Berea

BEREA. - Ancient name of three cities.

1) B. of MACEDONIA (Lat. Beroea). An important city at the foot of Mount Bermius (present-day Verria), 68 km. northwest of Thessalonica. From 146 subject to Rome, it was made the capital of the third district of Macedonia. At the rise of Christianity there was an important Jewish colony there, where St. Paul, a fugitive from Thessalonica, preached with success (Acts 17, 10-14). One of the Apostle's companions, Sopater, was from B. (Acts 20, 4).

2) B. of PALESTINE, probably to be identified with el-Bireh, north of Jerusalem, is called Bě'ěrah, Vulg. Bera (Judg. 9, 21; cf. I Chron. 7, 37) and Bě'ěrath, Vulg. Beroth "wells" (Josh. 9, 17). There Bacchides and Alcimus, generals of Demetrius Soter, encamped shortly before the battle in which Judas Maccabeus met his death (I Macc. 9, 4; Vulg. Berea).

3) B. of SYRIA. The Greek name Běpòtz was given by Seleucus Nicator (311-280) to the very ancient city of Aleppo (Halab) in northern Syria. Aleppo (v.), together with nearby Carchemish, on the Euphrates, was deeply influenced by Assyro-Hittite civilizations. The impious and ambitious Menelaus was had killed there (163 B.C.) by Antiochus V Eupator (II Macc. 13, 4 [Greek text]; Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XII, 9, 7).

Vincenzo Cavalla