Page 30 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

16 Historical Review

mixture with the Gentile neighbors resulted in a great deal of friction and hostility.
The remains of one of the synagogues, which functioned in a later period, but may
have been established in Second Temple times, were discovered in the northern
part of the city. The Christian community used to gather in the private homes of its
members, as for example in that of Cornelius, the Centurion of the Italian cohort
(Acts 10:1), the first Gentile to convert to Christianity, who was baptized by Peter
together with other members of his family. Also living in Caesarea was Philip the
Apostle with his four virgin daughters. His home, too, was a Christian meeting
place where Paul and his comrades were hosted on their way to Jerusalem.

Jewish-Gentile Relations

Relatively detailed information about Caesarea is available from the times of a
number of governors: Pontius Pilate was the prefect of Judaea from 26 to 36 CE,
during the rule of Emperor Tiberius. He became famous as the prefect who sentenced
Jesus in Jerusalem for the accusation of sedition against Rome, and he was the one
who condemned him to crucifixion. He was a tough, inflexible, stubborn, greedy,
and cruel prefect.

The literary sources provide some other information about his deeds: Flavius
Josephus relates that at the beginning of his term he ordered the introduction
into Jerusalem, secretly at night, of the standards of the army bearing images –
the representation of the bust (protoma) – of the emperor, in contradiction to
the practice that prevailed until then of bringing into the city standards without
images. Once this act became known large riots broke out in the city. Many of the
protesters headed to Pilate in Caesarea, to implore him to respect the laws of their
ancestors and to remove the images from Jerusalem. They demonstrated for five
days and nights next to the prefect’s palace. On the sixth day, he invited them for a
hearing while he was sitting upon his tribunal, erected in the “large stadium” (Wars,
2, 172; Antiquities 18, 57) and ordered his soldiers to surround them holding their
swords drawn. When he understood that this did not intimidate the Jews and they
refused to disperse, being even willing to be killed, he ordered the removal of the
icon-bearing standards from Jerusalem. The day these standards were removed –
3 Kislev – became a holiday noted in Megillat Taᶜanit.

A similar story, which probably occurred later in the period, close to the end
of the prefecture of Pilate, is found in Philo of Alexandria: Gilded shields bearing
inscriptions in honor of Tiberius, which apparently contained pagan idioms, were
set up in the king’s palace in Jerusalem, which was used by the governors. This
aroused the wrath of the Jews and they appealed to the emperor about this. At
Tiberius’ order the shields were removed from Jerusalem and placed in the Sebasteion
in Caesarea, which was the temple of Augustus that Herod had built.

Another serious matter occurred about 30 years later, during the time of the
procurator Antonius Felix (52–60). In 59/60 a dispute broke out between the
Greeks/Syrians and the Jews over the isopoliteia: equal citizenship rights or autonomy