Page 153 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 139

The Condition of the Harbor, c. 500 CE

The harbour of the city named after Caesar had disintegrated through age and lay open to every threat of the sea.
Its structure no longer measured up to the category of a harbor, but of its former condition it kept the name alone.
You [emperor Anastasius (491–518 CE)], did not ignore her [Caesarea port] as she asked for help, continually
bewailing the merchant vessels that after escaping the open sea, often wrecked in the harbor with all their precious
[merchandise] drowning before their own eyes and they are helpless; and with exceptional generosity amended her
condition, so now she receives safely all her needs. (Procopius of Gaza, In Praise of Anastasius 19, tr. J.P. Oleson).

abc Fig. 154a–c

Opinions are divided on the reason for the submergence of the outer basin. Avner a. A lead tessera with a
Raban offered evidence for the existence of a geological fault line parallel to the depiction of the harbor
coast, a bit to the east of the modern breakwater. Parts of the harbor to the west entrance
of this line submerged. Ehud Galili thinks that the moles sank owing to the waves
undermining their foundations, which were not set on bedrock but on a layer of b. Drawing of a city coin –
sand. Either way, the moles and piers to the west of this line are now at a depth of Portus Augusti – of
5–6 m below the original surface. Emperor Decius Trajan
(249–251 CE)
The Crusader Harbor: In this period only a small part of the intermediate
Herodian harbor was used. The Crusader harbor was bound on the northwestern c. A Byzantine token on
which limenos is written
in Greek in two lines, and
above them a cross

Fig. 155

The northern mole of the
Crusader harbor which was
constructed out of columns
of streets and structures of
the Roman-Byzantine city,
that were laid horizontally
next to each other