What do we know about the procurators of Judea? For obvious reasons, everyone has heard about one thing - about the fifth, Pontius Pilate. Even those who have not read either Josephus, Tacitus, or the New Testament, remembers from Bulgakov: "the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the horseman Pontius Pilate."
It is curious, however, that all of the above - respected historians, evangelists and even Bulgakov - were wrong. Pontius Pilate was not and could not be the procurator: this status was introduced later. The first procurator of Judea was Cuspius Fad in 44 AD, and Pontius Pilate, whose governorship in Judea fell from 26 to 36, was the prefect of the province.
This anachronism, little understood by the general public, is of great importance to historians. Firstly, the mistake in the name of the official position of Pontius Pilate indicates that all written sources mentioning him were created after 44 years, that is, the authors managed to get used to the new name of the governor's office in Judea - procurator, not prefect. Secondly, this anachronism once again confirms that the written sources are not entirely reliable, in contrast to the archaeological artifacts of the corresponding period.
During the existence of Judea as a Roman province, from 6 to 135 AD, historians have counted 30 rulers of Judea - in different statuses and ranks. Information about many of them had to be obtained bit by bit, about some - to guess, but in general, the scientists were sure that they had found out the names of almost all the Roman governors in Judea.
Finding a new name is already a sensation. Finding it not in historical chronicles, but on an artifact during its lifetime is priceless. Such a find was made by Israeli divers in the harbor of the ancient city of Dor.
The stone with an inscription carved on it was found back in January 2016. The storm exposed a section of the seabed at a depth of only 1.5 meters - so underwater archaeologists from the University of Haifa, who surveyed the harbor, were able to notice a clearly man-made stone block under the water.
Stone block found in January 2016 in the harbor city of Dor
Promotional video:
Photo: Ehud Arkin Shalev
A stone measuring 70 by 65 cm and weighing about 600 kg was promptly raised from the bottom, it took several months to clear it from marine sediments and decipher the discovered inscription. In December, the results of the scientists' work were reported by the Israeli news site Haaretz.
The seven incomplete lines in Greek were deciphered by Professor Assaf Yasur-Landau at the University of Haifa. Some of the text is missing, but scholars believe that the original inscription looked like this: "City of Dor in honor of Mark Paccius, son of Publius, Sylvanus Quintus Coredia Gall Gargilius Antiqua, ruler of the province of Judea, as well as […] the province of Syria and patron of the city of Dor."
Apparently, the stone with the inscription is a fragment of the pedestal of the statue of Gargil Antiqua himself, but the sculptural image of the governor of Judea and the patron saint of the city of Dor has not yet been found.
Archaeologists Gil Gambash and Assaf Yasur-Landau (right) next to the Gargil Antiqua stone
Photo: Jenny Carmel
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of a few lines on a nondescript stone fragment. To begin with, this is the second inscription from the Roman era that mentions the province of Judea. Previously, only one was known - we are talking about the famous "stone of Pontius Pilate", discovered by archaeologists in 1961 during excavations of the Roman theater in Caesarea. The inscription on it is incomplete, but the surviving letters were sufficient to reconstruct the text:
[DIS AUGUSTI] S TIBERIEUM
[… PO] NTIUS PILATUS
[… PRAEF] ECTUS IUDA [EA] E
[… FECIT D] E [DICAVIT]
Translated from Latin - "To Augustus Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, dedicated it." The 1961 find became the first material evidence of the existence of such a person as Pontius Pilate, the first lifetime indication of his position (prefect, not procurator) and the first mention of the province of Judea in Roman inscriptions.
A copy of the "Stone of Pontius Pilate" installed in Caesarea
Photo from the website calvary2012israel.wordpress.com
The 2016 find is no less significant. “We first identified with absolute certainty the person who ruled Judea in the critical years before the Bar-Kokhba uprising, and we also found a second mention of the province of Judea in Roman inscriptions,” says Professor Yasur-Landau.
