380 KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE * 



Augustus made a present of Gadara to Herod 

 the Great, as an appanage personal to himself; 

 and, upon Herod's death, recognising it to be a 

 " Grecian city " like Hippos and Gaza, 1 he trans- 

 ferred it back to its former place in the province 

 of Syria. That Herod made no effort to judaise 

 his temporary possession, but rather the contrary, 

 is obvious from the fact that the coins of Gadara, 

 while under his rule, bear the image of Augustus 

 with the superscription Se^Sotrro? a flying in the 

 face of Jewish prejudices which, even he, did not 

 dare to venture upon in Judaea. And I may 

 remark that, if my co-trustee of the British 

 Museum had taken the trouble to visit the 

 splendid numismatic collection under our charge, 

 he might have seen two coins of Gadara, one of 

 the time of Tiberius and the other of that of 

 Titus, each bearing the effigies of the emperor on 

 ,the obverse : while the personified genius of the 

 city is on the reverse of the former. Further, 

 the well-known works of De Saulcy and of Ekhel 

 would have supplied the information that, from 

 the time of Augustus to that of Gordian, the 

 Gadarene coinage had the same thoroughly Gen- 

 tile character. Curious that a city of " Hebrews 

 bound by the Mosaic law " should tolerate such a 

 mint! 



1 " But as to the Grecian cities, Gaza and Gadara and Hippos, 

 he cut them off from the kingdom and added them to Syria." 

 Josej.hus, Wars t II. vi. 3. See also Antiquities^ XVII. xi. 4. 



