Between the 3rd century BC and the 7th century AD, Hippos as it was then called was the site of a Greco-Roman city, which then declined under Muslim rule and was abandoned after an earthquake in 749. Besides the fortified city itself, Hippos controlled two port facilities on the lake and an area of the surrounding countryside. Hippos was part of the Decapolis, or Ten Cities, a region in Roman Jordan, Syria and Israel that were culturally tied more closely to Greece and Rome than to the Semitic ethnic around.
It would have been to this city that the swineherds ran to tell of the fate of their pigs. And it would have been the residents of this city who begged Jesus to leave their neighborhood (Matthew 8:34).
Hippos may also have been the hilltop city Jesus referred to when he said, “A city built on a hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14).
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The remains of a Byzantine cathedral and four other churches have been found at Hippos, and a bishop from Hippos is recorded as attending the Church councils of Nicea and Constantinople in the 4th century.
Newly a mosaic depicting fish, birds and baskets of what may be bread was uncovered, may commemorate the historic location of the miracle recorded in the New Testament in which Jesus miraculously feeds a multitude, according to the lead archaeologist at the site, Haifa University’s Dr. Michael Eisenberg.
The colorful mosaic was uncovered in the ongoing Hippos-Sussita Excavation Project at the Sussita National Park’s South-West or Burnt Church. The 15-meter by 10-meter mosaic carpet is bursting with fish, birds and 12 baskets filled with fruit, flowers and — arguably — bread. The traditional location of the miracle is across the sea at the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in Tabgha, which houses a famous mosaic depicting two fish on either side of what is thought to be a bread basket.
It is the Sussita church’s combination of fish and bread baskets that has led the archeologist to believe that the mosaic could be a record of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and a clue hinting at a historic location for the feat.