Gadara#Notable inhabitants

Image:Thedecapolis.png

Gadara was situated in a defensible position on a ridge accessible to the east but protected by steep falls on the other three sides.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} It was well-watered, with access to the Ain Qais spring and cisterns.{{citation |last=Schram |first=Wilke D. |title=Roman Aqueducts |contribution=Gadara (Jordan) |contribution-url=http://www.romanaqueducts.info/aquasite/gadara/ |date=2007 |access-date=25 September 2015 }}.

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Gadara was a centre of Greek culture in the region, considered one of its most Hellenised{{citation |last=Rocca |first=Samuel |title=Herod's Judea: A Mediterranean State in the Classic World |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Eugene |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-4982-2454-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=hXHDCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 200] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXHDCAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 }} and enjoying special political and religious status.

By the third century BC the town was already of some cultural importance. Several prominent cultural figures were born in the city, such as Menippus, Philodemus, and Meleager (for more see below at "Notable inhabitants").

The Greek historian Polybius describes Gadara as being in 218 BC the "strongest of all places in the region". Nevertheless, it capitulated shortly afterwards when besieged by the Seleucid king Antiochus III of Syria. Under the Seleucids, it was also known as Antiochia ({{langx|grc|Αντιόχεια}}) or {{nowrap|Antiochia Semiramis}} ({{langx|grc|Ἀντιόχεια Σεμίραμις}}, Antiókheia Semíramis) and as Seleucia ({{langx|grc|Σελεύκεια}}).{{Cite book |publisher= Samuel Etheridge |last= Calmet |first= Augustin |title= Calmet's Great Dictionary of the Holy Bible |date= 1813}} The region passed in and out of the control of the Seleucid kings of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. Gadara was captured and damaged by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus.Israel Shatzman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=XniFgiw15zQC&pg=PA74 The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod: From Hellenistic to Roman Frameworks], p. 74.{{cite journal |last= Piotrkowski |first= Meron M. |title= When Did Alexander Yannai Capture Which Gadara? |journal= Jewish Studies Quarterly |publisher= Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG |volume= 18 |issue= 3 |pages= 266–276 |date= 2011 |doi= 10.1628/094457011797248453 |jstor= 41289144 |language= en}}

File:Gadara_Western_theatre_1211.jpg time]]

In 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey placed the region under Roman control, rebuilt Gadara and made it one of the semi-autonomous cities of the Roman Decapolis,{{Cite book |last1= Fitzgerald |first1= John Thomas |last2= Obbink |first2= Dirk D.| last3= Holland |first3= Glenn Stanfield |title= Philodemus and the New Testament world [electronic resource] |year= 2004 |pages= 365–366 |publisher= BRILL |isbn= 978-90-04-11460-9}}{{citation |last=Mare |first=W. Harold |pages=[https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/333 333–334] |contribution=Decapolis |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRtUqxkB7wkC&pg=PA333 |title=Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |editor-last=Freedman |editor-first=David Noel |display-editors=0 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |location=Grand Rapids |isbn=0-8028-2400-5 |editor2-last=Myers |editor2-first=Allen C. |editor3-last=Beck |editor3-first=Astrid B. |date=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/333 }}. and a bulwark against Nabataean expansion. But in 30 BC Augustus placed it under the control of the Jewish king Herod. Jewish-Roman historian Josephus relates that after King Herod's death in 4 BC, Gadara was made part of the Roman province of Syria.Josephus Antiquities, XVII, xi, 4; Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, II, vi, 3.

File:Gadara 02.jpg

The 2nd century AD Roman aqueduct to Gadara supplied drinking water through a qanat {{convert|170|km|mi|abbr=on}} long. Its longest underground section, running for 94 km, is the longest known tunnel from ancient times.{{cite journal |author=Döring, Mathias |title= Wasser für Gadara. 94 km langer Tunnel antiker Tunnel im Norden Jordaniens entdeckt |trans-title= Water for Gadara: 94-km-long ancient tunnel in northern Jordan has been discovered |journal= Querschnitt |volume= 21 |year= 2007 |pages= 24–35 |language=de |url= https://publikationen.h-da.de/downloadByDMID.skat?dmid=ID1480820_11158167&filename=querschnitt_21.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160111182937/https://publikationen.h-da.de/downloadByDMID.skat?dmid=ID1480820_11158167&filename=querschnitt_21.pdf |archive-date=2016-01-11}}

Gadara continued to be an important town within the Eastern Roman Empire, and was long the seat of a Christian bishop.Reland, Palestine, 776.

