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Jaffa was the main port on the coast of Israel until Herod built a new port at Caesarea Maritima.  Herod thrust his breakwater into the sea using rubble and a type of concrete that hardened underwater which scientists are still analyzing to understand why it has proved to be so durable.  Perhaps only Herod would have dared to do battle with the sea like this and create harbor that was completely artificial.  His port city would become the largest in Palestine – its only rival being Jerusalem. 

Port

The port was meant to impress. Ships sailing past the outer wall of the harbour would have passed under giant statues of.

Once inside the harbour, the first building to catch the eye was the temple Herod built for Caesar Augustus. Josephus remarks that this temple was “remarkable for its beauty and grand proportions; it contained a colossal statue of the emperor, not inferior to the Olympian Zeus which served as its model.” (Josephus) For Josephus to compare the statue to that of the Olympian Zeus is to say that Herod went over the top in his veneration of the Roman emperor.

Theatre

Herod constructed a theater in Caesarea although his would have been more modest than the massive one that stands there today.  This is where king Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, received the accolades of the people, believing himself to be a god, and was struck down.  The Jewish historian, Josephus, leaves us an account of what happened, which closely mirrors the account found in the book of Acts.

    Presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, (though not for his good) that he was a god; and they added, “Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.” Upon this the king neither rebuked them nor rejected their impious flattery. But he shortly afterward looked up and saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, just as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain arose in his belly, striking with a most violent intensity. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said, “I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death. But I am bound to accept what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy manner.”

Agrippa had grown up in Rome.  He was a close friend of the Roman emperor Caligula and then of Claudius, and it would seem that he too began to think of himself as something more than human.

Palace

Herod’ palace at Caesarea featured a private freshwater pool surrounded by the sea on all three sides.  The mosaic floors and marble colonnades, open to the sea breeze and with the oceans waves crashing on all sides, would made this the kind of truly exotic palace that king Herod was fond of.

After Herod’s death, the palace became the headquarters for the Roman governor of Palestine.  Pontius Pilate would have lived here.   And the apostle Paul, who was held prisoner here for five years.  This is where he was questioned by Felix and Drusilla, the Roman governor, and then by Agrippa II and Berenice.  It must have been a long five years.  Paul finally appealed to emperor Nero in Rome.  His journey to Rome would be the last of a remarkable man whose message of grace and forgiveness would continue to grow and bear fruit until not a sing part of the empire was untouched.

Jewish Revolt

Caesarea was the capitol of Judea, not Jerusalem.  And the two city’s did not get along well together.   The Jews revolted against he Romans after a Roman garrison from Caesarea looted the temple in Jerusalem.   20,000 Jews in Caesarea were slaughtered in response.    This slaughter was the spark that began the 70 AD revolt that would engulf the country in a war that would leave it a smouldering ruin.

Christian Persecution

Caesarea became a center for Christian learning. Origin (185-254) was a brilliant scholar although he gave the Bible a very mystical interpretation that many though was suspect. Origin composed the Hexapla, which contained six translations of the Bible all laid out side by side in six columns. Greek and Latin. Origin would found a library that would grow to became one of the largest next to the famous library at Alexandria. One of Origins pupils, Eusebius, would go on to write a history of the early church. about the slaughter of Christians in the amphitheater in Caesarea. The Christians were persecuted in Eusebius day. He offers eyewitness testimony of what he saw occurring in the amphitheatre at Caesarea.
I myself saw some of these mass executions by decapitation or fire, a slaughter that dulled the murderous axe until it wore out and broke in pieces… Yet they endured what came upon them, as in accordance with the inscrutable purposes of God.
Alphaeus and Zacchaeus
After stripes and scrapings and severe bonds and additional tortures and various other trials, and after having their feet stretched for a night and day over four holes in the stocks, on the seventeenth day of the month Dius, — that is, according to the Romans, the fifteenth before the Kalends of December,— having confessed one only God and Christ Jesus as king, as if they had uttered some blasphemy, they were beheaded like the former martyr. (Eusebius 8.3)

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Jaffa was the main port on the coast of Israel until Herod built a new port at Caesarea Maritima.  Herod thrust his breakwater into the sea using rubble and a type of concrete that hardened underwater which scientists are still analyzing to understand why it has proved to be so durable.  Perhaps only Herod would have dared to do battle with the sea like this and create harbor that was completely artificial.  His port city would become the largest in Palestine – its only rival being Jerusalem. 

