GADARA, an ancient city of Trans-Jordan, a member of the Decapolis, capital of Peraea (so at least Josephus), and political centre of the district of Gadaris. It is now represented by the group of ruins, Umm Kes, which are spread over the summit of a hill 1,193 ft. high and about 6 m. S.E. of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. "There could hardly be found a second point in this part of `Ajlun which combines so perfectly the advantages due to a magnificent soil and a commanding position." Although the Mishna asserts that it was fortified by Joshua, Gadara was probably of Greek origin and it certainly maintained a religious interest in Zeus. It first appears in history as a place which fell to Antiochus the Great after his victory over Scopas at Paneas (Banias). Alexander Jannaeus took it after io months siege (c. B.c.). Pompey restored it (64-63 B.c.) and Augustus gifted it to Herod the Great (3o B.c.). During the Jewish revolt Vespasian took possession of the city, the inhabitants pulling down the walls as an earnest of peace. Josephus knew it as a "place of strength with many rich citizens" and during the time of the Antonines it was adorned with buildings of some magnificence. There exist to-day the remains of three large theatres, a basilica, a temple, a colonnaded street, a reservoir, the city wall, and an aqueduct which brought water from the Hauran. On the eastern side of the site there is a large necropolis with rock-hewn tomb chambers (many with stone doors), which some of the modern inhabitants use as dwellings, together with numerous carved sarcophagi.
About 3 m. to the north beside the river Yarmuk (Hieromax) are the celebrated hot springs and baths of Amatha described by Eusebius and Strabo. "To Gadara the pleasure-loving Romans, after having enjoyed the restorative effects of the hot springs, retired for refreshment, enjoying the cooler heights of the city and solacing their leisure with the plays performed in the thea tres." From its leisured populace it produced many fine littera teurs ; Philodemus, the Epicurean and epigrammatist ; Meleager the anthologist; Menippus the satirist; Theodorus the rhetorican, and others.
The healing of the demoniac in the Gospel narrative has noth ing to do with Gadara, but is rather to be associated with Kersa on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
See C. Warren in Hastings Dictionary of the Bible; G. Schumacher, Northern 'Ajlin (189o) ; G. A. Smith, Hast. Geog. of the Holy Land (1895). (E. Ro.)