ABIL A (Ab'i-la), capital of the Abilene of Lysanias (Luke and distinguished from other places of the same name as the Abila of Lysanias ('ops?) Tar' Avcraviou), and (by Jose phus) as "the Abila of Lebanon." It is unnecessary to reason upon the meaning of this Greek name, for it is ob viously a form of the Hebrew Abel, which was applied to several places, and means a grassy spat. This has been supposed to be the same as Abel-beth-Maacah, but without foundation, for that was a city of Naphtali, which Abila was not.
(1) Tradition. An old tradition fixes this as the place where Abel was slain by Cain, which is in unison with the belief that the region of Damascus was the land of Eden. But the same has been said of other places bearing the name of Abela or Abila, and appears to have originated in the belief (created by the Septuagint and the ver sions which followed it) that the words arc identical ; but. in fact, the name of the son of Adam is in Hebrew Hebel, and therefore differ ent from the repeated local name of Abel. How ever, under the belief that the place and district derived their name from Abel, a monument upon the top of a high hill, near the source of the river Barrada, which rises among the eastern roots of Anti-Libanus, and waters Damascus, has long been pointed out as the tomb of Abel, and its length (thirty yards) has been alleged to cor respond with his stature.
(2) Location. This spot is on the road from Heliopolis (Baalbec) to Damascus, between which towns—thirty-two Roman miles from the former and eighteen from the latter—Abila is indeed placed in the Itinerary of Antoninus.
(3) Inscription. About the same distance northwest of Damascus is Souk Wady Barrada, where an inscription was found by NIr. Banks, which, beyond doubt, identifies that place with the Abila of Lysanius.
t4) Medals. There are several medals of Abila extant, two of which arc of some importance, as they serve to identify the site of the town. On the reverse of one of these is a large bunch of grapes, from which it is to be inferred that the place where it was struck abounded in vineyards. But the most remarkable and decisive medal ex tant is one which bears a half-figure of the river, with the inscription, "Chrysoroas Claudiaion," and on the reverse, a figure of Victory, and the inscription "Leucadion," the Greek name of the city. We may also remark that Abila, adding the name of CLAUDIA to its other appellations, as it appears from this medal it did, affords a pre sumption that it was of some importance, and perhaps of considerable magnitude also.