Rome Project

Judea-Palestina
A brief history of the province.

Judea
Articles on first century Judea excerpted from Livius: Articles on ancient history. (Almost) all articles by Jona Lendering © 1996-2004.

Rome’s Desert Frontier: Chapter One: Physical and Human Geography
By David Kennedy and Derrick Riley. Excerpted from Rome’s Desert Frontier University of Texas Press, Austin, 1990. Courtesy of Internet History Sourcebooks.

Roman Rule (63 BCE-313 CE)
Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library

Rulers of Judaea (Hasmoneans and Herodians): chronology 166 BC-AD 92
Courtesy of I. Mladjov

How King Herod transformed the Holy Land.
By Antonio Piñero. Courtesy of National Geographic History Magazine.

The Roman Province of Judea: A Historical Overview
By John F. Hall

Roman Sources on the Jews and Judaism, 1 BCE-110 CE.
Courtesy of Ancient History Soursebook

Judaea   – in ancient sources @ attalus.org
This page © Andrew Smith, 2010

Who was who in the Roman Empire: Judea

Scrolls from the Dead Sea : The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship

The Virtual World Project: Exploring the Ancient World through Virtual Reality
“The Virtual World Project is designed for educational purposes, with teachers and students in mind. The project offers two modes for viewing the archaeological sites (Tour and Presentation mode). See the help screens for further information on using the project. Audio commentary is being added to many of the sites (see Herodium, Dan, Qasr Bshir, and Ramm, among others).”

Egeria & The Liturgy of Jerusalem
Hypertext version developed by Michael Fraser, Department of Theology, University of Durham. June 1994

The Second Temple at the Time of Jesus
By Shelley Cohney. Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library.

Jews and the Roman Empire
“The spiraling tension between Jews and Rome erupted in two revolts that deepened the rift between Jews and Christians.”
By Holland Lee Hendrix. Courtesy of PBS.org, From Jesus to Christ.

The History of Plumbing -Jerusalem

Jewish Groups at the Time of Jesus
by Prof. Felix Just, S.J. – Loyola Marymount University.

Roman Policy towards the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century C.E.
by Leonard Victor Rutgers.

Governors of Judea and Jewish High Priests, from Herod to the destruction of the Temple

Rulers in Israel during the Roman Era
by Prof. Felix Just, S.J. – Loyola Marymount University.

Procurator
Excerpted from the Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library.

Procurators
Excerpted from the Jewish Encyclopedia.com

The Eastern Mediterranean and Syria, 1-500 A.D.
Courtesy of Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Caesarea- from Roman City to Crusader Fortress Era
Courtesy of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)2001 The State of Israel

A Complex of Warehouses and Granaries uncovered in Caesarea Maritima
“Caesarea – a maritime city with an elaborate harbor was the provincial capital of Judaea / Palaestina. Storage facilities occupied no doubt large areas of the city. A large complex of warehouses and granaries uncovered in recent excavations in Caesarea Maritima enables to distinguish several different types of storage facilities, and to evaluate their significance in the economy and administration of Caesarea.” Courtesy of Joseph Patrich, University of Haifa.

Combined Caesarea Expeditions
At this time, Combines Caesarea Expeditions is no longer active but please feel free to browse the publications and reports.

Caesarea Maritma-Harbours
By Zaraza Friedman. Courtesy of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum

The Historic Port of Caesarea
“The first artificial harbor in the world, Caesarea was a monument to Herod the Great’s ingenuity. Built on the site of the coastal town, Strato’s Tower, it was one of the largest harbors in the Roman world, measuring some 200,000 squares meters.” Courtesy of CMJ Israel.

Constructing the Harbour of Caesarea on the Sea: New Evidence from the Roman Field Campaign of October 2005.
Courtesy of University of Victoria

Imported Building Materials of Sebastos Harbour, Israel
By Gregory F. Votruba. Courtesy of Wiley Online Library.

Caesarea Excavations 1993-98: The Byzantine Praetorium, Warehouses and The Carceres (Starting Gates) of the Hippodrome.
By Joseph Patrich.© All rights reserved to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Caesarea Maritima: Excavations at the Promotory Palace
Please be our guest and use this site to explore the archaeological excavations of The University of Pennsylvania Museum and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Herod’s palace at Caesarea Maritima, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

Aqueduct of Caesarea
“The old city Caesarea required a steady flow of running water. Initially its waters came from the local wells. However, as the  population grew to several hundred thousand people, a large scale aqueduct was required to bring the water from a distance.  The aqueduct was built in several phases, starting from King Herod”. Courtesy of BibleWalks .com

Roman Aqueducts: Caesarea
Excerpted from Roman Aqueducts.

Caesarea Cache
by Haim Watzman. A cache of 11 gold ornaments intended to decorate a leather belt or scabbard has been found under a stone-paved floor in a domestic quarter of Caesarea, Israel.Archaeology Magazine Volume 49 Number 6, November/December 1996.

