Herod's Harbour, and the Stone That Names Pilate

Herod the Great built Caesarea from nothing on an open coast with no natural anchorage, sinking enormous blocks of hydraulic concrete that set under water to make two curving moles, and crowned the harbour with a temple to Rome and to Augustus visible from far out at sea. The city was Greek in culture and Roman in loyalty, and it became the seat of the governors of Judaea, so the prefects and procurators lived here and went up to Jerusalem when trouble was expected.

In 1961 an excavation of the theatre found a limestone block reused as a step, carrying a dedication of a building to the emperor Tiberius by Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judaea. It is the only inscription naming him from his own lifetime, and it confirms the title Tacitus and the gospels use.

The city's religious history was also violent. Josephus reports a long dispute between its Greek and Jewish populations over civic rights, and says the massacre of the city's Jews in 66 CE was among the sparks of the revolt. During the war and afterwards Caesarea served as the base of the Roman command, and Jewish tradition places the execution of Rabbi Akiva there among the ten martyrs remembered in the liturgy of the Day of Atonement.