Roman-era boundary stone hints at a political tiff described in the Jerusalem Talmud
Unearthed in Upper Galilee, 3rd century CE artifact might prove rumored tensions between Emperor Diocletian and local population; also mentions two hitherto unknown Golan villages

A Roman-era boundary stone recently discovered in the Upper Galilee offers proof of the existence of two previously unknown villages in Nothern Israel in the late 3rd century CE, according to a paper published in the academic journal Palestine Exploration Quarterly last week.
The artifact has also provided new insights into the relationship between the local population and Emperor Diocletian, possibly confirming some challenges described in the Jerusalem Talmud, Dr. Avner Ecker from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who co-authored the paper with Hebrew University colleague Prof. Uzi Leibner, told The Times of Israel.
“Boundary stones marked the boundaries between different villages and the lands they owned,” Ecker said. “This specific stone dates back to the period of the so-called Tetrarchy, under the reign of Diocletian.”
The stone, a meter-long basalt slab, was later reused to cover a medieval Mamluk grave at the site of Abel Beth Maacah in the northern Hula Valley. The archaeologists excavating the site, including Prof. Naama Yahalom Mack and Dr. Nava Panitz-Coheb from the Hebrew University and Prof. Robert Mullins from Azusa Pacific University, discovered it in 2022.
Diocletian ruled over the Roman empire for 20 years, from 284 to 305 CE, and is known for his sweeping political, fiscal, and administrative reforms.
Aware that the empire had become too large for one man to run, in 293 he instituted a tetrarchic system that divided the territory between two senior emperors (augusti), assisted by their designated successors (caesares).

The Greek inscription on the stone mentions the four sovereigns.
“Diocletian and Maximian Augusti, and Constantius and Maximian, Caesars, have ordered this stone to be set up, marking boundaries of fields of Tirthas (and) Golgol/m; Baseileikos, vir perfectissimus (supervised),” reads the text as translated in the paper.
“To implement the fiscal reform, Roman officials had to survey properties,” Ecker said. “As a result of this process, new boundary stones were set up. We know of about 40 such stones in the region of modern Northern Israel, southern Lebanon, and Western Syria.”
The location names of Tirthas and Golgol do not appear in other known written or archaeological sources.
However, a late 19th-century report published by the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund mentioned a location known as Turritha, about 3.5 kilometers from Abel Beth Maacah, across the border in today’s Lebanon. According to the researcher, the resemblance between the two names, Tirthas and Turritha, strongly suggests that they were indeed the same place.
In addition, Ecker noted that a small round hill about a kilometer from Abel Beth Maacah could be identified as Golgol because of its present name’s similarity to the Greek place name.
“Today the hill is known as Giv’at’ Egel, or ‘hill of the calf,’ but in the past, it was called Tell’ Ajul, whose root GL, which means round, is similar to Golgol,” he said.

Ecker emphasized that while it is true that the stone was not retrieved in its original location, it is safe to assume that it came from a nearby area.
“It is a heavy stone; it was not moved for long distances,” Ecker noted.
The use of Greek instead of Latin is also a sign of the profound changes the Roman Empire was undergoing.
“Before this period, official documents and inscriptions on behalf of the emperor were always in Latin, even though people in this area prevalently spoke Greek,” Ecker said. “However, all Tetrarchic boundary stones we know of are written in Greek.”

The discovery of 40 boundary stones in the region also carries an intriguing enigma: no comparable stones have been found elsewhere.
“Since Diocletian’s fiscal reform covered the whole Roman empire, we would expect to find similar Tetrarchic boundary stones all over its domains, but to this day, archaeologists have only discovered them here,” said Ecker. “This could be a coincidence, meaning that the stones existed but did not survive or have not been found yet, but we propose another explanation for this phenomenon.”
Ecker and Leibner considered a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud where Diocletian is featured in several anecdotes.
“Diocletian oppressed the inhabitants of Paneas,” reads a quote in the Tractate of Sheviit (9:12).
Located in the Golan Heights, Paneas, or Banias, was the major center of the region at the end of the 3rd century. While prevalently pagan, the city also had a significant Jewish population.

“About 20 tetrarchic stones have been found in the area of Banias,” said Ecker. “We hypothesize that these stones were used when a city in a larger territory did not directly manage and collect taxes on behalf of the empire, or in other words, in the situation of a fragmented territory owned by small landowners that had to pay taxes independently.”
“In light of the concentration of these boundary stones around Banias, we propose that this was the case in the area,” he added.

According to Ecker, the quote in the Jerusalem Talmud refers to the fiscal pressure on the city.
“Maybe, during Diocletian’s fiscal reform, someone came to check Banias and found out that things were not in order because of all these small landowners and villages,” he said. “In modern terms, we could say that Roman officials audited the city and set up the stones very meticulously, hence the feeling of oppression.”
Nothing is known also about Baseileikos, the Roman official who set up the stone on behalf of the emperors.
Other stones found in the area carry a different name, Aelius Statutus.
“It could be that they worked together and divided the area between themselves or that one worked under the supervision of the second,” said Ecker. “Some of the other tetrarchic boundary stones feature the names of two officials, so we know it is possible.”