Decapolis Δεκάπολις | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
63 BC–AD 106 | |||||||||||||
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 of Arabia Petrea | AD 106 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Today part of | Israel Jordan Syria |
32°43′00″N 35°48′00″E / 32.7167°N 35.8000°E
The Decapolis (Greek: Δεκάπολις, Dekápolis, 'Ten Cities') was a group of ten 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[who?] believe that they were never formally organized as a political unit.
The Decapolis was a center of Hellenistic and Roman culture in a region which was otherwise populated by Jews, Nabataeans and Arameans.[1] 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 Decapolis was a peculiar agglomeration of Hellenized cities placed between Jewish Palestine, Nabatean Arabia and the Hauran.