“At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and his family were God-fearing… (Acts 10:1-2)
Christian visitors often open their first day’s tour in Israel with a group prayer experience in the 2,000-year-old Caesarea theater. They look forward to learning more about Caesarea, the city founded by Herod the Great in the first century BCE and the scene of New Testament events relating to both Peter and Paul.
A new touring route behind the theater in Caesarea National Park enriches the experience – and don’t forget to bring your Bible. The path, lined with displays of archaeological finds, fascinating maps, and drawings, leads to Herod’s palace, where Paul was probably kept under guard (Acts 23:35. A replica of a stone, discovered in the theater in secondary use, inscribed with the name of Pontius Pilate (and noting his founding of a temple to Emperor Tiberius), has been placed here, to remind visitors that the palace was probably also the Caesarea home of the infamous procurator.
The path leads to a newly discovered structure whose dimensions, architecture, and dating have led scholars to call it a “circus” – the Roman form of the Greek hippodrome, where horses were raced and other events held.
“Herod’s Circus,” as the one in Caesarea is called, was an ellipsis some 300 yards long and 50 yards wide, divided lengthwise in the middle by the spina, a long wall. The turning points at either end were often the deciding (and deadly) part of the track, and therefore the most exciting point for the approximately 15,000 spectators who filled the bleachers. Mosaics from Rome show chariot racers with the reins wrapped around their waists to provide better balance when leaning into turns; the racers were often dragged to their deaths in accidents.
The circus was an important element in any self-respecting Roman city, and therefore an indispensable element in the city that Herod founded as a showcase of Roman culture. The historian Josephus tells us that when Caesarea was officially inaugurated, Herod held a 15-day sporting event with athletic competitions and chariot races in the city, in honor of his patron Augustus. From then on, this event was held every fifth year, says Josephus, who refers to them as “costly works indeed, but opposite to Jewish customs.” (Antiquities of the Jews, 15:8:1)
He describes the activities as “a contest in music, games to be performed naked, a great number of those that fight single combats, and of beasts…horse races and shows as used to be exhibited in Rome” (Antiquities of the Jews, 16:5:1) Herod introduced an innovation: the awarding of prizes not only to the victor, but to those taking second and third place.
Josephus relates that in 43 CE, Agrippa I presided over the opening of the games in Caesarea. Some scholars imagine that later, it may have been here, standing in the grandstand of the eastern bleachers, that he took ill because of his blasphemy, an incident recorded in Acts 12:20-23.
Some scholars believe this was also the “stadium” where, according to Josephus (“Antiquities” 18:3:1) Pontius Pilate assembled the Jews who demonstrated opposite his house demanding the removal of the Roman standards with human and animal images from Jerusalem, and threatened to massacre them unless they withdrew their demand (they did not, and Pilate backed down and removed the images).
Titus held games here after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Archaeologists have unearthed and restored painted hunting scenes that served as backdrops for fights between animals and gladiators that were so typical of Roman “culture.” Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, may be referring to “Herod’s circus” when he writes of the Christian martyrs who were thrown to the beasts in Caesarea in the early fourth century.
Rooms that served as a pagan shrine were located beneath the eastern bleachers. Inside, excavators discovered four marble statues of sandaled feet – votive offerings made to the gods to ensure a successful race.
At the northern side was the starting point: rooms with gates that would pop open when the race began. Dr. Yosef Porat, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s excavations in Caesarea, says that the fact that there were four doors may reflect the local adoption of the custom of rooting for one of four teams popular in the Roman world: the Blues, the Reds, the Greens, and the Whites, with uniform color indicating team affiliation. The emperors usually had their favorite team, which led to a politicization of the sport and sometimes to riots when the “wrong” team won. Gambling was rife. Pliny the Younger (62 -114 CE) wrote of his amazement “that so many thousands of grown men should be possessed again with a childish passion to look at galloping horses and men standing upright in their chariots….”
Christian writers, as well as the Talmud, condemned the pagan excesses of the circus, especially the gladiator fights. Their detailed descriptions, together with archaeological finds, give us a vivid picture of life in those days.
Today, visitors tranquilly stroll along the portion of the new touring route that is a promenade on the west side of “Herod’s circus.” Later, they may drive to the eastern part of the park to see the Israel Nature and Parks Authority’s recent reconstruction of an obelisk that stood in the heart of the early-second-century “eastern circus,” in another location in the park.
In Caesarea, where the first pagans were converted to Christianity, these new attractions give rise to reflection upon the long and bumpy course from paganism to a higher moral plane.
