DECAPOLIS. — The name given in the Gospels (Mt 4:25; Mk 5:20; 7:31), by Flavius Josephus (Vita, 65, 341), Pliny (Hist. nat., 5, 18, 74), Ptolemy (V, 14, 18), and in a Palmyrene inscription (Corpus inscr. Graec., 4501) to the original league of ten Hellenistic cities; Pompey freed them in 64 BC from local native authorities (some had been incorporated by Alexander Jannaeus into the Jewish kingdom) and granted them the privileges of urban autonomy under the direct jurisdiction of the procurator of Syria.
Most of these cities adopted the Pompeian era from 64–61 BC. However, neither the number nor the names remained constant, for political changes caused some cities to leave the confederation while others joined II. Pliny (Hist. nat., 5, 18, 74; 19, 77) notes this fluctuation but, following the majority opinion, recognizes that these ten cities belonged to the Decapolitan region: Damascus, which however retained the Seleucid era; Hippos (Qalʿat al-Ḥoṣn); Gadara (Mukeis)—the latter two, east of the Sea of Tiberias, were given by Augustus to Herod but recovered their autonomy after his death; Refana (er-Rafeh); Canatha (Qanawat), near er-Rafeh on the western border of Mount Ḥawrān; Scythopolis (Beit Shean), called by Josephus (Bell. Iud., 3, 9, 7) the most important of the Decapolis; Pella (Tabaqat Fahil), northern boundary of the Peraea; Dion (Kefr Dāḥir) in the ʿAjlūn; Gerasa (Jerash) and Philadelphia (ʿAmmān).
Ptolemy (Geogr., 5, 14, 18), under the heading “cities of Celesyria and the Decapolis,” lists eighteen cities, four of which certainly belonged to the Decapolis: Abila (Abil al-Sittim, Num 33:40), whose membership is attested by a Palmyrene inscription (Corpus inscr., 4501); Capitolias (Beit Rās); Adraa (Derʿā); and the unknown Samulis.
The territory of this confederation was a homogeneous region extending from Damascus to Arabia along the caravan route at the edge of the desert, and through Scythopolis, 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 Decapolis (Mt 4:25); He later traversed its territory on His way from Sidon to the Sea of Galilee (Mk 7:31) and there healed a demoniac who became a missionary of the Decapolis (Mk 5:20).
In the 11th century, with the incorporation of Gerasa and Philadelphia into the Roman province of Arabia, the Decapolis survived only as a memory in ecclesiastical writers.