3. Present condition. — The modern town is called by the Arabs Tdbariyeh. Traces still re- main of the ancient city along the Lake, especially to the south of the present town. Heaps of stones, columns of grey granite, foundations of buildings, and of a thick wall which extended almost to the famous baths, all confirm the supposition that the ancient city extended at one time farther south. The present town is defended on the land side by a wall furnished with towers. There are the ruins of a once imposing castle at the N.W. corner. But castle, walls, and houses were seriously damaged by the earthquakes of 30th Oct. 1759 and of 1st Jan. 1837. Among the famous tombs of Tiberias are those of Maimonides, and Rabbis 'Al^iba and Jochanan. To-day Tiberias has a population of approximately 4000 souls, of whom about two-thirds are Jews and the other third Mohammedans and Christians of different sects. The Protestants have a well-equipped hospital, and are doing a good religious work under the United Free Church of Scotland. The Jews occupy a squalid quarter in the middle of the town, adjacent to the Lake. The city as a whole is ' a
picture of disgusting filth and frightful wretched- ness.' Of late, however, the place is improving somewhat, having become the seat of a Turkish kaimakan, or governor.
Tiberias is hot and fever-haunted. The breezes from the Mediterranean are prevented from strik- ing the city by the hills which bound the plain on the west. The winters are mild, snow being very rarely known. The Lake furnishes the only supply of water. The view from the city embraces the whole extent of the Sea of Galilee except the S.W. extremity. Schiirer speaks of Tiberias as ' the most beautiful spot in Galilee,' which, how- ever, is an exaggeration. At present it is one of the four sacred cities of the Jews in Palestine, the others being Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed. The study of the Talmud still flourishes in Tiberias.
Literature. — Robinson, BRP'm. 254 ff.; Baedeker-Socin, Pal. 286 ff. ; Gu6rin, Galilee, i. 250 ff. ; Neubauer, Giog. du Talm. 208 ff.; Merrill, art. 'Tiberias' in Hastings' DB ; Buhl, GAP 226 f.; Reland, Pal. ii. 1036; G. A. Smith, HGHL 447 ff.; Bnrckha.Tdt, Travels, 320 ff. ; Murray, Syria-Pal. 251; Schiirer, HJP II. i. 143 ff. ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. 116 ff. ; Ritter, Geog. of Pal. ii. 256 ff. ; art. ' Tiberias ' in EBi iv.
George L. Robinson.
TIBERIUS.— In Lk 3"- it is stated that a word of God came upon John the Baptist, in the 15th year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar. It is by no means certain what year is indicated by this date. The sole rule of Tiberius began in A.D. 14 ; the 15th year of this sole rule would be A.D. 28. But it is more probable that we ought to count from the time at which Tiberius received power equal with that of Augustus over the provinces of the Empire, that is, from the end of A.D. 11 ; this brings us to A.D. 25-26 (Ramsay, Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? p. 199 ff.).
Tiberius Claudius Nero, named after his adop- tion Tiberius Julius Caesar, on the monuments bears the name Tiberius Caesar Augustus. He was the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero (a Roman noble) and Livia (whom Augustus took to wife while her husband was still alive), and was born in B.C. 42. Constitutionally, the principate died with each Emperor, and the Emperor could not appoint a successor. Augustus got over this diffi- culty by appointing a partner or co-regent in the Empire : it was practically impossible to pass over such in electing to the principate. The Imperial powers were gradually conferred on this consort. M. Vipsanius Agrippa first held this position (died B.C. 12). Marcellus (who died B.C. 23) and Gaius and Lucius Caesar were marked out as successors. In their youth they were entrusted to the care of Tiberius, who was forced to divorce his wife and marry Augustus' daughter Julia (B.C. 11). By this time Tiberius had i^roved himself an able soldier, and in B.C. 9 was raised to the position which Agrippa had occupied. Augustus had a dislike to Tiberius, and did not desire his succession. This obvious desire to use Tiberius selfishly, for his own ends, embittered the life of the latter, and in B.C. 6 he retired to Rhodes, and remained there eight years in .solitude, while his young stepsons received ad- vancement in the State. But they died — Lucius in A.D. 2, and Gaius in A.D. 4. In this latter year Tiberius was adopted by Augustus, and was at the same time compelled to adopt his own nephew Germanicus. In A.D. 11 he was raised practically to a position of equality with Augustus. On the death of the latter, in A.D. 14, his sole reign began. He was a thoroughly competent Emperor ; but a naturally reserved temperament, influenced by early disappointments and outraged feelings, re- sulted in weakness and cruelty. His fear of con- spiracy made him encourage informers, and many supposed rivals were put to death. In the second half of his reign he was much under the influence of one Sejanus, an accomplished schemer, whose
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TIME
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duplicity and crime he realized only after much evil had been wrought by him. By tliis time he had retired to spend the closing years of his life in the island of Capri, where he died on 16th March A.D. 37. His principate thus covers all the period of the Gospel history.