Beginning in 1990, the Combined Caesarea Expeditions uncovered on the Temple Platform the remains of Herod’s temple to Roma and Augustus, completed in 10 B.C.E. (Fig. 1). The archaeologists aimed not only to recover the temple’s design but also its longevity and ultimate fate in order to study the transition between paganism and Christianity in the Mediterranean world. The Jewish historian Josephus described the temple as sitting on an elevation and as being visible far out to sea. Inside were statues of the goddess Roma and of Augustus (Josephus War I, 414; Antiquities XV, 339).

Over the course of ten years of excavation, we have exposed and recovered various elements of the building that have allowed us to reconstruct its appearance (Fig. 2). Portions of the temple’s deep foundations have survived across the site, measuring 46.2 m long and 28.5 m wide. Facing west towards the harbor, the Corinthian order building was fitted with a surrounding colonnade and a colonnaded porch. Exterior elements of the building, such as the columns and the architrave, were coated with white stucco with chips of marble that made the structure gleam in the bright sunlight, giving it the appearance of being constructed of solid marble. We estimate that the height of the interior floor of the temple was about 4 m above ground level, or about 15.70 m above sea level. We presume the temenos area around the temple was paved with stone at about +11.5 m, although none of this paving was extant in our trenches.

To the south of the Temple Platform in Area Z, remains of the platform’s outer retaining wall and a grand staircase were exposed. Retaining the thick fill laid over the natural bedrock by Herod’s builders to form the platform on which the temple sat, this wall is 1.5 m wide and was built of finely cut kurkar stones (Fig. 3). Providing access to the temple from one of the major north-south streets in the city, the southern staircase was at least 6 m wide (Fig. 4). Its well-worn stones attest to the numerous patrons who visited the temple over its lifetime (Raban 1998, 67-68; Stanley 1999, 35-38).

The western retaining wall and projecting arms of the Temple Platform were previously exposed by Avraham Negev in the 1960s. Excavations in the Inner Harbor in the 1990s revealed a massive foundation of cut stone and mortar halfway between the platform’s projecting arms and on the temple’s centerline (Fig. 5). Measuring 20.3 by 9.4 m, this feature is interpreted as the foundation of the cult altar. A wide staircase is projected from the altar up to the temenos pavement of the Temple Platform. However, no evidence of this staircase has yet been found other than a rectangular recess measuring 85 x 21 m (Porath 1998, 45).

Although we are uncertain that the temple continued to function as a cult site dedicated to Roma and Augustus, the archaeological evidence suggests that the building remained standing until the end of the 4^th c. It is possible that the building was abandoned or began to deteriorate earlier in the 4^th c. when Christianity was adopted as the official State religion. During that period, laws were passed to prohibit sacrifices to traditional gods and the State no longer supported the maintenance of traditional cult sites. There is no evidence that the temple was converted into a church and at least part of the building was still intact just prior to its destruction. A line of stucco and architectural fragments was unearthed on the north side of the temple in 1999 and 2000 (Fig. 6). The molded stucco fragments had covered one of the massive columns along the north stylobate (Fig. 7). Stone column fragments were salvaged for reuse in another structure. Other fragments from the entablature were apparently too irregular to cut into usable building stones and were left where they fell. This column did not fall onto the paved courtyard below because just prior to the column’s collapse, the temenos was stripped of its paving stones, leaving the stucco and unusable architectural fragments lying on the fill below the pavement.

The temenos pavement was removed first, the temple’s superstructure was pulled down, and then the foundations were systematically dismantled. Whoever dismantled the temenos pavement and the foundations clearly wanted any trace of the former temple erased. Many of the stones from the temple were set aside for future use because numerous fragments were found incorporated into the early 6^th c. octagonal church and its western staircase later constructed on the Temple Platform. After the reusable fragments were cleared, a thick fill about 1 m deep was distributed over the site to cover the voids left by the dismantling process. Numerous fragments from the temple’s superstructure were thrown into this fill (Fig. 8). Pottery and coins recovered from the fill date the importation of the fill to the early 5^th c.

In the southeastern sector of the Temple Platform in Area TPS, the excavators discovered a mass of stones extending 20 m south that had been pushed off the retaining wall. The Herodian wall had been dismantled to a height of +10.00 m in this area. Fill related to the temple’s construction and containing early Roman material was found inside the retaining wall at +11.00 m. Therefore, the retaining wall in this area was dismantled about 1 m below the ground surface. This wall was again reused and renovated in the Byzantine period when the octagonal church was built (Raban and Yankelevitz forthcoming).

