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187 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Samaria

shean, seven miles south of the city. Both Jerome and the pilgrim Sylvia record a Salem in this vicinity, and in 1852 Robinson found there the name Shaih Salim. Abel-meholah, the home of Elisha (I Kings xix. 16, iv. 12), which Judges vii. 22 seems to locate south of Beth-shean, is identified by the Onomasticon with a village named Bethmaela or Bethaula, nine miles south of Scythopolis in the Jordan valley, thus pointing to the modern spring 'Ain al-I-,Ialwah. The Gilboa of I Sam. xxviii. 4, after which the mountain range was named (II Sam. i. 21), corresponds to the modern Jalbaun on the western declivity of the Jabal Fuku'ah, which rises abruptly above the plain of Beth-shean. Further to the west, on the lower slopes, lies the little village of Bait Kad, which may correspond to the Beth`Ekedh, " shearing house," of II Kings x. 12, 14.

Turning to the coast from the mouth of the Nahr al-`Aujah to Carmel, some twelve miles north of Jaffa is the ruined site of Arsuf, corresponding to the ancient Apollonia which was claimed by Alexander Jannaeus for Judea and was rebuilt by Ga-

binius (Josephus, Ant., XIII., xv. 4; 6. Cities of War, I., viii. 4). The chief place on

Western the Samaritan coast, however, was Samaria. Caesarea, also called Caesarea Pala;s-

tina, Csesarea Pahestina;, Cwmrea ad mare, or Sebaste. It was earlier known as Ca;sarea Stratonis, and as Straton here represents `abd `Astarton, " servant of Astarte," it would seem to have been founded by the Sidonians late in the Persian period. Alexander Janna?us subjugated the city and its vicinity as far as Dor, but it was " freed " by Augustus and given to Herod, who must be regarded as the real founder of the city, which was henceforth called Cwsarea. On the deposition of Archelaus, Ciesarea became the seat of the Roman procurators of Judea (6-41 A.D.), and again after the death of Agrippa I. (44). Philip and the centurion Cornelius lived there (Acts viii. 40, x. 1 sqq., xxi. 8), there Paul was imprisoned before being taken to Rome, and there he appeared before Agrippa II. and Berenice (Acts xxiii. 23-24, xxiv. 27, xxv. 14 sqq.). Vespasian made it a Roman colony, and Alexander Severus gave it the title of a metropolis (Tacitus, Hist., ii. 78). In consequence of its wide harbor, trade from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean passed through it (Acts ix. 30, xviii. 22, xxi. 8). The most famous bishop of the city was Eusebius (q.v.). The relatively smaller Cwsarea of the Crusaders was destroyed by the sultan Bibars in 1296. The site still bears the name of ]~Iaisariyah. About nine miles north of Cwsarea are the ruins, now called Hirbat Tanturah, which mark the site of the ancient city of Dor, founded by the Phenicians. Although the Icing of Dor was conquered by Joshua (Josh. xii. 23), the city did not become tributary to Israel until the regal period (Josh. xvii. 11-12; Judges i. 27), so that I Kings iv. 11 makes the entire mountain region of Dor a tax-district of Solomon. The "height of Dor " (Josh, xii. 23, R. V.), apparently the southwestern slope of Carmel, must be distinguished from the city itself. According to the Eshmunazar inscription the Persian king gave Dor and the coast as far as Joppa to the Sidonians. In the Maccabean period Trypho

was vainly besieged at Dor by Antiochus Sidetes (I Mace. xv. 10-14). Alexander Jannaeus won the city from Zoilus, but in 63 B.C. Pompey made it a free city. It was, however, deserted in the days of Jerome. The Migdal Malha of the Talmud, the Magdihel of Jerome's Onomasticon, is represented by the modern Virbat Malihah, five miles north of Tanturah. A Hebrew Migdal El was probably once situated at the present ruins of `Atlit, the Castellum Peregrinorum of the Crusaders. (H. GUTHE.)

II. The People.-1. origin and History: The account of the origin of the people (called in Greek Samareitai, Samaritai, and in Latin Samaritani) after the destruction of the northern kingdom is given in II Kings xvii. 24 sqq., according to which Sargon brought colonists from " Babylon, Cuthah,