Decapolis

For other uses, seeDecapolis (disambiguation).

Decapolis Δεκάπολις
63 BC–AD 106
The ten cities of Decapolis marked in black
Common languages	Koine Greek,Aramaic,Arabic,Latin,Hebrew
Religion	Hellenistic religion,Imperial Cult
Government	Client state
History
•Pompey's conquest of Syria	63 BC
•Trajan's annexation ofArabia Petrea	AD 106
Preceded by Succeeded by Coele-Syria Hasmonean kingdom Arabia Petraea Syria Palaestina
Today part of	Israel Jordan Syria

TheDecapolis(Greek:Δεκάπολις,Dekápolis,'Ten Cities') was a group of tenHellenisticcities on the eastern frontier of theRoman Empirein theSouthern Levantin the first centuries BC and AD. Most of the cities were located to the east of theJordan Rift Valley,betweenJudaea,Iturea,Nabataea,andSyria.

The Decapolis was a center ofHellenisticandRoman culturein a region which was otherwise populated byJews,NabataeansandArameans.The cities formed a group because of theirlanguage,culture,religion,location, and political status, with each functioning as an autonomouscity-statedependent on Rome. They are sometimes described as a league of cities, although some scholarsbelieve that they were never formally organized as a political unit.

In the time of the EmperorTrajan,the cities were incorporated into the provinces ofSyriaandArabia Petraea;several cities were later placed inSyria PalaestinaandPalaestina Secunda.The Decapolis region is located in modern-dayJordan(Philadelphia, Gerasa, Pella and Gadara),Israel(Scythopolis and Hippos) andSyria(Raphana, Dion, Canatha and Damascus).

Cities

The names of the traditional ten cities of the Decapolis come fromPliny'sNatural History.They are:

City	Comments	Location
Philadelphia	Capital of modern Jordan	Amman,Jordan
Gerasa		Jerash,Jordan
Gadara		Umm Qais,Jordan
Pella	West ofIrbid	Tabaqat Fahl,Jordan
Dion (Tell Ashari)	Sometimes also identified withAydoun	Tell Ashari, Syria
Raphana	Usually identified also with Raepta and Arpha	Ar-Rafi'ah, Syria
Scythopolis	Only city west of theJordan River	Beit She'an,Israel
Hippos	Mentioned by Pliny as Dio Hippos, usually this entity is divided into Dion and Hippos. The Aramaic name of Hippos wasSussita	Sussita,Israel
Canatha	A city rich on water, at the north-western slope of theJebel Hauran(Mons Al-Sadamus,Jebel al-Druz)	Qanawat,Syria
Damascus	Capital of modern Syria	Damascus, Syria
Pliny also mentions in his enumeration very important regions around and between the cities
Trachonitis	theLajat/Leja, including the surroundings fromAz (al) Sanamayn(west) until theArd of Batanea(Batanaea Plain) in the east of it.	el-Mushmije, Ezra, Khalkhale, Syria
Paneas	The region aroundBanias/Caesarea Phillipi	Banias, Syria
Abilene	The small realm ofLysanias,seeAbila Lysaniae	Souq Wadi Barada,Syria
Arca	The western part around the See of Galilee withTarichaea(Greek:Ταριχαία or Ταριχέα) andPhiloteriaat its southern end.	Sinnabra,Yardenit,Israel
Ampelloessa	Usually identified withAbilaalso known as "Abila Viniferos", 12 miles east of Gadara (seeOnomasticon) and Capitolias	Abila, Beit Ras, Ard el-Karm, Jordan
Gabe	Region of Gabe, later also known asJabiyah	Muzeirib / Nawa, Syria

Damascus was further north than the others and so is sometimes thought to have been an "honorary" member.Josephusstated that Scythopolis was the largest of the ten towns.Biblical commentatorEdward Plumptresuggested that this is the reason why Damascus was not included in Josephus' list.According to other sources, there may have been as many as eighteen or nineteen Greco-Roman cities counted as part of the Decapolis.

History

Hellenistic period

Roman theatre and cardo of Scythopolis (Beit She'an,Israel)

Except for Scythopolis, Damascus and Canatha, the Decapolis cities were by and large founded during theHellenistic period,between the death ofAlexander the Greatin 323 BC and the Roman conquest ofCoele-Syria,includingJudeain 63 BC. Some were established under thePtolemaic dynastywhich ruled Judea until 198 BC. Others were founded later, when theSeleucid Empireruled the region. Some of the cities included "Antiochia" or "Seleucia" in their official names (Antiochia Hippos,for example), which attest to Seleucid origins. The cities were Greek from their founding, modeling themselves on the Greekpolis.

In 63 BC, the Roman generalPompeyconquered the eastern Mediterranean. The people of the Hellenized cities, who were under the rule of the JewishHasmonean Kingdom,welcomed Pompey as a liberator. When Pompey reorganized the region, he awarded a group of these cities with autonomy under Roman protection; this was the origin of the Decapolis. For centuries the cities based theircalendar eraon this conquest: 63 BC was the epochal year of thePompeian era,used to count the years throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods.

