Abilene

A small district of Syria on the eastern slope of Anti-Libanus. It was so called from the town of Abila, on the northern declivity of Mt.Hermon, about eighteen miles northwest of Damascus. The district was given as a tetrarchy to Lysanias by the emperor Tiberius about 26 B.C. (see Luke, iii. 1), and was bestowed upon Herod Agrippa by Claudius about 41 (Josephus, "Ant." xix. 51). Abila, called "Abila of Lysanias," to distinguish it from other places of the same name, was thought to be the burial-place of Abel, owing to the similarity of the names.

J. F. McC.