On the west side of the temple complex, the retaining wall was uniformly dismantled to a height of +7.25 m. A series of vaults was constructed in front of the Temple Platform on either side of the large staircase leading from the Inner Harbor to the Temple Platform (Fig. 9). A lime plaster surface was laid on top of the vaults under which ceramics and coins of the late 3^rd to early 4^th century were recovered. Porath speculates that the vaults were built during the reign of Constantine from 324 to 337 C.E. when many pagan temples were being abolished (Porath 1998, 45). The vaults would have disrupted the view of the temple and perhaps marked the beginning of the demise of the temple and its cult. The foundation of the altar and the broad western staircase were probably dismantled later in the 4^th or early 5^th c. at the time the rest of the temple was taken down. A fill was laid over the foundations, again to conceal any evidence of the former temple. The early 6^th c. staircase associated with the octagonal church was built on top of the fill, indicating that the Herodian foundation had been covered for some time and the builders did not know there was a solid foundation lying just below (Fig. 10).

Several decades after the demolition of the temple, around the third quarter of the 5^th c., a new building project was initiated on the Temple Platform (Fig. 11). Because we have yet to determine the identity and function of this building, we are referring to it as the "Intermediate Building." All that remains of this structure are fragments of its narrow concrete foundations and a few possible floor fragments (Fig. 12). None of the superstructure survived, but some of the concrete foundations showed shadows of the stones on top (Fig. 13). The remains of the "Intermediate Building" consist of at least five east-west and eight north-south segments of poured concrete foundations. Diverging from the orientation of the temple, the intermediate building lies at an angle of 25 degrees N of E. Not only did those who demolished the temple want to erase any trace of the pagan building, but they also reoriented the new edifice on the platform to obscure its former connection with the harbor and the building that preceded it. We still do not know the function of this structure. Its form does not correspond with any known building type. Temple precincts were also used for administration and commerce, so this complex is possibly related to one of these functions. Portions of the building were destroyed in a fire in the late 5^th c. (Fig. 14) The entire superstructure of the intermediate building was dismantled after the fire and the site was prepared for yet another building phase, that of the octagonal church, on the Temple Platform around 500 C.E.

Portions of the octagonal church were set on the remains of the temple’s foundations (Fig. 15). The church also reused stones from the temple in its fabric (Fig. 16). As part of this building phase, the staircases on the south and west were built on the foundations of the Herodian structures and portions of the Temple Platform’s retaining wall were rebuilt. By the end of the 5^th century, the Christians of Caesarea had no problem reusing stones from a pagan building in their own religious structure.

Richard Bayliss notes that the recorded destruction of temples during the 4^th century occurred primarily in areas where pagan traditions remained strong. Bayliss also notes that whereas in the early 4^th c., temple destruction was more often ordered by the emperor, by the end of the century, temple destruction was primarily instigated by local Christian communities, often led by prominent local figures. Temples were large stone structures and therefore, required significant effort to bring them down. Professional stone masons and craftsmen were likely employed to dismantle a temple, which could take months or years (Bayliss 2004, 11-14, 16-17, 22, 29). Destruction of a temple could be used to entice mass conversions to Christianity by demonstrating that the old gods had no power over the complete demolition of their places of worship.

The sequence of building on the Temple Platform at Caesarea demonstrates the transition from paganism to Christianity in one of Palestine’s coastal cities. Construction of the Temple to Roma and Augustus on the highest point of the city facing the harbor was meant to symbolize the connection between Herod and his patron, Augustus. We do not know whether the structure continued to be dedicated to the emperor cult throughout its existence, but its use as a traditional cult sanctuary clearly continued until its ultimate demise at the end of the 4^th century. Caesarea was an international port city and its diverse population sustained traditional cult practices in the city even after the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine in 323 C.E. The first attempt to diminish the importance and visual program of the temple came in the early 4^th century when a series of storage vaults was built in the Inner Harbor. The altar may have also been dismantled in this early stage, but the temple itself appears to have survived largely, if not completely, intact. In the late 4^th century, when temple destruction was at its height, Caesarea’s temple was systematically dismantled well below ground surface, presumably to obscure any evidence of its existence. Such complete destruction was perhaps meant to compel pagans to convert to Christianity in large numbers. The former site of the temple was left abandoned for several decades, perhaps as an act of deconsecration. Leaving the site abandoned could also have served as a Christian symbol of triumph over the traditional cults. Another building was constructed on the Temple Platform in the mid-5^th century that did not acknowledge the former temple’s orientation or apparently use any of its building elements in its superstructure. This building may have been used for commercial or administrative purposes. It does not conform to any church plans. This building burned in the late 5^th century and was razed to its foundations. Construction of an octagonal martyrium was then initiated on the site around 500 C.E. This building reused the former temple’s foundations and many of its architectural fragments. The site does not seem to have retained its religious function through much of the 5^th century. This was perhaps meant to deconsecrate the area before it could once again be used for religious purposes in the late 5^th or early 6^th century.