Page 34 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

20 Historical Review b
a

Fig. 19a–b etched on a kurkar slab found on the seashore nearby, apparently refers to the
dedication in that year of this government compound, which was built with imperial
(a) Fragment of the foundation financing. Even though only a small fragment of it had survived, it is enough to
inscription of the enable its completion (Figs. 19a–b). In time, as a result of the Diocletian reforms, the
compound of the Roman command over the army in each province or cluster of provinces was entrusted to an
financial procurator officer with the rank of dux, and his activity was shifted closer to its borders, while
the civil administration, including the financial affairs remained in the hands of the
(b) Reconstruction of the governor of each province (his title being praeses), and the function of procurator was
foundation inscription cancelled. From then on the Roman financial procurator’s palace in Caesarea turned
of the compound of the into the palace of the governor of Provincia Palaestina, and it continued to serve as
Roman financial procurator such during the entire Late Roman/Byzantine period.
(77/78 CE)
Turning the city into a colony was considered a change of status of the polis
founded by Herod; not the establishment of a new city to be settled by army veterans.
The administrative language was Latin and the former residents of the city were
joined by soldiers and clerks well versed in Roman law and administration, who
served in the governor’s administration. The citizens of the colony were granted
Roman citizenship. This required the preparation of a new list of citizens (coloni),
both new and old, and the territorium – administrative rural territory subordinate
to it – was defined. If any Jews remained in the city after the Revolt, their number
was minuscule following the wanton killing of them that led to the Great Revolt.
Others fled to the nearby district of Narbata.

The destruction of Jerusalem, on the one hand, and the flourishing of Caesarea,
on the other, provide the background to the following passages:

Caesarea in Rabbinic Sources

“Caesarea and Jerusalem [are rivals]. If one says to you that both are destroyed, do not believe him; if
he says that both are flourishing, do not believe him; if he says that Caesarea is waste and Jerusalem is
flourishing, or that Jerusalem is waste and Caesarea is flourishing, you may believe him … if this one is
filled, that one is laid waste, and if that one is filled, this one is laid waste” (BT, Megilla 6a, tr. M. Simon,
p. 29).

“’Daughter of Edom’ (Lamentations 4:21): i.e. Caesarea” (Lamentations Rabba 4:21, tr. Cohen, p. 234).