberias. Raymond was obliged to grant the request under the terms of his treaty with Saladin. al-Afdal's force of 7,000 horsemen left Baniyas and encountered a force of 150 Knights Templar led by Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Knights Templar. The Templar force was destroyed in the encounter. Saladin then besieged Tiberias, after 6 days the town fell. On 4 July 1187 Saladin defeated the crusaders coming to relieve Tiberias at the Battle of Hattin.

In the first decade of the thirteenth century Baniyas was partially destroyed by an earthquake. Jahârkas the local amir rebuilt the burj (the fortress tower) in 1204 (AH 597). Named as Kŭl’at es-Subeibeh in 1846 by B B Edwards.

In March 1219 Khutluba was forced to relinquish Baniyas and destroy its fortress. The city was then passed to al'Adil and his son al-Mu'azzam.

Baniyas along with Toron (now the modern town of Tebnine)and Safed and were recovered by the Franks through treaty in 1229, just two years after al-Mu'azzam's death on November 11, 1227, by Frederick II from Sultan al-Kamil.

British Mandate to contemporary

The Syria-Lebanon-Palestine boundary was a product of the post-World War I Anglo-French partition of Ottoman Syria. Due to the French inability to establish administrative control the frontier between Syria and Palestine was fluid. Until after the French has asserted authority over the Arab nationalist movement and King Faisal had been deposed. The 1920 agreement extended the British Mandate of Palestine to north of the Sykes Picot line (Sea of Galilee to Nahariya) to include Banyas. The international boundary between Palestine and Syria, agreed by Great Britain and France in 1923, placed Banyas in the French Mandate of Syria.

In 1941, Australian forces won Banyas from Vichy-controlled Syria.

On 13 April 1953 Syria offered Israel 70% of the DMZ’s in a land for peace deal. On 26 April the Israeli cabinet met, with Simha Blass in attendance, to consider the Syrian suggestions. Simha noted that while the land to be ceded to Syria was not suitable for cultivation, the Syrian map did not suit Israel’s water development plan. Simha explained that the movement of the International boundary in the area of Banias would affect Israel’s water rights.

In the 1960s, the Syrians planned national development of the water resources of Banyas for irrigation along the slopes of the Golan toward the Yarmuk River. The project to divert 20 to 30 million cubic metres of water from the river Jordan tributaries to Syria was agreed upon at the 2nd Arab summit conference. This led to military intervention from Israel, first with tank fire and then, as the Syrians shifted the works further eastward, with airstrikes.

On June 10th, 1967, the last day of the Six Day War, Golani Brigade forces quickly conquered the village of Banyas where a Syrian fort stood. This action has allowed Israel to utilize all water resources for the agricultural development of the Hula Valley. The southern slopes of Mount Hermon (Jebel esh-Sheikh) as well as the Golan Heights, was unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1981.

Tel Dan

While Baniyas does not appear in the Old Testament, Philostorgius, Theodoret, Benjamin of Tudela and Samuel ben Samson all incorrectly identified it with Laish (Tel el-Qadi renamed as Tel Dan). While Eusebius of Caesarea accurately places Dan/laish in the vicinity of Paneas at the fourth mile on the route to Tyre. Eusebius's identification was confirmed by E Robinson in 1838 and subsequently by archaeological excavations at Tel-Dan and Caesarea Philippi

Notables from Paneas

• Al-Wadin ibn ‘Ata al-Dimashki (d. 764 or 766) - an Arabic scholar from the Umayyad era

See also

• List of places associated with Jesus

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Cæsarea Philippi
• Caesarea Philippi entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
• Banyas

