GADARA. — I. A Greco-Roman city east of the Jordan, identified with the hill of Umm Keis, 12 km southeast of the Sea of Tiberias on the left bank of the river Jarmuk, the ancient Hieronimus.
After a ten-month siege it was taken by Alexander Jannaeus (Flavius Josephus, Bell. Jud., I, 4, 2) and freed by Pompey; it then became part of the Decapolis. In the year 30 Augustus gave it to Herod; after his death it regained its independence. During the Jewish revolt it was protected by a Roman detachment (loc. cit., III, 7, 1); in the time of Hadrian there was a garrison of the Tenth Legion Fretensis. The year 64-63 B.C. marks on the coins of Gadara the first year of the Pompeian era.
The notice of Flavius Josephus (loc. cit., 3, 1) that the territory of G. extended as far as Tiberias may explain the reading of Mt. 8, 28 “country of the Gadarenes.” The city was in ancient times wealthy, populous, and stamped with Greek culture, as shown by the monumental remains of walls, streets, cisterns, and tombs. To the south, in the lower valley of the Jarmuk, are the Gadara baths, renowned in Roman times as today; in 1932 the remains of a synagogue with mosaics were discovered there.
2. Metropolis of Perea (Flavius Josephus, loc. cit., IV, 4, 14), mentioned in the campaign of Alexander Jannaeus in Transjordania and for the Gadarenes revolt quelled in 68 by Vespasian, today Tell Gādūr, 5 km south of es-Salt. It was a bishopric, and its bishops signed the acts of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and the Synod of Jerusalem (536).