The city of Golan is several times referred to by Jo- sephus (rav\dvii,War, i, 4, 4, and 8); he, however, more frequently speaks of the province which took its name from it, Gmilanitis (TavXcnnTic). When the kingdom of Israel was overthrown bj' the Assyrians, and tlic dominion of the Jews in Bashan ceased, it ap- pears that the aboriginal tribes, before kept in subjec- tion, l)ut never annihilated, rose again to some power, and rent the country into provinces. Two of these provinces at least were of ancient origin [see Tkacho- ?{iTis and Hauran], and had been distinct principal- ities previous to the time when Og or his predecessors united them under one sceptre. Before the Babylo- nish captivity Bashan appears in Jewish history as one kingdom ; but subsequent to that period it is spo- ken of as divided into four provinces— Gaulanitis, Tra- chonitis, Auranitis, and Batanrea (Josephus, Ant. iv, 5, 3, and 7, 4; i, 6, 4 ; xvi, 9, 1; Wur,\, 20, 4; iii, 3, 1; iv, 1, 1). It seems that when the city of Golan i-ose to power it became the head of a large province, the extent of which is pretty accurately given by Jose- phus, especially when his statements are compared with the modern divisions of Bashan. It lay east of Galilee and north of Gadaritis (Gadara, Josephus, War, iii, 3, 1). Gamala, an important town on the
eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee, now called El-Husn, and the province attached to it, were incluaed in Gau- lanitis (]Var, iv, 1, 1). But the boundarj^ of the prov- inces of Gadara and Gamala must evidently have been the river Hieromax, which maj"- therefore be regarded as the south border of Gaulanitis. The Jordan, from the Sea of Galilee to its fountains at Dan and Caesarea- Pliilippi. formed the western boundary {War, iii, 3, 5). It is important to observe that the boundaries of the modern province of Jaulan (the Arabic form of the Hebrew "'"ir', from which is derived the Greek Vav- XuinruS) correspond so far with those of Gaulanitis ; we may therefore safelj' assume that their northern and eastern boundaries are also identical. Jaulan is bounded on the north liy Jedur (the ancient Itursea"), and on the west by the Hauran [q. v.]. The principal cities of Gaulanitis were Golan, Hippos, Gamala, Ju- lias or Bethsaida (Mark viii, 22), Seleucia, and Sogane (Josephus, War, iii, 3, 1, and 5 ; iv, 1, 1).
The greater part of Gaulanitis is a flat and fertile table-land, well watered, and clothed with luxuriant grass. It is probably to this region the name Mishor ("lti'°'^) is given in 1 Kings xx, 23, 25 — "the plain" in which the Sj^rians were overthrown hj the Israel- ites, near Aphek, which perhaps stood upon the site of the modern Fik (Stanley, App. § 6; Porter, Handbook for Syr. and J'al. p. 425). The western side of Gau- lanitis, along the sea of Galilee, is steep, rugged, and bare. It is upwards of 2500 feet in height, and when seen from the city of Tiberias resembles a mountain range, though in reality it is only the supporting wall of the plateau. It was this remarkable feature which led the ancient geographers to suppose that the moun- tain range of Gilead was joined to Lebanon (Reland, p. 342). Further north, along the bank of the Upper Jordan, the plateau breaks down in a series of terraces, which, tliough somewhat rocky, are covered with rich soil, and clothed in spring with the most luxuriant herbage, spangled with multitudes of bright and beau- tiful flowers. A range of low, round-topped, pictu- resque hills extends southward for nearly twent3' miles from the base of Hernion along the western edge of the plateau. These are in places covered with no- ble forests of prickly oak and terebinth. Gaulanitis was once densely populated, but it is now almost com- pletely deserted. Among the towns and villages which it once contained are still left the names of 127 places, all of which, with the exception of about eleven, are now uninhabited. Onl}' a few patches of its soil arc cultivated; and the very best of its pasture is lost — the tender grass of earlj' spring. The flocks of the Turkmans and el-Fudhl Arabs — the only tribes that remain permanently in this region — are not able to consume it; and the 'Anazeh, those "children of the East" who spread over the land like locusts, and " whose camels are without number" (Judg. vii, 12), only arrive about the beginning of May. At that sea- son the whole country is covered with them — their black tents pitched in circles near the fountains, their cattle thicklj' dotting the vast plain, and tlieir fierce cavaliers roaming far and wide, "their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them."
For fuller accounts of the scener}-, antiquities, and history of Gaulanitis, see Porter's Handbook for Syria and Palest, p. 295, 424, 461, 531 ; Five Fears in Damas- cus, ii, 250 ; Journal of Sac. Lit. vi, 292 ; Burckhardt's Trav. in Syria, p. 277 ; AVilson, Lands of Bible, ii, 319 ; Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 12 sq. ; Schwarz, Palest. p. 220.— Smith, s. v. ; Kitto, s. v. See Bashan.
Gold (Gr. xpii(7(/f or xyjikti'o;', the last being prob. a diminutive of the former and more general term, and therefore expressing gold in a small piece or quantitj', especially as wrought, e. g. a golden ornament, 1 Pet. iii, 3 ; Rev. xvii, 4 ; [xviii, 10 ;] or gold coin, Acts iii, 6; XX, 33; 1 Pet. i, 18; but also used of the metal generally, Heb. i.x, 4; 1 Pet. i, 7; Kev. iii, 18; xxi,