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Jerash in the First Century A.D.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Robert O. Fink
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Extract

Some fifty miles north-east of Jerusalem, on the rugged plateau between the Jordan and the desert to the east, lies a ruined city whose striking remains have attracted the interest of hardy travellers ever since the beginning of the last century—Jerash, the ancient Gerasa, in Transjordania. This district was the Decapolis of the Romans, though its cities numbered more than ten. Since that time war and the centuries have obliterated all trace of many of them; but Jerash, with its temples and theatres, its paved and colonnaded market and streets, its almost intact walls and its many Christian churches, is still beautiful and imposing. None the less, it is only very recently that its full significance has begun to be realised. Heretofore it has been usual to assume that Jerash attained prosperity and importance only under the Antonines, beginning with Trajan's annexation of Arabia in A.D. 105–6, and his assignment of Jerash to that province. This opinion was supported by the fact that the inscriptions supply dates of the second century or later for most of the public buildings; but a reconsideration of the archaeological and epigraphic evidence shows that the present plan of the city and the present form of the public buildings are due merely to alteration and rebuilding under the Antonines. From the materials which we now have it is possible to reconstruct a good picture of the flourishing and active city of the first century—further, to show that this prosperity was itself not new, but firmly based on a long and continuous past.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , 1933 , pp. 109 - 124
Copyright
Copyright ©Robert O. Fink 1933. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Guthe, H., ‘Gerasa,’ Das Land der Bibel, Bd. iii, Heft 1–2, p. 63, n. 2.Google Scholar

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8 Bell. Jud. i, 104; Ant. Jud. xiii, 393.

9 Ant. Jud. xiv, 74–76: cf. Bell. Jud. i, 155–157; ‘The province’ was Syria, to which Jerash belonged until its transfer to Arabia under Trajan.

10 Bell. Jud. i, 179; Ant. Jud. xiv. 105.

11 Greek άμίλλας but Prof. Rostovtzeff suggests that here military exercises must be meant.

12 Plutarch, Crassus 17, 5.

13 Bell. Jud. i, 183–185 and 187; Ant. Jud. xiv, 127.

14 Bell. Jud. i, 199; Ant. Jud. xiv, 143.

15 Bell. Jud. i, 216–219; Ant. Jud. xiv, 268–272.

16 Bell. Jud. i, 219; Ant. Jud. xiv, 272.

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44 See also Brünnow-Domaszewski, , Die Provincia Arabia, iii, p. 308.Google Scholar In 1. 8, likewise, we should read [είς τὴν οἱκ]οδομ[ἠ]ν and in 1. 10 the amount of the contribution should be δρ[αχμάς χιλί]ας πενταΙ[κοσ]ία[ς]

45 ρ[ι]δʹ Rev. Bibi. in the transcription, but cf. the reproduction of the inscription itself.

46 Yale Classical Studies, ii, p. 1 ff.

47 Bell. fud. ii, 592.

48 Excavations at Dura-Europas, Third Season 1929–1930, pp. 147–148.

49 Yale Classical Studies ii, p. 60.

50 For a photograph of the new fragment see Fisher, Clarence S., ‘Excavations at Jerash, 1931,’ Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 45, Feb. 1932, p. 8.Google Scholar A transcription and some discussion are given by C. C. McCown, ‘New Inscriptions from Jerash,’ in tne same publication, no. 49, Feb. 1933, pp. 6 and 7.

51 Tacitus Hist, ii, 7 and 73–81, et seq. In ii, 81, –Ante idus Iulias Suria omnis in eodem Sacramento fuit.’ Dessau, , Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, ii, Abt. I, especially pp. 350–351.Google Scholar

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