International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah
Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel; 
[e-mail]
Jerusalem in the Fourth Century – A City in Transition
In the late third century, Jerusalem, then known as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina, was 
a medium-sized, un-walled city, with free-standing city gates marking its limits. It had a typical 
orthogonal layout with colonnaded streets, public squares and triumphal arches. Some pagan 

---

173
temples and sanctuaries, as well as civilian, public buildings adorned the cityscape. The camp of the 
Tenth Roman Legion lying on the summit of the southwestern hill, was already abandoned by that 
time. The population of Aelia Capitolina comprised of Roman citizens, veterans of the Tenth Roman 
legion and their families, and Roman administrators, as well as local merchants and followers of the 
army that settled in the city, and adopted Roman lifestyle.
The legalization of Christianity by the Edict of Milan (313 CE), and the following 
Christianization of Jerusalem by the emperor Constantine (at 324 CE), significantly changed the 
status of Jerusalem, and affected its urban topography. The city, now named Aelia, or in its former 
name: Jerusalem/Hierosolyma, became a destination of Christian pilgrimage, and this, in turn, 
encouraged the development of its Christian, holy topography that characterizes Jerusalem to this 
day. Churches and monasteries were built around the city, commemorating events of Jesus’s times. 
The population grew, and the settled area of the city expanded to the south, beyond the original 
Hadrianic limits. About a century later, the city was surrounded by a new, wide - perimeter city 
wall, that united within the limits of Aelia/ Hierosolyma the former areas of Aelia Capitolina, the 
abandoned military camp that was now known as Zion, and the southeastern hill.
The transition of Jerusalem from a pagan Roman city in the second and third centuries (the 
Roman period), to a Christian, holy city (in the Byzantine period) lasted for the whole of the fourth 
century. A severe earthquake that hurt the city on May 363, may have encouraged a quick change 
thereafter. In the lecture, I will discuss some aspects of this transition, and especially the adjustment of 
the urban topography to the significant cultural changes, as reflected by recent archaeological research.