The news was published on an Israeli news website whose readers need no further explanation: the uprising of the Jews against the Romans led by Shimon Bar Kochba is one of the most important events in the history of the Jewish people. It began in 132 and lasted for several years, humiliatingly long for the Romans. The end is known: the recalcitrant province was drenched in blood. Historian Cassius Dio reports that during the hostilities 580 thousand Jews died, not counting those who died of hunger and disease: "all or almost all of Judea turned into a desert."
However, pacifying its own province cost the mighty empire prohibitively expensive. Rome put up more than ten legions against the rebels, three legions were completely destroyed, the total losses amounted to tens of thousands of soldiers. When informing the Senate about the suppression of the rebellion, the emperor Hadrian did not even dare to use the usual formula in such cases "I and my legions are in prosperity."
The emperor understood that for the final and irrevocable victory it was not enough to bleed the enemy - it was necessary to break his spirit, erase his memory, break the connection of people with the earth. So in 135 AD the Roman province of Judea ceased to exist, it was renamed into Palestinian Syria, Syria Palaestina. "Jerusalem must be destroyed": in its place began to grow a Roman city with the Roman name Aelia Capitolina in honor of the victorious emperor, whose full name is Publius Aelius Hadrian.
The main events are known, but this period continues to intrigue historians. Given the scale of the event and its consequences, there is very little reliable information about the uprising - he did not have his own chronicler. Most of the information is contained in the multivolume "Roman History" of Dion Cassius, written several decades after the Bar Kokhba uprising, as well as in Talmudic literature, which does not add historical clarity at all. The most reliable sources are rare archaeological finds, in particular, inscriptions on Roman monuments and written documents from the era of the uprising. The discoveries, which are rarely reported to the general public, help scientists figure out the critical facts needed to reconstruct events.
For example, in 2002, thanks to the deciphering of the inscription on the ruins of the triumphal arch in honor of Adrian, scientists were able to accurately figure out the year of the final suppression of the uprising - 136th, and not 135th, as previously thought. Shimon Bar-Kokhba, who for centuries remained a semi-mythical figure, acquired real features in the twentieth century: among the famous Dead Sea scrolls found in the Judean Desert, his original letters were discovered. In 2009, the priceless papyrus of the era of the uprising was intercepted on the black market of antiquities, and a grandiose archaeological expedition, which is about to begin, will search in caves near the Dead Sea not only biblical scrolls, but also artifacts belonging to supporters of Bar Kokhba hiding in caves. …
It would seem that there should be more clarity on the Roman side - the Empire was a huge bureaucratic machine that usually left many traces in history. The Bar Kokhba uprising was the third Jewish uprising in the memory of the Romans - the first armed conflict took place in the late 60s. This is one of the reasons why the era of the procurators ended in Judea in 70. They were replaced by governors with experience in warfare and a more serious status: legatus Augusti propraetore, legate of Augustus propraetor. One of the most important differences from prefects and procurators is the function of the commander-in-chief of all armed forces deployed in the province.
In theory, Rome was ready for any surprises from the locals: the Tenth Legion (Legio X Fretensis) and auxiliary troops were permanently based in Judea, and experienced generals appointed personally by the emperor stood at the head of the province for many years. But "something went wrong" and in fact turned out differently. Yes, in the end the Romans won, but they did not leave enough evidence of the humiliating opposition to the empire in 132-136 years.
For example, the name of the governor of Judea, who did not cope with his direct duties, is known: this is Quintus Tineus Rufus, nicknamed “the tyrant Rufus” - he allowed (or provoked) the rise of rebellious moods, “allowed” Judea to arm, he was the first to oppose the rebels and it was his legions were defeated first.
In the list of governors of Judea according to Wikipedia, Tineas Rufus, legate of Augustus the propraetor, is listed as the penultimate: the years of governorship are indicated as 132-135. However, historians attribute the beginning of his reign to 130, and the last reliable mention of him dates back to 132: either Tineas Rufus died, or he was removed from the management of the rebellious province.
