neighborhood, probably not earlier than the third or fourth century A. D., and there is really no more reason for regarding this spot as Golgotha than any other hill-top near the city. The exact spot where our Lord suffered is not certainly known.

Ecclesiastical tradition has fixed upon many other spots in Jerusalem as the places where certain events in the life of Christ occurred, but none of these has a sufficient degree of probability in its favor to merit a mention in an archæological work.

21. Agrippa I and the Third Wall.-In the reign of Herod Agrippa I (41-44 a. D.), Jerusalem was again enlarged. Agrippa built a third wall on the north. Its course is described by Josephus,1 but as most of the landmarks mentioned by him are unknown, opinions differ as to its course. It is certain that it started at the tower Hippacus and went northward to the tower Psephinus, that it enclosed the hill Bezetha, and that it ran along the edge of the Kidron valley to join the old wall. Some scholars suppose that it ran about on the line of the present northern Turkish wall of the city; others, as Robinson and Merrill, thought it ran much further north so that its northeastern corner was near the "Tombs of the Kings." While there is not decisive evidence in the matter, the first view, that the third wall ran near the line of the modern wall, seems the more probable. This wall was begun by Agrippa, who did not dare to finish it lest Claudius should suspect him of an intention to rebel. It was, however, completed by the Jews before the last tragic struggle of the years 66-70, and formed one of the features of Jerusalem when Paul made his later visits to the city.

We have not space to follow the fortunes of Jerusalem further. The history of the "Virgin Daughter of Zion" since 70 A. D., when the walls were broken down and the temple destroyed never to be rebuilt, has been no less checkered and tragic than in the centuries that preceded, but the hearts of all Christians as well as of Jews and Mohammedans turn to her with sympathy and affection, because of their debt to the holy men who at various times, from David to Paul, lived in her and walked her streets, and because of her tragic associations with the life and death of One who was more than man.

1 Wars of the Jews, V, iv, 2.

2 The city, restored under the heathen name of Ælia Capitolina by the Emperor Hadrian in 135 A. D., made Christian by Constantine in 325, sacked by the Persian Chosroes in 614, taken by the Arabs in 636, captured after many vicissitudes in 1072 by the Seljuk Turks, made by the First Crusade the seat of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187, when Saladin took it, was once more after many other vicissitudes captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1517.

CHAPTER XIV

THE DECAPOLIS

ORIGIN. DAMASCUS. SCYTHOPOLIS. CITIES EAST OF THE SEA OF GALILEE. GADARA. PELLA AND DION. GERASA. PHILADELPHIA. JESUS IN THE DECAPOLIS.

1. Origin. Three times in the Gospels the Decapolis is mentioned: Matt. 4: 25; Mark 5: 20 and 7:31. Decapolis is a Greek name and means "the ten city" (region). The ancient writers who mention it agree that it originally consisted of ten cities in which Greek population was dominant and which were federated together. Pliny1 gives the ten cities as Damascus, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis, Gadara, Hippos, Dion, Pella, Gerasa, and Kanatha. Ptolemy, the astronomer and geographer, in the second century A. D. enumerated eighteen cities as belonging to it. In the time of Christ it probably consisted of but ten. The Decapolis apparently was created by the Roman General Pompey, when he conquered this region for Rome in 65-63 B. C. These cities with Greek populations appear to have appealed to him and he granted them certain privileges, including a degree of autonomy. They were, however, subject to the Legate of Syria. Hippos, Scythopolis, and Pella were released by him at this time from the Jewish yoke.2 Josephus, at the end of the first century A. D., does not reckon Damascus in the Decapolis, but before the time of Paul, Damascus had been captured by the Nabathæans or Arabians, and may not, when retaken by Rome, have been again accorded the privileges of the cities of the Decapolis.

2. Damascus, which is mentioned in the annals of Thothmes III before 1447 B. C., and in the accounts of Abraham (Gen. 14:15; 15: 2), has been continuously in existence as a city ever since, and is one of the most flourishing cities of Syria at the present time. It was occupied in the thirteenth or fourteenth century B. C. by Aramæans who held it all through the Old Testament period. Kings of Damascus frequently fought with Israel. From the time of Alexander the Great it came under Hellenic influences. After 1 Historia Naturalis, V, xviii, 74. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, I, vii, 7.

his death it was first possessed by the Ptolemies of Egypt, but was taken by the Seleucid kings of Antioch before 261 B. C. It is situated in one of the most fertile oases of the world-an oasis that Arabian poets delighted to compare to Paradise. Probably Alexander's successors, who, as we shall see, built many Hellenic cities, beautified this oasis with one of them, but as the site has been occupied continuously, no buildings from this time remain. One feature at Damascus that still recalls Biblical times is the street called Straight, which runs westward from the eastern gate into the heart of the city. It was in a house on the ancient forerunner of this street that Paul first lodged at the time of his conversion (Acts 911); (see Fig. 265).

One other part of Damascus recalls a Biblical narrative. This is the river Barada which still runs through the heart of the city. It is the river called Abana in 2 Kings 5 : 12, and was said by Naaman to be "better than all the waters of Israel"; (see Fig. 266).

