JULIAN

The accession of Julian, after the death of his uncle Constantine in 337 A. D., and of his cousin Constantius in 353 A. D., checked the progress of Christian church building for ten years, and obliged Catholics and Arians for the moment to lay aside their differences in defence of their common faith. The Jews had rebelled against Constantius in the second year of his reign, when Sepphoris was razed to the ground. In the last six months before his death, on the borders of Persia, the philosophic Julian is said to have endeavoured to win their loyalty by rebuilding their Temple. According to a contemporary statement, the work was abandoned soon after it was begun, the labourers “fearing globes of flames” which burst out of the foundations—miraculously, according to Gregory of Nazianzen.[423] The Jews were now allowed to return to Jerusalem, and are said to have contributed largely to the funds raised by Alypius, governor of Palestine.

It is very doubtful whether any remains of this work are to be recognised, though some writers have thought that the “Golden Gate,” on the east wall of the Ḥaram, was built by Julian. It seems to have taken its name (Porta Aurea) from a misunderstanding of the Greek hôraia, and to have been thus identified by later writers with the “Beautiful Gate” of the Temple. It certainly existed in the sixth century,[424] but according to architectural authority the style of the arched cornices is not as early as the time of Julian, while the gate-house within is supported on great columns which seem clearly to be as late as the sixth century, when the Temple walls appear to have been still in ruins. It is more probable, therefore, that the Golden Gate, which is unnoticed by pilgrims before the time of Justinian, is to be attributed to the period of his restoration of the Temple enclosure.

EUDOCIA’S WALL

The city remained at peace under the emperors of the East for three centuries after the Christian religion had been tolerated at Milan in 313 A. D. The next great building period was in the time of Eudocia, widow of Theodosius II. She lived sixteen years in the Holy City, and died there, at the age of sixty-seven, about 460 A. D. She built (as already noticed) the Church of St. Stephen outside the north gate, and here she was buried; she also built a wall on the south side of the upper city to include the Church of St. Sion, and carried it over the Tyropœon Valley (enclosing for the first time the Pool of Siloam), running it north, on the ancient line on Ophel, to the south-east angle of the Temple enclosure. The ruins of this wall have now been excavated.[425]

The reasons for supposing that the wall excavated by Mr. Bliss is not older than the time of Eudocia are purely antiquarian, and require notice because it has been assumed, by recent writers, that it represents the “old wall” described by Josephus, though its course is not that which he mentions, since—in 70 A. D.—the rampart crossed the Tyropœon “above Siloam,” and left the pool outside. The wall was partly rebuilt for a short distance on the slope of Sion, at some later period (before 680 A. D.), but it is substantially all of one character, and fragments of Roman and Byzantine work have been built into its masonry. A new gate was made near its south-west angle, the threshold stones of which were more than once renewed. A pilaster with Roman letters and numerals was here used up, and the drain under the lowest pavement of the street was covered with flat stones. “One of these,” says Mr. Bliss, “has a large plain Greek cross carved on its under side,” which clearly indicates that even the oldest part of the wall is later than the fourth century.

The style of fortification, with buttresses at intervals, is also distinctively Byzantine, and the masonry is “roughly set in coarse lime,” and (near Siloam) is “covered with plaster.” The masonry does not resemble that of even Herod’s time, but (as seen by myself and as shown in the drawings supplied by Mr. Bliss) it may confidently be ascribed to the fifth century. Similar masonry is common in the walls of chapels and monasteries throughout Palestine and Syria belonging to that age, and it is certain that this was hewn at the time, and was not merely re-used material. It was a rude imitation of the older Greek and Roman style, but the work is very inferior in execution. The stones are generally less than 2 feet square, the joints are wide, and mortar is used, while in some cases small fragments of stone are packed in on the face of the joint. The courses are irregular, and some stones are rudely drafted, while others are not. This masonry is constantly associated with barrel vaults having graduated voussoirs—the keystone narrow, and the haunch-stones broad—which is also distinctive of Byzantine architecture. No one who has examined the Palestine monasteries of the Byzantine age could doubt that the wall in question must be of the same period, and it appears that it was the work of Eudocia, though it was repaired and strengthened, in the same style, rather later—probably by Justinian. Soon after his time Antoninus Martyr says, “The fountain of Siloam is at the present day within the walls of the city, because the Empress Eudocia herself added these walls to the city, and built the basilica and tomb of St. Stephen.”[426]

Specimens of Masonry, showing the Comparative Size and Finish.