With the conquest of the Arabs, following the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, it came under Muslim rule. Around 749 it was largely destroyed by an earthquake, and was abandoned.

{{main|Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac}}

The synoptic Gospels mention the Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, with some ancient manuscripts replacing Gerasene with Gadarene or Gergesene.

Ancient Gadara was important enough to become a suffragan bishopric of the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Scythopolis, the capital of the Roman province of Palestina Secunda, but it faded with the city after the Muslim conquest.

The diocese was nominally restored no later than the 15th century as Titular bishopric of Gadaræ in Latin of Gadara in Curiate Italian, from 1925 renamed solely Gadara.

It is vacant, having had the following incumbents, all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :

• Johann Erler, Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1432.07.12 – 1469)
• Matthias Kanuti, Benedictine Order (O.S.B.) (1492.07.09 – 1506)
• Domingo Pérez Rivera (1741.03.06 – 1771.11.12)
• Jan Benisławski, Jesuits (S.J.) (1783 – 1812.03.25)
• Anton Gottfried Claessen (1844.07.25 – 1847.09.29)
• Joseph-Hyacinthe Sohier, Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) (1850.08.27 – 1876.09.03)
• Edward MacCabe (1877.06.26 – 1879.04.04) (later Cardinal)
• Giuseppe Macchi (1880.02.27 – 1889.04.03) (later Archbishop)
• Giuseppe Schirò (1889.07.30 – 1895.11.29) (later Archbishop)
• Nicolae Iosif Camilli, Conventual Franciscans (O.F.M. Conv.) (1896.02.25 – 1901.03.27) (later Archbishop)
• Venceslao {{proper name|Frind}} (1901.07.15 – 1932.09.02)
• Martial-Pierre-Marie Jannin, M.E.P. (1933.01.10 – 1940.07.16)
• Jean Cassaigne, M.E.P. (1941.02.20 – 1973.10.31)

Image:Umm Qais-14.jpg

Gadara was once called the "city of philosophers".Desmond, William (2008). Cynics (Ancient philosophies vol. 3). University of California Press. p. 36. {{isbn|0520258355}}{{clarify |Revisited today, 7 Feb 2024: Currently not accessible online. I GUESS the page refers to 1st ed., of 2008, but there are more. I've added 2008 details. Twice quoted, but missing from bibliography. |date=June 2020}} David Sider notes that Gadara was produced numerous remarkable philosophers, writers and mathematicians, but in spite of that and of being large enough to boast two theatres, it saw all its famous sons move to Greece and Italy in search of career opportunities. Among others, Gadara was home to (chronologically):

• Menippus of Gadara (3rd century BC), a slave who became a Cynic philosopher and satirised the follies of mankind in a mixture of prose and verse. His works have not survived, but were imitated by Varro and by Lucian.Cicero, Academica, i. 2, 8; Aulus Gellius, ii. 18; Macrobius, Sat. i. 11{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Menippus}}
• Meleager of Gadara (1st century BC), Cynic philosopher and poet.{{Cite book |last= Isaac |first= Benjamin |author-link= Benjamin Isaac |year= 2017 |title= Empire and Ideology in the Graeco-Roman World |page= 427c |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qgAtDwAAQBAJ |isbn=978-1-107-13589-5 |access-date=3 June 2020}} Born in Gadara, whose most famous son he is considered to be, he was one of the most admired Hellenistic Greek poets, not only for his own works but also for his anthology of other poets, which formed the basis of the large collection known as the Greek Anthology.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
• Philodemus of Gadara (1st century BC), Epicurean philosopher and poet. Born in Gadara, he later studied under the Epicurean scholarch Zeno of Sidon in Athens, and went on to teach Epicurean philosophy to the father-in-law of Caesar at the Villa of the Pisos in Herculaneum (Italy). The scrolls that have been found and deciphered in his library constitute an important testimony of Roman Epicureanism.{{cn |date=February 2024}}
• Theodorus of Gadara (1st century BC), oratorStrabo's Geography [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/16B*.html#ref79 16.2.29]
• Demetrius of Gadara (1st century BC), Pompey's most important, influential and well-known freedman{{cite book |author= Rollinger, Christian |chapter= Demetrius von Gadara |title= Handwörterbuch der antiken Sklaverei |trans-title= Handbook of ancient slavery |editor=Heinz Heinen |display-editors= etal |series= Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei (supplement 5) |publisher= Franz Steiner |location= Stuttgart |lang= de |year= 2012 |via= academia.edu |url= https://www.academia.edu/4468346/s_v_Demetrius_von_Gadara |access-date= 7 February 2024}}
• Philo of Gadara (early 2nd century AD), mathematician, calculated a highly accurate value for π{{cite book |first= David T. |last= Runia |title= Philo and the Church Fathers: A Collection of Papers |publisher= BRILL |series= Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements. Volume XXXII |year= 1995 |page= 27 |isbn= 978-90-04-31299-9 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=W-p5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |access-date=3 June 2020}}{{cite book |first= David |last= Sider |title= The Epigrams of Philodemos: Introduction, Text, and Commentary |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 1997 |page= 4 |isbn= 978-0-19-535667-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=h7E3fZeH8rIC&pg=PA4 |access-date=3 June 2020}}
• Oenomaus of Gadara (2nd century AD), Cynic philosopher
• Apsines of Gadara (3rd century AD), rhetoricianBlank, David, [https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/philodemus/ "Philodemus"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), accessed 3 June 2020.

