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The Antonia Fortress ( Aramaic: קצטרא דאנטוניה) was a
citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. In ...
built by Herod the Great and named for Herod's patron Mark Antony, as a fortress whose chief function was to protect the Second Temple. It was built in Jerusalem at the eastern end of the so-called Second Wall, at the north-western corner of the Temple Mount.


History

Herod (r. 37 – c. 4
BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...
) built the fortress to protect the Temple. He named it for his patron Mark Antony (83–30 BCE). The fortress housed some part of the Roman garrison of Jerusalem. The Romans also stored the high priest's vestments within the fortress. The fortress was one of the last strongholds of the Jews in the
Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE) The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Ju ...
, when the Second Temple was destroyed.


Construction date controversy

The construction date is controversial because the name suggests that Herod built Antonia before the defeat of Mark Antony by Octavian in 31-30 BCE and Mark Antony's suicide in 30 BCE. Herod is famous for being an apt diplomat and pragmatist, who always aligned himself with the winning side and the "man in charge" of Rome. It is somewhat difficult to bring this date in accordance with the presumed date for the construction of the Herodian Temple.


Christian tradition

Traditionally,
Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
have believed for centuries that the vicinity of the Antonia Fortress was the site of Pontius Pilate' '' praetorium'', where Jesus was
tried In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...
for high treason. This was based on the assumption that an area of Roman flagstones discovered beneath the
Church of the Condemnation The Church of the Condemnation and Imposition of the Cross (Hebrew: קפלת ההרשעה וכפיית הצלב) is a Roman Catholic church located within the Franciscan monastery that also contains the Church of the Flagellation in the old cit ...
and the
Convent of the Sisters of Zion The Convent of the Sisters of Zion is a Roman Catholic convent of the Congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion, located near the eastern end of the ''Via Dolorosa'' in the Old City of Jerusalem. The convent was built in 1857 by Marie-Alphonse Ratisbo ...
was ' the pavement' which describes as the location of Jesus' trial.


Antonia pavement: archaeological counter-arguments

Pierre Benoit, former professor of New Testament studies at the
École Biblique École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, commonly known as École Biblique, is a French academic establishment in Jerusalem specializing in archaeology and Biblical exegesis. History Foundation The school was founded in 1890 ...
, reexamined the results of all previous surveys of the north-western escarpment of the Haram, of the archaeological studies of the sites owned by the Catholics in the area (Convent of the Sisters of Zion, Flagellation Monastery and St Anne Convent of the White Fathers), as well as the digs north of the
Struthion Pool The Struthion Pool, effectually translated from the Greek as 'Sparrow Pool' ( Aramaic: אשווח צפרא) is a large cuboid cistern beneath the Convent of the Sisters of Zion in the Old City of Jerusalem, built by Herod the Great in the first cen ...
area, and published in 1971 his conclusions: Archaeological investigation indicates that about a century after the presumed time of Jesus' death, this area was rebuilt as the eastern of two forums belonging to the new city initiated by Hadrian in around 130 CE, the
Aelia Capitolina Aelia Capitolina (Traditional English Pronunciation: ; Latin in full: ) was a Roman colony founded during Emperor Hadrian's trip to Judah in 129/130, centered around Jerusalem, which had been almost totally razed after the siege of 70 CE. The f ...
, and it is conceivable that following the destruction of the Antonia Fortress during the siege of 70 CE, its pavement tiles were reused at Hadrian's forum. However, he also considers the possibility that the pavement is from Hadrian's time altogether. The eastern forum of the Aelia Capitolina was built over the Struthion Pool, which was mentioned by first-century historian Josephus as being adjacent to the fortress (Josephus, ''Jewish War'' 5:11:4).


Praetorium at royal palace, not at Antonia

There are textual and archaeological arguments against the
trial of Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
being carried out at the Antonia Fortress. Like Philo, Josephus testifies that the Roman governors stayed in
Herod's Palace Herod’s Palace may refer to any of several palace-fortresses built (or rebuilt from previous fortresses) during the reign of Herod the Great, King of Judea from 37 BC to 4 BC. Mostly in ruins today, several have been excavated. * Herod's Palace ( ...
while they were in Jerusalem, and carried out their trials on the pavement immediately outside it (Josephus, ''Jewish Wars'', 2:14:8). Josephus indicates that Herod's Palace is on the Western Hill (''Jewish Wars'', 5:2) and in 2001 some of its vestiges were rediscovered under a corner of the Tower of David. Archaeologists therefore conclude that in the first century, the ''praetorium''—the residence of the ''
praefectus ''Praefectus'', often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but ...
'' (governor)—was in the former royal palace on the Western Hill, rather than at the Antonia Fortress, on the opposite side of the city. However, as the tradition retained its power in associating the fortress with Jesus' trial, the place where it once stood serves as the starting point of the '' Via Dolorosa'' commemorating the
crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consider ...
.


Description

Although modern reconstructions often depict the fortress as having a tower at each of four corners, Josephus repeatedly refers to it as "the tower Antonia", and states that it had been built by
John Hyrcanus John Hyrcanus (; ''Yōḥānān Hurqanōs''; grc, Ἰωάννης Ὑρκανός, Iōánnēs Hurkanós) was a Hasmonean ( Maccabean) leader and Jewish high priest of the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE until his death in ...
and later by King Herod, and used for a vestry, in which were reposited the vestments of the high priest. Josephus states:
The general appearance of the whole was that of a tower with other towers at each of the four corners; three of these turrets were fifty
cubits The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding No ...
high, while that at the south-east angle rose to seventy cubits and so commanded a view of the whole area of the temple.
Some archaeologists are also of the opinion that the fortress consisted only of a single tower, located at the south-east corner of the site.Benoit (1976), p. 89 For example, Pierre Benoit writes that there is absolutely no archaeological support for there having been four towers. Josephus attests to the importance of the Antonia: "For if the Temple lay as a fortress over the city, Antonia dominated the Temple & the occupants of that post were the guards of all three." Josephus placed the Antonia at the northwest corner of the colonnades surrounding the Temple. Modern depictions often show the Antonia as being located along the north side of the Temple enclosure.


