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ABILA

(Gk. Abila)

A city located on the Wadi Quailibah, 12 Roman mi. E of Gadara (modern Umm Qeis), and ca. 4 km. (2.5 mi.) S of the Yarmuk River. Abila (231231) measures ca. 1 km. (.6 mi.) north-south and .5 km. (.3 mi.) east-west in area. It consists of two tells (Tell Abila in the north, and Umm el-ʾAmad in the south), a civic center in a depression in between, fertile agricultural fields all around, and a spring at the base of the south tell.

Abila, as a Decapolis city founded probably by Alexander the Great’s Hellenistic successors (according to the coin tradition; Abila had the toponym Seleucia), was captured by the Seleucid king Antiochus III, by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus, and by Pompey. Pliny (Nat. hist. 5.74) calls it a tetrarchy/kingdom, and Ptolemy (Geog. 5.7.22), a Decapolis city. Abila also carried the titles Coele-Syria, “independent,” and “sovereign.”

Abila’s archaeological history (from 3500 b.c. to a.d. 1500) reveals settlement remains from Early Bronze to Islamic times. The city follows the classical town plan of main streets at right angles. Excavated remains include basilicas, a bath-nymphaeum complex (north), a theater cavea complex (south), a church, and a forum or villa complex. A city wall of Hellenistic-Roman (and possibly Iron Age) date surrounded the Tell Abila acropolis. An extensive necropolis extends all around the site, consisting largely of Late Hellenistic and Roman and Byzantine tomb complexes.

Bibliography. W. H. Mare, “Abila,” NEAEHL 1:1-3; Mare et al., Preliminary reports in The Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin (Chicago, 1981-1996).

W. Harold Mare

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ABILA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)