Tiberias

City on the narrow western shore of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias; Heb. Kilmeret; see TIR.IP); founded by Herod Antipas in A.D. 18 as a result of events following the death of Herod the Great in 4 B.c. (see map 22, D2). His modest kingdom was unevenly divided among three sons, with Herod Antipas (Herod the Tetrarch) being allocated Galilee and, to the east of the Jordan, Peraea. An able ruler, Herod Antipas remained in power some four decades and founded T. as his capital, which he named after the emperor Tiberius. T. flourished, even though it was eclipsed politically by nearby Scythopolis (Beth Shean) after the creation of the province of Palaestina II (mid-4th c.). However primacy returned with the promotion ofT. to capital of the early Islamic military province of Jordan in the mid-7th c. The town, henceforth known as Tabariyah, attained its apogee in the 8th-10th c.; it never recovered from the 1183-87 campaigns to expel the Crusaders from Palestine.