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49

Fig. 3. Reconstructionof the facade of Solomon's Temple (drawnby Th. A. Busink).

Shemesh or even Gibeon centers which dominateda surrounding plain and which could not be ignored. Whateverhistoricalchronology may be behind the record of their conquest, settlements,or destructions,the list of cities in Joshua shows that it would be necessaryto have their allegiance before there could be any real peace in the Israelitesettlementsof Canaan. Jerusalemposed no such problem. When David moved his capital from Hebron to the newly conqueredJerusalemearly in the

so

10th century, he was attractedby of Israel. David also built for several considerations.As a site, it himself a palace; unfortunately,to was near the middle of the territory date no recognizableremainsof it he now controlled. As it had not have been found. His son and been in Israelitehands before, it successor, Solomon, proceededin apparentlyhad not been claimed by the second half of the 10th century any of the tribes and may, to build a larger palace and the therefore,have been outside the Temple which was part of the tribal system entirely. It was palace complex (fig. 3). In so doing, essentiallyneutrai territoryamong Solomon extended the city to the the tribes. Further,while not northern"TempleMount"or Mount particularlyuseful for offensive Moriah as it is sometimescalled. militaryoperations,its defenses were Today there are no structural admirable.With all of these remainsknown to us of either his advantages,David made Jerusalem palace or the Temple, although the his capital and the religiouscenter location can be Elxedwithin narrow

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limits. The central structuresof the Temple the Holy of Holies (the Debir)or the altar were presumablyover the outcroppingof rock now covered by the Dome of the Rock mosque. Although this presumptionis reasonableand supportedby much tradition, the archeologistmust face the hard fact that today there is no identifiable physical evidence of Solomon's Temple. The Jerusalemof David, Solomon, and their immediate successorsof the Kingdom of Judah in the 9th and 8th centurieswas an administrative,royal, and religious center. During the period of the Divided Monarchy,roughly two hundredyears from the death of Solomon until the conquest of the northernKingdom of Israel by the Assyrians(from the last quarterof the 10th century B.C. until the last quarter of the 8th), Jerusalemwas in constant competitionwith Samaria, as rival capitals of competing kingdomsand religious centers. In spite of its special claims, Jerusalemhardly qualiEledas a true city. Other urban centers both north and south were larger and, for economic life, more important.Such cities included Lachish and Beersheba in the south, and Megiddo,

archeologists,especially Nahman Avigad and Magen Broshi, have been working in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.It is their finds and interpretationswhich have caused scholars to reconsiderthe nature of ancient Jerusalem.The ancient city was divided into three differentsectors. First, there was the original Jebusite (Canaanite)city and its extensions on the upper part of the Ophel; these are defined and delimited by the very deep gorge of the Kidron Valley opposite the Mount of Olives. Second is the -

Theurbanizationof Jerusalemcan be dated to 721 B.C. and is tied to the destructionof the northernkingdomof Israeland the dissipationof its population.

Temple Mount where the palace and Temple stood. Third, there is Mount Zion, lying to the west of the first two, across the Tyropoeon Valley and ending in the Hinnom Valley to the west. The first (the Jebusite city on the Ophel) is outside the medievaland Islamic walls of the present Old City, while the latter two are for the most part within them. The exact locations of the ancient walls, which are often very different from those of the present walls, are the subject of much controversy.What is clear and In spite of its specialclaims, critical is that at some point prior to the Roman period, large parts of Jerusalemhardlyqualifed Mount Zion, the lower city on the as a true city. east side of Mount Zion extending into the lower Tyropoeon Valley, Hazor, and Samaria in the north. and parts of the Ophel and Jebusite Jerusalemremaineda citadel, a city were enclosed by walls. This is royal center, and a shrine-but known from the lst-centuryhistorian not a city. Josephus and from other literary In the last part of the 8th sources. Furthermore,remainsof the century, however, there was a Hasmoneanand Herodianbuildings dramaticchange: Jerusalembecame were always visible at the Citadel, a city. Our literarytexts do not the fortress on the westernpart of mention this transformation,but Mount Zion, and adjacent-tothe then these texts most likely were Jaffa Gate. Josephus, the Talmud, put into their final form decades and the New Testamentall reflect in later when their authors could their accounts a large urban conceive of Jerusalemonly as a city, complex, and that complex forms an an urban center. Our knowledgeis integralpart of the backgroundof new and archeologicalin nature. HellenisticJudaism and Early In the years since 1967, Israeli Christianity.When did Jerusalem

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST

change from a royal citadel into a true urban center? We now know that the urbanizationof Jerusalemcan be dated to 721 B.C. and that it is tied to the destructionof the northern Kingdomof Israeland the dissipation of the northern"ten tribes"(or "lost tribes"as they are popularlycalled). In the recent excavations of the Old City, a numberof sections of the city walls have been uncovered more will undoubtedlyfollow in the years to come. From these sections it is now possible to reconstructthe

.

.

.

