We see the word “Decapolis” three times in our Bibles (all in The New Testament), Matthew 4:25, Mark 5:20, and Mark 7:31. But, what on earth is it?
Well, the word comes from the Greek deka, meaning “ten” and the Greek polis, meaning “city”. So, the Decapolis is the region of ten cities.
Now, from the reading that I’ve done, it seems that we don’t exactly have the best records for what the Decapolis fully was. But, I’ll go ahead and piece it together as best as I can.
Pretty much, at the time of Christ, the Decapolis referred to a region mostly east of the Jordan River. There were a total of ten cities (although maybe more than ten) that all were part of the Roman Empire but had been granted a large degree of independence.
Only one city in the Decapolis was west of the Jordan River. Scythopolis. It was apparently one of the richest and most powerful of the cities.
And while most of the cities were all more or less in the same region, Damascus was located a good deal further north than the rest.
There are also conflicting reports of which cities were actually part of the Decapolis. Some resources that I saw said there may have been as many as 18 cities in the Decapolis at some points. It did at least originally refer to just ten cities though (as the name deka polis would have us believe).
But, was “Decapolis” just a description of that general region, or was it the name for a political alliance or confederation between these ten cities? I have got no clue. Some sources say that it might have been an economic alliance between these rich cities. Others speculate that it was an actual political union. And others still guess that it was just a geographical name with no real significance to how the cities worked together.
Even though we don’t know too much about how the Decapolis region actually operated, we do know a bit more about its history.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, there were a few new Greek Empires across the Middle East. Over the course of the next couple centuries, these empires founded most of the cities that would later become the Decapolis region.
Then, in 63 BC Pompey the Great (a famous Roman general) came and conquered a decent chunk of the Middle East. By the time that Pompey came around, the Decapolis region (which was still mainly populated and influenced by Greeks) had become conquered by a new Jewish Kingdom.
So, Pompey came and effectively liberated the Decapolis. He granted several cities (maybe ten in total) a large degree of independence from Rome. They were on the extreme border of the Roman Empire at the time, and the cities were all apparently very happy to be in charge of themselves again. In fact, I read several sources describing them as city-states. They even had permission from the Romans to mint their own coins.
Since these cities still kept such a strong Greek influence, that can explain one very well known story in The New Testament. When Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee into the “region of the Gerasenes” (Mark 5:1), He’d entered the Decapolis. The city of Gerasa (from whom the Gerasenes get their name) was another city-state within the Decapolis. And when Jesus at the end of the encounter with the “Garasene Demoniac” casts the demons into a giant herd of pigs, did you ever wonder why there were pigs? Remember, the Jews considered pigs unclean. Well, they were in a Gentile region, the Decapolis. So, these pagans didn’t care much about Jewish dietary law, and they kept plenty of pigs.
From what I can tell, we just don’t have too much information about the Decapolis. But, to sum it all up, it seems that it was a region of at least ten autonomous city-states which were established by Pompey the Great in 63 BC. They were mostly Greeks/Gentiles. And they maintained their wealth and semi-independence until around 106 AD.
I hope that helps.