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The Building Programme, 40 BC – AD 64

Every work of the Herodian programme, dated, in three theatres at once.

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The Chart — 40 BC – AD 64

THE FIRST WORKS THE CITIES THE TEMPLE AFTER HEROD 25 BC AD 1 AD 25 AD 50 37 BC — The citadel and first works. On taking Jerusalem, work begins on the fortifications of the Upper City and on the Baris, the Hasmonean fort at the north-west corner of the Temple Mount.1 37 BC The citadel and first works c. 35–31 BC — The Antonia. The old Baris rebuilt as a stronghold on scarped rock with four corner towers, garrisoned and overlooking the Temple courts. Named for Mark Antony, so before his fall in 30 BC.2 c. 35–31 BC The Antonia c. 28 BC — Theatre, amphitheatre, games. Quinquennial games instituted in Caesar’s honour; a theatre built at Jerusalem and a great amphitheatre in the plain. Neither has been securely identified archaeologically. The trophies displayed caused offence until stripped to show bare frames.3 c. 28 BC c. 25–23 BC — The royal palace and the three towers. The palace on the western hill, with wings named for Augustus and Agrippa. On its northern side the towers Phasael, Hippicus and Mariamme — a brother, a friend, and the executed wife.4 c. 25–23 BC The royal palace and… 20–18 BC — The Temple: platform and sanctuary. The rebuilding begins. Materials prepared before demolition; a thousand priests trained as masons; the sanctuary raised in eighteen months without interrupting the sacrificial service.5 20–18 BC The Temple: platform and sanctuary c. 20–15 BC — The water system. The Wadi el-Biyar aqueduct driven partly as a groundwater-collecting tunnel — 2.8 km, longer than any tunnel in Rome’s own systems — and the low-level aqueduct, 23 km from Solomon’s Pools to the Temple cisterns on a fall of thirty metres. Wilson’s Arch built to carry it.6 c. 20–15 BC The water system c. 11 BC — The porticoes complete. Eight years’ work on the colonnades around the esplanade, including the Royal Stoa with its 162 Corinthian columns. Solomon’s Porch on the east left untouched, held to be older than the king.7 c. 11 BC The porticoes complete c. AD 64 — The complex finished. Work continues under Herod’s successors for sixty-eight years after his death. Its completion puts some eighteen thousand men out of employment. Six years later Titus burns it.8 c. AD 64 The complex finished c. 35–30 BC — Masada. The desert refuge fortified: casemate wall, storehouses, cisterns fed by dammed wadis, and the three-tiered Northern Palace stepped down the cliff face.9 c. 35–30 BC Masada c. 35–15 BC — The Jericho winter palaces. Three successive palaces in the Jordan valley, bringing Roman construction technique into the kingdom — opus reticulatum facing and Roman-plan bath suites, built by imported specialists.10 c. 35–15 BC The Jericho winter palaces 30 BC — The kingdom confirmed. After Actium, Octavian confirms Herod at Rhodes and enlarges the kingdom. The building programme of the following two decades runs on that confirmation.11 30 BC The… c. 27 BC — Sebaste. Samaria refounded and renamed for Augustus — Sebastos being the Greek for the title. A temple of Roma and Augustus on a raised platform, a colonnaded street, a stadium.12 c. 27 BC Sebaste c. 23–15 BC — Herodium. An artificial mountain raised over a fortified palace at the site of a battle he won in flight, with a lower palace, pools and gardens below. The only work he named for himself, and his burial place.13 c. 23–15 BC 22–10 BC — Caesarea Maritima and Sebastos. A city and an artificial deep-water harbour built on an open coast with no natural anchorage, in hydraulic concrete set underwater using pozzolana shipped from the Bay of Naples. Dedicated 10 BC with games.14 22–10 BC Caesarea Maritima and Sebastos undated — The Cave of the Patriarchs, Hebron. The enclosure over the tombs at Hebron — the only Herodian building still standing intact, unroofed, its walls and pilaster order complete.15 undated The Cave of the… through the reign — The fortress chain. Alexandreion, Hyrcania, Machaerus and Cypros rebuilt, several with palaces inside the walls; temples of Roma and Augustus at Caesarea, Sebaste and in the north near Paneion.16 through the reign The fortress chain 4 BC — Herod dies. At Jericho, aged about sixty-nine. Buried at Herodium. The Temple complex is unfinished and will remain so for another sixty-eight years.17 4 BC Herod dies c. 30 BC — Rhodes. The temple of Pythian Apollo rebuilt; shipbuilding funded. The city where Octavian returned his crown.18 c. 30 BC after 31 BC — Nicopolis. Public buildings for the victory city Octavian founded on the site of his camp at Actium — a benefaction aimed squarely at the winner.19 after 31 BC Nicopolis undated — Antioch. A colonnaded main street about four kilometres long, paved in polished stone — counted as the first monumental colonnaded avenue of the Roman East.20 undated Antioch 14 BC — Chios. Held up by a north wind on the voyage to join Agrippa, he pays to rebuild the city portico that had lain in ruins since the Mithridatic war.21 14 BC Chios 12 BC — Olympia. Finding the games in financial collapse, he settles permanent revenues on them and is made perpetual president — a title Josephus says was recorded in their inscriptions.22 12 BC Olympia through the reign — The coastal cities. Halls, porticoes, temples and markets at Tyre and Berytus; theatres at Sidon and Damascus; gymnasia at Damascus, Tripolis and Ptolemais; walls at Byblos; an aqueduct at Laodicea; a standing endowment at Kos.23 through the reign The coastal cities
Jerusalem The kingdom Abroad
Jerusalem — the capital rebuilt The kingdom — cities, harbours, fortresses, palaces Abroad — cities that paid him no taxes Bar — a work spanning years