Autonomy under Rome

Under Roman rule, the cities of the Decapolis were not included in the territory of theHerodian kingdom,its successor states of theHerodian tetrarchy,or theRoman province of Judea.Instead, the cities were allowed considerable political autonomy under Roman protection. Each city functioned as a polis orcity-state,with jurisdiction over an area of the surrounding countryside. Each minted its own coins. Many coins from Decapolis cities identify their city as "autonomous," "free," "sovereign," or "sacred," terms that imply some sort of self-governing status.

The ovalforumandcardoof Gerasa (Jerash,Jordan)

The Romans left their cultural stamp on all of the cities. Each one was eventually rebuilt with a Roman-style grid of streets based around a centralcardoand/ordecumanus.The Romans sponsored and built numerous temples and other public buildings. Theimperial cult,the worship of the Roman emperor, was a very common practice throughout the Decapolis and was one of the features that linked the different cities. A small open-air temple or façade, called akalybe,was unique to the region.

The Decapolis at the time of Plinus t.E. and before 106 A.D

The cities may also have enjoyed strong commercial ties, fostered by a network of newRoman roads.This has led to their common identification today as a "federation" or "league". The Decapolis was probably never an official political or economic union; most likely it signified the collection of city-states which enjoyed special autonomy during early Roman rule.

TheNew Testamentgospels ofMatthew,Mark,andLukemention that the Decapolis region was a location of the ministry ofJesus.According toMatthew 4:23–25the Decapolis was one of the areas from which Jesus drew his multitude ofdisciples,attracted by His "healing all kinds of sickness". The Decapolis was one of the few regions where Jesus travelled in whichGentileswere in the majority: most of Jesus' ministry focused on teaching to Jews.Mark 5:1-10emphasizes the Decapolis' gentile character when Jesus encounters a herd ofpigs,an animal forbidden byKashrut,the Jewish dietary laws. Ademon-possessed manhealed by Jesus in this passage asked to be included among the disciples who traveled with Jesus; but Jesus did not permit him, as he wanted him to tell his friends what the Lord had done and instructed him to remain in the Decapolis region.

Direct Roman rule

The provinces of the East in the year 400

The Decapolis came under direct Roman rule in AD 106, whenArabia Petraeawas annexed during the reign of the emperorTrajan.The cities were divided between the new province and the provinces ofSyriaandJudea.In the later Roman Empire, they were divided betweenArabiaandPalaestina Secunda,of which Scythopolis served as the provincial capital; while Damascus became part ofPhoenice Libanensis.The cities continued to be distinct from their neighbors within their provinces, distinguished for example by their use of thePompeian calendar eraand their continuing Hellenistic identities. However, the Decapolis was no longer a unit of administration.

The Roman andByzantineDecapolis region was influenced and gradually taken over byChristianity.Some cities were more receptive than others to the new religion. Pella was a base for some of the earliest church leaders (Eusebiusreports that theapostlesfled there to escape theFirst Jewish–Roman War). In other cities, paganism persisted long into the Byzantine era. Eventually, however, the region became almost entirely Christian, and most of the cities served as seats ofbishops.

Most of the cities continued into the late Roman and Byzantine periods. Some were abandoned in the years following Palestine's conquest by theRashidun Caliphatein 641, but other cities continued to be inhabited long into the Islamic period.

Evolution and excavation

Jerash (Gerasa) and Bet She'an (Scythopolis) survive as towns today, after periods of abandonment or serious decline. Damascus has never lost its prominent role throughout later history. Philadelphia was long abandoned, but was revived in the 19th century and has become the capital city of Jordan under the name Amman. Twentieth-century archaeology has identified most of the other cities on Pliny's list, and most have undergone or are undergoing considerable excavation.

Culture

The Decapolis was a region where two cultures interacted: the culture of the Greek colonists and the indigenousJewishand Aramean cultures. There was some conflict. The Greek inhabitants were shocked by theJewish practice of circumcision,which was regarded as a cruel and barbaricgenital mutilation.Various elements of Jewish dissent towards the dominant andassimilative nature of Hellenic civilizationarose gradually in the face of assimilation. At the same time,cultural blending and borrowingalso occurred in the Decapolis region. The cities acted as centers for the diffusion of Hellenistic culture. Some local deities began to be called by the nameZeus,from the chief Greek god. Meanwhile, in some cities Greeks began worshipping these local "Zeus" deities alongside their own Zeus Olympios. There is evidence that the colonists adopted the worship of otherSemitic gods,includingPhoeniciandeities and the chief Nabatean god,Dushara(worshipped under his Hellenized name,Dusares). The worship of these Semitic gods is attested to in coins and inscriptions from the cities.

See also

• Heptapolis(meaning seven cities)
• Doric hexapolis(six)
• Pentapolis(five)
• Tetrapolis(four)
• Tripolis(three)

External links

• The Decapolis on BibArchArchived5 February 2005 at theWayback Machine
• The Decapolis on the Catholic Encyclopedia
• The Decapolis an short overview
• Scholarly reviewof a 2003 book,Kulte und Kultur der Dekapolis (Cults and Culture of the Decapolis).The review contains information on the religious syncretism in the Hellenistic and Roman Decapolis. Contains some passages in German.
• "New Inscriptions in Roman city in Israel shed personal light on early Christians", Ha'aretz, Nov. 22, 2022