Bede, Holy Places 5.3-5.9
created: This entry is taken from Holy Places 5.3-5.9 written by Bede in 702-703 CE. This
edition published: 2022-10-19-05:00
language: la; la
availability: Except for materials quoted from other sources, this entry is copyright 2022 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/308

and

Caesaream vero Palestinae

is directly attested at Bede, Holy Places 5.3-5.9. This passage was written ca. 702-703 CE possibly in Hexham. The “venerable” Bede was one of the great historians of the Early Middle Ages. Descended from an Anglo-Saxon family of status, he was a Benedictine monk at the monasteries of St. Peter and Paul in Northumbria, in what is today northeastern England. Besides his magnum opus, Church History of the English People, his diverse and erudite literary production included the short account of the Holy Land, an early work of Bede’s written during his priesthood at Hexham. This passage describes the natural terrain from the Judaean hills west to the coast as far as Caesarea. Here Bede depends fully on the account of Adomnán, the abbot of Iona who had visited his monastery a few years earlier, and this passage was copied by Peter the Deacon, who wrote his Holy Places some 450 years later.

Circa Hierusalem aspera ac montuosa cernuntur loca. Hinc quoque septemtrionem versus usque Arimathiam terra petrosa et aspera per intervalla quaedam monstratur, valles quoque spinosae usque ad Thamnicam regionem patentes. Ad Caesaream vero Palestinae ab Aelia quamvis aliqua reperriantur angusta et brevia aspera loca, praecipue tamen planities camporum interpositis olivetis. Distant autem LXXV milibus passuum.

[Ed. Fraipont 1965]

Around Jerusalem one sees that the land is rough and mountainous. From there to the north up to Arimathia the terrain proves to be rocky and rough in certain areas, and the valleys extending as far as the Thamnic region are full of thorny vegetation. But from Aelia to Caesarea Palestinae, although here and there can be found rough spots over narrow, short stretches, by and large the plains are flat, with olive trees spread about. The distance is 75 miles. [Trans. J. L. Rife]

Works Cited

[...] 5 3-9

[Admonán, Holy Places 1.20

Jerome, Place Names 37

Peter the Deacon, Holy Places 5.1]

[Arimathea (Ramathaim-Zophim)

Jerusalem

Thamnia]

[Samuel the Prophet]

[Geography

Medieval History

Natural Environment

Pilgrimage

Travel]