History of Caesarea
The history of Caesarea begins in the 4th or 3rd century BC, when it was a small Phoenician harbor named Strato's Tower. Strato is the Greek form of a name of three different kings of Sidon in the 4th century. A century earlier, in gratitude for the assistance of a Sidonian fleet in the invasion of Greece, the Persians had granted this area of the coast to Sidon.
The city was mentioned for the first time in writing by Zenon, an Egyptian official who landed there for supplies in 259 BC. Strato's Tower/Caesarea changed hands many times over the next couple centuries. It was captured by Alexander Jannaeus in 103 BC and became part of the Hasmonean kingdom. In 63 BC, Pompey captured Strato's Tower and made in part of the Roman province of Syria. Later, Mark Antony gave it to Cleopatra.
When Antony and Cleopatra lost the Battle of Actium, Caesar Augustus gave the city to Herod the Great (c.30 BC). Herod renamed the city "Caesarea," in honor of the generous emperor. Several other cities were given the same name, so this one was known as Caesarea Martima (Caesarea-by-the-Sea) to distinguish it from the others.
Herod began to rebuild the humble harbor on a grand scale in 22 BC, with a view to making it the principal harbor of his kingdom. He completed his work in 10 or 9 BC and celebrated with a grand games festival. The empress Livia sent pieces of her personal furniture as a gift to the city. It was an impressive transformation, ranking alongside his work at Masada and Jerusalem.
In his work on the harbor, Josephus commented that Herod had overcome nature. He had lowered huge (50x9x10 feet) limestone blocks into 120 feet of water and flanked the entrance with three gigantic statues on each side. In 1960 an American diving team confirmed Josephus' measurements of the stones.
Along the coastline a 200-foot-wide seawall was built, topped by a number of towers. The city itself was laid out on a Hippodamian grid after the manner of Alexandria, with the main streets oriented towards the harbor. It had all the facilities of a great Hellenistic-Roman city: city walls, temples, public buildings, baths, theather, amphitheater and an intricate drainage system for sanitation. Everything was built in concrete and limestone, glistening white. Fountains throughout the city were fed by water from the hills several miles away.
Dominating the city was the Temple to the Divine Caesar (of which almost nothing remains), which enclosed two colossal statues: one of Augustus modeled after the Zeus of Olympia and one of Roma copied from the Hera at Argos.
Herod's health began to decline after this (Acts 12:19-23 says he died at Caesarea, being "eaten of worms"), but his great city did not. It became an official residence of Roman governors (such as Pontius Pilate), played a significant role in the lives of the Christian apostles, and became an important Byzantine city.
A Jewish community was soon established in Herod's new city, but the pagan citizens refused them citizenship. The strife between the two communities was resolved by Emperor Nero in favor of the Roman citizens. One of the causes of the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 AD) was a massacre of the Jews of Caesarea and the desecration of the synagogue by the Gentile citizens.
The Roman general Vespasian, who was sent to crush the Revolt, made Caesarea his headquarters until his legions declared him emperor there in 69 AD. His son, Titus, who led the final assault on Jerusalem, condemned 2,500 Jews to gladiatorial fights in Caesarea's amphitheater in celebration of his brother Domitian's birthday. Caesarea also witnessed the execution of many of the Jewish captives of the Second Jewish Revolt (CE 132-135) including Rabbi Akiva. A noted Jewish scholar who supported the Second Jewish Revolt, Rabbi Akiva was tortured and executed in Caesarea.
After the Revolt was suppressed, Jews were forbidden to live in Jerusalem and many came to Caesarea. In the 3rd century, important rabbinical schools began to be established here, including those of Rabbi Bar Qappara and Rabbi Hosheya. Several synagogues were built between the 4th and 7th centuries.
Christianity was established in Caesarea in the 1st century AD and it is the setting for several events recorded in Acts. In Acts 10, St. Peter has a vision that leads him to Caesarea, specifically to the Roman soldier Cornelius, to preach to the Gentiles for the first time. Philip the Evangelist lived in Caesarea with his four daughters (Acts 21:8). From here St. Paul sailed for his native Tarsus when forced to flee from Jerusalem (9:30), and here he landed when returning from his second missionary journey (18:22). In Acts 24-25, Paul was imprisoned here for two years. He demanded a trial because of his Roman citizenship, and was duly sent to Rome where he was executed around 59 AD. Some of Paul's letters to Christian communities may have been written in Caesarea.
