Caesarea Maritima, Herod's city: theatre, aqueduct and visit

Caesarea in the Bible: Philip, Cornelius and Paul

Caesarea appears only in the New Testament: the city did not exist in Old Testament times. The Acts of the Apostles mention it some fifteen times and present it as the gateway through which the Christian message opens to non-Jews and travels on to Rome. For the wider context of this period, see the Apostles and the early Church.

Philip the evangelist (Acts 8 and 21)

After baptising the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza, Philip, one of the seven deacons, preaches in the coastal towns: "passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Cesarea" (Acts 8:40). He seems to have settled there: years later Paul and his companions stay in his house. "The same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy" (Acts 21:8-9).

Peter and the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10)

"There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house."

Acts 10:1-2 (KJV)

Prompted by a vision, Cornelius sends for Peter in Jaffa, some sixty kilometres to the south. Peter, meanwhile, sees the vision of the sheet let down from heaven on the roof of Simon the tanner. In Caesarea he enters the house of a Gentile, something his tradition discouraged, and declares that "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). The Holy Spirit falls on the listeners and Peter has Cornelius and his household baptised (Acts 10:44-48). For Acts this is the first baptism of an uncircumcised Gentile, a turning point taken up again at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:7-11).

The death of Herod Agrippa (Acts 12)

Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great and king of Judaea from 41 to 44, goes down to Caesarea after Peter's escape (Acts 12:19). Addressing the envoys of Tyre and Sidon in his royal robes, he is hailed as a god; "immediately the angel of the Lord smote him […] and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost" (Acts 12:21-23). The historian Josephus describes the same sudden death at Caesarea, during games held in the theatre in honour of the emperor (Jewish Antiquities 19.343-350): two independent sources for one event.

Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea (Acts 23–26)

Paul passes through the port several times (Acts 9:30; 18:22). Arrested at the Temple in Jerusalem around AD 57, he is taken by night under heavy escort to the governor Felix at Caesarea, who orders him "to be kept in Herod's judgment hall" (Acts 23:35), the praetorium. "After two years" he is still there (Acts 24:27). He stands trial before Felix, then before his successor Porcius Festus, and finally before King Agrippa II and Bernice (Acts 25:23–26:32). Fearing he will be handed over to his opponents, he invokes his Roman citizenship:

"I appeal unto Cesar. Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Cesar? unto Cesar shalt thou go."

Acts 25:11-12 (KJV)

From Caesarea Paul sails for Rome, on a voyage that ends in shipwreck on Malta (Acts 27).

From Straton's Tower to the port of Caesarea

Before Herod, the site was only a small Phoenician anchorage, Straton's Tower, founded around the 4th century BC. Rome granted it to Herod in 30 BC, and the king launched one of the largest building projects of his reign, described by Josephus (Jewish War 1.408-415; Jewish Antiquities 15.331-341): a grid-planned city, a temple to Rome and Augustus overlooking the harbour, a theatre, a palace and an "amphitheatre" for races and games. The city was inaugurated around 10–9 BC.

Sebastos, a harbour won from the sea

With no natural bay, Herod's engineers built two great breakwaters in the open sea, enclosing a basin of about ten hectares: one of the largest artificial harbours of its day. They used hydraulic concrete made with pozzolana, a volcanic ash imported from the Bay of Naples, poured into submerged wooden forms. Weakened by ground movement and possibly a tsunami, the harbour silted up and was unusable by the end of Antiquity; its foundations can now be explored by divers.

Roman capital, then Christian and Crusader city

• c. 22–10/9 BC — Herod builds the city and the harbour of Sebastos.
• AD 6 — Judaea becomes a Roman province: Caesarea is the residence of the prefects and later procurators, including Pontius Pilate (26–36).
• 66 — clashes between Jewish and Greek residents of Caesarea are among the triggers of the Great Revolt (Josephus, War 2.284-292).
• After 70 — Vespasian makes it a Roman colony; the high-level aqueduct is enlarged under Hadrian (2nd century).
• 3rd–4th centuries — a leading Christian centre of learning: Origen teaches here, and Eusebius of Caesarea is bishop and writes his Ecclesiastical History. The city also has rabbinic academies.
• c. 640 — Arab conquest; the city declines.
• 1101 — taken by Baldwin I; the Genoese carry off the Sacro Catino, a green glass bowl long revered as the Holy Grail.
• 1251–1252 — Louis IX of France fortifies the Crusader town with walls and a moat.
• 1265 — Sultan Baybars captures and dismantles the city.

