DECAPOLIS (AoccbroXts). A district lying chiefly on the east side of the Upper Jordan and the Sea of Tiberias, but also including a small portion of southern Galilee around Scythopolis. It received its name, as Pliny says, from the num ber of leading cities it contained (Setca, ten') ; but why these cities should have been grouped to gether has not been definitely explained by any ancient writer. The name Decapolis does not appear to be older than the Roman conquest of Syria ; and probably these cities were endowed with peculiar privileges by the Roman Senate, and permitted to elect their own rulers, and ad minister their own laws. Lightfoot states, mainly on the authority of Jewish Rabbins, that their principal inhabitants were Gentiles, and that they were not subject to the Jewish taxes ( Joseph. Vita, lxxiv. 2 ; Lightfoot, Opp. ii. 417, sq.) The boundaries of Decapolis cannot now be fixed with any approach to accuracy ; indeed it is ques tionable whether as a province it ever had any fixed boundaries. The name seems to have been applied indefinitely to a wide region surrounding ten cities ;' and ancient geographers do not even agree as to what cities these were. Perhaps we may account for this by supposing that the name was originally applied to only ten cities, but in the course of time others had conferred upon them the same privileges, and were therefore called by the same name. Pliny, while admit ting that non °miles eadem observant,' gives them as follows :—Damascus, Philadelphia, Ra phane, Scythopolis, Gadara, Hippo, Dion, Pella, Galasa (Gerasa), and Canatha ; he adds, The tetrarchies lie between and around these cities. . namely, Trachonitis, Panias, Abila, etc. (Hist. Nat. v. 16). These cities are scattered over a very wide region. If Raphane be, as many sup pose, the same as Raphanxa of Josephus, it lay near Hamath ( Joseph. Bell. Yuri. vii. 5. ; and from thence to Philadelphia on the south is above two hundred miles ; and from Scythopolis on the west to Canatha on the east is about sixty. Jo sephus does not enumerate the cities of Decapolis ; but it would seem that he excludes Damascus from the number, since he calls Scythopolis the largest of them (Bell. yud. iii. 9. 7). Cellarius eninks Cmsarea Philippi and Gergasa ought to be substituted in Pliny's list for Damascus and Ra phane. Pliny is undoubtedly the only author who extends Decapolis so far north. Ptolemy appears to include Decapolis in the southern part of Ccelesyria (Geogr. v. 15); and with this agree the statements of Eusebius and Jerome. The former says — &urn &rip 41 girl 11E1)4. d/.141 "Irrov cal II€XXav /cal Padpav—thus placing the Decapolis chiefly, if not wholly, east of Jordan (Onomast. s.v.) An incidental notice in Mark v. 20 confirms this view, When our Lord cured the man possessed with devils at Gadara, on the east ern coast of the sea of Tiberias, he would not permit him to accompany him across the lake, hut said, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord bath done for thee.
And he departed, and began to publish in Dew polls how great things Jesus had done for him.' Another incidental reference by Mark has occa sioned some difficulty regarding the situation of Decapolis, and given rise to views at variance with the statements of Pliny, Josephus, and Eusebius.
It is said of Jesus that departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the Sea of Gali lee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapo7is' (Mark vii. 31). From this it has been supposed that a large part of Decapolis must have lain on the west of the Jordan, and between Tyre and Tiberias. Brocardus, a writer of the t3th cen tury, describes it as follows Regionis Decapo leos fines sunt mare Galilzem ab oriente, ct Sidon magma ab occidente, et hxc est latitudo ejus. In longitudine vero incipit a civitate Tyberiadis, et vergit per littus mans aquilonare usque ad Damas cum. Dicitur autem Decapolis a decem principa libus ejus civitatibus, quarum nomina sunt Tyberias, Sephet, Cedes Nephtalim, Assor, Cae sarea Philippi, Capernaum, Jonitera, Bethsaida, Corazaim, et Bethsan' (Brocardi flionachi Descrip tio Terra Sancta, in Le Clerc's edition of Euse bius' Onomasticon, p. 175). Adrichomius gives an account substantially the same ( Theatrzenz Ter r• Sancta). But there is no authority for these theories. They appear to be pure suppositions, invented to escape an apparent difficulty (See Lightfoot, Opp. ii. 417, sq.) In reality, however, there is no difficulty in the case. In Mark vii. 31 the best MSS. read €EEXBwp itc rwv Op(wp TOpot; -tiXOEP Sea ELS(.73vos cis rim 00'mo-0-ay T73$ PettXaias, 6,14 jskov x.r.X.; instead of Oplcup Wpm) Kal ITL8(.3vos ijXBE vpbs rrfv OaXcto-o-cip K.T.X.; and this reading is now adopted by all critics of eminence. The reading of the Textus Receptus was probably invented to avoid the unlikelihood of the long detour Sea Our Lord tra velled from Tyre northward to Sidon ; then he appears to have crossed Lebanon by the great road to Cxsarea Philippi ; and from thence he descended through Decapolis to the eastern shore of the lake, where he fed the multitude (cf. Matt. xv. 29-38 ; and Mark viii. 1-9). This view brings out the full meaning of the sacred text, and is in entire accordance with the geography of the country.
It thus appears that the region of Decapolis' lay east of the Jordan, with the exception of the little territory of Scythopolis close to the western bank, at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. In addition to Damascus and Scythopolis, whose sites are well known, its chief towns were—Gadara, about six miles south-east of the lake ; Pella, on the side of the range of Gilead, opposite Scytho polis ; Philadelphia, the ancient Rabboth-Am mon ; Gerasa, whose ruins are the most magnifi cent in all Palestine ; and Canatha, the Kenath of the Bible, situated eastward among the mountains of Bashan. Decapolis was not strictly a province like Galilee, Perrea, or Trachonitis. It was rather an assemblage of little principalities, classed to gether, not because of their geographical position, but because they enjoyed the same privileges, somewhat after the manner of the Hanse Towns in Germany. At least six of the great cities of the Decapolis are now ruined and desolate ; and the others, with the single exception of Damascus, are represented by poor miserable villages.— 1. L, P.