Origen of Alexandria arrived in Caesarea in 231 AD and lived here for 20 years. He established a great library in the city, which was added to by Pamphilius (d.309 AD) and had 30,000 volumes by 630 AD.
In 303 AD, St. Procopius was the first Christian martyr in Caesarea during Diocletian's persecution. Eusebius (see below) describes him as an ascetic and scholar who refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods, affirming instead the existence of the one God.
Eusebius of Caesarea, the first church historian and the first biblical geographer, was a student of Pamphilius and bishop of Caesearea from 315 to 330. Here he wrote his Ecclesiastical History and the Onomasticon, an altas of biblical sites that remains an important source for today's archaeologists.
Byzantine Caesarea was even larger than the Roman city. Covering some 160 hectares, it had city walls, baths, churches, administrative buildings, shops, an amphitheater, a new hippodrome and theater, and was still laid out on a grid pattern. The harbor was repaired as well: in 502 the emperor Anastasius (491-518) was praised with the words, "The city welcomes ships with confidence and she is filled with all necessities." The Byzantine walls were probably built under Justinian.
Shortly before or after the Islamic conquest, the southern half of the city was abandoned and used for irrigated agricultural plots and garden terraces. The port had gone out of use by this time, but the fertility of the hinterland helped Caesarea remain one of the richest cities in the area.
Caesarea was captured by the Muslims in 640 AD, who crept in through the low-level aqueduct. The early Islamic city was much smaller, but the harbor was repaired and deepened, and in the Abbasid period rectangular courtyard houses and streets were laid out on the edge of the harbor. Ceramic remains indicate a lively trade with Egypt.
Many cisterns and cesspits date from the Fatimid period and store rooms attest to continuing successful commerce. Fatimid remains have also been found on the great podium fronting the harbor and in graves south of the city. A rich treasure discovered in a well indicates both the prosperity and increasing lack of security of the Fatimid town.
In the early 12th century, Caesarea was captured by the Crusaders. The city initially surrendered to Godfrey de Bouillon, but a revolt in 1101 led to the city being sacked by Baldwin I. The town declined, although it was the seat of an archibishop and had a cathedral and other churches. The Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights owned property here and there may have been a Genoese quarter. A hexagonal green glass thought to be the Holy Grail formed part of the booty of the Genoese; it is still preserved in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa.
Caesarea was captured in 1187 by Saladin, who reduced its defenses but abandoned it to the Crusaders in 1191. Some refortification began in 1217, but this was dismantled by al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1219. It was started again in 1228 and finally completed in 1251 by St. Louis IX of France. The city fell to the Mamluk sultan Baybars in 1265 and was destroyed by al-Ashraf in 1291.
Caesarea was just a small village from the 16th to 19th centuries. Because it was easily accessible from the sea, the ruined city was pillaged of is building materials for the rebuilding of Akko and Jaffa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of Caesarea's most beautiful stones can be seen in the 18th century structures of Jezzar Pasha in Akko.
In the 19th century a Circassian settlement was attempted and in the 1880s a Bosnian village was established as these Muslim peoples fled from Russian Christians. The Crusader fortress was rebuilt as their administrative center, and the inner harbor area contained the marketplace and mosques. The inhabitants fled from the Israelis in 1948.
Today, Caesarea is an archaeological park and popular tourist destination. Christian pilgrims come especially to see the site of Peter's house in Caesarea. The Bosnian mosque is a shop and the Crusader fortress a restaurant.
Sources
- Frank, Archaeological Companion to the Bible, p. 240.
- Kay Prag, Blue Guide to Israel and the Palestinian Territories (2002), pp. 295-97.
- Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, The Oxford Archaeological Guide to the Holy Land (1998)
, pp. 207-10.
- Avraham Negev and Shimon Gibson, Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land (2001), pp. 102-04.
- Josephus, Jewish War 1:408-15; Antiquities 15:331-41.
- Combined Caesarea Expeditions
