Antipatris was a city built by Herod the Great, and named in honor of his father, Antipater II of Judea. It lay between Caesarea Maritima and Lydda, on the great Roman road from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and figures prominently in Roman-era history. Today, the nearby river bears the town’s old namesake in the Arabic tongue.
According to Josephus, Antipatris was built on the site of an older town that was formerly called Chabarzaba, a place so-named in classical Jewish literature and in the Mosaic of Rehob. During the outbreak of the Jewish war with Rome in 64 CE, the Roman army under Cestius was routed as far as Antipatris.