Each numbered marker links to its row in the register below. Three lanes run at once, which is the point of the page: through the twenties BC Herod was building the Temple platform at Jerusalem, an artificial harbour at Caesarea, an artificial mountain at Herodium and a colonnaded avenue at Antioch — simultaneously, and paying for a portico at Chios and the Olympic Games besides. Twenty-three works and phases at about 9.5 pixels per year. Many dates are approximate and several are undated in the sources, marked as such; the bars show works known to span years, not precise start and end points. Fuller treatment of every entry is in Herod the Builder: The Programme, Work by Work; the family and political record is on The Julii of Judaea.

The Register

How the grading reads. one amber dot: a single channel carries it, with no external corroboration. two green: two independent sources cross. three green: a contemporary inscription, coin or other object. Counted by distinct register entries, not by citations — two passages of one author are one source. Every entry rests on a single channel, and that channel is Josephus. This is the finding, not a defect of the register: the building programme is enormous and the textual witness to it is one man, whose partiality his own transmitter states in writing.

#DateLaneWorkRefs & att.
137 BCJERUSALEM The citadel and first works. On taking Jerusalem, work begins on the fortifications of the Upper City and on the Baris, the Hasmonean fort at the north-west corner of the Temple Mount. 42 HB
2c. 35–31 BCJERUSALEM The Antonia. The old Baris rebuilt as a stronghold on scarped rock with four corner towers, garrisoned and overlooking the Temple courts. Named for Mark Antony, so before his fall in 30 BC. 42 HB
3c. 28 BCJERUSALEM Theatre, amphitheatre, games. Quinquennial games instituted in Caesar’s honour; a theatre built at Jerusalem and a great amphitheatre in the plain. Neither has been securely identified archaeologically. The trophies displayed caused offence until stripped to show bare frames. 42 HB
4c. 25–23 BCJERUSALEM The royal palace and the three towers. The palace on the western hill, with wings named for Augustus and Agrippa. On its northern side the towers Phasael, Hippicus and Mariamme — a brother, a friend, and the executed wife. 42 HB
520–18 BCJERUSALEM The Temple: platform and sanctuary. The rebuilding begins. Materials prepared before demolition; a thousand priests trained as masons; the sanctuary raised in eighteen months without interrupting the sacrificial service. 42 HB
6c. 20–15 BCJERUSALEM The water system. The Wadi el-Biyar aqueduct driven partly as a groundwater-collecting tunnel — 2.8 km, longer than any tunnel in Rome’s own systems — and the low-level aqueduct, 23 km from Solomon’s Pools to the Temple cisterns on a fall of thirty metres. Wilson’s Arch built to carry it. 42 HB
7c. 11 BCJERUSALEM The porticoes complete. Eight years’ work on the colonnades around the esplanade, including the Royal Stoa with its 162 Corinthian columns. Solomon’s Porch on the east left untouched, held to be older than the king. 42 HB
