378 KEEPEKS OF THE HERD OF SWINE * 



neci opolis of Gadara are still to be seen. Innu- 

 merable sepulchral chambers are excavated in the 

 limestone cliffs, and many of them still contain 

 sarcophaguses of basalt ; while not a few are con- 

 verted into dwellings by the inhabitants of the 

 present village of Una Keis. The distance of 

 Gadara from the south-eastern shore of the Lake 

 of Tiberias is less than seven miles. The nearest 

 of the other cities of the Decapolis, to the north, is 

 Hippos, which also lay some seven miles off, in the 

 south-eastern corner of the shore of the lake. In 

 accordance with the ancient Hellenic practice, 

 that each city should be surrounded by a certain 

 amount of territory amenable to its jurisdiction, 1 

 and on other grounds, it may be taken for 

 certain that the intermediate country was divided 

 between Gadara and Hippos ; and that the citizens 

 of Gadara had free access to a port on the lake. 

 Hence the title of "country of the Gadarenes " 

 applied to the locality of the porcine catastrophe 

 becomes easily intelligible. The swine may well 

 be imagined to have been feeding (as they do now 

 in the adjacent region) on the hillsides, which slope 

 somewhat steeply down to the lake from the north- 

 ern boundary wall of the valley of the Hieromices 

 (Nahr Yarmuk], about half-way between the city 



1 Thus Josephus (lib. ix. ) says that his rival, Justus, per- 

 suaded the citizens of Tiberias to " set the villages that belonged 

 to Gadara and Hippos on fire ; which villages were situated on 

 the borders of Tiberias and of the region of Scythopolis. " 



