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76-559: The ancient city was first mentioned in the context of the Battle of Panium , fought around 200–198 BCE, when the name of the region was given as the Panion . Later, Pliny called the city Paneas ( Ancient Greek : Πανειάς ). Both names were derived from that of Pan , the god of the wild and companion of the nymphs . Herod the Great , king of Judaea , constructed a temple dedicated to Augustus at

152-468: A Moslem Sheikh. In the 1870s, Banias was described as "a village, built of stone, containing about 350 Moslems, situated on a raised table-land at the bottom of the hills of Mount Hermon. The village is surrounded by gardens crowded with fruit-trees. The source of the Jordan is close by, and the water runs in little aqueducts into and under every part of the modern village." The Syria-Lebanon-Palestine boundary

228-622: A diversion project on a nine-mile (14 km) channel midway between the Huleh Marshes and Sea of Galilee in the central DMZ to be rapidly constructed. This prompted shelling from Syria and friction with the Eisenhower Administration ; the diversion was moved to the southwest. The Banias was included in the Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan , which allocated Syria 20 million cubic metres annually from it. The plan

304-623: A gilded statue of himself erected on a monumental column in the Roman Forum , known as the Column of Phocas . Despite being appointed as Comes excubitorum , Priscus was not loyal to Phocas, and in 608 he appealed to Heraclius the Elder , the Exarch of Carthage , to rebel against Phocas. Heraclius the Elder agreed, and began to prepare to invade, by cutting off the supply of grain to Constantinople and assembling

380-430: A large army and navy. Heraclius the Elder launched his invasion in 609, with his nephew, Nicetas , marching troops overland to the capital, and his son, Heraclius , leading a naval invasion of Thessalonica , before marching to Constantinople. Heraclius arrived outside Constantinople on 3 October 610, and seized the city on 5 October. Heraclius was declared emperor on the same day, and swiftly had Phocas executed. Phocas

456-501: A low-ranking officer under Emperor Maurice . In 602, the Byzantine army rebelled against Emperor Maurice , largely due to exhaustion and outrage over orders to continue campaigning north of the Danube in winter as well as previous cuts in wages. The army sent Phocas to Constantinople as a spokesperson on behalf of the legions, whereupon he declared himself emperor. On 23 November 602, Phocas

532-405: A place of pilgrimage for Christians . The spring at Banias initially originated in a large cave carved out of a sheer cliff face which was gradually lined with a series of shrines. The temenos (sacred precinct) included in its final phase a temple placed at the mouth of the cave, courtyards for rituals, and niches for statues. It was constructed on an elevated, 80m long natural terrace along

608-585: A precarious position, which led him to devote his energy to purging enemies and destroying conspiracies. Because of this focus, and the local resistance he faced all throughout the Byzantine Empire, he was unable to confront foreign attacks on the empire's frontiers. The Avars and Slavs launched numerous raids into the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire, and the Sassanian Empire launched an invasion of

684-469: A second, newly formed Byzantine army advancing on Palestine used Paneas as a staging post on the way to confront the Muslim army at the final Battle of Yarmouk . 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

760-621: A trove of 44 pure gold coins from the early 7th Century CE. While some of the coins were minted by the Byzantine-Roman Emperor Phocas (602-610 CE), most date to the reign of his successor, Emperor Heraclius (610-641). The latest of the coins date to the period of the Arab conquest of the Levant. Upon Zenodorus 's death in 20 BC, the Panion ( Greek : Πανιάς ), including Paneas, was annexed to

836-475: Is difficult to ascertain since emperors of the Heraclian dynasty who succeeded Phocas had a vested interest in tarnishing his reputation. Phocas was probably born in 547, as he was said to be aged 55 when he became emperor. He and his family were likely of Thraco-Roman or Cappadocian origin. The life of Phocas before his usurpation of the Byzantine Empire's throne is obscure, but it is known that he served as

