MACHARONTES. - A mountain fortress east of the Dead Sea, built by Alexander Jannaeus (Fl. Josephus, Bell. Iud., VII, 6, 2) and razed to the ground by the Romans in 57 B.C. (id., Antiq. Iud., XIV, 5, 4). It was later rebuilt by Herod the Great between 25 and 15 B.C. on a grander plan, so that it served as both fortress and villa. For this reason Herod linked it, by means of a road of about 20 km, to the baths of Callirrhoe below. M. was one of the high places where fires were lit to proclaim the new moon. The castle received a fierce blow in the siege by Lucilius Bassus in 57 A.D. What made M. famous is the beheading of St. John the Baptist (v.), which took place there by order of Herod Antipas, master of the fortress, at the prompting of Herodias (Mt. 14, 1-12; Mk. 6, 17-29; Lk. 9, 7-9). The place is clearly mentioned by Fl. Josephus (Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 5, 2).

Since the body of the Baptist, according to tradition, was transferred by the disciples to Sebaste, rarely was M. a destination of pilgrimage. The annual liturgical pilgrimage recalled by Fr. Bonifacio da Ragusa, custodian of the Holy Land in the 16th century (Liber de perenni cultu Terrae Sanctae, Venice 1875), was able to be maintained there only for a short time. The insecurity of the route also played a part in this, and even today it is impassable for motor vehicles.

At M., besides the fortress, there was also the city. At present one sees the ruins of the fortress on an isolated hill called Mesnekeh and those of the city, situated below, called el-Mukawer, a remnant of the ancient name, where two churches and ornamental crosses have been noted.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: A. Smith, Callirhoe and Machaerus, in Palestine, expl. fund. quart. stat., 1905, p. 226, with a rudimentary plan. F.-M. Abel, Une croisière autour de la Mer Morte, Paris 1911, pp. 30-38; G. Ricciotti, Il cantiere di Hiram, Turin 1939, pp. 99-113; N. Glueck, Explorations in eastern Palestine, III, in Annual of American Schools of oriental research, 18-19 (1939), pp. 131-35, 140; S. J. Saller-B. Bagatti, The town of Nebo, Jerusalem 1949, p. 229.

Bellarmino Bagatti

@incollection{ec7_macheronte, author = {Bagatti, Bellarmino}, title = {Macheronte}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1769--1770}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/macheronte} }

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Macharontes

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