Livias (titular see)

Livias is a Catholic titular see. It was in Palestina Prima, suffragan of the archdiocese of Cæsarea. To-day Livias is known as Teller-Rameh, a hill rising in the plain beyond Jordan, about twelve miles from Jericho. Archaeological evidence from Shuneh al-Janubiyyah has shown the existence of a church in the diocese, dating from the sixth-eighth centuries [ [http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/fai/FAIsanct07.html THE CHRISTIAN SANCTUARIES IN TRANSJORDAN 07 ] ] .

History

Livias is twice mentioned in the Bible [Numbers 32:36; Joshua 13:27] under the name of Betharan. About 80 B.C. Alexander Jannaeus captured it from the King of the Arabs [Josephus, "Ant. Jud.", XIV, i, 4.] ; it was then called Betharamphtha. Somewhat later Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, fortified it with strong walls and called it Livias after the wife of Augustus; Josephus calls it Julias also, because he always speaks of the wife of Augustus as Julia ["Ant.", XVIII, ii, 1; "Bel. Jud.", II, ix,l.] . Nero gave it with its fourteen villages to Agrippa the Younger [Josephus, "Ant. Jud.", XX, viii, 4.] , and the Roman general Placidus captured it several years later [Josephus, "Bel. Jud.", IV, vii, 6.] .

From the time of Eusebius and St. Jerome the natives always called it Bethramtha. Lequien ["Oriens Christianus", III, 655.] mentions three bishops:

*Letoius, who was at Ephesus in 431;
*Pancratius, at Chalcedon in 451;
*Zacharias, at Jerusalem in 536.

References

*Reland, "Palæstina", I (Utrecht, 1714), 496;
*Heidet in Fulcran Vigouroux, "Dictionnaire de la Bible", s. v. Bétharan

Notes

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09315a.htm Source]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d2l77.html "Catholic Hierarchy" page]