8c. AD 64JERUSALEM The complex finished. Work continues under Herod’s successors for sixty-eight years after his death. Its completion puts some eighteen thousand men out of employment. Six years later Titus burns it. 42 HB
9c. 35–30 BCTHE KINGDOM Masada. The desert refuge fortified: casemate wall, storehouses, cisterns fed by dammed wadis, and the three-tiered Northern Palace stepped down the cliff face. 42 HB
10c. 35–15 BCTHE KINGDOM The Jericho winter palaces. Three successive palaces in the Jordan valley, bringing Roman construction technique into the kingdom — opus reticulatum facing and Roman-plan bath suites, built by imported specialists. 42 HB
1130 BCTHE KINGDOM The kingdom confirmed. After Actium, Octavian confirms Herod at Rhodes and enlarges the kingdom. The building programme of the following two decades runs on that confirmation. 42 HB
12c. 27 BCTHE KINGDOM Sebaste. Samaria refounded and renamed for Augustus — Sebastos being the Greek for the title. A temple of Roma and Augustus on a raised platform, a colonnaded street, a stadium. 42 HB
13c. 23–15 BCTHE KINGDOM Herodium. An artificial mountain raised over a fortified palace at the site of a battle he won in flight, with a lower palace, pools and gardens below. The only work he named for himself, and his burial place. 42 HB
1422–10 BCTHE KINGDOM Caesarea Maritima and Sebastos. A city and an artificial deep-water harbour built on an open coast with no natural anchorage, in hydraulic concrete set underwater using pozzolana shipped from the Bay of Naples. Dedicated 10 BC with games. 42 HB
15undatedTHE KINGDOM The Cave of the Patriarchs, Hebron. The enclosure over the tombs at Hebron — the only Herodian building still standing intact, unroofed, its walls and pilaster order complete. 42 HB
16through the reignTHE KINGDOM The fortress chain. Alexandreion, Hyrcania, Machaerus and Cypros rebuilt, several with palaces inside the walls; temples of Roma and Augustus at Caesarea, Sebaste and in the north near Paneion. 42 HB
174 BCTHE KINGDOM Herod dies. At Jericho, aged about sixty-nine. Buried at Herodium. The Temple complex is unfinished and will remain so for another sixty-eight years. 42 HB
18c. 30 BCABROAD Rhodes. The temple of Pythian Apollo rebuilt; shipbuilding funded. The city where Octavian returned his crown. 42 HB
19after 31 BCABROAD Nicopolis. Public buildings for the victory city Octavian founded on the site of his camp at Actium — a benefaction aimed squarely at the winner. 42 HB
20undatedABROAD Antioch. A colonnaded main street about four kilometres long, paved in polished stone — counted as the first monumental colonnaded avenue of the Roman East. 42 HB
2114 BCABROAD Chios. Held up by a north wind on the voyage to join Agrippa, he pays to rebuild the city portico that had lain in ruins since the Mithridatic war. 42 HB
2212 BCABROAD Olympia. Finding the games in financial collapse, he settles permanent revenues on them and is made perpetual president — a title Josephus says was recorded in their inscriptions. 42 HB
23through the reignABROAD The coastal cities. Halls, porticoes, temples and markets at Tyre and Berytus; theatres at Sidon and Damascus; gymnasia at Damascus, Tripolis and Ptolemais; walls at Byblos; an aqueduct at Laodicea; a standing endowment at Kos. 42 HB