Abilene

Abilene was a small tetrarchy in the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon range, between Damascus and Baalbek, named for its chief town Abila. Luke names it as the domain of the tetrarch Lysanias when dating the start of John the Baptist's ministry (Luke 3:1). An inscription found near the site of Abila, dated to the reign of Tiberius, names a ruler called Lysanias the tetrarch, which answered a long-standing objection that Luke had confused this figure with an earlier, better known Lysanias of Chalcis who had died decades before; it points instead to a second ruler by that name and title governing the region exactly when Luke says he did.