'The rough country' — the Lajat, a broken plateau of black basalt south of Damascus, full of clefts and caves. Josephus describes it as a haunt of robbers, and says Augustus gave it to Herod the Great to put them down; at Herod's death it passed to his son Philip. ⚠ Named once in the New Testament, in the date of Luke 3:1, where Philip is tetrarch 'of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis'.