Arkites

ARKITES, ɑ̄rk´ɑitz: A people mentioned in Gen. x. 17 and I Chron. i. 15 as descendants of Canaan. Since Josephus (Ant., 1. vi. 2) the name has been connected with a town Arca (modern ‘Arka and Tell ‘Arka), at the foot of Lebanon, about 12 m. n. of Tripoli. It is mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions and in the Tell el-Amarna tablets (Schrader, 42, 55, 194), and was an important place in late Roman times. The emperor Alexander Severus was born there in a temple dedicated to Alexander the Great, and from this fact the town was called Cæsarea Libani. It was an important fortress during the crusades and a flourishing commercial town in the twelfth century. The ruins which remain belong to Roman times.

Bibliography: E. Robinson, Later Biblical Researches, 375-381, Boston, 1856; Schürer, Geschichte, i. 594, note 36, Eng. transl., I. ii. 201, note 35.