ANTIPATRIS
ANTIPATRIS (
Ἀντιπατρίς: Eth.
Ἀντιπατρίτης), a city built by Herod the Great, and named after his father Antipater.
It was situated in a well-watered and richly-wooded plain named Capharsaba (
Καφαρσάβα, al.
Χαβαρσάβα, J. AJ 16.5.2), so called from a more ancient town, whose site the new city occupied. (Ib. 13.15.1.)
A stream ran round the city. Alexander Jannaeus, when threatened with an invasion by Antiochus (Dionysus), drew a deep trench between this place, which was situated near the mountains, and the sea at Joppa, a distance of 120 stadia.
The ditch was fortified with a wall and towers of wood, which were taken and burnt by Antiochus, and the trench was filled up. (
B. J. 1.4.7; comp.
Ant. 13.15.1.)
It lay on the road between Caesareia and Jerusalem. (
B. J. 2.19.1.) Here it was that the escort of Hoplites, who had accompanied St. Paul on his nocturnal journey from Jerusalem, left him to proceed with the horsemen to Caesareia. (
Acts, 23.31.) Its ancient name and site is still preserved by a Muslim village of considerable size, built entirely of mud, on a slight circular eminence near the western hills of the coast of Palestine, about three hours north of Jaffa. No ruins, nor indeed the least vestige of antiquity, is to be discovered.
The water, too, has entirely disappeared. (Mr. Eli Smith,
in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843, p. 493.)
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G.W]
