Now there was there nigh unto the mountains—literally, on the mountain side ( πρὸς τὰ ὅρη)—a great herd of swine feeding. St. Matthew says (Matthew 8:30), "There was a good way off from them:" our Lord's interview with the demoniac was on the seashore.
"The herd of swine," two thousand in number, were at a distance, feeding on the slopes of the mountain; The Jews were not allowed to eat swine's flesh. But Jews were not the only inhabitants of that district.
It had been colonized, at least in part, by the Romans immediately after the conquest of Syria, some sixty years before Christ. It was in this district that ten cities are said to have been rebuilt by the Romans, whence the territory acquired the name of "the Decapolis."
And though the Jews were forbidden their Law to eat this kind of food, yet they were not forbidden to breed swine for other uses, such as provisioning the Roman army.