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DECAPOLIS

(Gk. Dekápolis)

A group of cities (Gk. “Ten Cities”) in southern Syria and northern Jordan (except Scythopolis, located S of the Sea of Galilee just W of the Jordan River), functioning under that name in the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. Ancient literary sources identify as many as 18 or 19 cities in the group, including Damascus, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis, Gadara, Hippos, Dion (Dium), Pella, Galasa (Gerasa) and Canatha, with Abila and several others listed as tetrarchies or kingdoms (Pliny Nat. hist. 5.74). Also included are Heliopolis, Abila (Quailibah), Saana (Sanamyn), Ina, Abila of Lysanias, Capitolias (Beit Ras), Adra (Edrei, Derʿa), Gadora, and Samoulis (Ptolemy Geog. 5.14.22). In the NT the Decapolis is identified, but no individual cities are named (Matt. 4:25; Mark 5:20; 7:31).

A number of the cities continued into the Byzantine period and Islamic times (e.g., Damascus, Abila/Quailibah, Pella, Philadelphia, Scythopolis). Some claimed Alexander the Great as founder (Gerasa, Pella, Philadelphia, Dion), but evidence indicates that, as Decapolis cities, they were established in the 3rd century b.c., during the early Ptolemaic dynasty (Philadelphia/Amman, NysaScythopolis). Still others were established as Decapolis cities during the Seleucid hegemony after the battle of Panias in 198, when Antiochus III conquered Abila (Quailibah), Gadara, Pella, Rabbatamana (Philadelphia) and Scythopolis. Identifying terms on coins, such as Antiochia (Gadara, Gerasa, Hippos) and Seleucia (Abila/Quailibah), indicate at least a remembrance of Seleucid identity and influence.

Coins of a number of the Decapolis cities often are stamped with the terms autonomos (“independent, living under one’s own law”; Abila/Quailibah, Capitolias, Gadara), eleutheros (“free”; NysaScythopolis), asylos (“sovereign, under divine protection”; Abila, Capitolias, Gadara, Hippos, Nysa-Scythopolis), and hieros (“hallowed, sacred, set apart”; Abila, Capitolias, Gadara, Hippos, Nysa-Scythopolis), which indicates that these cities enjoyed or at least claimed some sort of sovereign, independent, and dedicated status.

The Decapolis cities may have been bonded by strong commercial relationships fostered by well- established road systems, as well as similar Greek and Roman political affinity (the polis), social concepts, cultural (sculpture, painting, architecture, monuments) and religious influences (worship of the imperial cult; cf. religious figurines and other religious items found in Hellenistic and Roman tombs). This is supported by archaeological evidence from tombs, city planning, and public buildings. In Roman times (after a.d. 106) Gerasa, Philadelphia, Canatha, and Dion were organized with Nysa-Scythopolis, Hippos, Gadara, Abila, Capitolias, and Pella into Palaestina Secunda; Philadelphia, Adraʿa, Gerasa, Canatha, and Philoppopolis remained in the Provincia Arabia. Coins and inscriptions indicate that by the 2nd century a number of the cities were also identified with the name Coele-Syria: Philadelphia, under Hadrian; Gadara, Abila, Scythopolis, under Marcus Aurelius; Dion and Pella, under Caracalla.

Bibliography. M. Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land (Grand Rapids, 1966), 51, 69; A. N. Barghouti, “Urbanization of Palestine and Jordan in the Hellenistic and Roman Times,” in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, I, ed. A. Hadidi (Amman, 1982), 209-29; A. H. M. Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (Oxford, 1937), 222-94; A. Spijkerman, The Coins of the Decapolis and Provincia Arabia, ed. M. Piccirillo (Jerusalem, 1978).

W. Harold Mare

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DECAPOLIS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)