Scythopolis
Scythopolis, originally known as Beit She'an, is an ancient city located in northern Israel, near the Jordan River and the Jezreel Valley. Its history dates back to the Chalcolithic Age, with significant developments during the Late Bronze Age and Biblical times. After being conquered by Alexander the Great, the city came under Ptolemaic control and was renamed Scythopolis, possibly reflecting connections to Scythians settled there. Throughout its history, Scythopolis was a cultural hub, claiming ties to the myth of Nysa, the nurturing site of the god Dionysus.
During the Roman period, Scythopolis became a prominent member of the Decapolis, a league of ten cities that facilitated trade with the west. The city faced tumult during the First Jewish Revolt, resulting in the massacre of its Jewish inhabitants. Despite these challenges, Scythopolis thrived in the later Roman and Byzantine periods, featuring a blend of Jewish and Christian communities. Notable archaeological remains include a theater from around 200 AD and various religious structures, showcasing the city's rich cultural heritage and significance across different epochs.
Scythopolis
Skythopolis, formerly Beit-shan (`House of [the god] Shan’) or Beit-shean (`House of Security’) and later Tell el-Husn, `the Mound of the Fortress.’
A city of Judaea (now Israel) at the northern border of Samaria, occupying a strong and fertile site on the bank of the Harod watercourse near the right (west) bank of its mother stream, the Jordan, at the beginning of the Jezreel (Esdraelon) valley. After a long and significant history going back to the Chalcolithic Age and attaining its zenith in the Late Bronze Age and Biblical epoch, Bethshan formed part of the territories conquered from the Persians by Alexander the Great.
It was then taken over by the Ptolemies, under whom it assumed the designation of Scythopolis, either owing to a similar local Semitic place-name (Succoth?) or because Scythians were settled there by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (289/8–246 BC). But it also claimed (like nearly a dozen other towns listed by stephanus of Byzantium) to be the legendary Nysa, where the infant god Dionysus had been nursed by the nymphs (according to the elder Pliny it was Dionysus who settled the Scythians there!); he and Astarte (Ashtoreth) were the principal divinities of the city. In 198 it passed under Seleucid control as a result of the conquests of Antiochus III the Great. However, the Jewish (Hasmonaean) prince John Hyrcanus I secured possession of the place in 107 either through betrayal or by force of arms (according to contradictory accounts by Josephus); given the choice of converting to Judaism or leaving, most of the inhabitants left. After the conquest of Judaea by Pompey the Great (63), Scythopolis was rebuilt as a pagan city by Aulus Gabinius (57), becoming a member of an autonomous League of Ten Cities or Decapolis (loosely attached to the province of Syria and later Judaea), of which the other nine lay across the Jordan, so that Scythopolis served as the League's indispensable trade-link with the west.
At the outset of the First Jewish Revolt against the Romans (AD 66), the local Jewish community claimed to support the Greek administration of the city against the rebels (or were compelled to take up arms against them: Josephus again gives divergent accounts), but were nevertheless ordered out of their homes and then massacred by its Greek leaders to the number of more than 13,000. Later Scythopolis was successively attached to the provinces of Syria Palaestina and Palaestina Secunda. Over a quarter of all the inscribed mile-stones in Israel have been found along the road to Legio Maximianopolis (near Megiddo). The scene of Christian martyrdoms in the later third and early fourth centuries, Scythopolis was an episcopal see, and both its Jewish and Christian communities enjoyed great prosperity in the later Roman and Byzantine epochs.
A Christian church was built on the site of a Hellenistic temple (earlier a Canaanite shrine), and outside the town a villa of mid-fifth century date has revealed mosaics indicating the name of the owner, Kyrios Leontis; they depict the Jewish Menorah (seven-branched candlestick), and display Greek mythological and Nilotic scenes. The principal earlier surviving monument is a theater of c 200 with accommodation for some 5,000 spectators, restored under Julian the Apostate (361–63) and abandoned by c 450; between the theater and the mound are remains of a colonnaded avenue and a bridge.