..

line of the wall as it existed about 700 B.C. In particular,two sections excavated by Magen Broshi (fig. 4) give incontrovertibleproof of the extension of the city to the west at the end of the 8th century. Furthermore,the wall and the surroundingareas can be shown to be the first building activity in the area, meaning that previouslythere was no settlementof any size west of the Temple Mount. The history of settlementas can now be determinedshows a markedincrease in the population of Jerusalem,as much as two hundredpercentin the space of a few years. If this wall section providesus with the evidence for the western extension of occupation, then we can understand much better the purpose and function of the Siloam Tunnel, long known to archeologists,which was hewn out at this timee A great convenienceto the increased population of the city in time of peace and absolutelyvital in time of war, it brought water from the Gihon spring in the Kidron Valley within the new walls. Parallelwith the growth of Jerusalem,a number of sites in Judea show a similar but lesser expansion. In historicalterms, many questions remainto be answered, but it seems plausibleto reconstruct

51

Fig. 4. Segment of Israelitewall (ca. end of the 8th centuryB.C.) indicating settlementof Mount Zion after the fall of Israel to Assyria in 722 B.C.

the situation in the following manner.The long-standingimperialistic desires of Assyria receivednew momentumwith the accession of Tiglath-PileserIII in 744. He pushed westward,greatly extending the pattern of his predecessors; Israel lay in his path, along with many other small nations. During his lifetime he overranoutlying areas of the country, includingGalilee, and set a puppet king, Hoshea, on the throne. His death in 727 preventedhim from any further actions, but his successor,Shalmaneser V, resumedthe attack when Israel rebelled. Samariawas besieged and finally capturedin 723-22.

52

About this time Shalmaneserdied and was succeededby Sargon II, who completed the campaign,removing a substantialpart of the population to the east (in 721). The exact definition of this "population" has never been made clear. Certainly some people were forcibly removed to the east, but it appearsfrom the new discoveriesin Judah that, possibly before Shalmaneser'sattack and certainlyafter it, large numbers fled to the southern kingdom, which had purchasedlimited autonomy from Assyria. Arrivingin Judah, they were forced to give up their traditionaloccupationsof farming and herding. Both of these activities

requiredland, but land in sufficient quantity was not availablebecause it was already owned, occupied, and used by the local inhabitants.Thus, the refugeeswere forced into the citadel and palace areas. Habitation of true urban proportionsgrew up aroundthese areas,transforming them into centers with an urban economic and social base. The Assyrianswere not to be kept at arm's length for long. Therefore,the kings of Judah had to undertakeextension of the city wall to encompassand protect the new inhabitants(as noted above). Evidencefor this activity is the hydraulicconstructionof King Hezekiah (ca. 680), the Siloam Tunnel mentionedabove. The precautionsof the Tunnel and the new wall proved their value when Assyriankings marchedon Jerusalem several years later. This large influx of Israelites had an effect on religion in Judah during the crucial 7th century.That century saw major religious reforms during the reigns of King Hezekiah and King Josiah. The first saw the suppressionof official sacrificial cults outside of Jerusalem,and the second brought about the official recognitionof absolute monotheism and the suppressionof all other cults, public and private. This latter reform is associated with the publication(or republication,depending on how one interprets 2 Kings 22-23) of the law code now found in Deuteronomy.These reformshave been shown to have caused specific cultic changes, alreadyreportedfrom the excavations of the late Professor Aharoni at Arad and other Negev sites reported in this journal (1968: 2-32; 1972: 111-27; 1974:2-6). It is easy to say that these reformswere necessaryand justiEled,

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but did they occur in a vacuum?I think not. From the death of Solomon (ca. 922) to the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel (ca. 721) there had been two "Yahwistic"states with separatekings and two major cult centers:Jerusalemand Bethel. In addition there were other centers of the cult such as Arad, Dan, and most likely Beer-sheba.The Davidic monarchyin Jerusalemwas increasingly drawn to assert that Jerusalem was the center of the cult and that its Temple was the Temple of Yahweh. Meanwhile, to lessen the importanceof Jerusalemand its cult for the inhabitantsof Israel, the kings of Israel in Samaria championedthe multi-centerconcept of worship. In 721 and thereafterthe situation was altered:the position of the Jerusalemmonarchywas seen as vindicatedby its survivalin the face of the Assyrianthreat. With large numbersof Israelitesfrom the northernkingdom now in the south, and particularlyin Jerusalem,the importanceof the Temple was substantiallyincreased.It had, in fact, ceased to be primarilya royal sanctuaryand chapel. Now it had become the rallyingcenter of the "Mosaic"faith so clearly set out in Deuteronomy.Thus, these two factors the joining together of peoplesto createan urbanJerusalem and the emergingdominanceof Deuteronomicmonotheismthrough the reformsof Hezekiahand Josiah are bound to one another. Such was the nature of the critical transformationthat took place in 8th- and 7th-centuryJerusalem.

Athens Athens, like Jerusalem,had humble if honorablebeginnings.The city dominatedthe plain between Mount Hymetteuson the east and Mount Aegaleos on the west (fig. 5). There are Mycenean(Late Bronze Age, 1500-1100 B.C.) ruins on and around the Acropolis, and there is a constant level of settlementin the Iron Age period known in Greek

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST

Fig. 5. Athens and Vicinity. Megaraand Aigina were independentstates. The Attic countrysideand the island of Salamis were part of the state of Athens.

history as the Dark Ages (1000750 B.C.). She had participatedin the economic and demographic growth of the area, but not in any way out of proportionto other similar sites in Greece. The one archeologicalglory of Athens at the end of the 7th century, her remarkabledecorated Proto-Attic pottery, had little distribution outside of Attica. The archeological evidence points to a very ordinary Greekpolis. This is reinforcedby literary evidence:Athens was not part of any of the Bronze Age pan-Hellenic memories.The referencesto her in the Iliad and later Greek tragedy, and even her national epic hero, Theseus, are all late developments and are responsesto its growth. The traditionsthat exist about Athens at the end of the Bronze Age only

strengthen this basic picture. The Dorians, when they came to Greece, bypassed Athens. Athens served as a refugee center for the rest of Greece and the embarkation point for the colonization movement eastward to Ionia. They could do this because Athens was poor enough that the migrating Ionians would not seize her, and her population density was low enough that refugees could gather in Attica without disrupting the local population. During the years of the Dark Ages, Greece was developing its characteristic polis concepts and government. Athens too participated in this activity but, influenced by a variety of factors, proceeded to join with the surrounding poleis of the Attic peninsula, such as Marathon, Brouron, and Sounion: this was

