Dear Friends!
I have seen that I haven't post until now an article about
Gadara and the Battle of Yarmouk. So I want to post it today-
The coin:Syria, Dekapolis,
Gadara,
Marcus Aurelius, AD 161-180
AE 23, 7.31g, 22.37mm, 0°
struck AD 160/61 (year 224, Pompeian era)
obv. AVT KAIC
M AVR - ANTWNEINOC
Bust, draped and
cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. GADAREWN (l.
field from below)
r.
field DKC (year 224)
Tyche (city goddess) of
Gadara, in short
chiton, stg. frontal,
head r., holding in l.
arm cornucopiae and resting with raised l. hand on long
sceptre; on her r.
side Nike stg. l. on
column crowning her with
wreath; at her feet a
river god swimming frontal
ref.
Spijkerman 42;
RPC IV online temp. nr. 6669 (same dies)
Very
rare, VF, grey green
patinapedigree:
ex coll.
Reinhart Falter
ex
Helios Auktion Nr.3, 29./30.4.2009, Lot 739
Gadara, todays Umm Quais, in the
Roman imperial time belonging to the South Syrian cities league of Dekapolis, is today located in the extreme Northwest of Jordan 35km
west of the
provincial main town Irbid. The preferred situation in immediate neighbourhood of an agricultural fertile plateau above the river Yarmuk, eye contact to the Lake Tiberias and into the Valley of the river Jordan, which gave this place at all time a special strategic importance, and finally the linkage to the transregional road network were the reason to found
Gadara on an isolated 350m high brow of rock, providing furthermore favourable defending possibilities. In
Roman time the Yarmouk was called Hieromax. Therefore I think the depicted
river god will be the Hieromax.
Probably
Gadara was a Ptolomaic fortress which has been destroyed by Antiochos III about 200 BC. 100 years later the settlement was destroyed again by the
Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus. Pompeji captured the city for the
Roman empire in 64 BC. The city was incorporated into the Dekapolis. For a while
Gadara was under control of Herodes the Great, after
his death in AD 4 it became
part of the
Roman province
Syria, later of
Arabia Petra. As
Roman city it acquired considerable importance.
Gadara is remarkable for various reasons. Under
Hadrian began the construction of a 170km long water pipe that partially
ran subterraneously. One of its tunnels
had a lengst of 106 km - the longest ancient tunnel worldwide - that was discovered in 2004 by
German researchers.. It was an engeenering master piece and should supply the cities of Adra'a,
Abila and
Gadara.
Historically
Gadara is important, because here from August 15 to August 20 AD 636 the Battle of Yarmouk was fought. This Battle between the Califate of the Rashidun and the
Byzantine Empire lasted 6 days and ended with the catastrophical defeat of the
Byzantine army. This battle is seen as one of the most decisive battles of the
history of
man. This battle represents the first big wave of
Islamic conquests after the death of Mohammed and led to the rapid advance of Islam into the
Christian Levant. Byzanz lost
Mesopotamia,
Syria,
Palestine and was no more able to keep
Egypt. It was a desaster from which Byzanz never could recover. It was the beginning of the rise of the Muslims and the decline of the
Byzantine Empire which ended in AD 1457 in the conquest of
Constantinopolis.
Khalid ibn al-Walid, the winner of this battle against a considerable greater enemy - the
Byzantine troups are estimated at 80 - 100 Thousand, the
Islamic troups in contrast at 25 - 40 Thousand - here realized
his most important triumph and hereby strengthened
his fame as great strategian and leader of cavalry. Who is interested in
history and importance of this battle should read the article in
Wikipedia.
I have added a pic of the
Byzantine central
church that has been unearthed since 1974 in order of the Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft
des Heiligen Landes. Today this institute operates closely with the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut at the resesarch of this ancient place.
Sources:(1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarmouk_River(2)
http://www.dainst.org/index_580_de.htmlWater pipe to
Gadara:
(3)
http://www.zabern.de/pdfs/2200038_1.pdf(4)
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-40517-4.htmlBattle of Yarmouk:
(5)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_YarmoukBest regards
