Bâniyâs. — History. The modern Bâniyâs was anciently the Greek Paneas, which, according to Josephus, appears also to have been the name of a district. A grotto above the source of the Jordan was a sanctuary of Pan (Paneion). When Herod the Great received from Augustus the territory of Zenodorus and the tetrarchy to the N. and N.E. of the Lake of Tiberias, including Paneas, he erected a temple over the spring in honour of Augustus.