Canatha

• SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:Canatha (subject)

Canatha (now Qanawat, Syria) was a Hellenistic polis in Transjordan, one of the cities of the Decapolis.

Overview

The origins of the city are obscure. In 64 BCE it was annexed by Pompey to the Roman province of Syria. Restored by Gabinius, it became part of the Decapolis as Gabinia Canatha.

Josephus reports that at the time of Herod the Great the city was contended by Jews and Nabateans. Near Canatha Herod suffered a defeat, which forced him to retreat to the west of the Jordan.

One of the region's commercial centers, Canatha continued to be part of the Decapolis, until it was annexed again to the Roman province of Syria at the end of the 1st century CE. When in 106 the Romans conquered the territories of the Nabateans and formed the new province of Arabia, Canatha remained initially incorporated in the province of Syria. The governor of Syria Cornelius Palma made extensive research to improve the water supplies of the city. Only later, in 195/196, during the reorganization of the provinces of Syria and Arabia, the city (renamed Septimia Canatha) was annexed to the province of Arabia, whose administrative capital was Bosra.

Canatha continued to flourished in the Byzantine period, when it became an important center for the spread of Christianity. Canatha was a bishopric before the fifth century; its Bishop was present at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

The city's importance declined with the Arab conquest in 637. Like other cities in the region, Canatha was largely destroyed by the earthquake of January 748. By the 9th century the city was reduced to a poor village.

Canatha in ancient sources

• See Canatha (sources)

Canatha in scholarship

Canatha is now a large archaeological site, featuring a Roman bridge and a rock-hewn theatre (with nine tiers of seats and an orchestra nineteen meters in diameter) as well as a nymphaeum, an aqueduct, a large prostyle temple with portico and colonnades, and a peripteral temple of the Helios preceded by a double colonnade. The monument known as Es-Serai was originally a 2nd century CE temple before being turned into a Christian basilica in the 4th-5th centuries. It is 22 m long, and was preceded by an outside portico and an atrium with eighteen columns.

Related categories

• Decapolis (Canatha, Damascus, Dion, Gadara, Gerasa, Hippos, Pella, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis)

External links

• Wikipedia
• Catholic Encyclopedia

Pictures on the web

• Map: [1] <Wikimedia>

• Helios Temple: [2] <Wikipedia>

• Basilica: [3] / [4] <antikforever.com>