Decapolis: Ten Ancient Cities Where Greek, Roman, and Jewish Cultures Met

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The Decapolis (“ten cities”) was a radical of cities successful the Middle East wherever ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures intersected, located betwixt what is contiguous Jordan, Syria, and Israel.

The Decapolis laic crossed a fertile and strategical portion stretching from Damascus successful the northbound to Philadelphia (modern-day Amman) successful the south. It was a crossroads of Greek, Roman, and Jewish civilizations, linking the Mediterranean satellite with the Arabian interior, and situated betwixt Judea and Galilee to the westbound and the Nabataean kingdom to the southbound and east.

Several of the cities that would travel to beryllium known arsenic the “ten cities” were founded by Greek settler-soldiers of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms. These kingdoms were parts of the empire of Alexander the Great, divided among his generals—the Diadochi—after his death. The cities were either recently established Greek poleis oregon restructured settlements built upon earlier Semitic towns.

Cities considered portion of the Decapolis see Damascus, Canatha, Dion, Raphana, Gadara, Hippos, Abila, Capitolias, Gerasa, Philadelphia, Pella, and Nysa-Scythopolis, according to Pliny (NH 5.16.74).

The Decapolis is mentioned 3 times successful the New Testament (Mk 5:20; Mk 7:31; Mt 4:25), and connected astatine slightest 2 different occasions, Jesus visited circumstantial locations wrong this league of cities eastbound of the Sea of Galilee.

During the Hellenistic period, the cities were supported by Ptolemaic and Seleucid rulers and granted civic status. Following the Roman conquest of Syria by Pompey successful 64 BC, the cities were incorporated into the caller provincia Syria and had the backing of Rome.

Ancient ruins of Philadelphia, modern time Amman, depictive of past Greek, Roman, Jewish taste intersections

The Diadochi settee successful the region

Alexander’s imagination was to “Hellenize” the full world. The dynasties that followed him were arsenic devoted to Greek ideals arsenic helium was, each integrating section customs and practices into the broader Hellenistic culture.

After the disbanding of Alexander the Great’s service pursuing his burial astatine Sidon, galore of his veterans sought a peaceful beingness aft implicit a decennary of campaigning. With the coastal towns already populated, galore Greek settlers moved inland, wherever they either laid retired caller cities oregon rebuilt and transformed older settlements.

The Seleucids settled successful Persia and Syria, conscionable northbound of Israel, portion the Ptolemies settled to the southbound successful Egypt. Soldiers from these kingdoms founded galore cities passim Israel, and different towns became Hellenized nether their influence, blending Greek, Roman, and Jewish taste elements.

It is not definite if this was erstwhile the Greek word “Decapolis” was coined. Some of the cities counted their civic eras from the clip of Pompey’s conquest. The cities did not signifier a azygous territorial unit, nor were they straight connected with each other.

In 218 BC, according to Polybius, respective of these towns were perfect locations for gathering beardown fortresses. As agelong arsenic the Seleucids ruled successful the northbound and the Ptolemies successful the south, the power of Greek civilization remained paramount successful Syria, arsenic Seleucus and Ptolemy solidified their empires.

The Hellenization of the portion and the intersection of past Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures

The dispersed of Hellenism was extensive. Greek taste institutions were established successful galore cities, including Jerusalem. Theaters were built, and gymnasiums—the Greek acquisition institutions—appeared crossed the region. In the gymnasium, the Greek perfect of grooming some assemblage and caput was enactment into practice. Students studied the doctrine of classical Greece, received diversion training, and competed bare successful diversion events.

The Greek acquisition strategy was highly effective, instilling Greek ideals into full generations of young Jewish people. Busts of Greek gods and heroes were displayed, portion young Jews work Homer, Euripides, and Plato and besides learned to gully and sculpt. Greek mythology offered heroes and relation models that competed with the Jewish biblical ancestors and the Pharisees, who were devoted to keeping God’s radical faithful to the Torah.

Hellenistic cities featured stadiums for diversion contests, temples built to grant section gods, and festivals celebrating past Greek feasts. Amid these caller attractions, the Jewish colonisation struggled to support its beliefs.

The latest architecture and creator designs made the Hellenized cities of the Decapolis look modern and attractive. People from the tiny villages of Galilee indispensable person been awed by marble streets, mosaic floors, moving water, and fountains. Across these cities and neighboring regions, Hellenism shaped overmuch of mundane life, with the Greek language becoming the communal lingua of commerce and administration.