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912-447: Is generally depicted as a villain by Byzantines and modern historians alike, but some of the earliest sources available about Phocas' reign were written during the reign of Heraclius. The writings that survive are not reliably neutral and the writers would have good reason to demonize him in order to strengthen the rule of Heraclius. In the cultural sphere, the reign of Phocas is marked by the change of Imperial fashion set by Constantine

988-603: The Bosphorus . By the time his reign ended in 610, the Persians had already crossed the Euphrates and taken Zenobia. Contemporary accounts describe the Persians as being very brutal to the occupied population. The 'miracle of St Demetrios' described the carnage: [T]he devil raised the whirlwind of hatred in all the East, Cilicia, Asia, Palestine and all the lands from there to Constantinople:

1064-556: 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

1140-812: The Herodian Kingdom of Judea , a client of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire . Josephus mentions that Herod the Great erected a temple of 'white marble' nearby in honor of his patron; it was found in the nearby site of Omrit . In 3 BCE, Herod's son, Philip (also known as Philip the Tetrarch ) founded a city which became his administrative capital, known from Josephus and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as Caesarea or Caesarea Philippi , to distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima and other cities named Caesarea ( Matthew 16 , Matthew 16:13 , Mark 8 , Mark 8:27 ). On

1216-668: The Iqta' of Hussam al-Din Bishara. In 1200, Sultan al-Adil I sent Fakhr al-Din Jaharkas to seize Kŭl’at es-Subeibeh , a fortress located on a high hill above Banias, from Hussam al-Din, and reaffirmed Jaharkas as the holder of the iqta' in 1202. A strong earthquake the same year had its epicenter close to Banias, and the city was partially destroyed. Jaharkas rebuilt the burj (fortress tower). He took control of other properties - Tibnin, Hunin, Beaufort and Tyron. After his death, these lands were in

1292-525: The Maccabean revolt . It was these Seleucids who built a pagan temple dedicated to Pan at Paneas. In 2020, an altar with a Greek inscription was found in the walls of a church of the 7th century A.D. The inscription records that the altar was dedicated by Atheneon, son of Sosipatros, from the city of Antioch to the god Pan Heliopolitanos. In 2022, the Israeli Antiquities Authority discovered

1368-747: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 , and the unratified and later annulled Treaty of Sèvres , stemming from the San Remo conference , the 1920 boundary extended the British controlled area to north of the Sykes Picot line, a straight line between the mid point of the Sea of Galilee and Nahariya . In 1920 the French managed to assert authority over the Arab nationalist movement and after the Battle of Maysalun , King Faisal

1444-590: The Ptolemaic governor of Coele-Syria , defected to the side of Antiochus III the Great , the ruler of the Seleucid Empire . Antiochus invaded and occupied most of the province, including the city of Gaza , by the autumn of 201 BC, when he returned to winter quarters in Syria. The Ptolemaic commander Scopas of Aetolia reconquered parts of the province that winter. Antiochus gathered his army at Damascus and in

1520-584: The advance to the Litani during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign ; Free French and Indian forces also invaded Syria in the Battle of Kissoué . Banias's fate in this period was left in a state of limbo since Syria had come under British military control. When Syria was granted independence in April 1946, it refused to recognize the 1923 boundary agreed between Britain and France. Following the 1948 Arab Israeli War ,

1596-445: The malaria -infested Hula marshes . The pre-Hellenistic deity associated with the spring of Banias was variously called Ba'al-gad or Ba'al Hermon . The spring lies close to the 'way of the sea' mentioned by the Book of Isaiah , along which many armies of Antiquity marched. It was certainly an ancient place of great sanctity, and when Hellenised religious influences began to overlay

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1672-683: The "Head of all Churches" and "Universal Bishop". Phocas transferred the title of "Universal Bishop" from the Diocese of Constantinople to the Diocese of Rome . Boniface sought and obtained a decree from Phocas in which he restated that "the See of Blessed Peter the Apostle should be the head of all the Churches" and ensured that the title of "Universal Bishop" belonged exclusively to the Bishop of Rome. This act effectively ended

