Page 24 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

10 Historical Review

More details are provided by Josephus in a second passage:

“His <Herod’s> notice was attracted by a town on the coast, called Strato’s Tower, which, though then
dilapidated, was, from its advantageous situation, suited for exercise of his liberality. This he entirely
rebuilt with white stone, and adorned with the most magnificent palaces, displaying here, as nowhere
else, the innate grandeur of his character…. Abutting on the harbor were houses, also of white stone, and
upon it converged the streets of the town, laid at equal distances apart. On an eminence facing the harbor-
mouth stood Caesar’s temple, remarkable for its beauty and grand proportions; it contained a colossal
statue of the emperor, not inferior to the Olympian Zeus, which served for its model, and another of Rome,
rivalling that of Hera at Argos. The city Herod dedicated to the province, the harbor to navigators in these
waters, to Caesar the glory of this new foundation, to which he accordingly gave the name of Caesarea.
The rest of the buildings – amphitheater, theater, public places – were constructed in a style worthy of
the name which the city bore” (War 1.408–415; trans. H. St. J. Thackeray).

From these descriptions we glean that Caesarea was founded between Dor and Jaffa,
on the site of Straton’s Tower. The city was graced with a large, deep-water harbor,
differing from the Hellenistic type of harbor, the limen kleistos, that was constructed
or cut into the land. The harbor was protected by a breakwater and contained
a pier, anchorage, and harbor facilities. Ringing the harbor were dwellings and
other structures, and at their center – at the top of a hill – stood a temple. The
street plan was on an orthogonal grid. The streets, equidistant from each other, led
to the harbor or the sea. Conduits ran beneath the streets, and one was diagonal
(seemingly under a diagonal street), linking all of them. This was a sophisticated
drainage system that allowed sea water to flow in and wash it out at the time of the
tide, without flooding the streets themselves.

The archeological findings in Caesarea (Figs. 12–13) fit the literary description
quite well. The main difference concerns the “polished stone” and the “white stone”
from which the city was constructed, understood by a number of scholars as marble.
Actually, all of Herod’s structures were built out of local, rough kurkar: the “white”
hue and the “polished” face were achieved by applying a thick layer of smooth
plaster made out of high quality white lime.The orthogonal plan and the layout of
the Herodian streets were maintained throughout the entire time the city existed,
but their level rose over time. Apparently, columns were added to the main streets
only in the Late Roman period, perhaps in the time of Hadrian. These colonnaded
streets are mentioned in rabbinic sources. Apparently, the line of the main north–
south street – the cardo maximus – was maintained in the course of the eastern
wall of the Crusader city (Fig. 14a); the main east–west street – the decumanus
maximus – is parallel to today’s asphalt road. A colonnaded street replaced the
Herodian city wall. Many of the street columns were later incorporated in the city
wall of the Muslim and Crusader periods and in the quay of the Crusader harbor.
The Herodian streets were paved with packed, soft yellow beaten kurkar. In the
Late Roman period limestone pavers were used, and in the Byzantine time – kurkar