During the Hellenistic period (332-63 BCE) the city of Beth Shean enjoyed a revival and came to be known as Scythopolis, or 'City of the Scythians', perhaps as a result of a unit of the Scythian cavalry in the army of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. During…
This aerial photograph of the southern portion of the city of Caesarea Maritima shows the huge theater that looks out toward the ocean and the setting sun. The land that juts out into the ocean at the lower left corner of the photo is the so-called…
This theater is an example of both a new custom and a new architectural form brought eastward by the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Romans. Theater was a Greek invention, but many (if not most) of the Hellenistic 'influences' came to…
This aerial view of the area just south of the harbor at Caesarea Maritima shows the Roman theater (approx. 4,000 seats in its final stage) and the remains of the Promontory Palace (in the lower left corner of the photo), both built in the 1st…