1748-758: The Banias spring remained in Syrian territory, while the Banias River flowed through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into Israel. In 1953, at one of a series of meetings to regularize administration of the DMZs, Syria offered to adjust the armistice lines, and cede to Israel 70% of the DMZ, in exchange for a return to the pre-1946 International border in the Jordan basin area, with Banias water resources returning to Syrian sovereignty. On 26 April,

1824-479: The Byzantine government spent few resources to aid Italy due to troubles elsewhere. In the entirety of Phocas' reign, the only public structure built with taxes in the city of Rome was a statue of Phocas completed in 608. When Phocas usurped Maurice, Gregory the Great was bishop of Rome and he praised Phocas as a restorer of liberty. Gregory referred to him as a pious and clement lord, and compared his wife (the new Empress) Leontia to Marcian's consort Pulcheria (whom

1900-743: The Council of Chalcedon called the new Helena). In May 603, portraits of the imperial couple arrived in Rome and were ordered by the pope to be placed in the oratory of St. Caesarius in the imperial palace on the Palatine. Imperial approval was needed at that time to appoint a new pope, but the approval was delayed by a year upon the death of Pope Sabinian in 606, as Phocas was occupied with killing internal enemies that threatened his rule. He finally gave approval in 607 and Boniface III became pope. Phocas declared Rome "the head of all churches". Shortly afterwards, Phocas had

1976-519: The Governor of Banias. In 1179, Saladin took personal control of the forces of Banias and created a protective screen across the Hula through Tell al-Qadi . In 1187, Saladin's son al-Afdal was able to send a force of 7,000 horsemen from Banias, that participated in the Battle of Cresson and the Battle of Hattin . By the end of Saladin's life, Banias was in the territory of al-Afdal, Emir of Damascus, and in

2052-530: The Great ( r.  306–337 ). Constantine and all his successors, except Julian the Apostate ( r.  361–363 ), were beardless. Phocas again introduced the wearing of the beard . This fashion lasted until the end of the Byzantine Empire. On 19 February 607, Emperor Phocas appointed Boniface III as the new bishop of Rome, then Phocas issued an imperial decree by the Roman government, recognizing Boniface III as

2128-544: The Israeli cabinet met to consider the Syrian suggestions, with head of Israel's Water Planning Authority, Simha Blass , in attendance. Blass 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. Blass explained that the movement of the International boundary in the area of Banias would affect Israel's water rights. The Israeli cabinet rejected

2204-517: The Persians invaded the empire in 603. The Sassanids rapidly occupied the eastern provinces, leading the Magister militum per Orientem , Narses , to defect to their side. Phocas swiftly dealt with him, by inviting him to Constantinople under the promise of safe conduct, then having him burnt alive when he arrived. By 607, the Sassanids had occupied Mesopotamia , Syria , and much of Asia Minor , as far as

2280-491: The Ptolemaic army was led by Scopas of Aetolia . The Seleucids achieved a complete victory, annihilating the Ptolemaic army and conquering the province of Coele-Syria . The Ptolemaic Kingdom never recovered from its defeat at Panium and ceased to be an independent great power . Antiochus secured his southern flank and began to concentrate on the looming conflict with the Roman Republic . In 202 BC, Ptolemy son of Thraseas,

2356-615: The Sarid and Wazani ). 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 10, 1967, the last day of the Six Day War , the Golani Brigade captured the village of Banias. Israel's priority on the Syrian front was to take control of the water sources. After the local residents fled to Majdal Shams ,

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2432-477: The Syrian proposals but decided to continue the negotiations by making changes to the accord and placing conditions on the Syrian proposals. The Israeli conditions took into account Blass's position over water rights and Syria rejected the Israeli counter-offer. In September 1953, Israel advanced plans for its National Water Carrier to help irrigate the coastal Sharon Plain and eventually the Negev desert by launching

