At about 80 BC, Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus captured a city later called by his son "Libias" from the Nabataeans; it was then called Betharamphtha (Hebrew: בית רמתה). According Josephus, in the 1st century AD, Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, fortified the city of "Betharamphtha" with strong walls and called it Julias after the wife of Augustus, whose birth name was Livia Drusilla, but who became known as Julia Augusta after adoption. Nero gave it with its fourteen villages to Agrippa II. In the First Jewish-Roman War the Roman general Placidus captured it in 68, and the town was used to resettle deserters who had joined the Roman ranks.Josephus (1895). War, 4.7.6 (4.437). After the revolt was quelled, the area was returned to Agrippa. He died without heir, and his territories were annexed to Judaea province. In later reorganizations of Roman provinces, it was included in Syria Palaestina (135), Palaestina (286) and Palaestina Prima (425), never gaining a colonia status.