Port

The port was meant to impress. Ships sailing past the outer wall of the harbour would have passed under giant statues of.

Once inside the harbour, the first building to catch the eye was the temple Herod built for Caesar Augustus. Josephus remarks that this temple was “remarkable for its beauty and grand proportions; it contained a colossal statue of the emperor, not inferior to the Olympian Zeus which served as its model.” (Josephus) For Josephus to compare the statue to that of the Olympian Zeus is to say that Herod went over the top in his veneration of the Roman emperor.

Theatre

Herod constructed a theater in Caesarea although his would have been more modest than the massive one that stands there today.  This is where king Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, received the accolades of the people, believing himself to be a god, and was struck down.  The Jewish historian, Josephus, leaves us an account of what happened, which closely mirrors the account found in the book of Acts.

    Presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, (though not for his good) that he was a god; and they added, “Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.” Upon this the king neither rebuked them nor rejected their impious flattery. But he shortly afterward looked up and saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, just as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain arose in his belly, striking with a most violent intensity. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said, “I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death. But I am bound to accept what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy manner.”

Agrippa had grown up in Rome.  He was a close friend of the Roman emperor Caligula and then of Claudius, and it would seem that he too began to think of himself as something more than human.

Palace

Herod’ palace at Caesarea featured a private freshwater pool surrounded by the sea on all three sides.  The mosaic floors and marble colonnades, open to the sea breeze and with the oceans waves crashing on all sides, would made this the kind of truly exotic palace that king Herod was fond of.

After Herod’s death, the palace became the headquarters for the Roman governor of Palestine.  Pontius Pilate would have lived here.   And the apostle Paul, who was held prisoner here for five years.  This is where he was questioned by Felix and Drusilla, the Roman governor, and then by Agrippa II and Berenice.  It must have been a long five years.  Paul finally appealed to emperor Nero in Rome.  His journey to Rome would be the last of a remarkable man whose message of grace and forgiveness would continue to grow and bear fruit until not a sing part of the empire was untouched.

Jewish Revolt

Caesarea was the capitol of Judea, not Jerusalem.  And the two city’s did not get along well together.   The Jews revolted against he Romans after a Roman garrison from Caesarea looted the temple in Jerusalem.   20,000 Jews in Caesarea were slaughtered in response.    This slaughter was the spark that began the 70 AD revolt that would engulf the country in a war that would leave it a smouldering ruin.

Christian Persecution

Caesarea became a center for Christian learning. Origin (185-254) was a brilliant scholar although he gave the Bible a very mystical interpretation that many though was suspect. Origin composed the Hexapla, which contained six translations of the Bible all laid out side by side in six columns. Greek and Latin. Origin would found a library that would grow to became one of the largest next to the famous library at Alexandria. One of Origins pupils, Eusebius, would go on to write a history of the early church. about the slaughter of Christians in the amphitheater in Caesarea. The Christians were persecuted in Eusebius day. He offers eyewitness testimony of what he saw occurring in the amphitheatre at Caesarea.
I myself saw some of these mass executions by decapitation or fire, a slaughter that dulled the murderous axe until it wore out and broke in pieces… Yet they endured what came upon them, as in accordance with the inscrutable purposes of God.
Alphaeus and Zacchaeus
After stripes and scrapings and severe bonds and additional tortures and various other trials, and after having their feet stretched for a night and day over four holes in the stocks, on the seventeenth day of the month Dius, — that is, according to the Romans, the fifteenth before the Kalends of December,— having confessed one only God and Christ Jesus as king, as if they had uttered some blasphemy, they were beheaded like the former martyr. (Eusebius 8.3)