2508-764: The arrival of fresh troops to the Holy Land, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem broke the three-month-old truce of February 1157 by raiding the large flocks that the Turcoman people had pastured in the area. In that year, Banias became the principal centre of Humphrey II of Toron's fiefdom, along with his being the constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem , after it had first been granted to the Knights Hospitaller by Baldwin III. The Knights Hospitaller, having fallen into an ambush, relinquished

2584-507: The attempt by Patriarch Cyriacus of Constantinople to establish himself as "Universal Bishop". In calling the Pope the "head of all churches", Phocas' decree has been important in discussions about papal primacy and papal supremacy . Some Protestant historicist commentators have seen the decree of Phocas (usually taken to be in 606) as having eschatological significance. For example, in his Horae Apocalypticae , Edward Bishop Elliott took

2660-510: The cliff which towered over the north of the city. A four-line inscription at the base of one of the niches relates to Pan and Echo , the mountain nymph, and was dated to 87 BCE. The once very large spring gushed from the limestone cave, but an earthquake moved it to the foot of the natural terrace where it now seeps quietly from the bedrock, with a greatly reduced flow. From here the stream, called Nahal Hermon in Hebrew, flows towards what once were

2736-570: 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 Djawlan) in the jund (military Province) of Dimashq ( Damascus ), due to its strategic military importance on the border with Jund al-Urdunn , which comprised the Galilee and territories east and north of it. Around 780 CE

2812-409: The death of Agrippa II around 92 CE came the end of Herodian rule, and the city returned to the province of Syria . In the late Roman and Byzantine periods the written sources name the city again as Paneas, or more seldom as Caesarea Paneas. In 361, Emperor Julian the Apostate instigated a religious reformation of the Roman state, in which he supported the restoration of Hellenistic polytheism as

2888-625: The death of Nūr ad-Din in May 1174, King Amalric I of Jerusalem led the crusader forces in a siege of Banias. The Governor of Damascus allied himself with the crusaders and released all his Frankish prisoners. With the death of Amalric I in July 1174, the crusader border became unstable. In 1177, King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem laid siege to Banias and again the crusader forces withdrew after receiving tribute from Samsan al-Din Ajuk,

2964-510: The death of Philip in 34 CE his kingdom was briefly incorporated into the province of Syria , with the city given the autonomy to administer its own revenues, before reverting to his nephew, Herod Agrippa I . The ancient city is mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark , under the name of Caesarea Philippi , as the place where Jesus confirmed Peter 's assumption that Jesus was the Messiah ;

3040-492: The eastern provinces of the empire. The Avars were able to take all land in the Balkans north of Thessalonica. The populations of Christian cities were slaughtered or captured. The Byzantines transferred most of their forces to the eastern front due to the threat from the Persians. The Sassanid Persians had formerly been at peace with Maurice as a result of a treaty they made with him in 591. After Phocas usurped and killed Maurice,

3116-558: The end of 198 BC. Coele-Syria came under Seleucid control and the Ptolemies were compelled to sign a peace treaty with Antiochus in 195 BC. As one of the battle's results, the Ptolemaic state was forced to scale down the role of the Macedonian settler phalanx in the years that followed. Some biblical commentators see this battle as being the one referred to in Daniel 11 :15, where it says, "Then

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3192-485: The enemy cavalry and charged the rear of the Ptolemaic phalanx. Pressed from two sides by war elephants, phalangites, and cataphracts, the relatively immobile Ptolemaic phalanx was almost annihilated where they stood. Scopas, situated on the right wing, fled the field, taking 10,000 troops with him. Scopas led 10,000 men to seek refuge at Sidon ; other Ptolemaic contingents fled to Jerusalem , Phoenicia , Samaria and Decapolis . All of them were forced to surrender by

3268-419: The factions, no longer content simply to spill blood in public places, attacked homes, slaughtered women, children, the aged, and the young who were sick; those whose youth and frailty impeded their escape from the massacre, [saw] their friends, acquaintances, and parents pillaged, and after all that, even set on fire so that the most wretched inhabitant was not able to escape. Phocas was unable to control either

