View of Late Antiquity In

ARAM, 23 (2011) 489-508. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.23.0.2959670 WALLS OF THE DECAPOLIS Dr. ROBERT SMITH (Mid-Atlantic Christian University) Walls were important to the citizens of the Decapolis cities.1 While the world- view of Late Antiquity interpreted the rise and fall of cities as ultimately being the result of divine intervention, the human construction of defensive walls was still a major civic concern. Walls, like temples, honored a city’s patron deities and fostered a sense of local identity and well-being. These structures, long a bulwark of independence and status for cities in the Levant,2 were present in the Hellenizing pre-Decapolis cities, permitted in the Decapolis during the Roman period and were promoted during the subsequent Byzantine period as well. Instead of fostering local rebellion against a distant Rome or later Con- stantinople, the construction of Decapolis city walls, like other components of the imperial architectural palette, was a strategic asset that served to cultur- ally unify the region’s ethnically and linguistically diverse population.3 The “spiritual walls” of cultural solidarity, established in Hellenism and continued by Rome, together with the physical walls of the Decapolis cities helped to preserve their identities for centuries. The Roman and Byzantine empires depended upon strong loyal cities like those of the Decapolis to sustain their rule in the Levant. WALLS OF PRE-DECAPOLIS CITIES IN THE PRE-ROMAN ERA Cities that would be counted as part of the Decapolis in the Roman Era were typically established in the Hellenistic era on the remains of ancient settlements. These earlier Semitic settlements had developed at sites where there were plentiful resources and defensible locations. Naturally prominent heights 1 The much discussed identification of the constituent poleis of the Decapolis that originates in the divergent lists in ancient sources (Pliny 5.16.74 and Ptolemy 5.7.14f) remains to be resolved. In this study the contiguous territories dominated by the cities of Abila, Canatha, Capitolias, Dion, Gadara, Gerasa, Hippos, Pella, Philadelphia, and Scythopolis will be the central focus. 2 The remains of Early and Middle Bronze period walled cities in the Levant are extensive. The construction of city walls continued through the Iron Age. The consternation of Nehemiah, for the unwalled city of Jerusalem, in the Persian era provides a poignant example of the con- tinuing symbolic and real significance of walls in the ancient Levant (Nehemiah 1:3-4). 3 Segal, Arthur, From Function to Monument: Urban Landscapes of Roman Palestine, Syria and Provincia Arabia. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1997. Pp. 1-4. 994097_ARAM_23_23_Smith.indd4097_ARAM_23_23_Smith.indd 489489 111/02/131/02/13 008:308:30 490 WALLS OF THE DECAPOLIS or the accumulated occupational debris of centuries on tells provided the basis for easily fortified acropoleis. Access to study these early fortifications has been obscured by added strata from continued occupation and removal of some masonry materials for later reuse. Significant Iron and Bronze Age fortifications have been excavated at sites like Pella, Scythopolis and Philadel- phia. No extensive, stratigraphically verified, Hellenistic defensive walls stand exposed in Decapolis cities at the present time. Historical texts, however, testify to the presence and importance of such walls during the Hellenistic Period. Like other Hellenizing cities in the Levant,4 the Pre-Decapolis poleis, for- mally established by the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, were informed by Greek defensive architecture. As a result their citadel walls may reasonably be pre- dicted to have been made with locally quarried stone and not mud bricks. In keeping with Hellenistic architectural style the stone used on the exterior would often have been chiseled into uniform rectangular blocks dressed on the face with smoothed boarders around a protruding boss. These carefully hewn stones were laid in bonded courses closely fitted together on the exterior. Such walls were not easily climbed or penetrated. Lesser quality stones were employed for the interior surfaces. The space between the interior and exterior faces would have been filled with irregular stones and stone-cutting debitage. These effi- ciently built walls bolstered with towers at weak points were able to resist attack- ers and their siege machines. When the walls were built along the edge of cliffs or above steep slopes, they did not have to be very tall to be effective. As locations with fortified acropoleis, some pre-Decapolis cities like Phila- delphia held strategic settings that helped the Ptolemies maintain control of the Southern Levant for a century. The Seleucid expansionist, Antiochus III, was only able to consolidate his hold on the Southern Levant, following his victory at the battle of Panias, by securing the fortified poleis of Scythopolis, Pella, Abila, Gadara and Philadelphia.5 The Seleucids, like the Ptolemies, benefitted from these strongly defended cities and promoted their development. With the decline of the Seleucids, the Hellenized cities that would become the Decapolis may have contemplated greater independence, but were in fact vulnerable to being subjugated by local dynasts or seized by regional chiefs.6 The greatest threats to civic independence were the ascendant Hasmoneans and the Nabataeans. The walls of the cities like Gadara and Gerasa were obstacles to the consolidation of the Hasmonean territory east of the Jordan River.7 They were not, however, 4 In nearby Jerusalem the Hasmonean walls on the eastern side of the Temple platform above the Kidron valley are the most commonly viewed Hellenistic era walls. These provide a picture of the techniques and dimensions that were possible in the nearby pre-Decapolis cities.. 