THE ROMAN CITY
When the last smouldering fires had burned out among the ruins, the
silence of death came over the desolate heaps which had once been
Jerusalem, nor does it appear certain that any buildings were erected,
or any native population allowed to dwell on the site, for sixty-five
years after the fall of the city. The camp of the 10th legion was
built on the plateau of the upper city, and was defended by the three
great towers, which would form a citadel still in case of need. The
demolition of the walls appears otherwise to have been so complete as
to leave no traces of their lines thereafter, though the huge blocks
lay on the ground, and were used again when the Roman colonial city,
Ælia Capitolina, was built. Every stone of the Holy House seems to have
been deliberately removed. The outer Temple ramparts were overthrown
into the valleys, down to the level of the plateau formed by Herod
within them. Two buttresses only were left on the north-west, close to
Antonia, while on the south-east the corner of the wall stood up alone,
as it was seen by the pilgrims down to the time of Justinian in our
sixth century, with the spring of a huge arch which supported vaults
at this angle. The great bridge was broken down to the ground, and the
stones of its arch still lie on the Herodian pavement of the street
that passed under it. Zion was a “ploughed field,” and the rabbis
who ventured to visit the desolate sanctuary mourned as they saw the
jackals prowling in its ruins.[368]
[Sidenote: THE EARLY BISHOPS]
The Sanhedrin established itself at Bureir, in Philistia, and
afterwards at Jamnia, south of Joppa, where a famous school of
doctors studied the Scriptures down to the time of the later revolt
in 135 A. D.; but it would seem that the Jews were not allowed to
approach their Holy City, and only visited it by stealth. Nor have we
any certain indication that the Christians returned till after the
Roman city was built. Eusebius[369] gives a list of fourteen bishops
following James the Just; but the first of these (St. Simeon) must
have left Jerusalem in 64 A. D. The second is supposed to have been
consecrated in 107 A. D. They all bear Jewish names, except Seneca (125
A. D.) and his successor Justus. As to this “line of the circumcision,”
which was supposed to end in 135 A. D., Eusebius himself says, “The
space of time which the bishops of Jerusalem spent in their see I could
in no wise find preserved in writing ... but this much I have been
informed from records, until the siege of the Jews in Hadrian’s time
there were fifteen bishops.”
The presence of the 10th legion, Fretensis, is, on the other hand,
shown by the recovery of inscribed objects found by Mr. Bliss,[370]
namely, three fragments of Roman tiles bearing the abbreviated title
of the “Legio X Fretensis,” and in one case a representation of the
boar, which was the emblem of this legion. But at some time before the
year 117 A. D. this garrison was changed and the 3rd legion, Cyrenaica,
took its place. It was also perhaps during this period that the Jews
and Jewish Christians began to adopt a custom which continued in use
down to the Middle Ages. The “lovers of Zion” desired that their bones
might rest at the Holy City, and it became a pious duty to gather them,
and to rebury them near it. There was also, in later times at least,
a superstitious belief that those who were not buried in the “Valley
of Decision” (Jehoshaphat) would have to find their way there through
Sheol from their graves[371]--a survival of the ancient Egyptian
belief in the journey of the soul through Amenti to the judgment hall
of Osiris. It is said that, to the present day in Russia, Jewish
cemeteries are called “Jehoshaphat,” and that this ancient superstition
still survives. Stone caskets, adorned by geometrical patterns engraved
on the sides, were prepared to bring the bones from other regions.
Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (about 1163 A. D.) speaks of these as existing
in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron: “You there see caskets filled with
the bones of Israelites; for unto this day it is a custom in the house
of Israel to bring thither the bones of their relicts, and of their
forefathers, and to leave them there.”
[Sidenote: THE OSSUARIES]
We have already seen that the bones of the family of Nicanor were so
buried on Olivet, and that similar caskets (or ossuaries) were found
in the tomb of Helena of Adiabene[372]; these latter may belong to the
first century, as the only coins found with them were of the reign of
Titus. Several other examples were found buried on the south spur of
Olivet in 1873, and were studied by M. Clermont-Ganneau. Hebrew names
are scratched upon them, and in one instance a rough cross, as though
marking the presence of a Hebrew Christian from Pella or from Kaukabah
in Bashan, where Ebionite Christians were living down to our fourth
century. The exact age of these examples is uncertain, and the presence
of the cross--an emblem only used in secret before 326 A. D.--rather
favours the supposition that they are late. In 1900 other Jewish tombs
were explored on the north of Olivet, and similar ossuaries were found;
three of these bore Greek texts, and another was inscribed in Hebrew.
