ARBELA ("Αρβηλα
[τὰ]) of GALILEA. - A locality
in northern BACCIA (v.), who captured there many
Jews who had taken refuge there, at the begin-
ning of the campaign in which
Giuda Maccabeo perished (I Mach. 9, 2). According to
the information of Flavio Giuseppe (Antiq. Iud., XII, 11,
1), it corresponds to the present-day Hirbet Irbid, where
the remains of the synagogue of A. are found, on a plateau
overlooking the Wādi el-Hamām, west of Tiberiade. The
fertility of the “plain of 'Arbēl” was renowned (Pēšiqtā dē-R.
Kahānā, 1148), a fertile countryside between Haṭṭīn and Irbid.
Opposite are the steep caves of Qal'at
Ibn Ma'an, which seem to be identifiable with Masaloth
(cbr. mēšilāth “steps”) mentioned together with A.
(I Mach. 9, 2). Erode had difficulty in subduing the brigands
entrenched there (Flavio Giuseppe, Bell. Iud., I,
6, 2).
Parigi 1880, p. 198 sg.; A. Legendre, s.V. in DB, I, coll. 884-86;
H. Kohl and C. Watzinger, Antike Synagoges in Galilée, Lipsia
1916, pp. 59-70; F.-M. Abel, Géogr. de la Palestine, I, Parigi 1933,
pp. 410, 439 and tav. VI; II 1938, pp. 160, 176. Antonino Romeo
(phot. Alinari)
TAPESTRY — St. Paul Preaching in Athens, tapestry of Leo X for the Sistine Chapel, after a cartoon by Raffaello.