References

Footnotes

1. Wilson, John F (2004) Banias: The Story of Caesarea Philippi, Lost City of Pan I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1850434409 p.2
2. Philippe Bourgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece, tr.K.Atlass & J.Redfield, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 1988
3. Isaiah 9:1
4. Kent, Charles Foster (1912), Biblical Geography and History, reprinted by Read Books, 2007 ISBN 1406754730 pp 47-48
5. Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1995) International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-D, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0802837816 p 569
6. Perseus Digitital Library. TUFTS University Polybius Book 16 para 18
7. Perseus Digitital Library. TUFTS University Polybius Book 16 para 19
8. Perseus Digitital Library. TUFTS University Polybius Book 16 para 20
9. Chambers Dictionary of Etymology: The Origins and Development of Over 25,000 English Words, Robert K. Barnhart, Sol Steinmetz (eds.)(1999) Chambers Harrap Publishers L, ISBN 0550142304, p. 752
10. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan, I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1850434409 p 9
11. Gospel of Matthew. 16:13
12. Josephus Flavius Antiquities of the Jews Book 18, chapter 2, para. 1
13. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid. pp 20-22
14. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid. p 23
15. Madden, Frederic William (1864) History of Jewish Coinage, and of Money in the Old and New Testament, B. Quaritch, p. 114
16. Josephus, Flavius, 'War of the Jews, Book 3, chapter 10, para. 7: 'As for Panium itself, its natural beauty had been improved by the royal liberality of Agrippa, and adorned at his expenses.'
17. Emil Schürer, Fergus Millar, Géza Vermès (1973) The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.-A.D. 135), Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0567022420 p. 494
18. Mark 8: 27-33, Matthew. 16; 13-23 and Luke 9: 18-22.
19. Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (1991) A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers, Paulist Press, ISBN 0809132532 p 62
20. Luke; 8:43. Mark 5:23 Matthew 9:20
21. Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy, Edouard de Warren (1854) ibid p.418
22. Norwich, John Julius (1988) Byzantium; the Early Centuries, Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-011447-5 pp 88-92
23. Brown, Peter, The World of Late Antiquity, W. W. Norton, New York, 1971, ISBN 0393958035 p. 93.
24. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 99
25. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p.114
26. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid pp 115-116
27. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid pp 118-119
28. Gregorian, Vartan (2003) Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith, Brookings Institution Press, ISBN 081573283X p 26-38
29. Salibi, Kamal Suleiman (1977), Syria Under Islam: Empire on Trial, 634-1097, Caravan Books, 1977 ISBN 0882060139
30. Applied History Research Group , University of Calgary, "The Islamic World to 1600", Last accessed October 30, 2008
31. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 121
32. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 122
33. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 122
34. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 123
35. Richard, Jean (1999) The Crusades c.1071-c.1291 Cambridge University press ISBN 0-521-62566-1 p 67
36. ^ Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 145
37. Richard, Jean (1999) ibid pp 175-176
38. ʻIzz al-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr (Translated 2006) The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from Al-Kāmil Fīʼl-taʼrīkh: The Years AH 491-541/1097-1146, the Coming of the Franks And the Muslim Response Translated by Donald Sidney Richards Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0754640787 pp 148-149
39. Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome (2008) The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0199236666 p 326
40. ^ Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid pp 146-147
41. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 148
42. Hindley, Geoffrey. (2004) The Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 0786713445 p 97
43. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 150
44. B B Edwards and E A Park (1846) Bibliotheca Sacra and Theological Review Allen, Morrill, and Wardwell, p 193
45. Robinson, Edward Biblical researches in Palestine, 1838-52. A journal of travels in the year 1838. By E. Robinson and E. Smith. Drawn up from the original diaries, with historical illustrations, by Edward Robinson. p 437
46. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 150
47. Fromkin, David (1989). A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Owl, ISBN 0-8050-6884-8.
48. Shapira, Anita (1999) Land and Power; The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948. Stanford University press, ISBN 0-8047-3776-2 pp 98-110
49. Shlaim, Avi (2000) The Iron Wall; Israel and the Arab World Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-140-28870-4 p 75
50. Political Thought and Political History: Studies in Memory of Elie Kedourie By Elie Kedourie, M. Gammer, Joseph Kostiner, Moshe Shemesh, Routledge, (2003) ISBN 0714652962 p 165
51. A Biblical History of Israel By Iain William Provan, V. Philips Long, Tremper Longman Published by Westminster John Knox Press, 2003 ISBN 0664220908 pp 181-183
52. Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 150
53. Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy, Edouard de Warren (1854) Narrative of a Journey Round the Dead Sea, and in the Bible Lands; in 1850 and 1851. Including an Account of the Discovery of the Sites of Sodom and Gomorrah Parry and M'Millan, pp 417-418
54. Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy, Edouard de Warren (1854) ibid p 418

Bibliography

• al-Athīr, ʻIzz al-Dīn Ibn (Translated 2006) The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from Al-Kāmil Fīʼl-taʼrīkh: The Years AH 491-541/1097-1146, the Coming of the Franks And the Muslim Response Translated by Donald Sidney Richards Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0754640787
• Brown, Peter The World of Late Antiquity, W. W. Norton, New York, 1971, ISBN 0393958035
• Flavius, Josephus The Jewish War ISBN 0-14-044-420-3
• Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (1991) A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers Paulist Press, ISBN 0809132532
• Gregorian, Vartan (2003) "Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith", Brookings Institution Press, ISBN 081573283X
• Hindley, Geoffrey. (2004) The Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 0786713445
• Kent, Charles Foster (1912) Biblical Geography and History reprinted by Read Books, 2007 ISBN 1406754730
• Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome (2008) The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0199236666
• Norwich, John Julius (1988) “Byzantium; the Early Centuries” Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-011447-5
• Polybius The Rise of the Roman Empire, Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert Contributor Frank William Walbank, Penguin Classics, 1979 ISBN 0140443622
• Richard, Jean (1999) The Crusades c.1071-c.1291 Cambridge University press ISBN 0-521-62566-1
• Salibi, Kamal Suleiman (1977) Syria Under Islam: Empire on Trial, 634-1097 Caravan Books, 1977 ISBN 0882060139
• Wilson, John Francis. (2004) Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1850434409

• Seleucid Empire
• Ptolemaic Empire
• Coele-Syria
• Hellenistic sites in Syria
• Roman sites in Syria
• Ancient Greek sites in Syria
• Pan cult sites
• Ancient Jewish Roman history
• Golan Heights
• New Testament cities
• Holy cities
• Classical sites on the Golan Heights
• Medieval sites on the Golan Heights
• Crusade places
• Geography of Syria
• History of Syria
• Archaeological sites in Syria
• Rivers of Israel
• Rivers of Syria
• Settlements established in the 1st century BC