Samaria-Sebaste: the Roman theater

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 Israel/Palestine as a result of the Romans. This one was built by King Herod the Great (37-4 BCE) soon after the city was given to him by Caesar Augustus in 27 BCE. The city of Sebaste continued to be inhabited through the 6th century CE.