5 Polybius, History 5.71.1, Josephus, Antiquities 12.3.3, 135-137 6 Local dynasties are evidenced at Abila.Polybius V.70 7 Josephus Antiquities 13.13.3, Wars 1.4.8. 994097_ARAM_23_23_Smith.indd4097_ARAM_23_23_Smith.indd 490490 111/02/131/02/13 008:308:30 R. SMITH 491 sufficient to withstand the long sieges of Alexander Jannaeus. The subjugated pagan cities were subjected to judaizing policies that were resisted only at the possible price of destruction, as was seen at Pella.8 Inside the Hellenizing poleis that the Ptolemies and Seleucids had founded the “cultural walls” of the cities were built up through the adoption of Hel- lenistic culture. While under the monarchical rule of the Ptolemies and then the Seleucids, the poleis were juridically semi-independent communities, with their own councils and judges appointed by the assembly of citizens to manage the local public affairs.9 The cultural walls were also built up by shared wor- ship of deities in the local temples. Semitic polytheism was easily syncretised with Hellenistic religion. The newly emergent goddess Tyche was particularly amenable to being accommodated to local traditions. In Gerasa, Artemis the patron deity who probably was associated with an earlier Semitic goddess, was called Tyche.10 The Semitic tradition of retaining peace with the local tutelary gods was a duty of every citizen in Hellenistic poleis.11 The acropoleis of pre- Decapolis cities were typically not only a military strongpoint but also a religious center where the temple of the patron deity was constructed. These military and religious structures created a place where the cities’ citizens felt they could be safe. Sacred and secular were combined. The construction of walls in the pre-Decapolis cities was promoted by civic pride and religious conviction but was probably most strongly driven by inse- curity. While a thorough chronology of pre-Decapolis wall construction is not possible, it seems reasonable to surmise that the unsettled century prior to the coming of Pompey, and the creation of the Decapolis, would have been a time when wall building would have been a priority. The elements of Hellenistic defensive architecture were known. Building stone was available to be quarried near all of the cities. The limiting factor was economic. Much greater walls that would encompass residential neighborhoods would become possible when the population and prosperity grew. THE DECAPOLIS WALLS IN THE EARLY ROMAN ERA (65 BC-AD 235) Vitruvius, the renowned architect of the Augustan period, and client of the Princeps, assumed that cities under Roman rule would have walls. Subsequently, in his work, On Architecture, he made recommendations regarding city wall 8 Josephus Antiquities 13.13.4. 9 Julian M. C. Bowsher, “Civic Organization within the Decapolis.” ARAM 4 (1992):278. 10 Susan B. Matheson, “The Goddess Tyche” Pp. 18-33 in An Obsession with Fortune: Tyche in Greek and Roman Art. Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 1994. 11 Louise B. Zaidman, and Pauline Schmitt-Pantel. Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans. Paul Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 994097_ARAM_23_23_Smith.indd4097_ARAM_23_23_Smith.indd 491491 111/02/131/02/13 008:308:30 492 WALLS OF THE DECAPOLIS construction materials, foundations, thickness and shape of defensive towers.12 Rome set the architectural standard for cities of her Empire.13 Rome’s walls developed over the centuries, from a simple fortified hilltop, to having enlarged walls that encompassed surrounding domestic areas.14 Rome did not have to expend public funds on significantly enlarging her walls in the Principate and Early Empire as her powerful armies served as her walls and kept foreign ene- mies far away. In such periods of peace and relative safety there were no military reasons to build Rome’s walls, but civic pride and related belief continued to drive wall construction.15 Similarly in the Decapolis, Hellenistic era fortifications on strategic acropoleis that had antedated the Pompeian settlement and extended walls erected during the subsequent years of Roman domination, were maintained and enlarged out of civic pride, the honor of tutelary deities like Agatha Tyche, and emergent local security concerns. The Roman Empire as a whole, and the region of the Decapolis within it, was greatly influenced by religion.

Load more