The names Protas and Papos are clearly written, and that of “Yehoḥanan
bar Ṣabia” seems to be decipherable. Quite recently also Jewish texts
have been found in a tomb near the village of Silwân, with the names of
“Abishalom father of Yehoḥanan,” and of “Shemra.” They are cut in soft
rock and blacked in, but the last letter of the second name is painted
in red. To the same class belong probably the graffiti in the so-called
“Tombs of the Prophets” on Olivet, one of which was discovered by de
Vogüé with the words “Phlôrianos Astaros” in Greek, and the Hebrew
broken text “Peace be to ’Ab...” There are, however, fragments of Greek
Christian graffiti at this site,[373] and though the expression “father
of Yehoḥanan” points to burial or re-burial by a son, it seems probable
that these interments of the bones of ancestors may be supposed to be
of very various ages. The tombs in which they occur are certainly old,
for they contain _kokîm_ tunnels as graves instead of the _loculi_ of
the Greco-Jewish age.
In the reign of Trajan[374] the Jews of Mesopotamia and of Egypt broke
out into revolt and were subdued, but there is no notice of any such
rebellion in Palestine. We have evidence that Jerusalem was then held
by the 3rd legion, which was originally called Augusta, but afterwards
Cyrenaica on account of its success against the Jewish rebels at
Cyrene; for a Latin text was found in 1895, built into the Turkish wall
near the south or Sion Gate. “To Jove the best and greatest, Serapis,
for the health and victory of the Emperor Nerva Trajanus Cæsar, the
best, the august, the German, Dacian, Parthian [victor]; and to the
Roman people, the standard bearer of the third Cyrenaic legion made”
(this). This text cannot be earlier than 116 A. D., and Trajan died the
next year.
The invocation of Serapis is interesting because the Jerusalem coins
of Hadrian, the next emperor, represent a temple with a statue which
seems clearly to be that of Serapis as Jove. Serapis, though adored at
Alexandria with Isis, was not an Egyptian god. He was worshipped by
the Romans in the second century as a supreme deity, but his image was
brought from Pontus by the first Ptolemy, in the third century B. C.,
to Alexandria, where was his most famous temple.[375] His statues
and his busts on coins represent him as a bearded Jupiter sometimes
accompanied by the infernal dog Cerberus; on his head appears the
_modius_, or “measure,” which may perhaps mean that he was the god of
measurement and retribution. The name is probably very ancient and
even of Akkadian origin, _Sar-api_ being “the king of the waves” or of
the “depth.”[376] He thus answers to the ancient sea-god Ea, who was
supreme in the depths and who also resembled Pluto, being the judge
of the dead in the under-world. His original temple at Sinope was on
the shore of the Black Sea. Nothing could more remarkably illustrate
the substitution of pagan worship at Jerusalem for that of Jehovah
than this remarkable text, and the site of the Temple was soon after
consecrated to this Asiatic Jove.
[Sidenote: ÆLIA CAPITOLINA]
Much confusion as to the history of Jerusalem under Hadrian has been
caused by following the later statements of Byzantine historians, and
by the anachronisms of the Talmud, as also by a strange theory which
attributes the stamping of certain coins to the time of the revolt at
Bêther in 135 A. D. Jerome[377] says that “remains of the city existed
even to the time of prince Hadrian throughout fifty years”--a statement
which is evidently true since they remain still, but which does not
suggest that any town had been built over the ruins till the time of
this emperor. It was the policy of Trajan and of Hadrian to break up
the nationality of the Jews, who were recovering from the catastrophe
of the fall of Jerusalem, and showed signs of determination to revive
their ancient independence in regions where they were numerous,
and had grown rich by trade. Hadrian acceded in 117 A. D., and may
possibly have visited Palestine in 130 A. D. It was then probably that
he conceived the idea of refounding Jerusalem as an ordinary Roman
colonial city. Dion Cassius,[378] writing less than a century later,
says of Hadrian that he “stirred up a war ... by founding a city at
Jerusalem which he named Ælia Capitolina, and by setting up another
temple to Jupiter on the site of the Lord’s Temple.” But it would seem
more correct to say that the intention thus to paganise the Holy City
was the immediate cause of the desperate revolt at Bêther. Renan[379]
very truly remarks that “the really historic texts do not speak of
a taking and destruction of Jerusalem” (at this time), “but by the
way they read exclude such an event.” Eusebius, when following the
contemporary account of the war by Ariston of Pella, says nothing at
all about Jerusalem. Tertullian, Jerome, and Chrysostom, who believed
in a siege of Jerusalem by Hadrian, are late authorities. References to
the exclusion of the Jews from Jerusalem, to be found in the writings
of Justin Martyr and Eusebius, may belong to the time after 135 A. D.,
and the prohibition of circumcision in 132 A. D. was quite sufficient
to account for Jewish rebellion.
