BETHARAMPHTHA(Βηθαράμαφθον), a city of Peraea, which Herod Antipas encompassed with a wall, and changed its name to JULIAS in honour of the wife of the emperor Tiberius. ( Ant. 18.2.1.) It is certainly identical with that mentioned by Eusebius and St. Jerome as situated on the Jordan, originally named Betharamphta, and afterwards called Livias by Herod ( Onomast. s. v. ), and certainly notthe same as the Julias which is placed by Josephus where the Jordan flows into the Sea of Tiberias ( B. J. 3.9.7), which was identical with Bethsaida. [BETHSAIDA] But the names Julias and Livias are frequently interchanged, as are Julia and Livia. A still earlier name of this town, according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, was Beth-haram, a city of the tribe of Gad ( Josh. 13.27), doubtless the same with Beth-haran (Num.32.36), which the Talmud also says was afterwards called Bethrasmtha. (Reland, p. 642; comp. pp. 869, 870, s. v. Julias Peraeae.) It is most probably only another form of the preceding Betharamathum, i. e. the modern Amata, near the Jabbok. [AMATHUS]
[G.W]