Category:Sebaste (subject)

Sebaste / Samaria was the capital of the region of Samaria.

Overview

Samaria, the ancient capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel destroyed by the Assyrians, reemerged in importance in the Persian period under the dynasty of the Sanballats. The tensions between Samaritans and Jews resulted into a religious schism at the time of Nehemiah.

Samaria rebelled to Alexander the Great and was destroyed in 332 BCE; thousands of Macedonian soldiers were settled there.

In 108 BCE John Hyrcanus besieged and destroyed the city that was resettled under Alexander Jannaeus.

After the Roman conquest by Pompey in 63 BCE, Samaria was annexed to the Roman province of Syria. In 30 BCE the emperor Augustus awarded the city to Herod the Great, who renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus (Gr. Sebastos = Augustus). Herod the Great had his sons from Mariamne, Aristobulus IV and Alexandros, brought to Sebaste, and strangled there in 7 BCE.

Sebaste was granted the status of Roman colony by Septimius Severus in the second century CE.

In Christian and Muslim traditions Sebaste was associated with the burial place of John the Baptist.

Sebaste in ancient sources

Sebaste in scholarship

Sebaste in fiction

External links

• Wikipedia