3. Scythopolis was the only one of the cities of the Decapolis west of the Jordan. It was on the site of the Beth-shean of the Old Testament (Josh. 17: 11; 1 Sam. 31: 10, 12; 2 Sam. 21: 12; 1 Kings 4:12). Beth-shean was already a city at the time Palestine was conquered by Thothmes III1 and there has apparently been a town near this spot ever since. It seems to have been called Scythopolis by the successors of Alexander the Great, probably because a group of Scythians had taken the city and settled there. When it came into the possession of Scythians we can only conjecture, but it was probably at the time of the great Scythian invasion of Palestine, about 625-615 B. C. This invasion called forth the dark prophecies of the book of Zephaniah. Scythopolis appears from certain coins2 to have become a Hellenic city in the time of Alexander the Great. In the time of Ptolemy Euergetes I, 247-222 B. C., it was subject to Egypt, but it passed to the dominions of the Seleucidæ of Antioch in 198 B. C. Upon the break-up of the Syrian empire in 65-63 B. C., Pompey made it one of the cities of the Decapolis.

The remains of the Hellenic city have now entirely disappeared with the exception of the great stone amphitheater. This may still be seen in the valley on the south side of the mound which covers

1 See Chapter V, p. 111.

2 See Schürer, Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, Leipzig, 1907, II, 172, and note 321.

See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, iv, 5.

4 See Barton, A Year's Wandering in Bible Lands, Philadelphia, 1904, p. 176.

the ruins of the ancient Beth-shean, where it is overgrown with briers. The name Scythopolis has long since disappeared, and the old Hebrew name for the place still survives in the name of the modern town Beisan. This modern town is situated on the south side of the valley mentioned above, a little distance from the mound which covers the ancient city. Scythopolis was situated at the point where the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon joins the Jordan valley. In the time of Christ the Jews from Nazareth and its vicinity, when going to the three annual festivals at Jerusalem, came down the plain and then followed the Jordan valley down to Jericho (see Luke 19 : 1), in order to avoid going through Samaria. From the time that Jesus was twelve years old he must, therefore, have often passed by Scythopolis on his way to Jerusalem. As it was a Gentile town, however, neither he nor his companions would enter it on such occasions, as they would thereby be rendered unclean. 4. Cities East of the Sea of Galilee.-To the east of the Sea of Galilee lay three of the cities of the Decapolis. Hippos was comparatively near the sea, where Susiye now lies. The Jews of the Talmudic period called the place Susitha.1 Hippos is the Greek for horse. Susitha is a Hebrew translation of this and Susiye is an Arabic corruption of the Hebrew. All traces of the ancient Hippos except the name have disappeared.

Where Raphana was situated has not yet been definitely determined. It is probably the same as Raphon mentioned in 1 Macc. 5 : 37, which was near to Ashteroth-karnaim2 (Gen. 14:5). Ashteroth-karnaim was situated either at Tell Ashtara or at Tell Ashary, both of which are between twenty and twenty-five miles east of the Sea of Galilee. Raphana, then, probably lay about twenty miles due east from Hippos.

Still eastward of this lay the city of Kanatha, though scholars are divided in opinion as to whether its site is to be identified with El-Kerak or with Kanawat. If its site was at El-Kerak it was about forty miles east of the Sea of Galilee; if at Kanawat it was about fifty-five miles distant from the sea. As there are at Kanawat abundant ruins of a beautiful Hellenic city, Kanatha was probably situated here rather than at El-Kerak. This was the Kenath of Num. 32:42.

1 See Neubauer, Géographie du Talmud, Paris, 1868, 238-240.

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, viii, 4.

Brünnow and Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, III, 107-144, and Fig. 267.

5. Gadara.-A little to the south of the southern end of the Sea of Galilee on the east of the Jordan and south of the Yarmuk lay the city of Gadara, another member of the Decapolis. Its site is now marked by the ruins of Umm Keis or Mukês. Here ruins of the Hellenic city are still to be seen, including a great theater cut out of the black basaltic rock. Gadara was a strong fortress as ⚫early as the time of Antiochus the Great in 218 B. C.,1 and was afterward besieged by Alexander Jannæus,2 104–79 B. C.

6. Pella and Dion.-On the east of the Jordan, a little further south than Scythopolis or Beth-shean, but in the deep depression of the river valley, Pella, another city of the Decapolis, was situated. The site now bears the name Fahl. The city is mentioned in the list of Thothmes III, 1503-1447 B. C., as Pahul. Pella is a Greek form of this name. The Greek city of Pella is said by Stephen of Byzantium3 to have been founded by Alexander the Great. In the Talmud it is called Pahal, and the modern name Fahl is an Arabian form of this. Extensive ruins of the Hellenic city are still visible at Fahl.5

Dion is also said to have been founded by Alexander the Great and was apparently not far from Pella. It is thought by Merrill® and G. A. Smith to have been situated on the site of the modern Eidun, about twenty miles east of Pella, though this is doubted by others. If Dion was at this point few, if any, antiquities remain to bear witness to the fact.

7. Gerasa, the modern Gerash, lay on one of the tributaries of the Jabbok about fifty miles southeast of Pella. We do not know what the name of the place was in Old Testament times. It is first mentioned in the time of Alexander Jannæus (104-79 B. C.).8 It was then called Gerasa and was probably already at that time a Hellenic city. By whom it was built, we do not know, but it was probably one of the early Ptolemies of Egypt. From 100 B. C. till the Mohammedan conquest in 637 A. D., it flourished as a beautiful city, and later it was a city of some importance. It probably was overtaken by some calamity and the site of the Hellenic city

1 See Polybius, V, 71.

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, xiii, 3.

Schürer, Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 4th ed., II, 1907, p. 175.
Neubauer, Géographie du Talmud, 274.

5 See Merrill, East of the Jordan, New York, 1883, 184, ff. and 442, f.; also Schumacher, Across the Jordan, London, 1886, p. 272, f.

Merrill, ibid., 298, and G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, map.
So Brünnow and Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, III, 264.

8 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, I, iv, 8.