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Gerasa (Jerash)
Q31565Gerasa (Greek Γέρασα): Hellenistic and Roman city, one of the towns of the Decapolis.
Hellenistic Age
- Original, Semitic name: Garshu
- Refounded by a Seleucid king named Antiochus, probably Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Claims that it was founded by Alexander the Great or Perdiccas are contradicted by the simple fact that the official name of the town was Antioch on the Chrysorhoas ("golden river")
- Town within the small state of Philadelphia (modern Amman), near the temple of Zeus
- Briefly conquered by the Hasmonaean king Alexander Jannaeus
- 63 BCE: Conquered by the Roman commander Pompey the Great, who added it to the Decapolis he had created
Roman Age
- Mentioned in the gospel of Mark as the site of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac,note but the story must originally be situated in Gadara (Umm Qays), which better fits the description
- Birthplace of Nicomachus of Gerasa (c.60-c.120)
- 75 CE: Temple of Artemis completed
- Temple of Dionysus
- 106 CE: Decapolis conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan
- Land given to veterans to populate the city (?)
- City expanded. Cardo measures 800 meters; two decumani; all colonnaded
- Many Roman monuments from the second century: nymphaeum, baths, temples, circus, tetrapylons, monumental city gates, et cetera
- 129 CE: visit of Hadrian; honorific arch
Late Antiquity
- s.IV: Rise of Christianity
- Cathedral is a recycled temple of Dionysus
- 635 CE: Arab conquest; the city does not survive the transfer of the capital of the Caliphate from nearby Damascus to Baghdad