3344-522: The fiefdom. On 18 May 1157, Nūr ad-Din began a siege on Banias using mangonels , a type of siege engine. Humphrey was under attack in Banias and Baldwin III 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 relieved the besieged crusaders. The Lordship of Banias which was a sub-vassal within the Lordship of Beirut ,

3420-406: The garrison of Subeiba. Al-Sa'id Hasan of Banias, released by Hulegu during the Mongol invasion of Syria, allied with him, and took part in the Battle of Ain Jalut . The traveller J. S. Buckingham described Banias in 1825: "The present town is small, and meanly built, having no place of worship in it; and the inhabitants, who are about 500 in number, are Mohammedans and Metouali , governed by

3496-422: The hands of Sarim ad-Din Khutluba. Shortly after the start of the Fifth Crusade , Banias was raided by the Franks for three days. Later, Al-Mu'azzam Isa , son of al-Adil, started to dismantle fortifications across Palestine, in order to deny their protection should the Crusaders gain them, by fight or by land exchange. So, in March 1219, Khutluba was forced to relinquish Banias and destroy its fortress. Probably at

3572-421: The heartlands of the Empire. Heraclius the Elder's son, Heraclius , took Constantinople on 5 October 610, executed Phocas the same day, and declared himself emperor. Surviving sources are universally extremely hostile to Phocas. He is described as an incompetent tyrant and usurper who brutally purged any real or perceived opposition and left the Empire wide open to foreign aggression. The veracity of these sources

3648-554: The king of the North will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city." Based on the loss rates of the phalanxes at the battles of Magnesia in 190 BC and Pydna in 167 BC, the 25,000 Ptolemaic phalangites may have sustained 17,500–20,825 losses, killed or captured. 33°14′55″N 35°41′40″E  /  33.24861°N 35.69444°E  / 33.24861; 35.69444 Phocas Phocas ( Latin : Focas ; Ancient Greek : Φωκάς , romanized :  Phōkás ; 547 – 5 October 610)

3724-411: The night. The cataphracts opened the battle by attacking and quickly routing the hapless Ptolemaic cavalry under Ptolemy. In the center, the Ptolemaic phalanx forced back their Seleucid counterparts. The Seleucid elephants neutralized this Ptolemaic success by charging through the gaps in the Seleucid phalanx and halting their advance. The cataphracts under Antiochus the Younger ended their pursuit of

3800-430: 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

3876-421: The place is today a place of pilgrimage for Christians . In 61 CE, king Agrippa II renamed the administrative capital Neronias in honor of the Roman emperor Nero , but this name was discarded several years later, in 68 CE. Agrippa also carried out urban improvements. In 67 CE, during the First Jewish–Roman War , Vespasian briefly visited Caesarea Philippi before advancing on Tiberias in Galilee. With

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3952-407: The presence of cataphracts , the elite cavalry agema , Tarentine soldiers and more cavalry, phalangites , hypaspists , war elephants , unidentified infantry and light skirmishers in the ranks of the Seleucid army at Panium. Antiochus the Younger , the firstborn son of Antiochus III, commanded the elite cataphracts of the Seleucid army and seized Tel Hamra, a foothill of Mount Hermon, in

4028-431: The region, the cult of its local numen gave place to the worship of the Arcadian goat-footed god Pan , to whom the cave was therefore dedicated. Pan was revered by the ancient Greeks as the god of isolated rural areas, music, goat herds, hunting, herding, of sexual and spiritual possession, and of victory in battle, since he was said to instill panic among the enemy. Paneas ( Ancient Greek : Πανεάς , Latin Fanium )

4104-481: The same day. Phocas deeply mistrusted the uncooperative elite of Constantinople, to whom he was a usurper and a provincial boor. He therefore attempted to base his regime on relatives installed in high military and administrative positions. He immediately faced challenges in domestic and foreign affairs, and responded with little success. He dealt with domestic opposition with increasing ruthlessness that alienated ever wider circles, including some of his own household. At

