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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jochen1, post: 8307424, member: 103829&quot;]Dear friends of ancient history!</p><p><br /></p><p>Reading your posts about Gadara I remember that I have an older article that is worth to share with you.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The coin:</b></p><p>Syria, Dekapolis, Gadara, Marcus Aurelius, AD 161-180</p><p>AE 23, 7.31g, 22.37mm, 0°</p><p>struck AD 160/61 (year 224, Pompeian era)</p><p>obv. AVT KAIC M AVP - ANTΩNEINOC</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r.</p><p>rev. ΓAΔAPEΩN (l. field from below)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; r. field ΔKC (year 224)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Tyche (city goddess) of Gadara, in short chiton, stg. frontal, head r., holding in l. arm </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 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</p><p>ref. Spijkerman 42; RPC IV online temp. nr. 6669 (same dies)</p><p>Very rare, VF, grey green patina</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1470320[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>Pedigree:</b></p><p>ex coll. Reinhart Falter</p><p>ex Helios Auktion Nr.3, 29./30.4.2009, Lot 739</p><p><br /></p><p>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&nbsp; 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 <i>Hieromax</i>. Therefore I think the depicted river god will be the <i>Hieromax</i>.</p><p><br /></p><p>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. </p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;a, Abila and Gadara.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1470322[/ATTACH] </p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Sources:</b></p><p>(1) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarmouk_River" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarmouk_River" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarmouk_River</a></p><p>(2) <a href="http://www.dainst.org/index_580_de.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.dainst.org/index_580_de.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dainst.org/index_580_de.html</a></p><p>Water pipe to Gadara:</p><p>(3) <a href="http://www.zabern.de/pdfs/2200038_1.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.zabern.de/pdfs/2200038_1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.zabern.de/pdfs/2200038_1.pdf</a></p><p>(4) <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-40517-4.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-40517-4.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-40517-4.html</a></p><p>Battle of Yarmouk: </p><p>(5) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yarmouk" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yarmouk" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yarmouk</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards</p><p>Jochen[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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