ABSTRACT
Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 ce, a new era began in the history of the city. The Herodian, Jewish city was destroyed, its residents killed or exiled, and a military camp of the Tenth Roman Legion established on a part of the ruins. Around 130 ce, the Roman emperor Hadrian founded a new city in place of Herodian Jerusalem, next to the military camp. He honored the city with the status of a colony and named it Aelia Capitolina. Aelia came from Hadrian’s nomen gentile (clan, or extended family name) Aelius, while Capitolina meant that the new city was dedicated to the Capitoline Triad: Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Following traditional Roman orthogonal design, the new Roman city was smaller in size and different in shape from the ruined Herodian city (on Herodian Jerusalem, see Peleg-Barkat, Chapter 4, this volume). The Romans dismantled and removed almost everything that still remained standing in the Herodian city with a few exceptions. The three towers (in the area of Jaffa Gate today) and a portion of the western city-wall were integrated into the defenses of the Tenth Legion’s camp, and the enclosure of the Temple Mount, too large to be destroyed, was rebuilt by the Romans and incorporated in the new city, apparently, as a civic center, perhaps a religious center. The city was characterized by straight-lined streets that ran parallel to each other or across each other along north to south or east to west routes. The city was decorated with colonnaded streets, triumphal arches, and monumental buildings. The new Roman city’s urban layout forms the basis for the layout of the Old City of Jerusalem today.
