Thietmar, Book of Pilgrimage 8.38-46
created: This entry is taken from Book of Pilgrimage 8.38-46 written by Thietmar in 1217-
edition published: 2023-06-30-05:00
language: la; la
availability: Except for materials quoted from other sources, this entry is copyright 2023 by the contributors (Joseph L. Rife, et al.) and the Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project. It is licensed under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Some texts quoted in this entry may be in the public domain in the United States. No copyright is asserted for these quotations. Some texts quoted in this entry may have copyright restrictions and are reused under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/268

Cesaream

,

Cesarea

,

Turris Stratonis

,

Caesarea

,

Caesarea Palaestina

, and

Strato’s Tower

are directly attested at Thietmar, Book of Pilgrimage 8.38-46. This passage was written ca. 1217-1218 C.E. possibly in Palestine. Thietmar was a German Christian, perhaps a learned cleric from Westphalia, who undertook two pilgrimages from Acre during the course of the Fifth Crusade, one eastward to the Monastery of Mary at Saydnaya in southwestern Syria in 1217 and one southward to the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai in 1218. This work survives in 18 manuscripts of different lengths and dates; we prefer the earlier, fuller version at Hamburg on the authority of Laurent and Pringle. Thietmar gives a detailed itinerary of the Holy Land as well as his sojourn to Damascus, including much detail about the experience of contemporary Europeans and the local inhabitants, alongside usual observations concerning the historical landscape. In this passage, he describes Caesarea on his journey south from Acre to Sinai.

(38) Item a monte Carmelo perveni Cesaream, (39) et transivi per fluvium, qui flui de Carmelo, in quo multi sunt cocodrilli. (40) Ista Cesarea est Palestina, que quondam dicta est Dor, et non Philippi, de qua supra dictum est. (41) Hic quondam fuit Turris Stratonis. (42) Hanc civitatem ad honorem Augusti Cesaris Herodes, rex Judee, Cesaream appellavit, (43) ubi incipit regio Palestina. (44) In hac civitate vidi ecclesiam sancti Petri, edificatam de domo Cornelii centurionis, quem sanctus Petrus convertit et baptizavit, et edes Philippi et cubicula quatuor virginum prophetissarum.

[Ed. Laurent 1873] [Codex Hamburgensis 143b]

(38) From Mount Carmel I came to Caesarea, (39) and I crossed over a river that flows from Carmel in which there are many crocodiles. (40) That Caesarea is Caesarea Palaestina, which was formerly called Dor, and not Caesarea Philippi, about which I have spoken above. (41) Here once was Strato’s Tower. (42) Herod, King of Judaea, called this city Caesarea in honor of Caesar Augustus. (43) There begins the region of Palestine. (44) In this city I saw the Church of St. Peter, built from the house of the centurion Cornelius, whom Peter converted and baptized, and the house of Philip and the chamber of the four virgin prophetesses.

[Rev. from Pringle 2012]

Works Cited

[...] 8 38-46
[...] 109 8

[Alexandria

Antioch on the Orontes

Beirut (Berytus, Beritus)

Bethlehem

Caesarea Philippi (Paneas, Banias)

Constantinople

Galilee

Hebron

Jerusalem

Lydda

Moab

Nazareth

Palestine

Petra

Phoenicia

Ptolemais (Acco, Accho, Akko)

Samaria Sebaste

Sidon

Tiberias

Tyre]

[John the Baptist]

[Christian Bible

Christianity

Crusades

Death and Burial

Economy

Geography

Government

Medieval History

Roman History]