Page 124 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich
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110 Archaeological Review
Fig. 123 quite well. Four long vaults (nos. 1, 2, 11, 12), measuring 30 x 5 m on an east-
west axis, bore the audience hall and law court of the government compound. The
The palace of the Byzantine vaults bordering on the decumanus, of various dimensions and varying orientation,
governor and the Crusader carried above them a row of rooms that probably served as offices for the clerks
city wall. Aerial photo from serving in the law court. A fragment of a Latin building inscription dated to 77/78
the southeast CE was found nearby (Fig. 19 above, p. 20). This matches well the date of the
pottery found in the thickness of the walls from which the vaults rise, typical to the
end of the Second Temple era. The government compound, therefore, was built a
very short time after the appointment of the first financial procurator on Provincia
Judaea, still in the time of the Great Revolt.
Access to the government compound from the cardo on the east was by means
of two staircases with identical dimensions. They bridged the difference in height
of about 2.5 m between the level of the cardo and that of the eastern courtyard of
the complex. The cardo’s paving in the segment between the two stairways changes
from the diagonal arrangement of paving stones to a parallel one, which emphasizes
the singularity of this section of the cardo and of the insula next to it. At the
intersection on the southeast was a public latrine. Its two courtyard columns were
elevated and set in their original place.
The staircases led to a courtyard with a domed bell-shaped water cistern in its
center; the courtyard was severely damaged by looting of stones. To the west of the
courtyard and on a slightly higher level was a second courtyard that encompassed
a basilica-shaped hall – the audience hall and law court, which measured c. 18 x
12 m. The remains surrounding it indicate three sub-phases: in phase 1 (Fig. 18
