Page 123 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 109

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of the Byzantine governor (see below). A fresco depicting Jesus standing and flanked Fig. 122
by the twelve apostles (Fig. 122) is preserved on the western wall of vault 9. The
Greek inscription written in red beneath has not yet been deciphered. Depiction of Christ and the
twelve apostles standing at
his sides. Vault 9

Palace of the Roman Financial Procurator and the Byzantine
Governor (Figs. 123–124a–b)

The palace was uncovered by a number of expeditions beginning from the 1960s:
the northern section was first uncovered by a Hebrew University expedition led by
Avraham Negev. An American expedition headed by Robert Bull that excavated
in the 1970s and 1980s expanded the excavations to cover the entire area CC.
Other parts were uncovered by another American expedition led by Kenneth
Holum and by the University of Haifa expedition headed by Joseph Patrich. In
time, the palace, first serving the Roman financial procurator, became (as a result of
administrative reforms by Diocletian and Constantine) the palace of the Byzantine
governor of the province of Palaestina Prima.

The government compound stretched from north of Decumanus S2, near the
coast, across all the first insula located south of the Crusader city, and also probably
across the neighboring insula to its east, beyond cardo W1. Included within its bounds
is the entire CC area of excavations as well as the northern part of area NN. The
northern section of the government compound was damaged by the construction of
the Crusader moat and the city wall rising above it; its western section was eroded
by the sea. Latin and Greek inscriptions confirm the identification of the entire
complex as a government compound, and even make it possible to attribute defined
functions to different components of the complex. Many of the Latin inscriptions
discovered here mention the Roman procurator or refer to him explicitly.

The preservation of the area west of the cardo is quite good, mainly in the western
and southern parts of the complex, which were set on 15 vaults; many vaults have
been preserved in their entirety, and even second-story structures were preserved