4180-460: The same time, the Empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Avars and Slavs renewed their destructive raids on the Balkans, and the Sasanian Empire launched a massive invasion of the eastern provinces . Finally, the Exarch of Africa , Heraclius the Elder , rebelled against Phocas and gained wide support throughout the empire. Phocas attempted to use border troops to crush the rebellion, but this only resulted in allowing invaders to break into

4256-442: The same time, the city was passed to Al-Mu'azzam's brother, al-'Aziz 'Uthman . For a while it was ruled as the hereditary principality of the dynast and his sons. The fourth prince, al-Sa'id Hasan, surrendered it to As-Salih Ayyub in 1247. He later tried to retake the land, at the time of An-Nasir Yusuf , but was imprisoned. In 1252 Banias was attacked by the forces of the Seventh Crusade and took it, but they were driven out by

4332-431: The scheme The project was to divert 20 to 30 million cubic metres of water from the river Jordan tributaries to Syria and Jordan for the development of Syria and Jordan. The diversion plan for the Banias called for a 73 kilometre long canal to be dug 350 metres above sea level, that would link the Banias with the Yarmuk . The canal would carry the Banias's fixed flow plus the overflow from the Hasbani (including water from

4408-407: The site. Subsequently, Herod's son, Philip the Tetrarch , further developed the area, establishing a city. In 61 CE, Agrippa II expanded and renamed the city Neronias Irenopolis . The ancient city was mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark , under the name of Caesarea Philippi , as the place where Jesus confirmed Peter 's confession that Jesus was the Messiah ; the site is today

4484-564: The state or the army effectively. Due to his distrust of the bulk of Constantinople's elite, with whom he had had no connection before becoming emperor, frequently filling senior military positions with his relatives. He installed: his brother Domentziolus as Magister officiorum in 603; his nephew Domentziolus as Magister militum per Orientem in 604, giving him command over the eastern provinces; and his brother Comentiolus as Magister militum per Orientem around 610. All three remained loyal to Phocas until they were killed by Heraclius. Of

4560-474: The state religion. In Paneas this was achieved by replacing Christian symbols with pagan ones, though the change was short lived. In the 5th century, following the division of the Empire , the city was part of the Eastern (later Byzantine ) Empire, but was lost to the Arab conquest of the Levant in the 7th century. In 635, Paneas gained favourable terms of surrender from the Muslim army of Khalid ibn al-Walid after it had defeated Heraclius ' forces. In 636,

4636-432: The summer of 200 BC, he confronted the Ptolemaic army at the stream of Panium near Mount Hermon . The Ptolemaic front line was four kilometers wide. The left wing was deployed on the plain below the Panium plateau. It consisted of the 25,000–32,000 strong Macedonian settler phalanx under the command of Ptolemy son of Aeropus, a Macedonian settler himself. These were the Kingdom's best troops. The supreme command

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4712-426: 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. At the end of the 9th century Al-Ya'qubi reaffirms that Paneas was still the capital of al-Djawlan in the jund of Dimshq , although by then

4788-425: The three known male blood-relatives of Phocas, all three were appointed to senior posts, two in military positions and one in an administrative position. Phocas also appointed Priscus , who was his son-in-law by way of his marriage to Phocas' daughter Domentzia , as Comes excubitorum , the captain of the Excubitors , in 603. When Phocas was emperor, Byzantine Italy was under continual attack from Lombards , but

4864-434: 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

4940-422: The village was destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, leaving only the mosque, church and shrines. The Israelis have renamed several of the locations at Banias, removing their Roman, Arab and Syrian connection. In 1977, the Banias was declared a nature reserve by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority , named Hermon Stream (Banias) Nature Reserve . It consists of two areas – the springs and the archaeological site, and

