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GADARA

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 382 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GADARA , an See also:

ancient See also:town of the Syrian See also:Decapolis, the See also:capital of Peraea, and the See also:political centre of the small See also:district of Gadaris. It was a See also:Greek See also:city, probably entirely non-Syrian in origin. The earliest recorded event in its See also:history is its See also:capture by See also:Antiochus III. of See also:Syria in 218 B.c.; how See also:long it may have existed before this date is unknown. About twenty years later it was besieged for ten months by See also:Alexander Jannaeus. It was restored by See also:Pompey, and in 3o B.C. was presented by See also:Augustus to See also:Herod the See also:Great; on Herod's See also:death it was reunited to Syria. The coins of the See also:place See also:bear Greek legends, and such See also:inscriptions as have been found on its site are Greek. Its governing and wealthy classes were probably Greek, the See also:common See also:people being Hellenize& and Judaized Aramaeans. The community was Hellenistically organized, and though dependent on Syria and acknowledging the supremacy of See also:Rome it was governed by a democratic See also:senate and managed its own See also:internal affairs. In the Jewish See also:war it surrendered to See also:Vespasian, but in the See also:Byzantine See also:period it again flourished and was the seat of a See also:bishop. It was renowned for its hot See also:sulphur See also:baths; the springs still exist and show the remains of See also:bath-houses. The temperature of the springs is 110° F. This town was the birthplace of See also:Meleager the anthologist.

There is a confusion in the narrative of the healing of the demoniac between the very similar names Gadara, See also:

Gerasa and Gergesa; but the probabilities, both textual and See also:geographical, are in favour of the See also:reading of See also:Mark (Gerasenes, ch. v.1, revised version); and that the See also:miracle has nothing to do with Gadara, but took place at Kersa, on the eastern See also:shore of the See also:Sea of See also:Galilee. Gadara is now represented by Umm Kais, a See also:group of ruins about 6 m. S.E. of the Sea of Galilee, and 1194 ft. above the sea-level. There are very See also:fine tombs with carved sarcophagi in the neighbourhood. There are the remains of two theatres and (probably) a See also:temple, and many heaps of carved stones, representing ancient buildings of various kinds. The walls are, or were, traceable for a See also:circuit of 2 m., and there are also the remains of a See also:street of columns. The natives are rapidly destroying the ruins by See also:quarrying See also:building material out of them. (R. A. S.

End of Article: GADARA

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