| Lysanias | |
|---|---|
| Reign | 40 – 36 BCE |
| Predecessor | Ptolemy (son of Mennaeus) |
| Died | 33 BCE |
| Father | Ptolemy (son of Mennaeus) |
Lysanias/laɪˈseɪniəs/ was the ruler of a small realm on the western slopes ofMount Hermon, mentioned by the Jewish historianJosephus and in coins from c. 40 BC. There is also mention of a Lysanias inLuke's Gospel.
Lysanias was the ruler of a tetrarchy, centered on the town ofAbila. This has been referred to by various names includingAbilene,Chalcis andIturea, from about 40-36 BC. Josephus is our main source for his life.
The father of Lysanias wasPtolemy, son of Mennaeus, who ruled the tetrarchy before him. Ptolemy was married to Alexandra, one of the sisters ofAntigonus,[1] and he helped his brother-in-law during the latter's successful attempt to claim the throne ofJudea in 40 BC with the military support of theParthians. Ptolemy had previously supported Antigonus's unsuccessful attempt to take the throne of Judea in 42 BC.
Josephus says inThe Jewish War that Lysanias offered the Parthian satrapBarzapharnes a thousand talents and 500 women to bring Antigonus back and raise him to the throne, after deposing Hyrcanus[2] though in his later work, theJewish Antiquities, he says the offer was made by Antigonus.[3] In 33 BC Lysanias was put to death byMark Antony for his Parthian sympathies, at the instigation ofCleopatra, who had eyes on his territories.[4]
Coins from his reign indicate that he was "tetrarch and high priest". The same description can be found on the coins of his father, Ptolemy son of Mennaeus and on those of his sonZenodorus who held the territory in 23–20 BC.[5]
Luke 3:1 mentions a Lysanias (Greek:Λυσανίας) astetrarch of Abilene in the time ofJohn the Baptist.[6]
According toJosephus the emperorClaudius in 42 AD confirmedAgrippa I in the possession ofAbila of Lysanias already bestowed upon him byCaligula, elsewhere described as Abila, which had formed the tetrarchy of Lysanias:[6]
 | This sectionmay beconfusing or unclear to readers. In particular, this section (and the whole article, actually) constantly misses the point. The article is (apparently) about a Lysanias mentioned by Joseph, who died in 33 BC: the inscription discussed in this section is about a tetrarch Lysanias, who lived at the time of Tiberius Augustus (and so possibly the same Lysanias as Luke's) or at the time of Augustus (so a third Lysanias, since Octavian became Augustus in 27 BC). In either case he cannot possibly be Joseph's Lysanias! The article is more concerned about disproving or proving Luke, than establishing facts about Joseph's Lysanias. Please helpclarify the section. There might be a discussion about this onthe talk page.(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Two inscriptions have been ascribed to Lysanias.[8] The name is conjectural in the latter case.[citation needed]
The first, a temple inscription found at Abila, named Lysanias as the Tetrarch of the locality.[9]
The temple inscription reads:
| Inscription | Translation | |
|---|---|---|
| Huper tes ton kurion Se[baston] | For the salvation of the Au[gust] lords | |
| soterias kai tou sum[pantos] | and of [all] their household, | |
| auton oikou, Numphaios Ae[tou] | Nymphaeus, free[dman] of Ea[gle] | |
| Lusianiou tetrarchou apele[utheors] | Lysanias tetrarch established | |
| ten odon ktisas k.t.l | this street and other things. |
It has been thought that the reference to August lords as a joint title was given only to the emperorTiberius (adopted son ofAugustus) and his motherLivia (widow of Augustus).[10] If this analysis is correct, this reference would establish the date of the inscription to between 14 AD (when Tiberius began to reign) and 29 AD (when Livia died), and thus could not be reasonably interpreted as referring to the ruler executed by Mark Antony in 36 BC. However, Livia received suitable honors while Augustus was still alive, such as "Benefactor Goddess" (Θεα Εύεργέτις) at a temple at Thassos,[11] so there would be no clear reason that "August Lords" could not be Augustus and Livia.
The reference to Lysanias in Luke 3:1, dated to the fifteenth year of Tiberius, has caused some debate over whether this Lysanias is the same person son of Ptolemy, or some different person.
Some say that the Lysanias whose tetrarchy was given to Agrippa cannot be the Lysanias executed by Antony, since his paternal inheritance, even allowing for some curtailment byPompey, must have been of far greater extent.[6] Therefore, the Lysanias in Luke (28–29) is a younger Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene only, one of the districts into which the original kingdom was split up after the death of Lysanias I. This younger Lysanias may have been a son of the latter, and identical with, or the father of, the Claudian Lysanias.[6]
But Josephus does not refer to a second Lysanias. It is therefore suggested by others[6] that he really does refer to the original Lysanias, even though the latter died decades earlier. InThe Jewish War Josephus refers to the realm as being "called the kingdom of Lysanias",[12] while Ptolemy writing c. 120 in his Geography Bk 5 refers to Abila as "called of Lysanias"[13]
The explanation given by M. Krenkel (Josephus und Lucas, Leipzig, 1894, p. 97)[6] is that Josephus does not mean to imply that Abila was the only possession of Lysanias, and that he calls it the tetrarchy or kingdom of Lysanias because it was the last remnant of the domain of Lysanias which remained under directRoman administration until the time of Agrippa.[6]