286 
CLARKES TRAVELS. 
had a similar origin. 1 * Tiberias, according to some authcn’Sjf 
was built by Tiberius the Roman emperor, who called it af¬ 
ter his own name. But Josephus relates, that Herod the 
Tetrarch erected it in lionour of Tiberius, with whom he was 
in great favour^. For this purpose, it is said, he selected the ! 
most suitable place in all Galilee, upon the border of the Lake 
of Geonesareth. The ample document afforded by Josephus 
is sufficient to prove that Herod’s city was precisely on the 
spot occupied by the town as it now stands ; for in the ac¬ 
count given by him of its situation, he describes the hot baths 
©f Emmausas being out the city, and not far from it.§ Very- 
considerable privileges were given to those who chose to set¬ 
tle there : the ground whereon the city was built being full of 
sepulchres, and thereby considered as polluted by dead bo- 
4ies.ll Hence we may infer the existence of a former city 
upon the same territory. Tiberias makes a conspicuous figure 
in the Jewish annals it was the scene of some of the most 
memorable events recorded by Josephus. In refuting the 
writings of Justus, an historian often quoted by Stephanas 
'Byzantinus, he speaks of Sepphoris and Tiberias as the two 
most illustrious cities of Galilee.ff During a visit paid to it 
by Agrippa, the successor of Herod, the kings of Comagene, 
of Emessa, of the Lesser Armenia, of Pontus, and of CbaF 
cis, here met to do him honour, and were magnificently enter- 
tained.it After the downfall of Jerusalem, it continued, until 
the fifth century,§§ the residence of Jewish patriarchs, rabbins, 
and learned men. A university was founded here. The of¬ 
fice of patriarch w 7 as hereditary; and appeared with some 
lustre under the Emperor Adrian, in the person of Simon the 
Third*|j| In the begining of the fifth century,'*** the patriarch¬ 
ate was suppressed, after having subsisted three hundred and 
^‘Witness the temple of Jupiter in Mount Ida, mentioned by Homer and b,y 
iESchylus; the temple of iEsculapius in Epidauria ; &c. &c. 
f "Os xTi'cms 7r6\»v jv rn ’Iatfai'a bukhscriv aumv *ls to t'Siov ovo/ia Ti|3fpia5a, “ Is 
urbem in Jud&a candidit, et de nomine suo ajjpeilavit Tiberiada. v Joel in Chronofrra- 
pdiia, p. 162. Eadem hsc leguntur apud Michaelem Glyeam in Anna], part 3. p. 233 2 
Vid. Reland. Palmt. Illust. tom. II.-p. 1037. 
t Antiquit. lib; xviii. c. 3. et De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 8. 
$ Ibid, || Ibid. 
** Vide Misnam Sehabbath, III. 4. etXXIl. 5. &c.” Reland. Palaest. Illust tom. 
II. lib. iii. p. 1039. Josephus Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 3. lib. xix. c. 7. In vit. &e. &c. 
ft Josephus in Vita Sua. 
tt Antiq. lib. xix. c. 7. 
Reland says, usque ad saeculum quartum ” Egmont and Heyman mention the 
and Pococke. the eleventh century. I have, preferred the aera assigned by Eg- 
inont and Heyman, (vol. II. p. 31.) because they mention the precise year, and give 
their authority. 
ini Egmont and Heyman, Tol* It p. 31, 