[Sidenote: THE BÊTHER REVOLT]
The story of this rebellion is overgrown with legend, and the
Rabbinical references seem sometimes to confuse the events of the
great siege by Titus with those of the war against Hadrian. Bêther was
identified by Canon Williams at the present village Bittîr, six miles
south-west of Jerusalem, and its proximity to the capital may have
led to some confusion between the siege of this fortress and that of
Jerusalem. The place is still a village[380] on a cliff, with a fine
spring, and a Latin inscription, while the name “ruin of the Jew,”
close by, may preserve some memory of the desperate struggle led by
Bar Cocheba and Rabbi ’Aḳîbah. Jerusalem, on the other hand, according
to Jerome,[381] “was razed and burned to the ground after fifty years,
under Ælius Hadrianus, so that it even lost its former name.” The
siege and capture of Bêther put an end to further attempts of the Jews
to become free from Rome, especially because an age of toleration
and good government followed. The Cyrenaic legion was probably used
against them, which accounts for the text found in Rome speaking of the
employment of Getulæ from Mauritania in this Jewish war, which took
place when Lucius Quietus had been murdered, and replaced by Tineius
Rufus as governor of Palestine. During its course the latter was
superseded by Sextus Julius Severus, who was summoned as legate from
Britain to put down this formidable revolt.[382]
In the Mishnah we read that on Ab 9 “Bêther was taken and the city was
ploughed up.” Later commentators refer the latter statement to the time
when “Turannus Rufus ploughed up Sion.” Jerome says that “the city
Bethel [Bêther] being taken, ... the Temple was ignominiously ploughed,
the people being oppressed by Titus Annius Rufus.” The Mishnah,
again, speaks of the “wars of Vespasian and of Ḳîṭus” (Quietus), and
apparently means by the latter the war of 135 A. D. There thus seems
to be a confusion between the demolition of Jerusalem by Terennius
(or Terentius) Rufus in 70 A. D., and the later war which began under
Tineius Rufus,[383] and which had nothing to do with any ploughing up
either of the Temple or of Sion. As regards the exclusion of the Jews
from Jerusalem, it appears from Eusebius that after 135 A. D. they
purchased the right to weep at the ruins of the temple, for “after
the Jewish disturbance the place became inaccessible to Jews.” Justin
Martyr, speaking to a Jew about Jerusalem, says “that it is guarded
from you, that none should be in it; and it is death” to enter.
Sulpicius Severus relates that a cohort of soldiers was placed as a
guard, to forbid the entry of any Jew into the city. This edict seems
to have fallen into disuse under the tolerant Antonines and in the
third century, but it was renewed by Constantius II. after the revolt
of the Jews in Galilee in 339 A. D.; and Jerome says, “Still you may
see a sad crowd, a wretched people, who fail to gain pity, assemble and
draw nigh. Decrepit women, old men in rags ... all weeping; and while
tears drown their cheeks, while they raise their livid arms and tear
their locks, the soldier comes and demands money to allow them to weep
a little more.”[384] This pathetic account reminds us of scenes which
may still be witnessed at Jerusalem, but none of these passages serve
to show that it was an inhabited place, once more besieged and ruined
by Hadrian, nor that it was ever occupied by the rebels of 135 A. D.
