Endnote 3 – Reimagining Herod’s Royal Portico

According to Josephus, the “ceiling of the middle aisle was raised to a greater height, and the front wall was cut at either end into architraves with columns built into it, and all of it was polished” (Jewish Antiquities 15.416). The term προμɛτϖπɩδίον τοίχον, translated by Ralph Marcus as the “front wall,” literally means “the wall in front or on the forehead.” It seems that this description refers to the nave wall that rose above the ceiling of the side aisles. It seems that Josephus’s polished wall means a wall built with dressed ashlars, and the columns built within the wall are probably the pilasters mentioned above. Even though Josephus does not mention windows on this floor, they were needed to provide light into the building, and therefore their existence is probable.