Two Inscribed Columns from Caesarea Maritima
By Barbara Burrell. aus: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 99 (1993) 287–295.© Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn.

Inscriptions from the land of Israel by Michael L. Satlow University.
“This project seeks to collect and make available all the inscriptions from the Land of Israel that date from the Hellenistic period(c. 330 BCE) through the Persian conquest(614 C.E.).”

Second Temple Synagogues by Donald D. Binder
“This site is devoted to the study of Second Temple Synagogues–that is, synagogues which existed prior to the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE.”

Ancient History Sourcebook: Roman Sources on the Jews and Judaism, 1 BCE-110 CE
“Texts from Josephus, Augustus, Claudius, Strabo and Tacitus.” Courtesy of the Ancient History Sourcebook.

Josephus Jewish Antiquities
By Josephus. Available in both Greek and English versions. Courtesy of the Perseus Project at Tufts University.

Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews
“This work was translated by William Whiston and edited by the folks at Sage Software, who offer these works, as well as hundreds of ancient and modern authors, on CD from www.sagelibrary.com. (I am not associated with Sage Software, but left the plug for their CD in place because it is from their production of the text that my work here is based.) HTML conversion was performed from RTF and Microsoft Word sources locally.”

Josephus The Jewish War
Available in both Greek and English versions. Courtesy of the Perseus Project at Tufts University.

Flavius Josephus Wars of the Jews
“This work was translated by William Whiston and edited by the folks at Sage Software, who offer these works, as well as hundreds of ancient and modern authors, on CD from www.sagelibrary.com. (I am not associated with Sage Software, but left the plug for their CD in place because it is from their production of the text that my work here is based.) HTML conversion was performed from RTF and Microsoft Word sources locally.”

The Jewish Wars: The First and Second Jewish Revolts Against Rome
“History of the Destruction of Jerusalem & Josephan Studies Archives”. Courtesy of the Peterist Archive

Map of The Siege of Jerusalem
Courtesy of the Peterist Archive

The Great Revolt (66-70CE)
By Joseph Telushkin. Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library

First Jewish-Roman War
“This article was written by Richard L. Mattis and originally appeared in the December 1995 issue of Military History magazine.” Excerpted from www.historynet.com

Wars between the Jews and the Romans: the War of 66-70 CE
Article by Jona Lendering ©

Wars between the Jews and the Romans: Masada (74 CE)
Article by Jona Lendering ©

The Jewish Revolt against Rome : History Sources, and Perspectives”
By Mladen Popović. Courtesy of Academia.edu

Insurgency in Ancient Times: The Jewish Revolts against the Seleucid and Roman Empire 166 BC-73 AD.
By LTC William T. Sorrells U. S. Army. School of Advanced Military Studies United States Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Coinage of the First Jewish Revolt Against Rome: Iconagraphy, Minting, Authority, Metallurgey
By Robert Deutsch. Courtesy of Academia.edu

Wars between the Jews and the Romans: the revolt against Trajan (115-117 CE)
Article by Jona Lendering ©

The Bar-Kokhba Revolt: (132-135 C.E.)
By by Shira Schoenberg. Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library.

Wars between the Jews and the Romans: The Bar-Kokhba Revolt: (132-135 C.E.)
Article by Jona Lendering ©

Bar-Kokhba revolt
Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Cave of Letters
By Jenni Irving. Courtesy of the Ancient History Encylopedia.

Josephus’ description of Sebastos
“The historian Josephus Flavius, who was born around 7 or 8 CE, published a history of the Jewish War between 75 and 79 CE and a history of the Jewish people in 93-94 CE. Both these works contain a detailed description of the city of Caesarea and its harbour, Sebastos. Despite certain inevitable inaccuracies, the data contained in these descriptions has been of great value in assisting the reconstruction of the layout and appearance of the harbour in the Flavian period.”

The Credibility of Josephus
From “Masada: Literary Traditions, Archaeological Remains, and the Credibility of Josephus”By Shaye Cohen Journal of Jewish Studies: Essays in honour of Yigal Yadin VOL. XXXIII pp. 385-404 Spring-Autumn 1982

The Credibility of Josephus by Magen Broshi The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
This article first appeared in Journal of Jewish Studies: Essays in Honor of Yigael Yadin in 1982 by the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies. Courtesy of CenturyOne Bookstore Educational Reference Series.

Josephus Life of Josephus
Available in both Greek and English versions. Courtesy of the Perseus Project at Tufts University.

The Flavius Josephus Home Page
“This site is dedicated to the works of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37 CE – circa 100 CE) .”

Masada: Desert Fortress Overlooking the Dead Sea
Courtesy of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)1999 The State of Israel.

Gamala: Jewish City on the Golan
Courtesy of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)2008 The State of Israel.

