**TRACHONITIS** (Gr. † Τραχωνίτης χώρας). — A territory east of the Jordan, which together with Ituraea formed the tetrarchy of Philip (v.), son of Herod the Great (*Lk. 3:1*).
It was situated south of Damascus (Strabo, XVI, 2, 20), and its center was the region covered with lava flows, today el-Legà. According to Flavius Josephus (*Antiquitates Judaicae*, XVI, 9, 1), the Trachonitis extended westward as far as Ulatha and Paneas and southward to the borders of Batanea and the Gebel Hawrán (ibid., XV, 10, 3; XVII, 2, 1).
Its history begins with the appearance of the Greek name Τραχώνι (*rough place*); it was held by the Nabataeans when Pompey the Great in 65 B.C. with his legions annihilated every Jewish and Arab power in the Hawrán in favor of the Greek cities. In 15 B.C. it was in the power of a certain Zenodorus, who, to increase his revenues, practiced brigandage there (Flavius Josephus, *op. cit.*, XV, 10, 1–2). At the request of the inhabitants, Varro, governor of Syria, dispossessed Zenodorus and gave it to Herod the Great, who restored peace and security there. At his death it passed into the possession of his son Philip, and in A.D. 34 it was included in the province of Syria until A.D. 37, when Caligula gave it to Herod Agrippa II. It then became part of the Roman province of Arabia.