The early history of Gerasa is unkno\vn ; it first appears in history as an important fortified city in the account of its capture (c. S3 B.C. ; BJl. iv. 8) by Alexander Jannji-us, the Hasmonrean king of the Jews. Having subdued PeUa, he directed his march on the city of Gerasa, lured by the treasures of Theodoras, son of Zeno, and, having hemmed in the garrison by a triple wall of circumvallation, carried the place by assault. In Ant. XIII. xv. 3 PeUa is called Dios, or placed close to it, and Gerasa is called Essa. In A.D. 65 Gerasa, as one of the cities of Decapolis, was probably rebuilt by the Romans. On the revolt of the Jews against the Roman dominion they laid waste the callages of the Syrians and their neighbouring cities, among wliich were Gerasa and Pella ; and 'every city was divided into two armies, encamped one against another ' ; but the Gerasenes did no harm to those Jews who abode amongst them, and even conducted those who wished it as far as their border {BJ II. XV. 1, 5). Shortly after this, Vespasian sent Lucius Aniiius to Gerasa with an army, who took the city and slew a thousand young men, and plundered and burned the city {BJ IV. ix. 1). Nothing further is heard of Gerasa in history ; but during the peaceful age of the Antonines (A.D. 138 to 180) it attained a position of the greatest prosperity, and was adorned by monuments, which, still existing, show that it became one of the most important cities of SjTia. It subsequently became tne scat of a bishopric, and the name of one of its prelates is found amongst those who were present at the Council of Clialcedon. There is no evidence that the city was ever inhabited by the Arabs after the Roman and Byzantine period. In the Talmudic writings and in Jerome, Gerash and Gilead are synonymous. Reland states that coins of Gerasa exist, showing the worship of Artemis in the temple there in 2nd cent. (cf. Schiirer, IfJP ii. i. 118). During the Crasades Baldwin (A.D. 1121) besieged a castle constructed of large stones called Jarras, supposed to be Gerasa ; but AVilliam of Tyre, in speaking of the siege, makes the distance not far fr<;m the Jordan ; and as Gerasa has no appearance
of having been occupied by any settled population since its destruction during the livzantine [leriod, it was probably some other castle that Baldwin attacked.
It is probable that the fountains and waters of Palestine, where conveniently situated, mark the sites of towns and villages from the earliest times, and that the splendid perennial stream and foun- tains of Jerdsh must have been cho.sen as a position for a town at a very early date. No identilication, however, appears to have been attenqited with any success except tliat by Sir George Grove with refer- ence to Ramoth-gilead. He points out that if Ramoth-gilead and Ramath-mizpah are identical, a more northern position than es-Salt would seem inevitable, and that the Arabic version of the Bk. of Joshua gives Ramat el-Jerash, thus identi- fying the Gerasa of the classical geographers with Ramah of Gilead. The Jewish traveller Parchi says that ' Gilead is at present Djerash' (Zunz in Asher's Benjamin, 405). See Ramoth-Gilead.
Jer&sh is situated in the Bclka of the modern Arabs, near their best, pasture ground, which is referred to in the Bible (Dt 3'" 4^"; see Driver's note) as plains {mishor), in RV 'tablelands,' thus having the same signification, to a limited extent, as the Arabic name Jerdsh.
There can be no doubt that the very remarkable ruins still existing in good preservation ia the highlands of Gilead, called Jenlsh, represent the remains of the Roman city of Gerasa of the time of the Antonines ; and although these ruins, so far as they have yet been observed, are distinctly attri- butable to the 2nd to 5th cents., there is no reason- able doubt that thej' are built on the site of the earlier Greek city of Gerasa. This locality is mentioned by YakCibi in the 7th cent, as being in his time one of the towns of the Jordan Provinces, and the poet Al JIutanabbi praises the fertility of Jerdsh. Yakflt in the 13th cent., who had not himself seen the spot, describes it as a ' great city now in ruins ' through which runs a stream wliicli turned many mills, and relates that the Jerdsh mountains contained many villages.
Jerdsh is beautifully situated hi the highlands of GUead, 20 miles east of the Jordan, the same distance north of'Ammdn (Philadelphia), 22 miles from Fdhel (Pella), and G miles north of Wadi/ Zerka (Jabbok). It is 1900 ft. above the level o'f the Mediterranean, in the midst of hills rising from 500 to 600 ft. higher, until the tablelands [mishur], called by the Arabs Belka, are reached, which during part of the year are rich pasture, and for a short period in the autumn appear to be desert. The city occupies a considerable portion of a shallow valley, the ruins stretching some way up the lime- stone hills ; and through the midst runs a delightful perennial stream fringed with oleanders, and falling about 1000 ft. before reaching the Zerka, 6 miles to south. The city is surrounded by wall.s, built in the outline of an irregular nine-sided polygon, about 3000 yards in circumference, the stream dividing it into two nearly equal parts : the greater portion to the west, on which side are all the public buildings ; the private buildin''s occupy- ing the east side of the stream and the higiier f round to the west. The site of the city is un- ulating and full of knolls, afibrding most excellent positions for public buildings. The walls of the city are much decayed, and in some parts have been quite removed — they have been 8 ft. thick, and are built of small squared stones of limestone. There have been at least six ^ates in the wall — three to west, one to east, and the two principal north and south gates. Between these two gates runs a paved road with a double row of columns on the west side of the stream, close to it on ths north and about 100 yards from it on the so-ith ;