Decapolis Δεκάπολις | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63 BC–AD 106 | |||||||||||||
 The ten cities of Decapolis marked in black italics | |||||||||||||
| Status | Puppet state ofRoman Empire | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Koine Greek,Aramaic,Arabic,Latin,Hebrew | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Hellenistic religion,Imperial Cult | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Pompey's conquest of Syria | 63 BC | ||||||||||||
• Trajan's annexation ofArabia Petrea | AD 106 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Israel Jordan Syria | ||||||||||||
TheDecapolis (Greek:Δεκάπολις,Dekápolis,'Ten Cities') was a group of ten GreekHellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Greek and lateRoman Empire in theSouthern Levant in the first centuries BC and AD. Most of the cities were located to the east of theJordan Rift Valley, betweenJudaea,Iturea,Nabataea, andSyria.[1]
The Decapolis was a center ofHellenistic culture in a region which was otherwise populated byJews, ArabNabataeans andArameans.[2] The cities formed a group because of theirlanguage,culture,religion, location, and political status, with each functioning as an autonomouscity-state dependent on Rome. They are sometimes described as a league of cities, although some scholars[who?] believe that they were never formally organized as a political unit.
In the time of the EmperorTrajan, the cities were incorporated into the provinces ofSyria andArabia Petraea; several cities were later placed inSyria Palaestina andPalaestina Secunda. The Decapolis region is located in modern-dayJordan (Philadelphia, Gerasa, Pella and Gadara),Israel (Scythopolis and Hippos) andSyria (Raphana, Dion, Canatha and Damascus).
The names of the traditional ten cities of the Decapolis come fromPliny'sNatural History.[3] 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[4] | 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,Northern District |
| 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[5] | Damascus, Syria |
| Pliny also mentions in his enumeration 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) andPhiloteria at its southern end. | Sinnabra,Yardenit,Israel |
| Ampelloessa | Usually identified withAbila also 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.Josephus states that Scythopolis was the largest of the ten towns.[6] Biblical commentatorEdward Plumptre suggests that this is the reason why Damascus was not included in Josephus' list.[7] According to other sources, there may have been as many as 18 or 19 Greco-Roman cities counted as part of the Decapolis.
Except for Scythopolis, Damascus and Canatha, the Decapolis cities were by and large founded during theHellenistic period, between the death ofAlexander the Great in 323 BC and the Roman conquest ofCoele-Syria, includingJudea in 63 BC. Some were established under thePtolemaic dynasty which ruled Judea until 198 BC. Others were founded later, when theSeleucid Empire ruled 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 generalPompey conquered the eastern Mediterranean. The people of the Hellenized cities, who were under the rule of the JewishHasmonean Kingdom,[8] 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 era on this conquest: 63 BC was the epochal year of thePompeian era, used to count the years throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods.
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.[9]
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 centralcardo and/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 cities. A small open-air temple or façade, called akalybe, was unique to the region.[10]
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.[11][12]
TheNew Testament gospels ofMatthew,Mark, andLuke mention that the Decapolis region was a location of theministry of Jesus. According toMatthew 4:23–25 the 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 whichGentiles were in the majority: most of Jesus' ministry focused on teaching to Jews.Mark 5:1-20 emphasizes the Decapolis' gentile character when Jesus encounters a herd of pigs, an animal forbidden byKashrut, the Jewish dietary laws. Ademon-possessed man healed by Jesus in this passage asks to be included among the disciples who traveled with Jesus; but Jesus does not permit him, as he wanted him to tell his friends what the Lord had done and instructs him to remain in the Decapolis region.[13]
The Decapolis came under direct Roman rule in AD 106, whenArabia Petraea was annexed during the reign of the emperorTrajan. The cities were divided between the new province and the provinces ofSyria andJudea.[9] In the later Roman Empire, they were divided betweenArabia andPalaestina 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 era and their continuing Hellenistic identities. However, the Decapolis was no longer a unit of administration.
The Roman andByzantine Decapolis 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 (Eusebius reports that theapostles fled 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 Caliphate in 641, but other cities continued to be inhabited long into the Islamic period.
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 nameAmman. Twentieth-century archaeology has identified most of the other cities on Pliny's list, and most have undergone or are undergoing considerable excavation.[14][15][16][17][18]
The Decapolis was a region where two cultures interacted: the culture of the Greek colonists and the indigenousJewish and 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.[19] Various elements of Jewish dissent towards the dominant andassimilative nature of Hellenic civilization arose gradually in the face of assimilation. At the same time,cultural blending and borrowing also 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, includingPhoenician deities and the chief Nabatean god,Dushara (worshipped under his Hellenized name,Dusares). The worship of these Semitic gods is attested in coins and inscriptions from the cities.
The Decapolis was a peculiar agglomeration of Hellenized cities placed between Jewish Palestine, Nabatean Arabia and the Hauran.
| Jordan |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Syria | ||
| Israel | ||
32°43′00″N35°48′00″E / 32.7167°N 35.8000°E /32.7167; 35.8000
