Декаполис: Союз греческих городов на Востоке Римской империи

Group of ten Hellenistic cities in the Levant

The Decapolis (Greek: Δεκάπολις) was a group of ten Greek Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in the Southern Levant in the first centuries BC and AD. They formed a group because of their language, culture, religion, location, and political status, with each functioning as an autonomous city state dependent on Rome. They are sometimes described as a league of cities, although some scholars believe that they were never formally organized as a political unit. The Decapolis was a center of Greek and Roman culture in a region which was otherwise populated by Jews, Nabataeans and Arameans. In the time of the Emperor Trajan, the cities were incorporated into the provinces of Syria and Arabia Petraea; several cities were later placed in Syria Palaestina and Palaestina Secunda. The Decapolis region is located in modern day Jordan (Philadelphia, Gerasa, Pella and Gadara), Israel (Scythopolis and Hippos) and Syria (Raphana, Dion, Canatha and Damascus).

The names of the traditional ten cities of the Decapolis come from Pliny's Natural History. They are:
CityCommentsLocationPhiladelphiaCapital of modern Jordan Amman, JordanGerasa Jerash, JordanGadara Umm Qais, JordanPellaWest of Irbid Tabaqat Fahl, JordanDion (Tell Ashari)Sometimes also identified with Aydoun Tell Ashari, SyriaRaphanaUsually identified also with Raepta and Arpha Ar Rafi'ah, SyriaScythopolisOnly city west of the Jordan River Beit She'an, IsraelHipposMentioned by Pliny as Dio Hippos, usually this entity is divided into Dion and Hippos. The Aramaic name of Hippos was Sussita Sussita, IsraelCanathaA city rich on water, at the north western slope of the Jebel Hauran (Mons Al Sadamus, Jebel al Druz) Qanawat, SyriaDamascusCapital of modern Syria Damascus, SyriaPliny also mentions in his enumeration very important regions around and between the citiesTrachonitisthe Lajat/Leja, including the surroundings from Az (al) Sanamayn (west) until the Ard of Batanea (Batanaea Plain) in the east of it. el Mushmije, Ezra, Khalkhale, SyriaPaneasThe region around Banias/Caesarea Phillipi Banias, SyriaAbileneThe small realm of Lysanias, see Abila Lysaniae Souq Wadi Barada, SyriaArcaThe western part around the See of Galilee with Tarichaea (Greek: Ταριχαία or Ταριχέα) and Philoteria at its southern end. Sinnabra, Yardenit, IsraelAmpelloessaUsually identified with Abila also known as "Abila Viniferos", 12 miles east of Gadara (see Onomasticon) and Capitolias Abila, Beit Ras, Ard el Karm, JordanGabeRegion of Gabe, later also known as Jabiyah Muzeirib / Nawa, Syria
Damascus was further north than the others and so is sometimes thought to have been an "honorary" member. Josephus stated that Scythopolis was the largest of the ten towns. Biblical commentator Edward Plumptre suggested 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.

Except for Scythopolis, Damascus and Canatha, the Decapolis cities were by and large founded during the Hellenistic period, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the Roman conquest of Coele Syria, including Judea in 63 BC. Some were established under the Ptolemaic dynasty which ruled Judea until 198 BC. Others were founded later, when the Seleucid 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 Greek polis. In 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey conquered the eastern Mediterranean. The people of the Hellenized cities, who were under the rule of the Jewish Hasmonean 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 their calendar era on this conquest: 63 BC was the epochal year of the Pompeian 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 the Herodian kingdom, its successor states of the Herodian tetrarchy, or the Roman province of Judea. Instead, the cities were allowed considerable political autonomy under Roman protection. Each city functioned as a polis or city 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 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 central cardo and/or decumanus. The Romans sponsored and built numerous temples and other public buildings. The imperial 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 a kalybe, was unique to the region. The cities may also have enjoyed strong commercial ties, fostered by a network of new Roman 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. The New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke mention that the Decapolis region was a location of the ministry of Jesus. According to Matthew 4:23 25 (NKJV) the Decapolis was one of the areas from which Jesus drew his multitude of disciples, attracted by His "healing all kinds of sickness". The Decapolis was one of the few regions where Jesus travelled in which Gentiles were in the majority: most of Jesus' ministry focused on teaching to Jews. Mark 5:1 10 emphasizes the Decapolis' gentile character when Jesus encounters a herd of pigs, an animal forbidden by Kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws. A demon possessed man healed 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.

The Decapolis came under direct Roman rule in AD 106, when Arabia Petraea was annexed during the reign of the emperor Trajan. The cities were divided between the new province and the provinces of Syria and Judea.

The Decapolis was a region where two cultures interacted: the culture of the Greek colonists and the indigenous Jewish and Aramean cultures. There was some conflict. The Greek inhabitants were shocked by the Jewish practice of circumcision, which was regarded as a cruel and barbaric genital mutilation. Various elements of Jewish dissent towards the dominant and assimilative 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 name Zeus, 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 other Semitic gods, including Phoenician deities 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.