53

probablyaccomplishedby conquest, but the Atheniansdid not treat the defeated areas as conqueredterritory any more than they treated their gods as conqueredgods. The conqueredpeoples were made part of Athens just as their local deities were given honored sanctuarieson the Acropolis at the side of Athena. Except for the last phases, the incorporationof Eleusis and the island of Salamis, this process had been hidden in the created mythology of the hero-kingTheseus. It was claimed that Theseus made Athens and Attica one large polis, an occurrencewhich was celebratedeach year in the festival

Fig. 6. The city of Athens at the time of Solon and Peisistratos. 1) The Old Temple of Athena, 2) The Mycenean Gate (built ca. 1350 B.C.), 3) The Mycenean Tower, and 4) The Enneapylon (nine-gate entrance built before the 6th century B.C.).

54

of the synoikismos. By 650, Athens found itself a small administrative and religiouscenter of a fairly large land area (at least by Greek standardsof the time). What happenedthereafterwas not unusual. The drama of 7thcentury Athens has been played out many times since. Large landholding families were better able to survive the agriculturalcrises that beset all farmersat one time or another. Further,since these families, as an aristocraticclass, controlledthe Athenian state and acted as its judges, they reinforcedthe position that land was the only form of wealth. This gave them executive and judiciarypower, but their arbitraryuse of this power alienated the bulk of the people, slowly generatingdiscontentand ultimately leading to revolt. Toward the end of the 7th century,a crisis occurredin the militaryranks. The heavy infantry("hoplites"= the heavily armed foot soldiers) demandedthat the ordinancesunder which cases were to be tried be written down instead of allowing the judges to apply traditionallaw "as they

rememberedit." Under severe pressureto maintaina modern army and dependentupon the infantry, the aristocracy(from whose ranks came the knights or horsemen) relented,and in 620 the famous law code of Draco was promulgated. Even this dramaticaction, however,did not stop the steady erosion of the situation of the small farmers.With recurrentcrop failures, the farmerwas chronically debt-riddenand could only offer himself and his family as collateral for furtherloans. After more inadequatecrops, the unhappy farmerswere bound over as debt slaves. Thus, large numbersof farmerswere removed from the rolls of the free citizens who constituted the manpowerpool for the army, and a major political, social, and militarycrisis ensued. It came to a head early in the 6th century. The ruling aristocracyappointed one of their number, Solon, to solve the problem.More importantly,they gave him the power to impose on the state such changes as he felt were necessary. The exact reformsof Solon, and indeed many other facts about him and his career, have remaineda source of continuingdiscussionand controversy.What is clear is that, whetherintentionallyor otherwise, he managedto create an urbanized Athens. Solon's reformscan be noted in three areas, each of which increasedurbanization.First, he abolisheddebt slavery and freed the debtors;but he did not give the debtors back their land. Thus, there appearedon the scene a significant number of landless citizens who found themselveswith no place to live and no possibilityof workingat their traditionaloccupation of farming.They would of necessity gravitatetoward Athens. Second, Solon seems to have changed the traditionalrequirementsof the citizenshipclasses. Formerly,political status was measuredin terms of landed wealth, i.e., the size of crops producedby the land. Now, the base was broadenedto include wealth in any form, including

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stt-as ZEsT.

ffo-

Fig. 7. Pedimentalsculpturalfragmentshowing Heraclesand the Triton. Found on the Acropolis, it belongs to one of several Peisistratidbuildings.

goods and chattels. Thus, the hold of the landownerswas broken, and urban wealth was made equal to land wealth, acceleratingthe process of urbanization.Third, Solon revised Athens' system of weights and measuresto bring them into line with those of the major trading centers of the Greek world. Athens was then preparedto enter into internationaltrade on a large scale. Finally, as an appendix to his reformsfor those who were already citizens,Solon extendedan invitation to artisansand merchantselsewhere to settle in Athens, offering citizenshipas an inducement.How long this offer was in force is not known, but even if only for a short time, it was a remarkableaction, given the particularGreek view of restrictingcitizenshipto those descendedfrom citizens. The result of this atypical decision was a decisive move toward urbanization. Each of the major refolllls of Solon

had the effect of moving people into the city and strengtheningtheir political, economic, and social positions after they arrived. The growing urbanization, while still modest by modern standardsor even later ancient standards,was considerable.Under Solon and his successors,Peisistratos and his sons, the first monumental

Acropolis buildingsnow on display in the Acropolis Museum(fig. 7). These show the increasingwealth of Athens and the manpowershe was able to muster to monumentalize the Acropolis with temples and other buildings.The surviving indicationsof the water system of Peisistratosand the other public buildingsof the Agora are even