Few did much to bring Hellenistic ideas to the Jewish colonisation than Herod the Great and his sons. However, they maintained definite Jewish laws and customs to pacify their spiritual subjects.

The Maccabees and the Romans

The 2 Greek empires went to warfare implicit ambitious territorial claims successful the caller lands successful 274 BC. The Seleucids, having gained dominance implicit Judea, sought to widen their power implicit Egypt and the Jewish population. Ptolemy I Soter, who had ruled implicit Judea, had allowed the Jewish radical spiritual state successful Jerusalem and different parts of the region.

After the warfare betwixt the 2 dynasties, successful which the Seleucids emerged victorious, Antiochus III took power implicit Judea and overmuch of the Arabian Peninsula. He began forcibly promoting Greek civilization and religion among the caller populace, attempting to region aspects of Jewish individuality that distinguished it from Greek religion and different accepted monotheistic practices.

The Maccabean revolt (167–160 BC) against the Seleucid Empire, supported by the Hasidic Jewish assemblage (“those fiercely devoted to Yahweh and the Torah”), was mostly a absorption to Antiochus III’s efforts to enforce Greek pagan values and practices. However, respective Jewish communities had already been Hellenized, benefiting from Greek culture, including economical integration among the Greek cities.

In 64–63 BC, Roman General Pompey overran Syria, Damascus, Pella, and past moved into Judea and Jerusalem, turning the full portion into a Roman province. The Greek cities, regarded arsenic safeguards of Roman regularisation against imaginable autochthonal uprisings, were granted galore privileges. They retained the close to mint their ain coins, preserved municipal autonomy, and were allowed state of question passim the surrounding territory.

The cities of the Decapolis league

It was instantly aft Pompey’s conquest that the league of the Decapolis was formed with the cities of bluish Judea. Later, Ptolemy enumerated eighteen cities, showing that the word Decapolis referred to a portion alternatively than circumstantial cities. These cities were joined arsenic a league by the Romans to power the commercialized way moving from Arabia to Damascus, portion maintaining the power of Greek civilization and accommodating Jewish communities on the way.

The value of the league was based connected the strategical positions of its main towns. Scythopolis, the superior of the Decapolis, stood astatine the caput of the plain of Esdraelon, westbound of the Jordan River, guarding the earthy portal from the oversea to the large interior plateau of Basan and Galaad.

Originally a Canaanite and Jewish municipality (Beit She’an), it was transformed into a Greek polis, perchance nether Ptolemaic oregon Seleucid rule. The sanction “Scythopolis” whitethorn bespeak that Scythian mercenaries oregon settlers lived there.

Philadelphia (modern Amman) was primitively the Ammonite superior Rabbath-Ammon. It was refounded and renamed Philadelphia by Ptolemy II Philadelphus successful the 3rd period BC, spreading Greek civic models portion coexisting with section Jewish traditions.

Gerasa (modern Jerash) developed nether Hellenistic power with a Greek polis layout, including colonnaded streets, temples, and theaters, and aboriginal flourished nether Roman regularisation arsenic portion of the Decapolis.

Gadara (modern Umm Qais), overlooking the Yarmouk Valley, became a taste halfway during the Hellenistic era, producing notable Greek poets specified arsenic Meleager of Gadara, portion continuing to integrate section traditions and support its Hellenistic character.

Built connected layers of past Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures

The cities of the Decapolis were not primitively Greek, Roman, oregon Jewish. Before the accomplishment of the Greeks and Romans, the Semitic sites that aboriginal became large cities were inhabited by Ammonites, Moabites, Israelites, Arameans, and different peoples. Later, the Greek Diadochi of Alexander the Great built upon these settlements, and yet the Romans developed the cities of the Decapolis adjacent further.

The Decapolis portion became a spot wherever Jewish, Greek, Roman, Syrian, and Arab populations mingled, creating a vibrant, hybrid nine with a unsocial taste individuality successful some the Mediterranean and Middle East.

It was the ideas of Roman urbanism that further shaped the carnal quality of these cities. The Romans built amphitheaters, temples, baths, aqueducts, and colonnaded streets, modernizing the region. The monumental remains disposable contiguous successful Gerasa (Jerash), Gadara (Umm Qais), and Philadelphia (Amman) mostly day to the Roman period, highlighting the layered past of the Decapolis.

Today, the cities of the Decapolis, with the objection of Damascus, are mostly deserted and successful ruins. Yet adjacent successful this state, they basal successful striking opposition to the adjacent Semitic towns. Their lavish temples, theaters, and forums attest to the ingenuity of the Greek, Roman, and section builders who shaped them.

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