Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Scythopŏlis

（Σκυθόπολις). The Old Test. Bethshan, now Beisan. An important city of Palestine, in the southeast of Galilee, according to the usual division, but sometimes also reckoned to Samaria, sometimes to Decapolis, and sometimes to CoeleSyria. It is often mentioned in Old Testament history, in the time of the Maccabees, and under the Romans. It had a mixed population of Canaanites, Philistines, and Assyrian settlers (Pliny , Pliny H. N. v. 74). Under the late Roman Empire it became the seat of the archbishop of Palestina Secunda, and it continued a flourishing city to the time of the first Crusade.