The leaders of the revolt were Bar Cocheba (_Kôkeba_), “the Son of
the Star,” and Rabbi ’Aḳîbah, who believed this pretender to be the
true Messiah, in spite of the warning of Rabbi Jehoḥanan, “’Aḳîbah,
the grass will be growing between thy jaws before the Son of David
comes.”[385] The rabbinical accounts of the Bêther war are late
and legendary, and the “Son of the Star” is called in the Talmudic
allusions “the son of falsehood”--_Bar Kôzîba_--probably as a term of
contempt. The theory according to which he struck coins in Jerusalem
demands notice, in connection with the history of the city, but it
appears to be one of those learned fallacies which are very long in
dying.[386]
[Sidenote: COINS OF SIMON]
Certain silver coins of “Eleazar the Priest,” marked (by the alphabetic
characters used) as being of the Hasmonæan age, have been rashly
attributed to Eleazar, who defended the Temple in 70 A. D. In at least
one instance the coin is regarded as a forgery by both de Vogüé and
de Saulcy, and this appears to apply to all the so-called “coins of
the revolts.” The copper ones bear blundered imitations of genuine
inscriptions from coins of Simon the Hasmonæan. They have been struck
on much defaced Roman coins of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Trajan,
but more probably in the nineteenth century than in the second
century. One such coin bears the name Simon, and is struck on a silver
tetradrachm of Antioch attributed to Vespasian. It does not seem to
have occurred to the scholars who suppose it to have been struck by
Simon, son of Gioras, in 70 A. D., that as Vespasian had then only
been emperor a few months, and as Jerusalem was besieged, it is quite
impossible that an old coin of his reign could have been found in the
city in the year of its fall. The forgery of Jewish coins is still
common in Palestine, and the forgers did not foresee that the remains
of the original legend on a coin would be read by the trained eye of
some European specialist, while they thought that the worn surface of
the coin would show its antiquity, but that its value would be much
higher if it was regarded as being Jewish. The same observation applies
to all the restruck copper coins, which have been variously attributed
to Simon son of Gioras, to Simon son of Gamaliel, and to Bar Cocheba,
who has been conjectured to have been also named Simon--of which there
is no proof at all. The latter assumption was necessitated by the fact
that some of the coins used by the forgers were as late as the reigns
of Domitian and Trajan. It may, however, be remarked that if the Jews,
in 135 A. D., struck any coins at all, the lettering is not likely to
have been in the same characters used about 139 B. C., but would have
been in those used at the time, that is to say, practically in square
Hebrew. We may regard these coins, therefore, as forged imitations of
those of Simon the Hasmonæan, and they have no bearing on the question
whether Jerusalem had been rebuilt before 135 A. D. Appian[387] was a
contemporary historian, but says nothing about any siege of Jerusalem,
which city he tells us was “razed to the ground by Vespasian.” He adds,
“And anew by Hadrian in my time”--the word “built” having perhaps
dropped out, unless further demolitions were needed to clear the site
for the new city.
[Sidenote: FORGED COINS]
There is no allusion to any coins of Bar Cocheba in the Mishnah, and
certain passages in the Aramaic commentaries which are supposed to
support this theory seem to have been ill translated,[388] and belong
to later ages. Thus in the Tosiphta (after 500 A. D.) a passage
referring to “second tithes” appears to say that they are “not to
be redeemed by coins of persecution [_marud_] not current, or not
engraved. How is this to be understood? When they have false coins,
even coins of Jerusalem, they must not redeem with them ... yet they
might redeem with coins of former kings.”[389] This statement, at
most, indicates the existence of forged Jewish coins in our sixth
century. Again, in the Jerusalem Talmud--a little earlier--the passage
on which the above is a comment runs: “Coins of persecution, or of a
son of falsehood [_Ben Kôzîba_, that is, “a forger”], cannot be used
for release. Depreciated coin, according to the decision of a case by
Rabbi Ime, is to be thrown into the Salt Sea.”[390] A third passage,
yet later, reads: “They durst not release with coins not current, as
for instance false coins of Jerusalem, or of former kings.”[391] The
last passage quoted by scholars is equally indefinite: “They wanted to
retain denarii of Hadriana Turiyina, coins for Jerusalem.”[392] This
passage might, however, have been in the mind of a later Jewish coiner
when he used coins of Trajan. It does not clearly refer, any more than
the other passages, to Bar Cocheba.
These questions have been noticed in some detail because they effect
our conclusions as to the history of Jerusalem before the revolt of
Bêther. Christian historians, writing two centuries later, believed
in a second destruction of the city by Hadrian. Eusebius, though in
one passage he speaks of Jerusalem as in ruins, yet in another says
it was half destroyed by Titus and half by Hadrian. Jerome also says
that Hadrian “threw down the walls.” They regarded this as a fulfilment
of prophecy,[393] especially in connection with that of Daniel, and
with the expectation of an approaching end of the world; but a modern
student of the passages to which they allude would be more apt to
conclude that the history had been misunderstood, and that the true
facts did not accord with such interpretations of the prophets.
It is at least generally agreed that Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem in
or after the year 135 A. D. The fear, mentioned by Dion Cassius as
bringing on the war, that foreigners would dwell in the Holy City,
and that strange gods would be there set up, was then justified. The
emperor, who was very sarcastic about both Jewish and Christian
religions, as we learn from a letter of his own, seems to have
recognised the strength of the site, and to have regarded a modernised
city as likely to dispel the ancient ideal of Israel, though that was
for ever preserved by the “mourners of Zion.” Throughout the second
century Roman cities continued to spring up in Palestine and Syria,
each built complete at one time by some imperial command, as at
Gerasa and Philadelphia, or later at Ba’albek and Palmyra. They were
constructed on a definite plan, with a central street of pillars and
surrounding city walls. The theatre, the civil basilica, the music
hall, and the temples were near the main street and the forum; and the
side-streets ran at right angles, while an arch of triumph commemorated
the founder. At Jerusalem also this plan was adopted as far as the site
and the huge blocks of Herod’s towers and Temple allowed, and some of
the remains of Hadrian’s city are still traceable by aid of an ancient
map.