Whetherintentionallyor otherwise,Solon createdan urbanizedAthens. ,

buildingsappearedon the Acropolis and in the present Agora (fig. 6). While only traces of these buildings survive, they are often sufElcientto allow archeologiststo recoverfloorplans and other features of the architecture.In some cases parts of earlier buildingswere preservedby being built into later structures.The most impressiveof these remainsis the large number of pedimental sculpturesfrom the 6th-century

more lmposlng monumentsto urbanization.The Agora was an allpurpose open-air market where citizens could gather for political expressionand occasional trading activities. With the introductionof fountain-housesand the digging of wells to ensure adequate water, an industrialestablishmentcould begin to operate on a permanentbasis. The most obvious and remarkable change can be seen in the manu*

fi

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST ss

stage was the inaugurationof the GreaterPanathenaicFestival by Peisistratosin 556. Celebratedevery fourth year, the main religious ceremonywas the processionand presentationof a new garmentto the tutelarygoddess of the city, Pallas Athena. In addition, there were athletic games and competitions in the recitationof Homer. Peisistratosobtained an "official" text of the niad and Odyssey,which was used in judging the contestants. As an indicationof the city's rising

century, such as sending out excess population to establish colonies, she would not have been in a position to assume the leadershipat the time of the Persian invasions. Like Thebes and other states, she might easily have surrendered at the first sign of a Persian envoy. That there was a large urban mass in which people's livelihoods were not dependenton the land providedthe difference.Leadershipin Greece, with the obvious exception of Sparta (which had turned its state into an

Greekpotteryand paintingfrom 550 B.C. on is either Athenianor an imitationof it.

Fig. 8. Detail of an Attic krater (large open vessel for mixing wine), decorated in the early black-Elgure style (ca. 570-560 B.C.). The scene illustrated on the krater (shown here only in part) depicts satyrs and maenads with the god of wine, Dionysos.

facture of pottery, a ubiquitous necessity of the ancient world. Athens began to imitate the current styles of Corinth and then very quickly developed its own, so that by the middle of the 6th century Athens had not only surpassed Corinth but overwhelmed it. Greek pottery and painting from 550 on is either Attic (i.e., Athenian) or an imitation of it (fig. 8). The culmination of this initial

56

status (or maybe just in response to a good price), several lines about Athens were inserted into the epics at this time. This text is substantially the one which has come down to us through the ages. Athens by SSOhad thus begun her cultural ascendancy. The introduction of dithyrambic performances (= stylized choral odes with added narration) foreshadowed the development of Attic tragedy. All Athens needed to become a major state was political prominence. The first steps were taken under the aegis of Peisistratos and his sons and then by the new democracy after S10. In the first two decades of the 5th century the Persian invasions catapulted Athens into political, as well as cultural, leadership. How inevitable was this? I think not at all. Look at the large but culturally unimportant and politically indecisive cities of Argos and Thebes. With strong Bronze Age backgrounds and extensive wealth, they did little. Megara, Athens' rival to her immediate west, with a better harbor and resources, could mount military and political attacks on Athens but could not compete intellectually or artistically. Either before or at the same time, all of the Greek states had to face crises similar to those which confronted Athens. If Athens had imitated some of its neighbors in dealing with the problems of the 6th

armed camp), rested with the urban centers. It was Solon and Peisistratos who turned crisis into opportunity, molded Athens into a true city with an industrial-commercial base, and laid the foundations for an artisticintellectual culture of unmatched quality.

Rome The stories about Rome's origin and foundation already assume the creation of an urban complex. The well-known historian Livy, writing in the 1st century B.C., fixed the date (= 754 B.C.) as year one Zfrom the foundation of the city," ab urbe condita. Archeological information seems to confirm that in the mid-8th century the villages on the hills surrounding the present Forum Romanum joined together, drained the swampy area, and used it as their center (fig. 9). The Regias or king's official residence, was built at this time. Rome's geographic position uniquely favored urban development. Situated midway between the northern and southern extremes of the Italian peninsula, Rome was also at the farthest navigable point upstream on the Tiber River. In the 6th century Rome seems to have come under the strong cultural and political influence of the Etruscan people to her immediate north.

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Throughthem she was exposed to Greekcivilization.Both the historical tradition and the excavated Attic pottery indicate a vital, growing center of some sophistication.These activities culminatedat the end of the century with the expulsion of the tyrant-kingTarquiniusSuperbus, the setting up of the Roman Republic, and the dedication of the most importanttemple in Rome, the Etruscan-styledTemple of Jupiter OptimusMaximus. The literarytradition assumed -The backbone of

citizen.

connection with Rome this is particularlythe case. Even without the literarytradition, however, there are elements which will direct our attention away from urban society toward a much more simple and rural existence. The literaryand historico-politicaltradition of Rome assumedthat the backbone of the state was the farmer-soldier-citizen. Backedby the austere virtues of Romancustom and tradition (the mos maiorum), a person had to be a landownerin order to provision

the Romanstate was thefarmer-soldier-

anurban center, and there are archeological remainswhich can be usedto support this. The complete pictureis, however, somewhat different. The reliabilityof the literary tradition is a matter of great debate,since the actual written records come from a later period. Theoral traditionsmay preserve accurate informationfrom the remote past, but they often surround itwith anachronisticmaterial.In

himself for the army, since soldiers werenot paid. Further, one had to bein the army before one could exercisecitizen rights. Priorities amongthe three phases of life did notexist they were equal and interdependent. They also left no roomfor a free urban population to exist! The status of the farmersoldier-citizen is exemplifiedin the stories about the crusty old

conservative,Lucius QuintiusCincinnatus. In 458 s.c., having served as consul (accordingto Livy) he was quietly "workinghis fourjugera farm tabout three acres] west of the Tiberjust opposite where the shipyardsare today." Meanwhile,the Roman army was being defeated by the Aequi. In response the Senate voted that he should come out of retirementand assume the duties of dictatorwith absolute power for six monthsor until he resolvedthe emergencyto his satisfaction.A committeeof the Senate sent to informhim of this decision found himin his field. He left his work, puton his toga, and went to run thestate. Sixtegn days later, having rightedthe situation by defeatingthe Aequi,he resignedhis office and resumed his farm work exactly where he had stopped it. The story isprobablyin large part apocryphal, butone cannot help but notice that the farm was only a short walk from the center of Rome and that Cincinnatus here is seen as Elrsta farmer, then a citizen, and Elnallya soldier. The basic systemillustrated here was at the foundation of the Roman state and army for centuries. Eventually the wealthy classes stopped farmingwith their own hands and oversaw large plantations run by noncitizensand slaves. The farmer-soldiersitizenwas apossibilitybecause ancient practice tended to confine Elghtingand farming to differentparts of the year. The two did not conflict. When, startingin 264 s.c., Rome's system of alliances which had brought her to the dominationof Italy involved her in wars with Carthage and Macedonia,the system began to break down. The soldiercitizen found himself away from his

Fig. 9. RepublicanRome with the major hills, city walls, and primary roads indicated.The area of the docks shows the proximityof farm land to the Forum in the early republic.

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 57

Fig. 10. Plan of the Forum Romanumin RepublicanTimes. Since most of the buildingswere rebuilt several times with changes in dimensionsand plans, only the location and probablesize are indicated.1) Regia, 2) Temple of Vesta, 3) Atrium Vesta (House of the Vestal Virgins),4) Temple of Castor, 5) Sempronium,later torn down and replacedwith the BasilicaJulia, 6) Temple of Saturn, 7) Exposed portion of the ancient Sacra Via (Sacred Way), 8) Tabularium9) Possible location of the Basilica Porcia, 10) Lapis Nager (Tomb of Romulus),11) Old Rostra, 12) Venus Closina (Shrine of Venus of the Drain), 13) Old Senate House (approximatelocation at the top of the ArgeletiumHill), 14) BasilicaAemelia.

farm for months and then years at a time. Conversely,the large landholders who directed the activities of the state could afford this activity because they did not personally work their land. Worldly, rich, and increasinglysophisticatedand Hellenized, they believed that Rome's time of triumphand glory was at hand. Spurredby the usual mixture of revengefor insults both real and imagined,and a drive for power and wealth conditionedby pride, ambition, and greed, they embarked on a series of overseas wars which lasted from 264 to 146, culminating in the destructionof the great rival Carthageand the effective conquest of Greece. In this process most of the small farmerswere ruined. Their lands failed and were taken over by

58

the wealthy;ruined as farmers,they could not be soldiers either and thus were disenfranchisedas citizens. By the end of the 2nd century,this situation had sparkeda two-fold crisis: urban and military. 1) First, the ex-farmersbegan to move into Rome, looking for work. There were some jobs but not many, as the city was unprepared for its newly acquiredurban mass, which in itself is an indicationof her previouslynonurbancharacter.In the beginningthe ex-farmer-soldiercitizens attached themselvesto various membersof the nobility for protectionand support and offered personaland political support in exchange. Soon, however, the numbersof the urban mass had increasedto a point beyond the capacity of the patriciansto handle

them. It then fell to ambitious politiciansto- support these masses as part of their demonstrationof civic virtue and to gain support in their campaignsfor higher office. This approachestablisheddangerous precedentsfor the future and in any case was no long-rangesolution to the problem.The society would have to devise a broad-basedplan of action to deal with it. 2) In addition to the urban crisis of feeding and supportingthe new urban masses, there was the militaryproblem. The former citizens were also ex-soldiersand willing to fight, but the state had no mechanismfor paying or supporting soldiers. At the beginning of the 2nd century, Rome ran out of Roman soldiers. It was at this point that Gaius Marius"volunteered"to raise

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Fig. 11. Remains of the Republican Basilica Aemelia in the Forum.

a private army at his own expense to do Rome's bidding. Marius recruitedhis army from the streets of Rome. Soon he and the Roman Senate came into conflict, and the Senate was forced to raise its own "private"army and fight a war with Marius'"Roman"army. For its militaryproblems, Rome had found a "solution"which brought it three generationsof civil war. The long chain of battles ended only with the victory of Octavian(Augustus)over Antony and Cleopatrain 31 B.C. The end of the civil war brought about the establishmentof the Empireand the Pax Romana. The enlistmentof the disenfranchised citizens in the armies and the creation of the empire may have solved Rome's military recruitment problem, but it did not resolve in any permanentway the urban problem. As conquest followed conquest, the city was filled with a larger mass of slaves taken in battle in addition to the earlier"Roman" mass. Rome increasedin size and ethnic complexity without a suitable economic base. Rome never found a solution to her urban crisis. Rather, the city found an imperialsolution. Two directly relatedfactors increasedin scope as Rome grew: on one hand, the proletariatwere constantly consumingthe wealth of the city, and on the other hand, the territoriesbrought the city their wealth in the form of tribute. The tribute of the empire was used to alleviate the urban problems.The urban problems, however, were not solved but merely held at bay by the empire. Thus when the empire declined, so did the tribute and so did the city. In this regard,it is worth noting that as the empire of Rome slipped away in late antiquity, so did her urban population. MedievalRome was a small town centeredon her churchesand

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST

surroundedby the ruins of her glorious past. The characterof the city after the 2nd century B.C. was determined by its position as the capital of the empire. Monumentally,Rome transformed herself accordingly(fig. 10). Prior to this time, Rome's public buildings consisted of temples and a Senate House (the Curia).In 185 B.C. the Elrstbasilica,the Basilica Porcia, was built. Named after the royal halls of the Hellenistickings and destinedto become the architecturalmodel for the Christian Church,it servedRome as a public meetinghall for law cases and the transactionof public and private

the history of the empire.These buildingswere only the beginning. In the followingcenturiesone major public structureafter another forum, bath, theater or performance arena, triumphalarch or templewas built in Rome. Rome became the urban capital of the world. The basis of its urbanizationwas the empire, while its function, to some extent administrative,was mainly symbolic. Not by accident have Rome's contributionsto our culture centeredon these two areas: administrationand imperial symbolism.Except in areas of imperialsymbolism, Rome's achievements in art, literature,and

-

Rome'sonly solutionto her urbancrisiswas the growth°f theempire but when the empiredeclined,so did the city. businessfor individualsand small groupsof people. This basilicawas to be followedby the Basilica Aemelia in 179(fig. 11), the Semproniain 170, andthe Tabularium(publicrecords building)in 78. The BasilicaJulia followedin 55 B.C. The Basilica Porciaand the Semproniawere later destroyed and not rebuilt,but the otherthree buildingsprovideda monumental presencein the Forum representing the life of Rome, her nature and purpose,for the rest of

philosophyhave been secondaryto others.In contrast, architecture, whichis primarilypublic and stronglysymbolic, stands as her majorvisual contributionto subsequentages. In other areas, Rome provedto be an efficient borrower, adapter,and imitator, and thus transmittedand made accessiblethe greaterachievementsof others. In the introductorywords andelsewhere,attention was directed toformativeaspects of the three dominantstrains of western culture:

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the religiousexperiencefrom Jerusalem,the philosophicaland artisticachievementof Athens, and the governmentalorganizationof Rome. Each of these is known through the literarymaterialsand confirmedand explained through the archeologicalmaterials.In the brief discussionsof each of these cities, I have tried to show that their basic characterwas part of a responseto a specific crisis that created a particulartype of urban center. The nature of the urban center was determinedby the particularsolution to the crisis

which confrontedeach city. In turn it was the nature of the urban center which was the determining factor in the particularcontribution which that city made to our culture. It was this factor too which set it apart from the many similar cities which existed at the same time and faced essentiallythe same problems. The presentessay concerns the three most pivotal cities of the westernworld. There were many other urban centers in antiquity, most of which were faced with crisis situationsat one time or another, and yet their contributionsdid not

exert the influence of these three on our civilization. It was not the crisis but ratherthe response which was determinative:the unique action that shaped subsequenthistory. Is it possible to make a similar analysis of other cities such as Constantinople, Paris, London, or Florence of a differentage? Or New York, Moscow, Peking, or Tokyo? Perhaps a later age will look back on this one and find the key to our culture in the history of how our dominant urban centers handled their urban crises.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jerusalem

Athens

Ehrenberg,V. 1973 From Solon to Socrates, 2nd edition. London. Hill, I. T. 1953 7he Ancient City of Athens. London. Judeich, W. 1931 Topographievon Athen, 2nd edition. Munich. Thompson, H. A., and Wycherley,R. E. 1972 The Agora of Athens, The AthenianAgora, Results of Excavations,vol. 14. Princeton,NJ. Rome Cary, M., and Scullard, H. H. 1976 A History of Rome, 3rd edition. London. Robathan, D. M. 1950 ThteMonumentsof Ancient Rome. Rome. Romanelli, P. 1967 n Foro Romano. Rome.

Aharoni,Y. 1968 Arad:Its Inscriptionsand Temple.BiblicalArchaeologist 31: 2-32. 1972 Excavationsat Tel Beer-sheba.BiblicalArchaeologist35: 111-27. 1974 The HornedAltar of Beer-sheba.BiblicalArchaeologist 37: 2-6. Avigad, N. 1976 Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, 1969-1971. Pp. 41-51 in Jerusalem Revealed, ed. Y. Yadin. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Broshi, M. 1974 The Expansioncf Jerusalemin the Reigns of Hezekiah and Manasseh. Israel Exploration Journal 24: 21-25. Kenyon, K. 1971 Jerusalem.London.

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1978

-

PAUL'S

MISSIONARY JOURNEY TRADITION

AND-

TO

SPAIN:

FOLKLORE

OTTO F. A. MEINARDUS

The early church,and especiallythe churchin Spain,has maintainedvariousaccountsof themissionary journeyby the apostlePaulto Spain.Theofficialandpopulartraditionsare describedbriefly.

We shall probablynever know whether Paul fulfilled the intention expressedin his Letter to the Romans to visit Spain (Rom 15:24, 28). The early church believed that the apostle's appeal to Caesar terminatedsuccessfully,that he was acquittedof the chargesagainst him, and that he spent some years in freedom before he was again imprisonedand sentencedto death. Eusebiuswrites that "afterpleading his cause, he is said to have been sent again upon the ministryof preaching,and after a second visit to the city, he finished his life with martyrdom"(Hist. eccl. 2.22). Evidenceof Paul's activity subsequentto the "two whale years" mentionedin Acts 28:30 is found in Otto F. A. Meinardusis the author Qf St. Paul in Ephesus and the Cities of Galatiaand Cyprus,St. Paul in Greece, and other volumes in the Lyeabettus Press (Athens, Greece) series on the religious archeology of the eastern Mediterranean.

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST

three early Christiandocuments.In A.D. 96 Clement of Rome, whom traditionhas identifiedas Paul's disciple mentionedin Phil 4:3, wrote an epistle to the Corinthians,in which he states that Paul .

had been seventimesin bonds,hadbeen driven into exile, had been stoned, had preachedin the Eastand in the West,he won the noble renownswhich was the reward of his faith, having taught righteousnessunto the whole worldand having reached the farthest bounds of the West.

document, originallywritten in Greek and translatedinto somewhat barbarous Latin, includes the following in its account of the Acts of the Apostles: Luke puts it shortly to the most excellent Theophilus that several thingsweredone in his own presence, as he also plainly shows by leaving out the passion of Peterand also the departureof Paul from town on his journey to Spain.

By the middle of the 2nd For a Roman, the "farthest century, Christiansbelieved that the bounds of the West," a phrase often - apostle's intendedvisit to Spain was used by Roman writersto refer to in fact realized. This is not the place Spain, could only mean the Iberian to discuss the manifold arguments peninsula. Further,the Acts of for or against the apostle'sjourney Peter, written in the late 2nd to Spain. It is well known that later century, informs us in some detail accounts of outstandingconquerors, about the departureof the Apostle missionaries,and other important Paul from the Roman harbor of personagesshow a tendencyto Ostia to Spain. And lastly, the exaggeratehistoricalfacts by MuratoriCanon, compiled by an representingthe territorialextent of anonymous Christianabout A.D. 170, their influenceas greaterthan it refers to his Spanish mission. This actually was. It is possible, therefore,

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of the city because he is the

.

by Nero in A.D. 54, soon became one of the largercosmopolitan and commercialcenters in Italy with more than 50,000 inhabitants.Every year on January 27, large crowds from Rome gatheredin Ostia for the celebrations in honor of Castor and Pollux. The Jewish communitymaintaineda synagogueon the outer peripheryof the city on the Via Severiana.The recentlyexcavatedsynagoguein Ostia shows an elaboratevestibule leading to the main buildingending in a slightly curved apse; in the southernsection was the tabernacle containingthe scrolls of the Hebrew scriptures.One would not be surprisedif Paul had visited and even preachedin this synagogue. Ostia had rapidlytaken over the commerceof Puteoli, and most of the goods destinedfor Rome arrivedin Ostia. Accordingto Strabo, "it was the port-townof the Roman navy, the port into which the Tiber after flowing past Rome, empties."Ships sailed regularlyfrom Ostia to the Spanish ports of Cadiz and Tarraco(Tarragona).According to Pliny the Elder, who under the emperorVespasianserved as procuratorin HispaniaTarraconensis, the journey from Ostia to Spain took four days. The third chapterin the apocryphalActs of Peter describes in a vivid mannerthe departureof the Apostle Paul from Ostia harbor: Augusti

The statue of St. Paul next to the MetropolitanCathedralin Tarragona honors and perpetuatesthe tradition of Paul's missionaryjourney to rpaln.

that the tradition of Paul's mission to Spain is a mere extension of an intent. Treatingthe apostle'sjourney as an undoubtedhistoricalfact, John Chrysostommentionsthat "Paul after his residencein Rome departedto Spain,"and Jerome states that the apostle reachedSpain by sea. If Paul realizedhis plans to visit Spain, he would have considered his stay in Rome as a mere stopover for his mission to the West. In that case, the apostle would have left Rome by the Via Ostienseto Ostia, the new port of imperialRome. Ostia harbor,begun by Claudiusand dedicatedas Portus

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A great multitude of women were kneelingand prayingand beseeching Paul, and they kissed his feet and accompaniedhim unto the harbor. But Dionysius and Balbus of Asia, knights from Rome, and illustrious men, and a senator by name of Demetriusabodeby Paul on his right sideand said:"Paul,I woulddesireto leave the city if I were not a magistrate, that I might not departfrom thee." Also from Caesar's house, Cleobiusand Iphitusand Philostrate with Narcissusthe presbyteraccompanied him to the harbor: but whereasa storm of the sea came on, he (Narcissus?)sent the brethren back to Rome, that if any would, he mightcomedownandhearPauluntil

he set sail; and hearing that, the brethrenwent up into the city. And when they told the brethrenthat had remainedin the city, some on beasts, and some on foot, and othersby way of the Tiber came down to the harbor, and were conElrmedin the faithfor threedays,and on the fourth until the flfth hour, prayingtogether with Paul, and makingthe offering, and they put all that was needfulon the ship and deliveredto him two young men, believers, to sail with him, and bade him farewellin the Lord and returnedto Rome. Tarragona would have been the most likely city for the apostle's mission to Spain. Known as Colonia Julia Victrix Triumphalis Tarraco to commemorate the victories of Julius Caesar, the city was made the seat of one of the four assize courts established in Hispania Citerior. Having spent some time in Tarragona, Augustus made it the capital of the whole province, subsequently named Hispania Tarraconensis. East of the site of the present cathedral the people of Tarragona constructed an altar to Augustus. An 8th-century Spanish tradition relates that during his mission to the Catalans the Apostle Paul consecrated Prosperus first bishop of Tarragona. Because of intense local persecutions by the Romans, Prosperus fled to Regium Lepidum Reggio Nell' Emilia, northwest of Bologna where he was immediately accepted as bishop successor of Paul in Tarragona." The 10thwentury Greek Menologion and the hagiographer Symeon Metaphrastes mention that Paul, while preaching in Spain, converted the two sisters Xanthippe and Polyxene, who are commemorated in the Greek Orthodox Church on September 23. Xanthippe converted her husband, Philotheus, prefect of Provo (?), to the Christian faith; Polyxene, on the other hand, went to Achaia in Greece, where she was baptized by Andrew the Firstwalled. Although the patron of Tarragona is St. Fructuosus, who

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together with Sts. Auguris and Eulogius sufferedmartyrdomin the local amphitheaterin A.D. 259, the Catalansproudly assert their association with the Apostle Paul. Behind the MetropolitanCathedral,in the cloister of the l9th-centuryDiocesan Seminary,is the old Chapel of the Apostle Paul which was built, accordingto Tarragoniantradition

I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyedyour company for a little. At present, however,I am going to Jerusalemwith aid for the saints WhenthereforeI have completedthis, and have deliveredto them what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain. Rom 15:24-25, 28 (RS p

on the site of Paul's preaching in the city. In 1963, on the occasion of the l9th-centenary celebrations of Paul's preaching to the citizens of Tarragona, a statue of the Apostle Paul was erected on the Plaza de Palazio, next to the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was constructed over the remains of the once lofty temple of Jupiter-Ammon. The co-patron of Tarragona is Thecla, who is honored here annually on September 23 and whose right arm is said to repose in her chapel in the cathedral. In the principal sanctuary of the cathedral the white marble front of the high altar shows eight magnificent 12thcentury reliefs of scenes portraying the beautiful romance of the Apostle Paul and Thecla in Iconium in Asia Minor, a story found in the apocryphal Acts of Paul.

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST

In Tortosa, a Roman colony 55 km. southwest of Tarragonaon the River Ebro, a local tradition claims Paul to have founded the local church and consecratedRufus, the son of Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21; Rom 16:13) as the Elrst bishop of the city. In addition to the Catalan traditionsof the visit of Paul to Spain, there is an Andalusiancycle of legends maintainedby the Christiansin Ecija, ancient Astigis, in the province of Seville. These 16th-centurytraditionshold that the apostle sailed from Ostia to Cadiz, then proceededto the Roman colony of Astigis, known as Augusta Firma. Hierotheus,a citizen of Astigis, is said to have traveledto Achaia where he was convertedin Athens by Paulsspreaching.Paul consecratedhim first bishop of Athens, whereuponHierotheusasked the apostle to visit his native city. After his first Roman imprisonment Paul rememberedthe requestof

Hierotheusand went to Astigis. His preachingin the forum converted many people, among them Crispin, whom he ordainedbishop of Astigis. With Crispinas patron of the shoemakers,it is no coincidencethat throughoutthe centuriesEcija was famous all over Spain for its shoemaking! None of the local Spanish traditionscan be traced to a period prior to the 8th century,and many of them emergedduring the 14th centuryand even later. In the early 1960'sseveral Spanish communities celebratedthe l9th centenaryof the arrivalof the Apostle Paul in Spain, and in 1961 the Spanish postal authoritiesissued a l-peseta commemorativestamp showing E1 Greco'sApostle Paul with the text: XIX CENTENARIO DE LA VENIDA DE SAN PABLO A ESPARA

BIBLIOGRAPHY Dubowy, E. 1914 Klemensvon Rom uber die Reise Pauli nach Spanien. BiblischeStudien 19.3. Pfister,F. 1913 Die zweimaligeromische Gefangenschaftund die spanische Reise des Apostels Paulus. Zeitschriftfur die neutestamentlicheWissenschaft.14:216-21. Serra,V. J. del XlX Centen1963 San Pablo en Espana.Commemoracion ario du sa venida.Tarragona. Spier 1742 In historiacriticade SIispanicPauli Itinere.Wittenberg. Vega, A. C. 1964 La venida de San Pablo a Espanay los VaronesApostolicos. Boletin de la Real Academia de la SIistoria 114:7-78. Vives,J. ia SIispanica. 1965 Tradicion y Leyenda en la SIagiograf Barcelona.

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THE

PRIDE THE

JUNGLE

OF

THE OF

THE

JORDAN JORDAN

MENASHE HAREL

The Pride of the Jordan,its lush plant life providingthe habitatfor wildanimals,furnishedthe biblicalwriterswith the imageryfor desolation,danger,and strife.Thistropical ecosystem,whichruns in a narrowband as a valleyat the bottom of the Jordan Rift Valley,stands out in sharp contrast to barrenwildernessand seasonalpasturelands which border it.

The Jordan River, whose headwatersare located in the foothills of the Hermon and the southern Lebanon Valley and which empties into the Dead Sea, is classified accordingto its upper and lower waters. The Upper Jordan from the headwatersto the Sea of Galilee has a Mediterranean climate and an abundant supply of fresh water flowing throughoutthe year; parts of it flow through marshyareas, and the greater portion through a basalt region, I

Menashe Ilar-El is the Senior Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University,Departmentof Geography.In 1969he won the Ben-Zvi Prizefor his book Masa'ei Sinai (Sinai Journeys)and in 1972 he receivedtwo Jerusalemprizes for his books This is Jerusalem and The Judean Desert and the Dead Sea Journeys.

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST

neither of which stimulates the growth of forests along the banks of the river. The Lower Jordan differs from the Upper in that it comprises both the latter's waters, which flow all year round, as well as the floodwaters which swell the many extensive streams on both sides during the winter and early spring. The northern section of the Lower Jordan has a steppelike climate, while the central and southern portions, where the Jordan crosses the salty hills of the Lisan Marl, have a desert climate. The hot climatic conditions, together with the vast erosion which sinks and spreads out the banks of the Jordan, allow for the growth of dense forests, the most famous in the natural history of the Holy Land. In Arabic the Jordan is called el-Urdun or esh-Shari'ah (meaning

zbasin"or SSwatering place'). Horowitz (1923: 337) notes that the Arabs refer to the Upper Jordan, as far as the Sea of Galilee, as the GreaterJordan (el-Urdunel-kabir), while the portion from the Sea of Galilee southwardis called the Lesser Jordan (el-Urdunes-saghir). The Jordan Rift, a local geographicalterm, is part of the Syrian-AfricanRift Valley and was referredto by several names in the Bible:the Jordan Wilderness ('Arebat IIayarden),the Jordan Plain (Kikkar Hayarden),the Jordan Districts (Gelilot Hayarden),and the Pride of the Jordan (Ge'on Ilayarden). It appearsthat each of these names referredto a different specific geographicallocation and to differenteconomic and settlement functions. Josephus refersto the Jordan Rift as the Great Valley in

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