Ernor and of the Financial Procurator of That Province
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CAESAREA IN THE TIME OF EUSEBIUS Joseph Patrich Caesarea, the capital of Syria Palaestina,1 was the seat of the Roman gov- ernor and of the financial procurator of that province. Under Severus Alexander (222–235 CE) it acquired the title of Metropolis Palaestinae, reflecting its superior administrative status in the province.2 Accord- ing to Flavius Josephus Herod the Great, who had founded the city, built there a vast harbor, a temple dedicated to Rome and Augustus, a theater and an amphitheater, a royal palace, market places, dwellings, and an underground sewer system. Soon after its foundation Caesarea became a prosperous maritime city, of a heterogeneous ethnicity and a cosmopolitan flavor, as is reflected by the archaeological record: the city coins, statuary, and inscriptions, attesting to its pantheon, and the imported ware and numismatic finds, attesting to its international commerce (Fig. 1). How did the city look like in the time of Eusebius, after more than three centuries since its foundation? after the crisis of the third cen- tury, and the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, when the Latinate element in the provincial and municipal administration everywhere in the East gave way to Greek speaking officiales. According to Eusebius on April 2, 306 a severe earthquake struck the city, making the entire city to tremble, so that people had supposed that the whole place, together with its inhabitants, was about to be destroyed on that day. Neither casualties, nor damages are mentioned by him.3 So far this 1 Caput provinciae, according to Tacitus, Hist., II.78. 2 L. Kadman, The Coins of Caesarea Maritima (Corpus Nummorum Palaestinen- sium 2; Tel Aviv – Jerusalem: Schocken 1957); J. Ringel, Césarée de Palestine: Étude Historique et Archéologique (Paris: Ophrys, 1975), 151–162; M. Rosenberger, City- Coins of Palestine (The Rosenberger Israel Collection; Jerusalem: [Rosenberger], 1975), 1–28. 3 Eusèbe de Césarée, Histoire Ecclésiastique, Livres VIII–X et Les Martyrs en Pal- estine (hereafter MP Gr.), par G. Bardy (SC 55; Paris: Cerf, 1967), 135–136 (IV.15); Eusebius, History of The Martyrs in Palestine (hereafter MP Syr.), by W. Cureton (London – Paris: Williams and Norgate – Borrani, 1861, 17, § 18. This earthquake of 306 at Caesarea is not mentioned neither by K.W. Russell, “The Earthquake Chronol- ogy of Palestine and Northwest Arabia from the 2nd through the Mid-8th Century A.D.” BASOR 260 (1985), 37–59, nor by E. Guidoboni, A. Comastri, and G. Traina, 2 joseph patrich earthquake had not been recognized in the archaeological record at the site. Hence, it seems that it was not as devastating for Caesarea. A late third century Rabbinic source denotes it and its territory (together with Tyre and its territory), as a city of plenty, where everything is cheap.4 A 4th c. literary source praises Caesarea as “wealthy in all good things”, excelling in its purple cloth, olive oil, wine, and grains.5 The period that followed the Diocletianic persecutions and the “Peace of the Church” marks the beginning of a new age for the Roman Empire, but the end of paganism and the takeover of Christianization in the urban space were gradual; their pace in Caesarea is not reported by any ancient source. Seemingly, like in other cities, such as Gaza, or Alexandria, it took about a century until the pagan temples were abandoned. Although Latin was still a living language among the more edu- cated people of Caesarea,6 the epigraphic habit had changed. All the inscriptions of the new era in Caesarea are in Greek or in the local Semitic scripts and languages (Aramaic, Hebrew and Samaritan).7 The Greek, that returned to be the language of administration in the entire Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century, tr. from the Italian by B. Phillips (Roma: Istituto nazionale di geofisica, 1994). In his Chronicon (éd. Migne, PG 27.664), Eusebius, mentions a terrible earthquake which destroyed many buildings in Tyre and Sidon and crushed innumerable people. In a marginal note in Migne’s edition the date 306 CE is suggested for this event, but Caesarea is not mentioned in the Chronicon. Russell (ibid., p. 42) suggested a date of ca. 303 for the earthquake that had struck Tyre and Sidon. 4 Talmud Yerushalmi, Kilaim 9.5.32b; Ketuvot 12.3.35b; Genesis Rabba 74.1, p. 857. 5 “Abundans omnibus”: Expositio totius mundi et gentium, XXVI; XXXI (éd. Rougé, SC 124, p. 60 and 164). For agricultural products in Caesarea mentioned in the Rab- binic sources, such as citrons, wheat, grapes, figs, dates, rice and cumin see I.L. Levine, Caesarea Under Roman Rule (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 51–52. Dyed linen textiles and silk were manufactured there, and clay and glass vessels were produced there as well (ibid., pp. 53–56). 6 J. Geiger, “Latin in Roman Palestine,” Cathedra 74 (1994), 3–21 (Hebrew); Id., “How Much Latin in Roman Palestine?” in H. Rosén (ed.), Aspects of Latin: Papers from the Seventh International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, Jerusalem, April 1993 (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 86; Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwis- senschaft der Universität Innsbruck, 1996), 39–57. 7 A. Hamburger, “A Greco-Samaritan Amulet from Caesarea,” IEJ 9 (1959), 43–45 and Pl. 4 A, B); I. Ben Zvi, “A Lamp with a Samaritan Inscription,” IEJ 11 (1961), 139–42. On the use of the old Hebrew script by the Samaritans see: Babylonian Tal- mud, Sanhedrin 21b; Jerome, Comm. In Ezech., 3.9.4. (CCSL 75, p. 106). According to A.D. Crown, “The Byzantine and Moslem Period,” in Id. (ed.), The Samaritans (Tübingen: Mohr, 1989), p. 59, the Samaritans at Caesarea comprised about one third of the population..