by Paulo Barata
buried it in superheated pyroclastic material. It is also famous as one of the few ancient cities that can now be seen in almost its original splendor, because unlike Pompeii, its burial was so deep as to ensure building's upper levels remained intact, and the hotter ash preserved wooden household objects (beds, doors etc.) and even food. Moreover Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii with an extraordinary density of fine houses, with far more lavish use of colored marble cladding.
Herodium
Fortress south of Jerusalem
Herodium or Herodion is a truncated cone-shaped hill, located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem, near the city of Bethlehem. Herod the Great built a fortress and palace on the top of Herodium, and may have been buried there. Herodium is 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level.
The Herodium was conquered and destroyed by the Romans in 71 CE
Hispania
Roman Province (Iberian Peninsula)
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula.
Roman armies invaded Hispania in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the Carthaginians, the Iberians, the Lusitanians, the Gallaecians and other Celts. It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC - AD 14) was able to complete the conquest. Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous.
Romanization proceeded quickly in some regions where we have references to the togati, and very slowly in others, after the time of Augustus, and Hispania was divided into three separately governed provinces (nine provinces by the 4th century). Some of the peninsula's population were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the Roman Empire, although there was a native aristocracy class who ruled each local tribe.
The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon (Olissipo) and Tarragona (Tarraco), established Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Mérida (Augusta Emerita), and Valencia (Valentia), and reduced other native cities to mere villages. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania served as a granary and a major source of metals for the Roman market.
The Romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists had all achieved the status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The emperors Trajan (r. 98 - 117), Hadrian (r. 117 - 138), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161 - 180) were of Hispanic origin.
Idumea
Province in Roman Arabia (Jordan)
Edom is a Semitic inhabited historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judaea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region.
The name Edom means "red" in Hebrew, and was given to Esau, the eldest son of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac, once he ate the "red pottage", which the Bible used in irony at the fact he was born "red all over". The Torah, Tanakh and New Testament thus describe the Edomites as descendants of Esau.
Antipater the Idumaean, the progenitor of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled Judaea after the Roman conquest, was of Edomite origin. Under Herod the Great Idumaea was ruled for him by a series of governors, among whom were his brother Joseph ben Antipater and his brother-in-law Costobarus. Immediately before the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, 20,000 Idumaeans, under the leadership of John, Simeon, Phinehas, and Jacob, appeared before Jerusalem to fight on behalf of the Zealots who were besieged in the Temple.
Jaffa
City in Judaea (part of Tel-Aviv/Israel)
Tel Yafo (Jaffa Hill) rises to a height of 40 meters (130 ft) and offers a commanding view of the coastline; hence its strategic importance in military history. The accumulation of debris and landfill over the centuries made the hill even higher. Archaeological evidence shows that Jaffa was inhabited some 7,500 years BCE. Jaffa's natural harbor has been in use since the Bronze Age.
Jaffa is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as the territorial border of the Tribe of Dan, hence the modern term "Gush Dan" for the center of the coastal plain. Many descendants of Dan lived along the coast and earned their living from ship making and sailing.
After the Canaanite and Philistine domination, King David and his son King Solomon conquered Jaffa and used its port to bring the cedars used in the construction of the First Temple from Tyre. The city remained often in Jewish hands even after the split of the Kingdom of Israel. In 701 BCE, in the days of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded the region from Jaffa.
After a period of Babylonian occupation, under Persian rule, Jaffa was governed by Phoenicians from Tyre. Then it knew the presence of Alexander the Great's troops and later became a Seleucid Hellenized port until it was taken over by the Maccabean rebels and the refounded Jewish kingdom.
During the Roman repression of the Jewish Revolt, Jaffa was captured and burned by Cestius Gallus. The Roman Jewish historian Josephus writes that 8,400 inhabitants were massacred. Pirates operating from the rebuilt port incurred the wrath of Vespasian, who razed the city and erected a citadel in its place, installing a Roman garrison there.
The New Testament account of St. Peter's resurrection of the widow Tabitha takes place in Jaffa.
Jericho
City in Judaea
Jericho is a Palestinian city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank.
Jericho is described in the Old Testament as the "City of Palm Trees." Copious springs in and around the city attracted human habitation for thousands of years. It is known in Judeo-Christian tradition as the place of the Israelites' return from bondage in Egypt, led by Joshua, the successor to Moses.