Other theories

Some researchers and academics, including Marilyn Sams (M.A. in American Literature, Brigham Young University) and Dr. Robert Cornuke (Ph.D. in Bible and Theology, Louisiana Baptist University), have expanded on research by Dr.
Ernest L. Martin Ernest L. Martin (April 20, 1932 – January 2002) was a meteorologist, minister in the Worldwide Church of God and author on Biblical topics. He is best known for his controversial works on the Star of Bethlehem and the location of the Templ ...
(1932–2002, meteorologist, college professor, amateur archeologist), who offered evidence that the compound on what is commonly called the Temple Mount did not house the Jerusalem Temple, but is instead the remnants of a more massive Antonia Fortress, and that the rock inside the Dome of the Rock is not the Foundation Stone, but was inside the Praetorium of Pontius Pilate where Jesus was judged.
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor Jerome Murphy-O'Connor (born 10 April 1935, Cork City, Ireland – died 11 November 2013, Jerusalem) was a Dominican priest, a leading authority on St. Paul, and a Professor of New Testament at the École Biblique in Jerusalem, a position t ...
, however, argued that this theory "cannot be sustained", as it cannot be reconciled with Josephus' description, and it "does not account for the archaeological remains in the western section of the north wall". Josephus and archaeology don't leave much space for doubt in regard to the fact that the Temple Mount was indeed the site of the Herodian Temple, nor for the location of the Antonia near its north-western corner. Both Josephus and archaeology concur that the Roman military camp after the 70 CE destruction was centered on the three towers next to Herod's royal palace on the Western Hill, and not on the Temple Mount, whose protective walls had been thrown down by the Romans, with the resulting debris visible until today along the Western Wall near
Robinson's Arch Robinson's Arch is the name given to a monumental staircase carried by an unusually wide stone arch, which once stood at the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount. It was built as part of the expansion of the Second Temple initiated by Herod th ...
. Roman military camps had rounded corners and four gates, one in each wall – the Herodian compound had angular corners and nine gates. Permanent camps were much larger, 50 acres on average; the Haram esplanade only contains 36 acres. There is no Roman camp explanation for the Hebrew inscription marking the Trumpeting Place. The Temple compound was surrounded by porticos (roofed
colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
s following the inner walls of the compound), while military camps never were. Augustus trusted Herod and would not have built a controlling fortress towering over his capital and Temple, but no emperor would have gone so far as to entrust a legion to a client king. Remains of a 4-metre thick wall and Herodian-style
ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
s are still observable inside the
Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...
buildings in the north-west corner of the Haram and the adjacent area along its northern wall. Together they suggest the dimensions of the Antonia: 112 by 40 metres on the outside, signifying a 3300 square metre floor area, absolutely enough for a small garrison, but certainly not for the entire legion suggested by Martin. Antonia did stand on a rocky outcrop, as written by Josephus, but here, as elsewhere in his writings, he did exaggerate its elevation above the surrounding ground. This still meant that the fortress dominated the Temple courts and porticos, the latter by over ten metres, matching Josephus' words: "the tower of Antonia lay at the angle where the two porticos, the western and the northern, of the first court of the Temple met" ( JW 5:238), and " the point where the Antonia impinged on the porticos of the temple there were stairs leading down to both of them by which the guards descended" (JW 5:243; cf. ). The position and dimensions of those porticos can still be in part discerned, thanks to three surviving roof beam sockets carved out of the living rock of the rocky outcrop which once held the Antonia, north-west of the esplanade. Josephus' statement that all the porticos surrounding the Temple complex measured six stadia "including the Antonia" (JW 5:192) is off by a large margin (six stadia represent about 1.11 km, whereas the sides of the Haram esplanade today measure together about 1.55 km), but it clearly suggests that the fortress was contiguous with the Temple complex with no need for a "double causeway" to connect the two by spanning a distance of one '' stade'' (c. 150 m), as claimed by Martin.


See also

*
Bezetha Bezetha (), also called by Josephus the New City was a suburb of Jerusalem, north and north-west of the Temple, built opposite the tower Antonia (now in proximity to the Convent of the Sisters of Zion and ''Ecce Homo'' on Via Dolorosa Street) and ...
* Church of Ecce Homo *
Hasmonean Baris The Hasmonean Baris was a citadel constructed north of Jerusalem's Temple Mount in existence during the Hasmonean period. History Nehemiah refers to a "birah" on or adjacent to the Temple Mount. This may have been the predecessor or identical to ...
*
Herodian architecture Herodian architecture is a style of classical architecture characteristic of the numerous building projects undertaken during the reign (37–4 BC) of Herod the Great, the Roman client king of Judea. Herod undertook many colossal building projects ...


References

Footnotes Citations


External links

* {{Coord, 31, 46, 48, N, 35, 14, 03, E, region:IL_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title 19 BC Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century BC 1st-century BC establishments in Judea Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire Ancient sites in Jerusalem Archaeological sites in Israel Architectural history Former buildings and structures in Israel Forts in Israel Herod the Great Ancient history of Jerusalem Temple Mount 1st-century BC fortifications Pontius Pilate