DECAPOLIS. - A name which in the Gospels (Mt. 4:25; Mk. 5:20; 7:31), in Flavius Josephus (Vita, 65, 341), Pliny (Hist. nat., 5, 18, 74), Ptolemy (V, 14, 18) and in a Palmyrene inscription (Corpus inscr. Graec., 4501) originally designates the aggregate of the territories of 10 Hellenistic cities; Pompey freed them in 64 B.C. from the local native authorities (some had been incorporated by Alexander Jannaeus into the Jewish kingdom) and endowed them with the privileges of urban autonomy with direct dependence on the procurator of Syria.
Most of them adopted the Pompeian era from the years 64-61 B.C. However, neither the number nor the name was always constant, since as a result of political changes some cities left the confederation, while others entered it. Pliny (Hist. nat., 5, 18, 74; 19, 77) also notes this variation, but recognizes, in accordance with the opinion of most, that these ten cities belonged to the Decapolitana regio: Damascus, which however retained the era of the Seleucids; Hippos (Qal'at el-Hoşn); Gadara (Mukes); these last two cities, to the east of the lake of Tiberias, were given by Augustus to Herod, but after his death they regained their autonomy; Refana (er-Räfeh); Canatha (Qanawât), near er-Räfeh, on the western border of Mount Hawrân; Scythopolis (Bejân), called by Josephus (Bell. Ind., 9, 9, 7) the most important of the D.; Pella (Tabagât Fahil), the northern border of Perea; Dion (Kefr Dahîm) in 'Ağlûn; Gerasa (Gerâa) and Philadelphia ('Ammân).
Ptolemy (Geogr., 5, 14, 18), under the title "cities of Coele-Syria and of the D.", lists 18 cities, four of which certainly belonged to the D., namely: Abila ('Abhâl 'aš-Sittîm, Num. 33:40), whose belonging to the D. is attested by a Palmyrene inscription (Corpus inscr. Graec., 4501); Capitolias (Bejt Râs); Adraa (Der'â) and the unknown Samulis.
The territory of this confederation was homogeneous and extended from Damascus to Arabia along the caravan route at the edge of the desert, and through Scythopolis, to the west of the Jordan, it communicated with the cities of the Mediterranean coast.
Jesus at the beginning of his ministry was followed by crowds from the D. (Mt. 4:25); he then crossed its territory in going from Sidon to the lake of Gennesaret (Mk. 7:31) and there healed a demoniac who became a missionary of the D. (Mk. 5:21).
In the 2nd century, with the incorporation of Gerasa and Philadelphia into the Roman province of Arabia, the D. survived only as a memory in ecclesiastical writers.
Bibliography2 works
Donato Baldi