ITURAEA
ITURAEA (
Ἰτουραία), a district in the NE. of Palestine (
Strab. xvi. p.755 ;
Plin. Nat. 5.19), which, with Trachonitis, belonged to the tetrarchy of Philip. (
St. Luke, 3.1; comp.
J. AJ 15.10.1.)
The name is so loosely applied by the ancient writers that it is difficult to fix its boundaries with precision, but it may be said roughly to be traversed by a line drawn from the Lake of Tiberias to Damascus.
It was a mountainous district, and full of caverns (Strab.
l.c.): the inhabitants, a wild race (Cic.
Phil.2.24), favoured by the natural features of the country, were in the habit of robbing the traders from Damascus (
Strab. xvi. p.756), and were famed as archers. (
Verg. G. 2.448 ;
Lucan 7.230,
514.)
At an early period it was occupied by the tribe of Jetur (1
Chron. 5.19;
Τ̓ουραῖοι, LXX.), whose name is connected with that of Jetur, a son of Ishmael. (1
Chron. 1.31.) The Ituraeans--either the descendants of the original possessor, or, as is more probable, of new comers, who had occupied this district after the exile, and assumed the original name--were eventually subdued by king Aristobulus, B.C. 100, who compelled them to be circumcised, and incorporated them in his dominions. (
J. AJ 13.11.3.)
The mountain district was in the hands of Ptolemaeus, tetrarch of Chalcis (
Strab. xvi. p.753); but when Pompeius came into Syria, Ituraea was ceded to the Romans (Appian.
Mithr. 106), though probably it retained a certain amount of independence under native vassal princes: M. Antonius imposed a heavy tribute upon it. (Appian,
App. BC 5.7.) Finally, under Claudius, it became part of the province of Syria. (
Tac. Ann. 12.23;
D. C. 59.12.)
The district
El-Djedûr, to the E. of Hermon (
Djebel-esh-Scheikh), and lying W. of the
Hadj road, which according to Burckhardt (
Trav. p. 286) now contains only twenty inhabited villages, comprehended the whole or the greater part of ancient Ituraea. (Münter,
de Reb. Ituraeor. Havn. 1824; comp. Winer,
Realwörterbuch, s. v.; Ritter,
Erdkunde, vol. xv. pt. ii. pp. 354--357, 899.)
[
E.B.J]
