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Herod's Promontory Palace
About
Herod's palace jutted 100 meters out into the Mediterranean on its own rocky point, a lower terrace built almost at sea level around a large rock-cut swimming pool and an upper terrace centered on a colonnaded courtyard. It became the official residence of Rome's prefects of Judaea after Herod's death — this is very likely where Pontius Pilate governed from decades earlier. In 117 CE it was still functioning as the seat of Roman government on this stretch of coast.
What happened here
The public rooms are enormous and the private ones are not. A visitor is walked through an audience hall built to make him feel small, waits with everyone else, and is admitted in order of usefulness. Behind that front, the household runs on hundreds of slaves and freedmen with narrow specialities — one for the lamps, one for the silver, one who remembers names. The kitchens are far from the dining rooms, so food arrives warm at best. Business never stops: petitions from provincial towns, judicial appeals, dispatches read aloud while the emperor is being shaved. Gardens and fountains take up as much ground as the buildings, because being able to waste that much space in a crowded city is the point.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →