Uncovering Herod’s Seaside Palace

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The great port city of Caesarea was born out of the genius of one man: Herod the Great (c. 73–4 B.C.E.). This Idumean politician, with the support of the rulers at Rome, rose to become king of Judea. On the site of a dilapidated town, he built a glorious new city, splendid in every detail—from its chief temple down to its sewer system. The effort took over a decade (from 22 to 10/9 B.C.E.), but Herod spared no expense in materials or in construction. He named the new city Caesarea as a politic compliment to the emperor under whose […]

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Endnotes

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15. 331–341.

A useful and well-illustrated book covering Caesarea as a whole is King Herod’s Dream: Caesarea by The Sea by Kenneth G. Holum, Robert Hohlfelder, Robert J. Bull and Avner Raban (New York: Norton, 1988). See also, The Harbours of Caesarea Maritima, 2 vols., ed. John P. Oleson (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 491, 1989), and Robert J. Bull, “Caesarea Maritima—The Search for Herod’s City,” and Robert Hohlfelder, “Caesarea Beneath The Sea,” BAR 08:03; Lindley Vann, “Herod’s Harbor Construction Recovered Underwater,” BAR 09:03.

Josephus, The Jewish War 1. 408–415.

Lee I. Levine and Ehud Netzer, Excavations at Caesarea Maritima, 1975, 1975, 1976, 1979—Final Report, Qedem 21 (1986).

The excavations were funded by a Research Foundation Grant from the University of Pennsylvania and are currency supported by the J. M. Kaplan Fund.

Ehud Netzer, “Architecture in Palaestina Prior to and During the Days of Herod the Great,” in Akten des XIII internationalen Kongresses fur klassische Archaologie (Berlin: Philipp von Zabern, 1988).

Josephus, Jewish War 5. 176–182.

Yigael Yadin, Masada (Jerusalem: Steimatsky, 1966). See also Ehud Netzer, “The Last Days and Hours at Masada,” BAR 17:06.

Ehud Netzer, Greater Herodium, Qedem 13 (1981) and Herodium: An Archaeological Guide (Jerusalem: Cana, 1987). See also Ehud Netzer, “Searching for Herod’s Tomb,” BAR 09:03, and “Jewish Rebels Dig Strategic Tunnel System,” BAR 14:04.

10.

Ehud Netzer, “The Winter Palace of the Judean Kings at Jericho,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 228 (1977), pp. 1–13; Kathryn Gleason, “Garden Excavations at the Herodian Winter Palace in Jericho 1985–87,” Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 7 (1987–1988), pp. 21–39. See also Suzanne F. Singer, “The Winter Palaces of Jericho,” BAR 03:02.

11.

A full report by Barbara Burrell, “Two Inscribed Columns from Caesarea Maritima,” will appear in a forthcoming issue of Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik.

12.

Joseph Ringel, Casarae de Palestine: etude historique et archaologique (Paris, 1975), p. 144.

13.

Lee I. Levine, Caesarea Under Roman Rule (Leiden: Brill, 1975).

14.

Israel Roll, “A Latin Imperial Inscription from the Time of Diocletian Found at Yotvata,” Israel Exploration Journal 39 (1989), pp. 239–260.