Editing Decapolis (section)

===Direct Roman rule===
[[File:Dioecesis Orientis 400 AD.png|thumb|250px|The provinces of the East in the year 400]]
The Decapolis came under direct Roman rule in AD 106, when [[Arabia Petraea]] was annexed during the reign of the emperor [[Trajan]]. The cities were divided between the new province and the provinces of [[Roman Syria|Syria]] and [[Judea (Roman province)|Judea]].<ref name="auto"/> In the later Roman Empire, they were divided between [[Arabia Petraea|Arabia]] and [[Palaestina Secunda]], of which Scythopolis served as the provincial capital; while Damascus became part of [[Phoenice (Roman province)|Phoenice Libanensis]]. The cities continued to be distinct from their neighbors within their provinces, distinguished for example by their use of the [[Pompeian era|Pompeian calendar era]] and their continuing Hellenistic identities. However, the Decapolis was no longer a unit of administration.

The Roman and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] Decapolis region was influenced and gradually taken over by [[Christianity]]. Some cities were more receptive than others to the new religion. Pella was a base for some of the earliest church leaders ([[Eusebius]] reports that the [[Apostle|apostles]] fled there to escape the [[First Jewish–Roman War]]). In other cities, paganism persisted long into the Byzantine era. Eventually, however, the region became almost entirely Christian, and most of the cities served as seats of [[bishop]]s.

Most of the cities continued into the late Roman and Byzantine periods. Some were abandoned in the years following Palestine's conquest by the [[Rashidun Caliphate]] in 641, but other cities continued to be inhabited long into the Islamic period.