Decapolis

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Decapolis
     ten cities=deka, ten, and polis, a city, a district on the east
     and south-east of the Sea of Galilee containing "ten cities,"
     which were chiefly inhabited by Greeks. It included a portion of
     Bashan and Gilead, and is mentioned three times in the New
     Testament (Matt. 4:25; Mark 5:20; 7:31). These cities were


     Scythopolis, i.e., "city of the Scythians", (ancient Bethshean,
     the only one of the ten cities on the west of Jordan), Hippos,
     Gadara, Pella (to which the Christians fled just before the
     destruction of Jerusalem), Philadelphia (ancient Rabbath-ammon),
     Gerasa, Dion, Canatha, Raphana, and Damascus. When the Romans
     conquered Syria (B.C. 65) they rebuilt, and endowed with certain
     privileges, these "ten cities," and the province connected with
     them they called "Decapolis."
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Decapolis, containing ten cities