DECAPOLIS. – A name which in the Gospels (Mt. 4:25; Mc. 5:20; 7:31), in Fl. Giuseppe (Vita, 65, 341), Pliny (Hist. nat., 5, 18, 74), Ptolemy (V, 14, 18), and a Palmyrene inscription (Corpus inscr. Graec., 4501) originally designated the aggregate of the territories of 10 Hellenistic cities; Pompey liberated them in 64 B.C. from the local indigenous authorities (some had been incorporated by Alessandro Ianneo into the Judaean 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 64–61 B.C. Neither the number nor the name, however, always remained constant, since, as a result of political changes, some cities left the confederation while others entered II. Pliny (Hist. nat., 5, 18, 74; 19, 77) also notes this variation, but acknowledges, in accordance with the opinion of the majority, that these ten cities belonged to the Decapolitana regio: Damasco, which nevertheless retained the Seleucid era; Hippos (Qal'at el-Hoşn); Gadara (Mukes); these latter two cities, east of the Lake of Tiberias, were given by Augusto to Erode, but after his death they regained their autonomy; Refana (er-Räfeh); Canatha (Qanawât), near er-Räfeh, on the western border of Mount Hawrân; Scitopoli (Bejân), called by Giuseppe Flavio (Bell. Ind., 9, 9, 7) the most important city of the D.; Pella (Tabagât Fahil), the northern boundary of Perca; Dion (Kefr Dahîm) in the 'Ağlûn; Gerasa (Gerâa); and Filadelfia ('Ammân).
Ptolemy (Geogr., 5, 14, 18), under the heading “cities of Celesyria and 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 unidentified Samulis.
The territory of this confederation was homogeneous and extended from Damasco to Arabia along the caravan route at the edge of the desert; through Scitopoli, west of the Jordan, it communicated with the cities of the Mediterranean coast.
At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was followed by crowds from the D. (Mt. 4:25); he later crossed its territory on his journey from Sidone to the Lake of Cenesareh (Mc. 7:31), and there healed a demoniac who became a missionary of the D. (Mc. 5:21).
In the 2nd century, with the incorporation of Gerasa and Filadelfia into the Roman province of Arabia, the D. survived only as a memory in ecclesiastical writers.