[154] Thus Josephus (lib. ix.) says that his rival, Justus, persuaded 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."
[155] It is said to have been destroyed by its captors.
[156] "But as to the Grecian cities Gaza and Gadara and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom and added them to Syria."—Josephus, Wars, II. vi. 3. See also Antiquities, XVII. xi. 4.
[157] Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Christi, 1886-90.
[158] If William the Conqueror, after fighting the battle of Hastings had marched to capture Chichester and then returned to assault Rye, being all the while anxious to reach London, his proceedings would not have been more eccentric than Mr. Gladstone must imagine those of Vespasian were.
[159] See Reland, Palestina (1714), t. ii. p. 771. Also Robinson, Later Biblical Researches (1856), p. 87 note.
[160] Nineteenth Century, February 1891, pp. 339-40.
[161] Neither is it of any consequence whether the locality of the supposed miracle was Gadara, or Gerasa, or Gergesa. But I may say that I was well acquainted with Origen's opinion respecting Gergesa. It is fully discussed and rejected in Riehm's Handwörterbuch. In Kitto's Biblical Cyclopædia (ii. p. 51) Professor Porter remarks that Origen merely "conjectures" that Gergesa was indicated; and he adds, "Now, in a question of this kind, conjectures cannot be admitted. We must implicitly follow the most ancient and creditable testimony, which clearly pronounces in favour of Γαδαρηνῶν. This reading is adopted by Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles."
[162] I may call attention, in passing, to the fact that this authority, at any rate, has no sort of doubt of the fact that Jewish Law did not rule in Gadara (indeed, under the head of "Gadara," in the same work, it is expressly stated that the population of the place consisted "predominantly of heathens"), and that he scouts the notion that the Gadarene swineherds were Jews.
[163] The evidence adduced, so far as post-exile times are concerned, appears to me insufficient to prove this assertion.