5016-406: The waterfall with a hanging trail. Battle of Panium 46,500–53,000 men The Battle of Panium / p ə ˈ n aɪ . ə m / (also known as Paneion, Ancient Greek : Πάνειον , or Paneas, Πανειάς) was fought in 200 BC near Paneas ( Caesarea Philippi ) between Seleucid and Ptolemaic forces as part of the Fifth Syrian War . The Seleucids were led by Antiochus III the Great , while

5092-478: Was Byzantine emperor from 602 to 610. Initially a middle-ranking officer in the Eastern Roman army , Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers in their disputes with the court of the Emperor Maurice . When the army revolted in 602, Phocas emerged as the natural leader of the mutiny. The revolt proved to be successful and led to the capture of Constantinople and the overthrow of Maurice on 23 November 602, with Phocas declaring himself emperor

5168-418: Was turned over to the Franks following the purge of the sect from Damascus by Buri . Later on, Shams al-Mulk Isma'il attacked Banias and captured it on 11 December 1132. In 1137, Banias became under the rule of Imad al-Din Zengi . In late spring 1140, Mu'in ad-Din Unur handed Banias to the Crusaders during the reign of King Fulk , due to their assistance against Zengi's aggression towards Damascus. With

5244-400: Was a product of the post-World War I Anglo-French partition of Ottoman Syria. British forces had advanced to a position at Tel Hazor against Turkish troops in 1918 and wished to incorporate all the sources of the Jordan River within the British controlled Palestine. Due to the French inability to establish administrative control, the frontier between Syria and Palestine was fluid. Following

5320-416: Was captured by Nūr ad-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 ad-Din's ousting of Humphrey of Toron from Banias, Hunin was at the front line securing the border defences against the Muslim garrison at Banias. Ibn Jubayr , the geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus , described Banias: After

5396-459: Was crowned by the patriarch Cyriacus in the church of St John the Baptist at the Hebdomon . He entered Constantinople two days later, on 25 November. Maurice fled the city with his sons, Theodosius and Tiberius , but they were soon after captured and executed. Maurice's wife and daughters were put in the monastery of Nea Metanoia and later killed. Despite the executions of the previous emperor and his dynastic successors, Phocas remained in

5472-578: Was deposed. The international boundary between Palestine and Syria was agreed by Great Britain and France in 1923 in conjunction with the Treaty of Lausanne , after Britain had been given a League of Nations mandate for Palestine in 1922. Banyas (on the Quneitra /Tyre road) was within the French Mandate of Syria. The border was set 750 metres south of the spring. In 1941, Australian forces occupied Banias in

5548-761: Was first settled in the Hellenistic period following Alexander the Great's conquest of the east. The Ptolemaic kings built a cult centre there in the 3rd century BCE. 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 ca. 200–198 BCE between the armies of Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucids of Coele-Syria , led by Antiochus III . Antiochus's victory cemented Seleucid control over Phoenicia , Galilee , Samaria , and Judea until

5624-530: Was held by the Aetolian mercenary general Scopas of Aetolia , who brought with him 6,500 Aetolian mercenaries, including 6,000 infantry and 500 cavalry . Antiochus probably had around 70,000 soldiers, more than the 68,000 with him at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC. Having re-conquered the Upper Satrapies in the previous years, he could draw upon a larger resource base than before. Polybius identifies

5700-742: Was rejected by the Arab League . Instead, at the 2nd Arab summit conference in Cairo of January 1964 the League decided that Syria , Lebanon and Jordan would begin a water diversion project. Syria started the construction of canal to divert the flow of the Banias river away from Israel and along the slopes of the Golan toward the Yarmouk River . Lebanon was to construct a canal from the Hasbani River to Banias and complete

5776-528: Was to survive in Banias under the tutelage of Arab scholars such as Abú Ishaq (Ibrahim b. Hatim) and al-Balluti. The Crusaders' arrival in 1099 quickly split the mosaic of semi-independent cities of the Seljuk sultanate of Damascus. The Crusaders held the town twice, between 1129–1132 and 1140–1164. It was called by the Franks Belinas or Caesarea Philippi. From 1126–1129, the town was held by Assassins , and

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