Excavations and finds: the Pilate Stone and Herod's palace

• FoundedHerod the Great, c. 22–10/9 BC
• Ancient statusCapital of the Roman province of Judaea
• Key findPontius Pilate inscription (1961)
• Managed byIsrael Nature and Parks Authority (national park)

The Pilate Stone (1961)

In June 1961 the Italian archaeological mission led by Antonio Frova, which was clearing the theatre, uncovered a limestone block of about 82 × 65 cm, reused in a staircase in the 4th century. It bears a damaged Latin dedication that includes TIBERIEVM, [PONTI]VS PILATVS and [PRAEF]ECTVS IVDA[EA]E: Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judaea, dedicated a building in honour of the emperor Tiberius (a "Tiberieum", whose exact nature is still debated). It is the only known contemporary inscription bearing the name of the governor who, according to the Gospels, had Jesus crucified. It also shows that his official title was "prefect", whereas Tacitus calls him "procurator". The original is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; a replica stands on site.

The promontory palace

On the rocky point south of the theatre, excavations by Ehud Netzer (Hebrew University) from 1976, followed in the 1990s by Kathryn Gleason and Barbara Burrell and by Yosef Porath (Israel Antiquities Authority), revealed a two-level Herodian palace: below, living quarters around a large rock-cut pool facing the sea; above, a courtyard and reception halls. Many scholars see it as Herod's palace that later became the residence of the Roman governors, in other words the "judgment hall" (praetorium) of Herod where Paul was held (Acts 23:35). The identification is plausible, but no remains can be linked directly to his detention.

The harbour and recent work

The sunken harbour has been explored since the 1980s by an underwater archaeology team led by Avner Raban (University of Haifa) and Robert Hohlfelder, who documented the Roman building techniques. Other projects, notably the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima in the 1970s, excavated the lower city and its quarters. In 2019 a major programme funded by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Caesarea Development Corporation and the Nature and Parks Authority, restored the vaults beneath the podium of the temple of Augustus, which now house a new visitor centre.

What to see at Caesarea Maritima today

The national park stretches along the sea for more than a kilometre. A good route starts in the south at the theatre and heads north to the harbour and the Crusader town.

The Roman theatre

Built by Herod and later enlarged in the Roman period, the theatre faces the sea. Much of its seating was restored after the Italian excavations of the 1960s, and it is once again used for concerts. The replica of the Pilate Stone stands nearby.

The promontory palace and the Herodian hippodrome

Just to the north you walk across the floors of Herod's palace, around the rock-cut pool washed by the waves. Beside it runs the Herodian hippodrome, a track nearly 300 m long lined with seating, used for chariot races and shows; Josephus calls it an "amphitheatre".

The harbour, the vaults and the Crusader town

Further north, the restored vaults of the temple podium house the visitor centre (finds from the excavations and a film on the building of the city). You then pass through the Crusader walls of Louis IX, with their sloping glacis and moat, to reach the old harbour, now lined with restaurants and galleries.

The Caesarea aqueduct on the beach

North of the park, outside its walls, the Caesarea aqueduct runs along the dunes beside a public beach. This high-level aqueduct brought water from springs at the foot of Mount Carmel. Long attributed to Herod, it went through several phases: a first channel in the 1st century AD, doubled under Hadrian, as shown by inscriptions left by the Roman legions who worked on it. Offshore, the Caesarea marine national park protects the submerged remains of the harbour.

Caesarea Maritima or Caesarea Philippi?

The New Testament mentions two different places called Caesarea, some 150 km apart:

• Caesarea Maritima, on the coast, founded by Herod the Great: the Caesarea of the Acts of the Apostles (Cornelius, Philip, Paul) and of the Pilate Stone.
• Caesarea Philippi, today Banias, at the foot of Mount Hermon near the sources of the Jordan: rebuilt by the tetrarch Philip, a son of Herod, it is the setting of Peter's confession ("Thou art the Christ", Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30).

When Acts simply says "Caesarea", it always means the coastal city. The modern town of Caesarea, east of the park, was developed in the 20th century with the support of the Rothschild family.