Jerash (Gerasa) |
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Written by Stephen Langfur |
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Page 2 of 3 A Walk in Gerasa We begin our walk with Hadrian's arch, which was positioned, we have seen, in accordance with the sacred geometry that ruled all the monuments in Gerasa. Hadrian succeeded Trajan, whom he'd helped in putting down a revolt by Diaspora Jews (115-117). No sooner was it quelled than preparations for another rebellion began in Judaea itself. Like the first revolt of 66-70 AD, these later uprisings were sparked by a belief that the time of the birthpangs had reached its climax and redemption was about to occur. We have no Josephus, however, to describe the revolts against Trajan and Hadrian; the sources are scanty and contradictory. It seems likely that the Jews of Judaea were encouraged by the following fact: thinking to consolidate the empire and make it more defensible, Hadrian had pulled the Roman army out of all the lands conquered by Trajan east of the Euphrates. (The same policy led to the building of his famous wall in England.) The spectacle of a unilateral Roman withdrawal may have fired the Jews into thinking that they could make their land into a "hot potato" and win the same liberation. By 129, the revolt was in full swing, led by a man nicknamed "Bar Kokhba," "son of a star," whom the rebels identified as the Messiah. (For this unconventional date, see Mantel, pp. 237-242.) The uprising spread beyond Judaea: the legion stationed at Bostra in Provincia Arabia was obliged to get involved. These circumstances explain why Hadrian wintered in Gerasa in 129-30 (Kraeling, p. 49). The arch commemorates his stay. ![]() (A similar arch of Hadrian's, though much built over, is the so-called "Ecce Homo" on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem; it dates from after the revolt, when he banished the Jews from Jerusalem and rebuilt the city in Roman style. Pieces of a third Hadrianic arch have been found twelve miles south of Scythopolis, on the border between Galilee and Samaria.) A few steps away is the hippodrome. It lines up, like the arch, toward the Temple of Artemis and the North Star. Exactly one Roman stadium long (244.05 meters) and 52 wide, it is the smallest known circus in the Roman East, estimated to have seated 15,000. It is also among the best reconstructed. The Gerasa hippodrome currently hosts R.A.C.E. (the Roman Army and Chariot Experience), a company that specializes in reenactments of marching formations, gladiator combat and actual chariot racing - all performed by Jordanian army regulars. ![]() Continuing on the axis mundi, we reach the South Gate, similar in design to Hadrian's arch. Here we enter the oval plaza and begin to understand why there's so much fuss about Jerash: ![]() An oval plaza is unusual. (Many consider it the forum of Gerasa.) The Ionic columns were typical for the first century AD, so it was probably built in the initial surge of construction during the reign of Vespasian. A temple to Zeus had recently been finished after decades of work, and it stood on the same north-south axis as the nearby theater and the streets of the residential section (still visible today) between the decumani. ![]() The photo below is shot from the platform of the Zeus temple. ![]()
If we look at a detail in this picture, we can make out parts of the earlier shrines:
Standing with the five people in the picture above, then looking a little to the left of the camera, we see the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, as rebuilt in 166 AD:
Behind the temple is one of Jerash's best-renovated buildings: the South Theatre. It was erected during the reign of the hated Domitian (c. 92 AD), whose name was inscribed - and later eradicated - on several donors' inscriptions. The climb to the top row is worth the effort: it is the highest point in Gerasa. From here one can get an idea of the scope of the city, much of which remains to be excavated. This and the North Theater are central to the Jerash Arts Festival, an annual event. Combined, their almost 5000 seats fill up for performances by the world's greatest Arab singers.
Descending, we head back to the Oval Plaza and proceed through the Cardo. The colonnades of the Plaza are Ionic, but those of the Cardo are Corinthian, a style typical of the buildings erected in Gerasa during the city's boom period in the 2nd century AD. The Gerasenes widened the street and replaced the Ionic columns from Vespasian's time.
Less than a hundred meters up the street, on our left, is the macellum (Latin) or agora (Greek), a market. Eighty meters more and we reach the south Tetrakionion ("four columns," of which only the square foundations remain), where the group is standing in the photo below. Roman urban planners liked to place four columns at the intersection of the Cardo with the Decumanus, the main east-west street. In Gerasa there were two Decumani, as well as a Sacred Way, each joined by a bridge to the residential section. ![]()
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