Samaria-Sebastia

Nestled in a wooded setting on a hillside above the burbling Hermon Stream in Israel’s Banias Nature Reserve are the remains of a building, hewn out of bedrock, and supported by a series of opus reticulatum (Latin: “net-like”) retaining walls. The late Ehud Netzer, Israel’s acclaimed archaeologist of Herodian palaces, excavated there for two short seasons in 1977 and 1978 seeking to uncover the riddle of the identities of the building and its builder. Are these the remains of the Temple in honor of Caesar Augustus that Josephus records that King Herod built at Banias? Or, is this something else altogether? Little did Netzer know that a box of opus sectile (Latin: “cut work”) tiles that he had uncovered, which sat on a shelf at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for the next 35 years, held vital clues to the puzzle.

After supporting Marc Antony in the Battle of Actium (31 B.C.), King Herod, fearful of losing his power, went to Rome, apologized to Augustus, and assured him that he was his biggest supporter. Augustus, giving Herod an opportunity to redeem himself, allowed him to return to Judea as King of the Jews. In an effort for Herod to express his continued commitment to Rome, he reconfigured his building styles by making cities that would depict Rome in the Levant. Herod created an architectural style that implemented Roman technology, designs, and styles while co-mingling them with his existing Hellenistic style of architecture that made him forever remembered as Herod the Great.

Excavations conducted in the first half of the 20th century at the acropolis of Samaria-Sebaste uncovered a Roman temple, identified as an Augusteum, surrounded by additional Roman period structures whose purpose has remained uncertain. Scholars have proffered various theories to explain the function of these buildings: a residence for priests serving in the Augusteum, the home of the city’s governor, a palace belonging to the family and friends of Herod the Great and perhaps a royal fortified domicile intended for Herod himself. In the current essay I will revisit these theories in light of the stepped water installations discovered within and nearby to these buildings. I will suggest that despite their proximity to a pagan temple, these installations evidence a Jewish presence at the site and likely served as miqwa’ot – Jewish ritual baths – for the use of Herod’s royal entourage and perhaps even for Herod himself. How did a pagan temple and miqwa’ot exist side-by-side, particularly if the two were built by one and the same personage? Although seemingly contradictory, these finds actually provide a rare and captivating view into the multifarious world of Herod, a world in which Jewish culture found new and innovative ways to live peacefully alongside the dominant foreign culture of Rome.