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A Temple in Flames
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Antonia
Fortress
Mariamne
Tower
Hippicus
Tower
Phasael
Tower
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Upper City
Herods palace
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Herod's Palace
Twelve years after Herod rose to power, he built himself a
lavish palace. Herod chose the highest point in the Upper
City, near the present-day Tower of David Museum. The
western city wall protected the palace grounds from
enemies without, and the eastern wall protected it from
threats from his own people. The royal guard was stationed
in the adjacent towers of Phasael, Hippicus, and Mariamne
to ensure the unpopular king's safety.
The palace was a showcase of beauty and style, rivaling even
the Temple built several years later (War I.402). It consisted of
two wings: Caesarion, named after Emperor Augustus, and
Agrippeon, after Marcus Agrippa, commander of the Roman
army. The palace halls were exquisitely designed and the
courtyards were paved with colorful stones. The grounds
abounded with gardens and fountains streaming with water
from the upper aqueduct.
Autumn 66CE
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The fact that the silver shekels minted by the rebels could
be used for paying the half-shekel tax represented the Jews'
spiritual break from the bonds of Rome; until then they had
been forced to use the official shekels minted in Tyre, which
bore foreign images. The Greek inscription on the Roman
coin "The holy city of Tyre" was replaced on the Jewish
shekels with the Hebrew words (in archaic Hebrew letters)
Yerushalayim ha-kedoshah ("The holy [city of] Jerusalem") or
Shekel Yisrael ("Shekel of Israel"). The image of the Phoenician
god Melqart (Hercules) gave way on the Jewish coin to nonpagan motifs such as pomegranate clusters and the cup of
plenty (possibly used for the Omer offering); the lulav (palm
branch) and etrog (citron) appear here for the first time in
Jewish art.