chapter eight

The Praetoria at

Caesarea Maritima, a prosperous city, was founded by —a client king of —during the years 22–10 BCE to serve as a harbor and an administrative capital of the expanding kingdom of Judaea. Yet, the major city of Herod’s kingdom, and its religious and cultural center was —the Jewish holy city. Five routes con- nected Caesarea to the hinterland—the fertile land of —and hence to the Judaean Hills. The Herodian city had a royal palace, a deep-water harbor, a temple overlooking the harbor and the entire city, and two entertainment structures—a theater and a hippo-stadium. In 6 CE, when Judaea came under direct Roman rule, the governor established his seat in Herod’s palace, known as Herod’s praetorium in Ac 23:35. Paul was detained there for two years (58–60 CE) before being fetched to Rome to be sentenced at the emperor’s court. In this Palace I (41–44 CE), king of Judaea, died after a short illness. Earlier, in 26 CE, the Jews of Jerusalem sent a delegation to to protest against the introduction into Jerusalem of military standards with the images of Emperor Tiberius, in contrast to earlier custom. They assembled in the Great Stadium, adjacent to the palace. Under Vespasian, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Cae- sarea became a Roman colony and the province was promoted to be ruled by a legatus Augusti of senatorial rank. Caesarea became the cap- ital of the province—Iudaeae caput according to Tacitus (Hist. 2.78). At this stage, its financial affairs were entrusted to an official ofan equestrian rank—the procurator provinciae. The first known procura- tor was L. Laberius Maximus (War 7.6. 6 [216]). He served under the governor Lucilius Bassus, who captured the fortresses of and .1 Archaeological excavations carried out in Caesarea since the 1970s uncovered the remains of these two praetoria—that of the legatus

1 War 7.6.1–6 (163–218); 7.8.1 (252); Schürer 1973: 515. 206 chapter eight

­Augsti pro praetore and that of the procurator provinciae. These struc- tures yielded also a wealth of inscriptions, which enable us to identify the function of some of their wings.

Herod’s Palace and the Praetorium of the Roman Governor (Figs. 17, 106, 107)2

Herod’s palace extended over two terraces with a difference of eleva- tion of ca. 3.6 m. The two-storied lower-terrace palace (110 × 55 m in size),3 built in the first phase (22–15 BCE) of the building operations at Caesarea, served as the private wing. It occupied a natural promontory extending 100 m into the Mediterranean. The E side and the SE corner were cut out of the bed-rock. The various wings, whose foundations were almost at sea level, surrounded a large, rectangular, rock-cut pool (35 × 18 m), 2 m deep, lined with hydraulic plaster4 with a rectangular base, presumably for a statue, at its center. It was a swimming pool, fed by sweet water, typical of Herodian palaces.5 The pool was surrounded by open walks 2.6 m wide, and on three sides (S, W and N) by colon- nades 4.2 m wide, with a 2.3 m intercolumniation. Rectangular plant- ers filled with garden soil were rock-cut between the columns. The E wing, in a better state of preservation, constituted a dinning suite looking west, comprising of a central hall (93.5 sq m) interpreted as a Herodian triclinium, flanked on either side by two small rooms. At least four phases of modifications and reflooring were traced.6

2 On this complex, excavated by several expeditions (Hebrew University of Jeru- salem, University of Pennsylvania, and the Antiquities Authority), see Levine and Netzer 1986; Netzer 1999a: 109–14; Netzer 1996; Gleason 1996; Burrell 1996. See also Burrell, Gleason, and Netzer 1993. Gleason et al. 1998. During the years 1995–97, in the framework of Israel Antiquities Authority excavations directed by Y. Porath, further parts of the N, S, and E wings of the praetorium were exposed. For a short preliminary note, see Rochman 1998; Porath 2001. See also Cotton and Eck 2001; Porath 2008; Netzer 2006: 106–112. 3 gleason et al. 1998: 29. According to Burrell 1996: 240, the dimensions of the rectangular structure (without the semicircular western projection) are 40 × 80 m; according to Netzer 1996: 198-201, they are 83 × 51 m, giving a total area of c. 4400 sq m for the lower story (including the projections), and 8000 sq m in two stories. 4 italian pozzolana cement, imported to Caesarea only in Herod’s time, was used in the pool (Gleason et al., 1998: 29. 5 swimming pools were also found in Herod’s palaces at , , Herodium and Hyrcania. See Netzer 1986. For Hyrcania, see Patrich 1992. See also Elitzur 2008. 6 at first the rock-trimmed back wall of the triclinium was plain, and thefacade had one or three doorways. Later an apse was cut in the back wall, and the entire hall,