Hippos / Sussita
- SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:Hippos (subject)
- ANCIENT SOURCES: see Hippos (sources)
Hippos / Sussita (now in Israel) was a Hellenistic polis in Transjordan, one of the cities of the Decapolis.
Overview
Born as a Ptolemaic military outpost, Hippos (Antiochia Hippos) grew into a city under the Seleucids. According to Josephus, Alexander Jannaeus forced the entire population of Hippos to convert to Judaism and be circumcised.
In 63 BCE, after Pompey's conquest, Hippos was granted semi-autonomous status as part of the Decapolis. Hippos maintained such status during the Roman period with a brief parenthesis between 37 and 4 BCE, when the city was given to Herod the Great. The predominantly pagan Hippos rivaled with the predominantly Jewish Tiberias for the economic control of the See of Galilee. The growth of the city however was limited by the chronic lack of water supplies.
During the Jewish War, Hippos sided with the Romans. Its territory was devastated by the Jews under the leadership of Justus of Tiberias. In retaliation, the inhabitants of Hippus killed or imprisoned the Jewish residents.
The second century was the time of greater prosperity and growth. The construction of an aqueduct finally allowed a larger population to reside in the city.
Christianity penetrated slowly to Hippos, which only in the 4th century became the seat of a bishop.
The city continued to flourished during the Byzantine period, but its importance rapidly declined with the Arab conquest in 641. After the earthquake of 749, the city was abandoned permanently.
Hippos in ancient sources
Hippos in scholarship
Gottlieb Schumacher was the first to survey the ruins of Hippos in 1885.
The first excavations were carried out by Israeli archaeologists Emmanuel Anati, Claire Epstein, Michael Avi-Yona and others in 1951-1955.
Since 2000, extensive excavations have been conducted by an Israeli-Polish-American team.
Hippos in fiction
Related categories
- Decapolis (Canatha, Damascus, Dion, Gadara, Gerasa, Hippos, Pella, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis)