Difference between revisions of "Category:Scythopolis (subject)"

Scythopolis (now Beit Shean, Israel) was a Hellenistic polis, the capital of the Decapolis, the only one on the west side of the Jordan.

Overview

The ancient Canaanite city was deserted around 700 BCE and rebuilt as a Hellenistic city in the 3rd-2nd century BCE. It was then called Scythopolis, "the city of the Scythians", probably because of the Scythian cavalry in the army of Ptolemy II. In the second century BCE, the Seleucids gave the city an additional name "Nysa" in honor of the nurse of the goddess Dionysus, who according to mythology had been born there.

The city was conquered by John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE), and then by Pompey (63 BCE) when it became the capital city of the Decapolis. In Roman times it was a very prosperous city, walled, with the hippodrome, a theatre, and pagan temples. It later became a Christian city and the seat of the bishopry.

The city declined in Muslim times and was devastated by the earthquake of January 18, 749 CE.

Scythopolis in ancient sources

Judith 3:10; 2 Macc. 12:29-30. (cf 1 Macc. 12:40 where Heb. name Beth-shan is used.)

Scythopolis in scholarship

Excavations were conducted in 1921-33 by the University of Pennsylvania under C. S. Fisher, A. Rowe, and G. M. FitzGerald. Yadin and Geva conducted a short season in the 1980s, and Amihai Mazar led a Hebrew University excavation in 1989-96.

Scythopolis in fiction

Related categories

• Decapolis, Gerasa, Gadara

External links

• Wikipedia