Umm Qais was recognised by Ulrich Seetzen in 1806 as the ancient site of Gadara.Schürer, 1891, §23 (The Hellenistic Towns), p. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah63dw;view=1up;seq=114 100] (note 179), where he cites Seetzen, Reisen durch Syrien (ed. by Kruse, 4 vols. 1854–59), i. 369 sqq., iv. 188 sqq.

The ancient walls may now be traced in almost their entire circuit of 3 km. One of the Roman roads ran eastward to Ḍer‛ah; and an aqueduct has been traced to the pool of Ḳhab, about 20 miles to the north of Ḍer‛ah. The ruins include those of "baths, two theaters, a hippodrome, colonnaded streets and, under the Romans, aqueducts,"Desmond, William. Cynics. p36 - referencing (Weber & Khouri 1989:17-18) a temple, a basilica and other buildings, telling of a once splendid city. A paved street, with double colonnade, ran from east to west. The ruts worn in the paved road by the wheels of ancient vehicles are still to be seen.

In 2017, archaeologists discovered an ancient temple that was built in the Hellenistic era in the 3rd century BC. The temple is believed to have been dedicated to Poseidon. Hellenistic pottery was also found on the site.{{Cite web|url=https://www.trtworld.com/mea/archaeologists-discover-ancient-temple-in-jordan-s-amman-10564|title=Archaeologists discover ancient temple in Jordan's Amman}} The temple, built following the design of distyle in antis, consists of a pronaos, a podium and a naos, the holy chamber of the temple.

Archaeologists have also discovered a network of water tunnels at the centre of the ancient town, which are separated from the external tunnel that was discovered decades ago in the area.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/first-its-kind%E2%80%99-hellenistic-temple-discovered-umm-qais|title='First of-its-kind' Hellenistic temple discovered in Umm Qais|date=August 14, 2017|website=Jordan Times}}

File:Umm Qais Galilee-Golan panorama.jpg street of ancient Gadara in the foreground; the Galilean hills and the Sea of Galilee (centre-left), and the Golan Heights (right) in the background.]]

File:Museum at Beit Russan, Umm Qais, Jordan.jpg

The formerly residence of the Ottoman governor known as Beit Rousan ("Rousan House") serves as a visitor centre and museum, where numerous archaeological finding from Gadara are on display.

{{reflist|30em}}

• Holm-Nielson, Svend, "Gadarenes", in Anchor Bible Dictionary vol. 2, ed. D.N. Freedman (1992. New York: Doubleday)
• Laney, J. Carl, Geographical Aspects of the Life of Christ [Unpublished Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary ] (1977)
• Nun, Mendel, Gergesa (Kursi) (1989 Kibbutz Ein Gev)
• Nun, Mendel, Ports of Galilee, in Biblical Archaeology Review; 25/4: 18 (1999)
• {{cite book |last=Schürer |first=E. |author-link=Emil Schürer |title=Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi [A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ] |series=Geschichte de jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi.English |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |translator=Miss Taylor |volume=1 |date=1891 |location=New York |language = en |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah63dw;view=1up;seq=7 }}
• Weber, Thomas, Umm Qais: Gadara of the Decapolis (1989. Amman: Economic Press Co.)
• This entry incorporates [http://gospelhall.org/bible/bible.php?search=GADARA&dict=isbe text from] the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia with some modernisation.

{{commons category|Gadara}}

• [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0824.htm GCatholic - (titular) bishopric]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051221060654/http://daleelirbid.com/ Irbid Guide]}} (in Arabic)
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• [http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/umm_qais.html History and pictures]

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Category:Archaeological sites in Jordan

Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Western Asia

Category:Catholic titular sees in Asia

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