THE LAKE OF TIBERIAS, LOOKING TOWARDS IIERMON. 
The ancient City of Tiberias, built by Herod Antipas, and named in honour of 
his patron, the Emperor Tiberius, has long since perished. With the mixture of 
violence and policy which characterised the Oriental governments, Herod compelled 
a population from the surrounding provinces to fill his City; adorned it with structures, 
of which the very fragments are stately; gave it peculiar privileges ; and building 
a palace which was one of the wonders of the land, declared Tiberias the capital 
of Galilee. 1 The ruins in the Sketch are those of the modern City prostrated 
by the earthquake. 
The view commands various sites, memorable from their connexion with Scripture. 
On the West coast lies El-Medgel, the site of Magdala, the City of Mary Magdalene; 
Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida, once lay on the same coast; and in the vicinity, 
more to the South, was the City of Tarichsea. On the East coast was the scene 
of the great miracle, the feeding of the four thousand; and in the horizon is the 
majestic Hermon, 10,000 feet above the Mediterranean. 
The Rabbins held that the former City stood on the site of Rakkath, while 
Jerome records a tradition that it was once Chinnereth; 2 but, leaving those laborious 
triflings to their natural obscurity, it is evident that the original Tiberias occupied 
a site farther to the north. There the ground is still strewed with fragments of 
noble architecture,—baths, temples, and perhaps theatres; giving full proof of a Capital 
raised with the lavish grandeur of a Herodian City. In the great, final war, which 
extinguished Judah as a nation, and commenced the longest calamity of the most 
illustrious and unhappy race of mankind, Tiberias escaped the general destruction. 
Submitting to the authority of Vespasian, without waiting to be subdued by his 
arms, the City retained its population, and, probably, its privileges. In the national 
havoc, it even acquired the additional wealth and honours of a City of Refuge. 
It had a coinage of its own, exhibiting the effigies of several of the Emperors, 
down to Antoninus Pius. It appears to have peculiarly attracted Imperial notice, 
for Hadrian, though pressed with the cares of the Roman world, commenced the 
rebuilding of a temple, or palace, which had been burnt in an insurrection. 2 
But the history of this beautiful City has a still higher claim on human recollection, 
as the last I’etreat of Jewish literature. On the fall of Jerusalem, and the final 
expulsion of the Jews from the central province, the chief surviving portion of the 
state, the rank, the wealth, and the learning, were suffered to take shelter within the 
walls of Tiberias. In the second century, a Sanhedrim was formed there, and the 
broken people made their last attempt to form a semblance of established government.' 1 ' 
The two great Hebraists, Buxtorf and Liglitfoot, have given the history of the 
School of Tiberias, more interesting than the details of massacre, or the description of 
ruins. The protection of the City drew the principal scholars from the cells and 
mountains where they had concealed themselves from the habitual severities of Rome. 
1 John, vi. 23 ; xxi. 1. Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 2, 3. Bell. Jud. ii. 9, 4. 
1 Josh. xix. 35. Hieron. Comm, in Ezech. xlviii, 21. 3 Epiphan. ad Iherct. i. 12. 
4 Lightfoot, Ap. ii. 141. Buxtorf, Tiberias, 10, &c. 