[Illustration: (West)
THE MEDEBA MOSAIC.
Outline from Dr. Guthe’s facsimile.]
[Sidenote: HADRIAN’S WALLS]
The map in question was discovered a few years ago at Medeba in
Moab.[394] It is a fragment of a mosaic which was laid on the floor
of the cathedral, representing Palestine as far north as Shechem,
both east and west of Jordan, with the Sinaitic Desert and the Nile
Delta. It was evidently constructed before the Moslem Conquest, and is
supposed to date earlier than the building by Eudocia of a new wall at
Jerusalem about 450 A. D. It shows the basilica of Constantine, which
perished in 614 A. D., and all its inscriptions are in Byzantine Greek
characters earlier than those in use in the Middle Ages. It is the most
remarkable discovery of recent years as affecting the contemporary
history of the Holy City, and, though many of the buildings shown
are not earlier than the fourth century, it still indicates the plan of
the Roman city as built by Hadrian. A street of pillars runs through
the town from north to south, and of these two shafts still remain in
a vault, west of the bazaar and east of the Holy Sepulchre Cathedral.
A second pillared street, diverging on the east, represents the old
Herodian street which ran parallel to the western rampart of the
Temple enclosure; and at its south end steps seem to be represented,
descending the Tyropœon towards Siloam; but the mosaic is unfortunately
broken away in this part, and it is not very clear whether the south
wall is drawn out of scale, and intended really to enclose the whole of
the upper city hill (as Eudocia built it), or whether it is intended
to run on the line of the present south wall, excluding the south part
of the hill called Sion in and after the fourth century, and excluding
Ophel. It is certain, however, that this must have been the line of
Hadrian’s wall, since the earliest pilgrim[395] found part of Sion
and the Pool of Siloam outside the wall, while the supposed palace
of David on Sion--near the so-called “Tower of David”--was inside.
The map is also interesting because it shows a great pillar--such as
the Romans erected for a statue to stand on--in the middle of an open
space just inside the North Gate. The present name of this gate (_Bâb
el ’Amûd_, “gate of the pillar”) seems to preserve a tradition of this
column, and the wall of Hadrian evidently ran on the line followed by
the present wall on the north, though on the west it seems not to have
included quite as much ground as at present north of the Jaffa Gate.
This plan must be further considered in dealing with the Jerusalem of
Constantine. Our pilgrim[396] seems to agree with the map, placing the
Prætorium to the right of those who went from Sion out of the city by
the Neapolis (or northern) Gate.
[Sidenote: HADRIAN’S STATUE]
The coins of Hadrian and of his successors, and the actual remains of
the Roman age, including the head of Hadrian’s statue, the inscription
which once belonged to it, and the arch of triumph which he--or some
later emperor--built, exist in illustration of the statements made
by early Christian writers as to the erection of pagan shrines in
Jerusalem. The statues set up in Ælia Capitolina were still standing
in the fourth century. Jerome[397] tells us that “where once was the
Temple and the religion of God there stands the statue of Hadrian and
the idol of Jove”; and again: “A statue of Hadrian on horseback stood,
till the present day, in the very place of the Holy of Holies.” The
Bordeaux Pilgrim (in 333 A. D.) mentions the existence in the temple
court of “two statues of Hadrian, and not far from the statues is the
Pierced Stone.” These two were perhaps one of Hadrian himself and one
of Jove, and they were clearly erected on the site of the Holy House
near the Ṣakhrah rock. The head of a statue representing a Roman,
crowned with bay leaves and with the imperial eagle in front, was
picked up by a peasant in 1873 near the tomb of Helena of Adiabene,
lying on its face in the road among the stones.[398] It is believed to
represent Hadrian by comparison with his known portraits, and may have
belonged to his statue in the Temple. In the south wall of the Ḥaram,
at the Double Gate, a Latin inscription has been built in upside-down,
and reads: “To Titus Ælius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father
of his country, pontif, augur, by decree of the decurions.”[399] This
no doubt was the dedicatory text of the Temple statue of Hadrian. None
of these indications show that any temple of Jupiter was erected on
Mount Moriah, though the so-called “Cradle of Christ,” in the vault at
the south-east angle of the Ḥaram, is very clearly a Roman niche to
hold a statue. The coins of Hadrian and of his successors, however,
show a shrine of Jupiter Capitolinus as if existing somewhere at
Jerusalem, which was renamed Ælia Capitolina after Ælius Hadrianus and
Jupiter Capitolinus. There may have been a small arcaded building near
the Ṣakhrah which had been pulled down before 333 A. D., leaving the
statues standing; or the temple of Jove may have been elsewhere in the
city. Dion Cassius[400] says that Hadrian “called it Ælia Capitolina,
and in the place of the shrine [_naos_] of God he erected in opposition
another shrine to Zeus”; but this rhetorical sentence need not perhaps
be read in a very literal sense.
The coins of the period appear to show that Serapis, as Jove, was
the deity adored in the new shrine, wherever it may have been.[401]
A coin of Hadrian’s, representing him crowned with bay leaves,
bears on the reverse the words “Æl. Col.,” and represents a seated
Jupiter with two attendant nymphs or goddesses in a temple. Others of
Antoninus Pius, also struck at Jerusalem, give the head of Serapis,
or represent a deity standing in a temple, or again with a dog, or
have a representation of the city itself as a tower-crowned female.
The Serapis head recurs later under Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla, and
Elagabalus, and the temple, with an arched nave and two side cloisters,
under a pediment, again contains a deity standing, with attendants on
either side. We can hardly doubt, therefore, the existence of a Serapis
temple at Jerusalem as early as Hadrian’s time.
Jerome, however, indicates the existence of a temple built by this
emperor in the city itself. He speaks of a marble statue of Venus on
the “rock of the cross,” and of an image of Jupiter over the “place of
the resurrection.” Later historians do not attribute these to Hadrian,
and Eusebius only says that “impious men” had founded, above the Holy
Sepulchre, a “dark shrine of the unchaste demon Aphrodite.”[402] But it
is very likely that Jerome is right, for Serapis and Isis (as Jove and
Aphrodite) were adored together in Rome, and the site of Constantine’s
great basilica, where this shrine of Venus was still standing early
in the fourth century, was one very probable for a temple in a Roman
city such as Ælia Capitolina, facing east towards the central pillared
street of the city. It is this temple, perhaps, which is represented on
the coins above noticed.
[Sidenote: HADRIAN’S CITY]
Eusebius speaks of Sion--the hill of the upper city--as a “ploughed
field” in fulfilment of prophecy, and Cyril of Jerusalem says the
same[403]; but Epiphanius believed that Hadrian had found seven
synagogues and a small church on Mount Sion; and the Bordeaux
Pilgrim--probably influenced by this tradition--thought that one
synagogue still remained in his own time, though the rest had
disappeared, having been covered by ploughed and sown lands. The
existence of these synagogues in Hadrian’s time is extremely unlikely.
That his wall ran over the top of the hill is further confirmed by the
fact that this was the line of defence even in 680 A. D., after the
outer wall of Eudocia had been built to include Siloam. The actual
buildings, inside the city, according to the Paschal Chronicle (though
this is rather a late authority), were pagan. The passage reads thus:
“Pulling down the shrine of the Jews in Jerusalem, he [Hadrian]
established the two markets, the theatre, the mint, the _trikameron_
[or “three-roomed” building], the _tetranumphon_ [or “four-nymph”
place], the _dodeka-pulon_ [or “twelve-gate” place], which was formerly
called the steps, and the quadrant, and he divided the city into seven
quarters.”
We cannot, unfortunately, recognise under their new names these
features of Roman Jerusalem, but the streets were on the old lines,
and these give three quarters west of the central street of pillars,
and two to its east; the sixth would be on Bezetha, and the seventh
was the Temple enclosure.[404] The principal monument of the period,
still standing, is the triumphal arch west of Antonia, now called the
Ecce Homo arch. The central archway spans the Via Dolorosa, and the
smaller one to the north is seen in the chapel of the Sisters of Zion,
while the corresponding one to the south has been destroyed. A similar
arch is still standing at Gerasa in Gilead--a city also of the second
century A. D. It is possible that the north wall of the Ḥaram, which
is of large Roman masonry, was built at this time, unless it is to
be regarded as the work of Julian or of Justinian. Other fragments of
Roman times, recently found,[405] include a Roman bath near Siloam,
with tesseræ of the 5th legion, and a fresco in a tomb near that of
Queen Helena. We may also attribute to this period the pagan epitaph in
the “Cave of St. Pelagia” on Olivet[406] reading “Courage, Dometila, no
one is immortal”--a sentiment found, in other cases, in texts of Bashan
and Syria of the same age. No doubt there are many other relics of
Hadrian’s city hidden beneath the surface of the present town, and the
wall west of “Hezekiah’s Pool”[407] may have been the west wall of Ælia
Capitolina.
The “high-level” aqueduct, from a well (now dry) in Wâdy el Bîâr, south
of Solomon’s Pool, appears to be of this period. Its course near the
pool is lost, but it was carried over the hill near Bethlehem on stone
pipes. It disappears a little farther north, but probably fed the
Birket Mâmilla. Inscriptions in Latin along its course refer to the
Centuria of Valerius Æmilianus and the Centuria Natalis, and show that
it was made, or repaired, at some period later than 70 A. D.[408]
[Sidenote: THE CHRISTIANS]
The age of Hadrian was followed by that of the Antonines (138–80
A. D.), when the Jews lived content and prospered as traders. The
Sanhedrin, leaving Jamnia after 135 A. D., finally settled at Tiberias,
and synagogues in Roman style--but with Hebrew texts--were built
in Galilee. Under Severus (193–211) the Jews were granted civil
immunities, and they did not again revolt till 339 A. D. According to
Eusebius, a new line of Christian bishops began to rule the church at
Jerusalem in Hadrian’s time, though more probably they would not have
returned to the city till somewhat later. Under Marcus Aurelius the
Christians had become numerous in the Roman world, and in the third
century--after the persecution by Decius--their bishops began to be
recognised by the State, while a congregation under one in Jerusalem
certainly existed in Cyprian’s time. He also mentions a female pilgrim
to the Holy City, and speaks of Bishop Alexander, who--according to
Eusebius--succeeded Narcissus,[409] having previously ruled a church
in Cappadocia. But during this age of prosperity we hear nothing else
about the restored city, nor have we any account of sacred Christian
sites. For three generations the Christians were absent from the ruined
town, and when they did return it was entirely altered. There is a
break of at least seventy years in their connection with Jerusalem, and
it is not probable that the new generation knew anything of the old
city or of the Gospel sites.
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER IX
[368] Jer. xxvi. 18; Tal. Bab., _Makkoth_, 24 _b_.
[369] The list of bishops from Eusebius (“Hist. Eccl.,” iv. 5) is given
by Canon Williams (“Holy City,” 1849, i. p. 487).
[370] “Excav. at Jer.,” p. 265. Another text by Sabinus, an officer
of the 10th (Fretensis) legion, was supposed by M. Clermont-Ganneau
(_Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, 1871, p. 103) to be as late as the time
of Caracalla, which now seems doubtful, as the 3rd legion had replaced
the 10th in 117 A. D.
[371] See Tal. Bab., _Ketuboth_, 111 _a_; Joel iii. 2, 12.
[372] See back, pp. 128, 164. Clermont-Ganneau, in _Revue
Archéologique_, May-June, 1883; “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem
vol., p. 404; _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, Jan. 1900, p. 75, report by
Mr. C. A. Hornstein; Oct. 1908, p. 342, report by Mr. R. A. Stewart
Macalister.
[373] Clermont-Ganneau, in _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, 1871, p. 102;
de Vogüé, “Temple de Jérusalem,” pl. xxxviii. fig. 2.
[374] Canon Dalton, in _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, April 1896, p. 133;
Bliss, “Excav. at Jer.,” pp. 249–53.
[375] Tacitus, “Hist.,” iv. 83; see Gibbon, ch. xxviii.
[376] Akkadian _sar_, “king,” and _ap_, “sea”; Turkish _ab_. _Api_ is
also “water” in ancient Persian--Sanskrit _ap_, modern Persian _ab_.
[377] “Epist. ad Dardanum.”
[378] Dion Cassius, lxix. 12; see Robinson, “Bib. Res.,” i. p. 367.
[379] “L’Église Chrétienne,” 1879, p. 541; Euseb., “Hist. Eccl.,” iv.
6; Tertullian, “Contra Jud.,” 13; Chrysostom, “In Judæos Hom.,” v. 11.
[380] “Survey West Pal.,” iii. pp. 20, 21, 128; _Pal. Expl. Fund
Quarterly_, 1900, p. 168. Eusebius, “Hist. Eccl.,” iv. 2, places Bêther
near Jerusalem.
[381] On Ezek. v. 1. This passage was perhaps misunderstood by later
writers.
[382] See Derenbourg, “Pal.,” p. 117; Renan, “Église Chrétienne,” 1879,
p. 205; Robinson, “Bib. Res.,” i. p. 368; Eusebius, “Hist. Eccl.,”
iv 6; Mishnah, _Ḥalah_, iv. 10, _Taanith_, iv. 7, _Sotah_, viii. 14;
Jerome on Zech. viii. 191, “In Ruf.” ii. 8, Tal. Jer., _Taanith_, iv.
[383] Renan, “Église Chrétienne,” 1879, p. 193, quotes “Corpus
Inscript. Lat.,” iii. 2, to show that Tineius Rufus was not Legate of
Judæa after the war, and gives the various spellings. See Dion Cassius,
lxix. 13.
[384] Justin Martyr, “Apol.,” i. 47; Eusebius, “Demonstr. Evang.,” vi.
18; “Hist. Eccl.,” iv. 6; Jerome on Zeph. i., Jer. xviii., xx., xxx.;
Sulpic. Severus, “Hist. Sac.,” ii. 45; Renan, “Église Chrétienne,”
1879, p. 222; Eutychius “Annales,” i. 416.
[385] Midrash, _Eka_, ii. 2; Tal. Jer., _Taanith_, iv. 7.
[386] Munter (“Jüdischen Krieg,” p. 57) quoted by Munk (“Pal.,” 1863,
p. 605). Munk and Renan regard this theory as unsound. It was advocated
by de Saulcy (“Numismatique Judaique,” 1854, pp. 157–70) and by Madden
(“Jewish Coinage,” 1864, pp. 154–210).
[387] “De Rebus Syriac.,” 50. He wrote in Rome--though an
Alexandrian--in 130–47 A. D.
[388] The Aramaic texts are given by Madden, pp. 329–33.
[389] Tosiphta, _Ma’aser Sheni_, i. 5.
[390] Tal. Jer., _Ma’aser Sheni_, i. 2.
[391] Tal. Bab., _Baba Kama_, 97 _b_.
[392] Ibid., _Bekoroth_, 50 _a_, _Aboda Zara_, 52 _b_.
[393] “Hist. Eccl.,” iv. 6; “Demonstr. Evang.,” vi. 18; Jerome on Joel
i. 4, on Dan. ix. 27, and on Ezek. xxiv. 14.
[394] “Die Mosaikkarte von Madeba,” 1906, by Prof. Dr. Guthe, and the
architect P. Palmer. Count G. T. Rivoira, “Architettura Lombarda,”
1908, p. 328, suggests the time of Justinian for this map.
[395] Bordeaux Pilgrim, 333 A. D. “Item exeunti Hierusalem ut ascendas
Sion in parte sinistra et deorsum in valle, juxta murum, est piscina
quæ dicitur Siloa”; “intus autem, intra murum Sion, paret locus ubi
palatium habuit David.”
[396] Bordeaux Pilgrim. “Inde ut eas foris murum de Sion euntibus ad
portam Napolitanam ad partem dextram deorsum in valle sunt parites
[_sic_] ubi domus fuit, sive Prætorium Ponti Pilati.” Napolis
(_Nea-polis_) was the later Greco-Roman name for Shechem, north of
Jerusalem.
[397] On Isa. ii. 8 and Matt. xxi. 15.
[398] See my drawing in “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” Jerusalem vol., p. 406.
[399] The Latin is given in “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” Jerusalem vol., p.
427.
[400] Dion Cassius, lxix. 12.
[401] They are reproduced by Madden, from de Saulcy, “Numismatique
Judaīque,” plates xv.-xviii.
[402] Jerome, “Epist.,” 49, _ad Paulin._; Eusebius, “Life of
Constantine,” iii. 25.
[403] Eusebius, “Demonstr. Evang.,” viii. 3; Cyril, “Catech. Lect.,”
xvi. 18; Mic. iii. 12.
[404] The ancient wall south of the Holy Sepulchre Cathedral may be of
this age. It is of large stones, some of which are drafted. It runs
east and west, but is not founded on rock, though the base is 18 feet
below the present surface. Probably the rock is 20 or 30 feet lower
still on this line, and the wall is described as standing on debris.
_Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, April 1894, p. 146. It is not of necessity
a wall of the city.
[405] Bliss, “Excav. at Jer.,” 1898, pp. 228, 249.
[406] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., p. 424; Waddington,
“Inscript.,” Nos. 1829, 1854, 1897, 2032. Another occurs in the Tombs
of the Prophets, “Courage, Eutherius, no one is immortal.” _Pal. Expl.
Fund Quarterly_, Jan. 1901, p. 22.
[407] See back, p. 63.
[408] See back, p. 161, and _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, Oct. 1904, p.
296, Jan. 1905, p. 74.
[409] Cypr., “Epist.,” 75; Euseb., “Hist. Eccl.,” vi. 11.