Around 2,000 years ago, the ancient Romans built a two-lane highway crossing the southern part of the Golan Heights, stretching from the Sea of Galilee in today's Israel to the city of Nawa in Syria. Where the 39-kilometer (24-mile) road crosses streambeds that flood in the rainy season, it is elevated on an embankment. This was just one of the many roads the Romans built in this neck of their empire.
The question is why they built this one. The answer seems to be for their own selfish purposes as opposed to serving the local economy, according to an analysis of its date of construction, postulated purpose and relationship with the settlements along its route. The findings were published in the biannual journal of Tel Aviv: The Journal of the Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology by Adam Pažout of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa and Aarhus University, Denmark, with Michael Eisenberg and Mechael Osband of the Zinman Institute.
The history behind the road starts with Alexander the Great rolling over our region in 332 B.C.E.
pursuant to the Macedonian campaign to conquer Persia. Following his death 10 years later, the lands were split among his heirs and Judea fell under Ptolemaic rule. Come 200 B.
C.E., Judea was conquered by the Seleucid Empire.
This period was characterized by Hellenization and power struggles over Jerusalem and the Temple, leading to the Maccabean Revolt in 167 B.C.E.
That led to the establishment of the Hasmonean regim.