The city came to be ruled by the Hasmoneans, following the success of the Maccabean Revolt, and remained such until the Roman influence over the area brought Herod to claim the Hasmenean throne of Judea.
Herod's rule oversaw the construction of a hippodrome-theatre to entertain his guests and new aqueducts to irrigate the area below the cliffs and reach his winter palace built at the site of Tulul al-Alaiq. After the construction of its palaces the city had functioned not only as an agricultural center and as a crossroad but as a winter resort for Jerusalem's aristocracy.
The Christian Gospels state that Jesus passed through Jericho where he healed one or two blind beggars and inspired a local chief tax-collector named Zacchaeus to repent of his dishonest practices. The road between Jerusalem and Jericho is the setting for the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
After the fall of Jerusalem to Vespasian's armies in the Great Revolt of Judea in 70 CE, Jericho declined rapidly, and by 100 CE it was but a small Roman garrison town.
Jerusalem
City in Judaea
Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is located in the Judaean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE.
Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Jewish tradition since, according to the Hebrew Bible, King David of Israel first established it as the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel in c. 1000 BCE, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple in the city.
In Christian tradition, Jerusalem has been a holy city since, according to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified there, possibly in c. 33 CE, and 300 years later Saint Helena identified the pilgrimage sites of Jesus' life.
In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city. In Islamic tradition in 610 CE it became the first Qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer, and Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later, according to the Quran.
Judaea
Roman Province (Israel)
Judea, sometimes spelled in its original Latin forms of Judaea or Iudaea to distinguish it from Judea proper, is a term used by historians t
o refer to the Roman province that incorporated the geographical regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, and which extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel. It was named after Herod Archelaus's Tetrarchy of Judea, of which it was an expansion, the latter name deriving from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BCE.
Laodicea
City in Roman Syria (Latakia/Syria)
Latakia is the principal port city of Syria, as well as the capital of the Latakia Governorate.
Though the site has been inhabited since the second millennium BC, the modern-day city was first founded in the 4th century BC under the rule of the Seleucid empire. Latakia was subsequently ruled by the Romans, then the Ummayads and Abbasids in the 8th - 10th centuries.
In 64 BC, the Roman legate Pompey formally abolished the Seleucid Empire and created the new Roman province of Syria. During the struggle for power between Augustus Caesar and Marcus Antonius, the latter managed to win temporary support from Laodicea during his brief governorship of Syria through the remission of certain taxes and the promise of autonomy.
Following the defeat of Marcus Antonius, the Romans modified Laodicea's name, changing it to Laodicea-ad-Mare, and the city flourished again as an entrepôt for East-West trade, second only to Antioch. This commerce was systemized with the construction of the Via Maris, a coastal road that ran south from Antioch to Damascus and Beirut via Laodicea.
In the first century BC, Herod the Great, king of Judaea, furnished the city with an aqueduct, the remains of which stand to the east of the town.
Lycia
Roman Protectorate in Asia Minor (Turkey)
Lycia was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Mutüla on the southern coast of Turkey, and Burdur Province inland. Known to history since the records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, it was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group.
In 43 AD, the emperor Claudius annexed Lycia to the Roman Empire as a province and by the time of Vespasian, it was united with Pamphylia as a Roman province. The heir of Augustus, Gaius Caesar, was killed there in 4 AD.
Mar Nostrum
Mediterranean Sea
Masada
Herodian Fortress, close to the Dead Sea
Masada is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau (akin to a mesa) on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea.
Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. The Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire towards the end of the First Jewish-Roman War ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Jewish rebels and their families holed up there.
Megiddo
Hill and town in Judaea
Megiddo is a hill in modern Israel near Kibbutz Megiddo, about 30km south-east of Haifa, known for its historical, geographical, and theological importance, especially under its Greek name Armageddon.
Megiddo was a site of great importance in the ancient world. It guarded the western branch of a narrow pass and trade route connecting Egypt and Assyria. Because of its strategic location, Megiddo was the site of several historical battles. The site was inhabited from approximately 7000 BC to 586 BC (the same time as the destruction of the First Israelite Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and subsequent fall of Israelite rule and exile). Since this time it has remained uninhabited, preserving ruins pre-dating 586 BC without settlements ever disturbing them.
Megiddo is mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings because one of Egypt's mighty kings, Thutmose III, waged war upon the city in 1478 BC. The battle is described in detail in the hieroglyphics found on the walls of his temple in Upper Egypt.
Mentioned in the Bible as "Derekh HaYam" or "Way of
