Places

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Sussita

Alternative names: Hippus, Susita, Hippos

Place description

Hippos was a small city (140 dunams; 14 hectares; 35 acres), located on a high and naturally fortified hill on the eastern shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) with the profile of a horse’s saddle (hippos), established during the Hellenistic period and later one of the cities of the Decapolis. It was under Hasmonean control for a period, then restored as an independent polis by Pompey in 63 BCE (War 1.156), and then ceded to Herod the Great in 30 BCE (War 1.396). Following Herod’s death, it was annexed to Syria (War 2.97). There were struggles locally between Jews and Gentiles at the beginning of the Great Revolt (Gregg & Urman 1996: 21), during which period Justus of Tiberias set fire to some of the villages in its chôra (Life 42).<br>Limited excavations at the site have disclosed the strict Hippodamian plan of the city and uncovered the remains of two large Byzantine churches. The churches reused many architectural elements that originated in former Roman temples of the city, including red and gray granite columns and numerous Corinthian and Ionic capitals. Early Roman period pottery and coins were found at the site. There are remains of a Roman period aqueduct carrying water to a Nymphaeum in the center of the city, a Roman road, and milestones, extensive remains of the city wall (especially on the south), together with Roman period sarcophagi and mausolea, and the remains of a rock-cut moat on the southeast. <br> Small finds. In 1974 a surprising epigraph was discovered “to Dusares,” indicating that Nabatean religion and culture had penetrated to Hippos by the second century CE, by which time Dushara had been assimilated to Zeus.<br>Coins. The first coins of the city were minted in 37 BCE. After a gap of a hundred years, minting continued again during the reign of Nero, perhaps as a result of the beginning of the Jewish Revolt and the cooperation of the city and its citizens with the Roman authorities against the Galilean insurgents.