ANTIPATRIS

(An·tipʹa·tris) [belonging to Antipater].

A city rebuilt by Herod the Great in 9 B.C.E. and named after his father Antipater. It is identified with Ras el-ʽAin in a well-watered and fertile section of the Plain of Sharon. It was here that the main body of the Roman army escort conducted Paul, traveling some forty miles (64 kilometers) down the mountains from Jerusalem by night. (Acts 23:31) The place lay at the junction of the Roman military roads leading from Jerusalem and Lydda respectively to the Roman capital of Caesarea. From Antipatris the seventy cavalrymen took Paul the remaining distance of some twenty-five miles (40 kilometers) across the plain to Caesarea.

Antipatris is believed to be the location of the earlier city of Aphek, mentioned at 1 Samuel 4:1. Excavations conducted there in 1946 appear to confirm this.—See APHEK No. 3.