A small district of Syria on the eastern slope of Anti-Libanus. It was so called from the town of Abila, on the northern declivity of Mt.Hermon, about eighteen miles northwest of Damascus. The district was given as a tetrarchy to Lysanias by the emperor Tiberius about 26 B.C. (see Luke, 3:1), and was bestowed upon Herod Agrippa by Claudius about 41 (Josephus, "Ant." 19:51). Abila, called "Abila of Lysanias," to distinguish it from other places of the same name, was thought to be the burial-place of Abel, owing to the similarity of the names.