Dibon, a titular see in Palaestina Tertia. Dibon (Sept., Daibon, Debon, or Debon) is mentioned in Num., xxxiii, 45, as a station of the Hebrews on their way to the Promised Land. It was soon after occupied and rebuilt by the tribe of Gad (Num., xxxii, 34). It belonged later to the Rubenites (Jos., xiii, 17). At the time of the Prophets it was in the power of the Moabites. The ruins of the town stand at Dibon, one and a half miles west of ‘Ara’ir (Aroer), ten miles southeast of M’kaour (Machoerous), in the vilayet of Damascus. The masses of black basalt present a mournful aspect, strangely contrasting with that of the fertile tableland of Moab and the vicinity of the Arnon (Wadi Modjib). There are an acropolis, cis-terns, sepulchral grottoes, and a few Roman and Christian fragments. It was here also that Clermont Ganneau found the famous stele of Mesa, King of Moab, now at the Louvre. Mesa calls himself “the Dibonite”. Dibon, as far as is known, never was a Greek see, but in the course of time became a Latin titular see.
S. PETRIDES