That same year, Pompey the Great of Rome
vanquished the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI
Eupator, who controlled lands in what is now
Turkey. The death of Mithridates allowed Rome
to gain a strong foothold in the eastern Mediter-
ranean and to expand in the region.
In 63 B.C. Pompey annexed the province of
Syria, to the north of Jerash. Jerash itself, and
its neighboring Hellenistic cities, were singled
out by Rome for special treatment as oases of
classical culture in a region of Semitic customs.
The city was grouped with nine other Helle-
nistic settlements—including, according to
the first-century A.D. Roman writer Pliny the
Elder, Scythopolis, Damascus, and Philadel-
phia. The Romans termed these the Decapolis,
a Greek term meaning “10 cities,” which were
permitted to function as semi-independent
city-states.Building Boom
When Emperor Nero conquered the Nabataean
Kingdom in the first century A.D., its capital,
Petra, was tied ever closer to the Roman world.
The region boomed as a result, and Jerash was
an immediate beneficiary as wealth from the
Nabataean caravans flowed through the streets.
At the beginning of the second century, Em-
peror Trajan formally incorporated the city, and
the Nabataean lands, into the new province of
Arabia Petraea. Swathes of roadways were paved,
including the old King’s Highway—from then
known as the Via Nova Traiana (Trajan’s New
Road)—which brought the wealth of the east
flooding up to Jerash through Aqaba.
Jerash used its wealth to build a huge Temple
of Artemis in the mid-second century. Its gran-
deur, together with its Oval Plaza, South The-
ater, and arch dedicated to Emperor Hadrian,
still amazes visitors today. Although Rome’s
wider economic crisis in the third century dis-
rupted its lucrative trade flow, Jerash’s ability
to adapt ensured it underwent a second flush
of prosperity when it fell under the aegis of the
Byzantine Empire in the fourth century.
An earthquake destroyed much of the city
in 749, but the ruins were located in 1806 by
German explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen. Today
Jerash is considered to be among the best pre-
served of all Roman ruins in the Middle East;
the city’s remains are prized by UNESCO as an
“ancient meeting place of East and West.”lay Petra, the capital of the flourishing Nabataean
empire that was minting its own coins at the
time the Seleucids were founding Jerash.
Nabataean caravans passed through Jerash
on the way to Damascus and Palmyra, leaving
their own cultural mark on the city. Greek and
Semitic names have been found on inscriptions
at the site, and underlying the dominant Helle-
nistic religious rituals, the ancient Semitic gods
also had a foothold. Along with Greek, other
languages could have been heard on Jerash’s
streets, including the indigenous Aramaic lan-
guage, which would later be the mother tongue
of Jesus of Nazareth.Roman Inf luences
The Seleucid rulers did not have long to leave
their mark on Jerash. The rise of the Parthian
empire to the east was loosening the grip of Al-
exander’s successors on the region. In 129 B.C.
the Seleucid king Antiochus VII Sidetes was
killed in a sudden Parthian attack.
Syria was plunged into chaos, and
Jerash was briefly ruled by
warlords.
As the Seleucids declined,
another powerful civilization
sought to control Jerash and the
trade flowing along the King’s
Highway. Alexander Jannaeus,
king of the Hasmonaean dy-
nasty of Judaea, took over Jer-
ash in 102 B.C. Controlling what
is today modern Israel, the Pal-
estinian territories, and west-
ern Jordan, the Hasmonaeans
ruled the city until 63 B.C.MAGNIFICENT
MOSAICS
Above, a mosaic
pavement from Jerash,
produced in the early
third century A.D.,
depicts the Greek
historian Thucydides.
Staatliche Museen,
Berlin
BPK/SCALA, FLORENCE
DEA/GETTY IMAGES
A SPECIALIST IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE, EVA TOBALINA TEACHES ANCIENT
HISTORY AT THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LA RIOJA, SPAIN.A LION OF JUPITER
JERASH’S SECOND-CENTURY
TEMPLE OF ZEUS-JUPITER
WAS DECORATED WITH
RELIEFS DEPICTING LIONS,
SUCH AS THIS ONE, BELOW.
32 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019