Raphanea, Base of the Roman Legion III Gallica

Raphanea (Rafaniya in Arabic) is the site of a Roman town west of Hama, between the present-day villages of Barin and Nisaf. The Roman Legio III Gallica kept a fortified base here, and in 218 the bid of the 14-year-old Elagabalus for the imperial throne began from it. The site has never been systematically excavated. What there is to see today is not a standing town but the buried trace of a settlement that went on through a Byzantine bishopric and a crusader siege.

Where it is

The town lies a few kilometres south of the crusader castle of Montferrand at Barin. In Roman times it belonged to the province of Syria Secunda; Hierocles and George of Cyprus both list it among that province’s towns.

A legion town

Legio III Gallica was based at Raphanea; some sources place Legio XII Fulminata here as well. In 218 the imperial bid of the 14-year-old Elagabalus started from this base. Under Elagabalus the town struck its own coins, and many of them survive.

The Jewish historian Josephus describes the Sabbatical River, which flowed only once every seven days, seen by Titus between Arqa and Raphanea as he went north after destroying Jerusalem in 70. It may be today’s intermittent al-Fawwar spring.

Bishops and crusaders

Raphanea was a bishopric under Apamea. Its known bishops come from council records: Bassianus was at Nicaea in 325, Gerontius at Philippopolis in 344, Basil at Constantinople in 381 and Lampadius at Chalcedon in 451. Zoilus is recorded around 518 and Nonnus in 536. The see still appears in the church lists of Antioch up to the 10th century.

The crusader army passed through at the end of 1099. Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, took the town and gave it to the Count of Tripoli. In 1126 the combined forces of Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch besieged and took it; the castle built to tighten that siege is Montferrand, which still stands at Barin.

What there is to see today

The sources give no clear answer. No systematic excavation has taken place, only surface surveys by Syrian and German teams. In 2009 the Syrian Ministry of Culture announced that the site was four times larger than recorded, reaching about 3 hectares. Access, the road and what remains on the ground have to be asked about locally; a day spent at Barin castle is the best frame for looking over the ground of Raphanea.

What most people miss

Barin castle and al-Fawwar spring. Montferrand was built to besiege Raphanea, and al-Fawwar is tied to the oldest story that carries the town’s name, as the Sabbatical River of Josephus. Both have their own pages on this site.