Galilaea, Tiberias. Hadrian.

Galilaea, Tiberias. Hadrian. A.D. 117-138. AE 21 (21.0 mm, 8.22 g, 1 h). Struck A.D. 120. [AYT TPA AΔΡΙΑΝΝω Κ]ΑΙC CЄΒ (or similar, mainly illegible), laureate bust of Hadrian right, aegis on left shoulder / TIBЄR [KΛ]AYΔ[IO], Tyche of Tiberias standing left, foot on galley prow, holding small bust and scepter; across field, L - AP ( = yr. 101 = A.D. 120 ). SNG ANS VI 1114, 1115. Fine, somewhat weakly struck on slightly irregular flan losing a good bit of legend; brown patina, light ochre highlights. 

From the Tom Buggey Collection.

Tiberias was founded sometime around 20 CE in the Herodian Tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea by the Roman client king Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in the Galilee and named it for the Roman EmperorTiberius. The city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around 17 natural mineral hot springs, Hammat Tiberias. Tiberias was at first a strictly pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual and religious status exerting a strong influence on balneologicalpractices. Conversely, in The Antiquities of the Jews, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephuscalls the village with hot springs Emmaus, today's Hammat Tiberias, located near Tiberias. This name also appears in The Wars of the Jews.

In the days of Herod Antipas, some of the most religiously orthodox Jews, who were struggling against the process of Hellenization, which had affected even some priestly groups, refused to settle there: the presence of a cemetery rendered the site ritually unclean for the Jews and particularly for the priestly caste. Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis. The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias; however, the Jewish population continued to call it 'Yam Ha-Kineret', its traditional namThe city was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of 10 until 44 CE when a Roman procurator was set over the city after the death of Herod Agrippa I.

Tiberias is mentioned in John 6:23 as the location from which boats had sailed to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seeking Jesus after the miraculous feeding of the 5000 used these boats to travel back to Capernaum on the north-western part of the lake.

Under the Roman Empire, the city was known by its Greek name Τιβεριάς (Tiberiás, Modern Greek Τιβεριάδα Tiveriáda), an adaptation of the taw-suffixed Semitic form that preserved its feminine grammatical gender. In 61 CE Herod Agrippa II annexed the city to his kingdom whose capital was Caesarea Philippi. During the First Jewish–Roman War, the seditious took control of the city and destroyed Herod's palace, and were able to prevent the city from being pillaged by the army of Agrippa II, the Jewish ruler who had remained loyal to Rome. Eventually, the seditious were expelled from Tiberias, and while most other cities in the provinces of Judaea, Galilee and Idumea were razed, Tiberias was spared this fate because its inhabitants had decided not to fight against Rome. It became a mixed city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE; with Judea subdued, the surviving southern Jewish population migrated to the Galilee.

There is no direct indication that Tiberias, as well as the rest of Galilee, took part in the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136 CE, thus allowing it to exist, despite a heavy economic decline due to the war. Following the expulsion of Jews from Judea after 135 CE, Tiberias and its neighbor Sepphoris (Hebrew name: Tzippori) became the major Jewish cultural centres, competing within the Jewish world for status and recognition with Babylon, Alexandria, Aleppo and the Persian Empire.^{[citation needed]}

In 145 CE, Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, who was very familiar with the Galilee, hiding there for over a decade, "cleansed the city of ritual impurity", allowing the Jewish leadership to resettle there from the Judea Province, where they were fugitives. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, also fled from Jerusalem during the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome, and after several attempted moves, in search of stability, eventually settled in Tiberias in about 150 CE.  It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in the early Byzantine period. When Johanan bar Nappaha (d. 279) settled in Tiberias, the city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land. The Mishnah, the collected theological discussions of generations of rabbis in the Land of Israel – primarily in the academies of Tiberias and Caesarea – was probably compiled in Tiberias by Rabbi Judah haNasi around 200 CE. The Jerusalem Talmud would follow being compiled by Rabbi Jochanan between 230–270 CE. Tiberias' 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population.

Coleção : Ancient Places