Pesce, who dug the temple in the years 1939-1942, came to the conclusion[1506] that the edifice had been damaged in the Jewish revolt, as the head of an image of Zeus found in the naos was dated to the Antonine period. He established, however, that the building had been rebuilt again in the last years of the 2nd century, on the evidence of several inscriptions found there;[1507] he attributed the need for this restoration to an earthquake which in his view had overthrown the columns of the peristasis, their column-drums being still visible around the Temple.
Examination of the building by British archaeologists in 1958 produced somewhat different conclusions.[1508] The inscriptions proved clearly that the Temple had been rebuilt under the Antonine dynasty, the work being completed in the last years of the 2nd century. The most important fragmentary inscription was found in the pronaos, being dedicated to M. Aurelius between the years 172-175 (according to Miss Reynolds’ restoration) with the words: “the metropolis of Cyrene set up the temple in honour of Zeus, after it had been overthrown in the Jewish revolt” (τοῖ Ἱουδ [αῖκοϊ ταράχοι]).[1509] This inscription extended over several Doric capitals whose echini had been removed in order to create rectangular blocks, and had apparently belonged to the inner colonnades of the naos dismantled during the revolt or during the Antonine rehabilitation.
The inscription cut round the podium of the image within the naos was dedicated to the Emperor Commodus between 185 and 192, in a formula restored as follows: “the image of Zeus... was donated and set up by at his own expense on behalf of his sweet country.”[1510] This dedication was probably followed by a list of further subscribers to the renewal of the statue. The Antonine podium upon which the new image sat was underpinned by a number of column-capitals derived from the edifice of the prerevolt period.
The architrave of the pronaos exhibited a third inscription of which three fragments were found. These are insufficient for a reasonable restoration, but it is clear that we have here a dedication of the Antonine period in Greek and Latin, commemorating the restoration of this part of the temple.[1511] As early as 1927 a Greek and Latin inscription of the architect Rufus Aurelius found in the naos, and dedicated to Zeus Olympios, was published;[1512] Reynolds believed that it alluded to the completion of a new image of the god.[1513]
Goodchild established that the columns of the peristasis had been deliberately undermined and overthrown in ancient times, and attributed this work of destruction to the tumultus Iudaicus.[1514] More recent work on the Temple, however, seems to have disclosed fourth-century buildings beneath the fallen columns of the peristasis, which would mean that their overthrow was due either to earthquake or to the depredations of the city’s Christian population.[1515] The smashed state of the architecture of the latest naos supports the latter explanation.[1516]
In view of the destruction of the road between Cyrene and its port during the rising, it is hard to believe that Apollonia was not damaged or destroyed during the same event, but the actual evidence for such a destruction is not decisive. A dedication by the citizens of Apollonia to Hadrian in 129 or later, which calls the Emperor κτίστης (founder),[1517] may be an echo of his activity in restoring the town after the revolt, but the term is very frequent everywhere in the eastern provinces.
During the Second World War remains of ancient buildings and streets were observed by the writer to have been exposed in the area south-east of the Greek and Byzantine city-walls. Skeleton burials with pottery of the late 4th century B.C. and other sherds of the hellenistic period were also found here. It would therefore seem that the city’s area was restricted in the late 4th century B.C. when the present walls were built.[1518] It may therefore transpire that suburbs outside the enceinte suffered in the Jewish revolt, but this cannot be regarded as more than a hypothesis.[1519]
This settlement, about 20 kilometres south-west of Cyrene, was the site of the well-known Temple of Asclepios.[1520] Excavation here was begun by the Italians before 1918,[1521] and was renewed in 1965,[1522] when a peribolos surrounded by porticoes and containing three temples was found. The central shrine of the three was the principal place of worship, that of Asclepios himself. East of the peribolos lay a theatre. A fragmentary inscription among the buildings was of 2nd-century date and reused in a later wall;[1523] the principal structures appear to have been erected in the time of the Antonine emperors.[1524] Another fragmentary inscription of 2nd-century date bore ceremonial regulations affecting visitors to the shrine.[1525] It may therefore be supposed that the temple had been restored or rebuilt in the Antonine period; it is mentioned by Ptolemy, whose geographical account of Cyrenaica belongs, as we have seen, to the middle of the 2nd century.
Although the city’s earliest strata have been penetrated by excavation in certain areas[1526] nothing appears then to have been encountered throwing light on the city’s history in the earlier 2nd century A.D. But several items of indirect evidence point to the destruction of the city by the Jews. These are: i) the size of the Jewish community of Teucheira, and 2) the establishment of the town of Hadrianopolis on the plain to west of Teucheira after the revolt, with the aim of settling and repopulating the area. Notable in this respect is the resemblance of the plan of Teucheira[1527] to the colony of Antinoupolis in Egypt, founded by Hadrian.[1528] The line of Teucheira’s present walls dates from Justinian,[1529] but older building material is to be found in them, more especially on the west side, while the Greek and Roman rockcut tombs situated near them on the east, west and south, show that the course of the walls and the town’s area have not altered much since the earlier period. The area of Teucheira is about 44 hectares; that of the colony of Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), planned by Augustus for 3,000 praetorian veterans, 40 hectares.[1530] It is accordingly very possible that Teucheira was the place of settlement of the 3,000 legionary veterans sent “to settle Cyrene” in the language of the inscription from Attaleia in Turkey (p. 270). It may have been at the same time that the town received the title of “colony”.[1531]
Teucheira further witnessed building activity under the Antonines, according to a fragmentary inscription which contains the name of the governor Numisius Marcellinus;[1532] this is cut on an architrave in the north-eastern church. The city, indeed, is referred to threateningly by the Sibylline Oracles.[1533]
1515
My information is from an authoritative correspondent who saw the evidence personally.
1518
The date of the walls: J. P. Lauer,
1519
To west of the city a number of ancient field-plots are to be seen; although they are of irregular shape and area, they hinge on a straight central axis laid from north to south, suggesting that a mathematical, perhaps Roman, system of survey had been used. I know of no evidence at present of the date of this division.
1526
Goodchild,
1527
1530
Strabo, IV, 7 (206); F. Haverfield,
1533