ABILA, (I) generally called Abila of Pausanias to distin guish it from (2) below. It was the capital of the tetrarchy of Abilene in ancient Syria and an important town on the road be tween Damascus and Baalbek (Heliopolis). Ruins and inscrip tions at modern village of Suq Wadi Barada mark its site which, though the names have no connection, is one of the traditional burial places of Abel. Early Arab geographers called it Abil Al Suq. According to Josephus, Abilene was a separate Iturean kingdom till A.D. 37, when Caligula granted it to Agrippa I. ; in 52 Claudius granted it to Agrippa II. (See also LYSANIAS.) (2) A city of Perea (modern North Trans-Jordan) represented by ruins of Abil Al Zait.