Julius Sever is considered the last governor of Judea, although in fact the only thing he ruled over was the army. Julius Sever was urgently "sent" to Judea from Britain as the best commander of his time: perhaps this is the clearest indication of the scale of the provincial rebellion, which took on catastrophic proportions for the Romans. Their legions were sent to Judea and closer neighbors - the governor of Syria, Pubicius Marcellus and the governor of Arabia, Titus Gaterius Nepos.
If little is known about the period of the uprising itself, even less is known about the period that preceded it. The list of governors of Judea does not fill a long gap between the year 120 (Lucius Cossonius Gallus) and 130 (the beginning of the governorship of Quintus Tineus Rufus).
It's time to return to the sensational find of 2016 and the personality of Gargil Antiqua. The inscription on the stone leaves no doubt: a previously unknown governor of Judea, who ruled the province shortly before the bloody events of 132-136, was discovered. The found inscription is another example of how much information scientists can extract from one name and several lines of ancient text.
Calling Gargil Antiqua "unknown governor", journalists and even historians are a little cunning. Mark Paccius Sylvanus Quintus Coredius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus is well known to scientists. His connection with Judea was known earlier, and some experts - in particular, the historian Edward Dabrova - have long assumed that Gargilius Antiquus could be the governor of this province. In 2016, the hypothesis found material confirmation.
The fact is that the found stone is already the second, which contains a mention of this person. During the Arab-Israeli conflict in the late 1940s, a rounded stone block (also, by the way, a fragment of a pedestal) with an inscription in Greek was found near the eastern gate of the city of Dor. Then everyone was not up to ancient history, but the place was remembered. In 1978, archaeologists re-found this stone and studied it carefully. Despite the severe damage, the name and position were easily read in the text - Mark Paccius, son of Publius, Silvanus Quintus Coreadius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus, legate of Augustus propretor of the province … but which province is a mystery, since this is where the fragment of the pedestal ends. Then scientists suggested that we are talking about Syria.
Now the "creative path" of Gargil Antiqua has been reconstructed in more detail, and the career of this person can tell something about the state of affairs in the Judea entrusted to him.
It is known that in 116-119 Gargilius Antiquus gained experience in governing the province of Arabia Petreia, in 119 he became a consul-suffect, and later (about 122 years, according to scientists) was appointed governor of Judea, replacing Lucius Cossonius Gallus in this post. How long Gargilius Antiquus ruled the province is unclear, perhaps about two years. However, his further career suggests that the governorship in Judea was successful, at least from the Roman point of view. In 135, Gargilius Antiquus was appointed proconsul of Asia, which can be considered the pinnacle of his political activity.
The name of one successful Roman helped to build a logical chain: during the governorship of Gargilius Antiqua in Judea, everything was calm or looked so. The case when the answer received raises even more questions: the Bar-Kokhba revolt began in 132 not from scratch, preparations had been made for it for several years. Rebellious moods ripened, the rebels stocked up with weapons … The governor of the imperial province was obliged to inform the emperor about any threat to Roman rule and await further orders from the "authorities". If concerns about the affairs of the province grew, traces of such correspondence between Gargil Antiqua and Hadrian must have survived in one way or another. But so far, all that scientists have found are two fragments of monuments in honor of the dear leader and generous benefactor.
It remains to be understood in what context Syria is mentioned in the found inscription (it is reliably known that the governor of this province from 128 to 135 AD was Pubicius Marcellus and there was no room for others). Who was the governor of Judea between Gargilius Antikvos and the "tyrant" Tineas Rufus is also unknown.
Be that as it may, everyone is happy: scientists received new food for thought, and history buffs - the opportunity to see the rarest artifact found at the bottom of the sea and now on display in the library of the University of Haifa.