Tel Dor Excavation Project
“Tel Dor (Kh. el-Burj), is a large mound located on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, about 30 km south of Haifa. It is identified with D-jr of Egyptian sources, Biblical Dor, and with Dor/Dora of Greek and Roman sources. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.”

The USF Excavations at Sepphoris
“At the crossroads of two major ancient roads, the north/south Via Maris and the east/west Acre-Tiberias road, was the once great city of Sepphoris.” ©2001 CenturyOne Foundation, Inc.

The Glass from Sepphoris (1983-1991): A Preliminary Report by Joan Keller
The University of South Florida’s Excavations at Sepphoris, Israel Hypertext version by Thomas R. W. Longstaff © 1994.

Zippori
“The city of Zippori (Sepphoris), described by the first century CE Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, as “the ornament of all Galilee,” is located on a hill in the Lower Galilee, midway between the Mediterranean and Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), with abundant spring water and a fertile valley around it.” Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library.

Zippori-Sepphoris
“Zippori, also known as Sepphoris in Greek, lies in the heart of the Lower Galilee midway between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. For long periods during antiquity, Zippori was the capital of the Galilee with a vibrant religious, commercial, and social community. Today, Zippori is an antiquities park extending over 16 square km that was opened to the public in 1992, run by the Israel National Park Authority.” Hebrew University Excavation.

The Decapolis: An Historical-Archaeological Survey
By Arthur Segal, The Zinman Institute of Archaeology ,University of Haifa. Excerpted from the Hippos (Sussita) Excvation Project.

The Churches of Sussita: Interim Report at the End of Seven Excavation Seasons (2000-2006)
By Arthur Segal, The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa. Excerpted from the Hippos (Sussita) Excvation Project.

Banyas: Cult Center of the God Pan
“The remains of the city of Banyas (Arabic pronunciation of Panias) are located in northern Israel, at the foot of Mt. Hermon. Here, below a steep cliff, the cold waters of the Banyas spring, one of the sources of the Jordan River, gush forth. Courtesy of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)1999 The State of Israel. All rights reserved.

Jerusalem: The Northern Gate of Aelia Capitolina
“The gate in the northern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, designed to serve those entering the city from the north, was constructed in 1538 during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Known today as the Damascus Gate, it is the largest and most elaborate of all the Old City gates.” Courtesy of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)2008 The State of Israel. All rights reserved.

Jerusalem the Herodian Street Along the Western Wall
Courtesy of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)1999 The State of Israel. All rights reserved.

The Western Wall: Ancient Herodian Street Along the Western Wall
Courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library.

Avdat: A Nabatean City in the Negev
“Avdat is located on a mountain ridge in the center of the Negev highlands. At this point, where the routes from Petra(in present-day Jordan) and Eilat converge and continue tothe Mediterranean coast, the Nabateans established a road station for their caravans. Courtesy of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copyright (c)1999 The State of Israel. All rights reserved.

Dinur Center for the Study of Jewish History
Links to Archaeological Sites in Israel. Courtesy of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Qumran Visualization Project
Virtual model of Qumran designed to model the consensus of the archaeological findings, beginning with deVaux’s original excavations, as preserved and published by Humbert and Chambon, and then incorporate subsequent excavations and surveys as appropriate. Also developed to allow archaeologists to test new theories, ideas, and reconstructions regarding the site. Courtesy of the UCLA Qumran Visualization Project.

Jewish History Sourcebook: Jews and the Later Roman Law 315-531 .
From Jacob Marcus,The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791, (New York: JPS, 1938), 8-12

Jewish History Sourcebook: Julian and the Jews 361-363 CE
From Jacob Marcus,The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791, (New York: JPS, 1938), 8-12

The Maccabean Army as portrayed in the War-Rule of The Army of the Sons of Light
By Luke Ueda-Sarson. “The Jewish uprising against the Seleucid kingdom of Antiochos Epiphanes, and the subsequent establishment of a Judaean state, came at a time of military change in the Hellenistic world. Roman power had become visibly triumphant, and emulation led Antiochos to rearm some of his troops in the Roman manner. While I am unconvinced by Nik Sekunda’s arguments that this process extended to the whole army, nether-the-less, Roman influence was certainly in the ascendent.1 Given this, it is tempting to ask if the army of the newly established Judaean state also showed such Roman influences.”

The Persecution of the Jews in the Roman Empire (300-428)
By James Everett Seaver, University of Kansas Press, Humanistic Studies. No. 30, Persecution of the Jews in the Roman Empire (300-438). Copright 1952, By the University of Kansas Press.

The Sack of Jerusalem by a Jewish-Persian Army
Courtesy of Byzantine Military

“Menorahs in Colour: Polychromy in Jewish Visual Culture of Roman Antiquity” Images 6 (2013)
By Steven Fine. Courtesy of Academia.edu

Ancient Coins of Syria
Excerpted from Digital Historia Numerorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics.

Roman Provincial Coins from Judaea and Palestine
Excerpted from Forum Ancient Coins.

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