Rorgo Fretellus, Description of the Holy Places 430-431

https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/310

Context

Rorgo Fretellus (or Fetellus) was a priest originally from the feudal county of Ponthieu in northern France who travelled to the Holy Land in 1110. Over the next several decades he served various ecclesiastical offices in Galilee, possibly ending up in the Patriarchate of Antioch. He wrote an extended description of the holy sites not only in Jerusalem but across the region, repeating much information he had collected from research but also incorporating his own colorful observations. The extended passage on Caesarea is noteworthy for Rorgo’s portrayal of a prosperous Early Islamic city, redolent with spices, and his digression on the ecology of crocodiles, insects, and snakes in the hinterland.

Text

Vigesimo miliario ab Assur cοntra orientem Dor: ipsa est quam in honore Augusti Caesaris Caesaream nominavit Herodes, ubi et construxit albo de marmore portum, in qua Petrus baptizavit Cornelium, dοmο eius mutata in ecclesiam, et ipsum ordinavit episcopum; ubi quiescunt quatuor prophetissae virgines. Tradunt in hac Caesarea Eusebium doctorem fuisse episcopum. In Caesarea fuit Turris Stratonis, ubi Herodes in veste purpurea residens, ultione divina percussus interiit. Sarracenorum tempore sub tanta nobilitate florebat Caesarea, quod inter Babilonem et Babiloniam, id est Baldach in Perside et Menfim in Egipto, quasi paradysus eorum vigebat: ibique nobiles et potentes sepeliebantur. In ambitu urbis per ortorum spacia erant diversae caveolae sectis ex lapidibus constructae in quibus miscebantur igni species et aromata, quatinus ex conspirantibus auris urbs tota redoleret, ad evitandos malos odores et ad civium vultus exhilarandos. Sed modo haec omnia ad nihilum redacta sunt.In fluminibus Caesareae sunt corcodrilli serpentes horribiles. Os corcodrilli omni οri oppositum est in hoc quod labium eius superius mobile est, inferius fixum tenetur. Corcodrillus exitu caret inferiori. Corcodrillus cibo suo farsitus, supra ripam fluminis solita semita petens, brachiis subnixus, extenso collo, ore aperto, quasi ad incorporandam auram somnum recipit. Quo sopito occurrunt ei vermes quidam qui ex cibo corcodrilli pascuntur eiusque ventrem subintrant, quorum unus ex eis quasi ceterorum ianitor et excuba, verens ne si evigilaverit eos infra sigillet; eius labio superiori super veneniferum replicat aculeum. Sic a suo decipitur corcodrillus. Corcodrillus prae cunctis animantibus hominem odit.Est alius serpens ydrus nomine, qui super omnes creaturas hominem diligit: corcodrillum nimis odit, eumque corcodrillus, unde querunt se invicem. Sed ydrus ne ab hoste recognoscatur ex lutο reddit se informem, corcodrillo se presentans quem corcodrillus girans bis aut ter ignoranter transglutit. Ydrus carcerem in quo reclusus est transvorat, viscera quatit, iecur dissipat, cor dilacerat, latera perforat, exiens inde hoste necato.Quomodo corcodrilli Caesareae habeantur breviter dicam. Antiquitus Caesaream duo fratres pari dominio regnabant, quorum maior quia solus non regnabat fratri suo, qui et leprosus notabatur, necis tetendit insidias, excogitans apud se quod, si ex Nilo duo paria corcodrillorum praedictis in fluminibus habere posset, a fratre suo, qui temporibus aestivis fluminea frequentabat balnea, forsitan perituro, regno suo permitteretur. Quod sic revera contigit, sicque solus maior regnavit.Decimo miliario a Caesarea contra orientem Scariathias, a quo Iudas traditor cognominatus est Scarioth. 1

Textual Note

Ed. de Vogüé 1860

Textual Note

Bibliothèque impériale, fonds Latin, 5129 (Paris, dated 1151-1157)

Discussion Note

Minor corr. (spelling, punctuation)

Translation

Twenty miles from Assur toward the east is Dor, which Herod called Caesarea in honor Augustus Caesar. Here he also built a harbor out of white marble in which Peter baptized Cornelius and, when his house was changed into a church, ordained him bishop. Here rest four virgins prophetesses. They say that in this Caesarea the learned Eusebius was bishop. Caesarea was Strato’s Tower, where Herod was seated in his purple vestments when he was smitten by divine vengeance and died. In the time of the Saracens, Caesarea flourished under such great excellence that between Babilon and Balilonia, i.e., Baldach in Persia and Menfis in Egypt, it grew like their paradise. There the nobles and the powerful were buried. Inside the limits of the city across the gardens were various recesses built from cut stones in which spices and aromatics were mingled in fire, so that the whole city was redolent of the combining odors, to the exclusion of all bad smells and the exhilaration of the countenances of the citizens. But now all this has come to nothing.In the rivers of Caesarea are crocodiles, horrible serpents. The mouth of the crocodile is distinguished from all mouths in this respect, namely, that its upper jaw is movable, while its lower is fixed. At death the crocodile loses its lower jar. The crocodile, having eaten its food, seeks its usual paths on the river bank where, raised on its arms, its neck extended, and its mouth open as if to ingest the breeze, it falls asleep. When it is fast asleep worms come to it that eat the food of the crocodile, and they enter its belly. One of them acts as the doorman and watchman for the others, fearing that, should (the crocodile) awake, it would seal them up below; (this worm) delivers a poisonous sting up to the (crocodile’s) upper jaw. Thus the crocodile is deceived by its own. The crocodile hates man above all animals.There is another serpent, called the hydrus, which loves man aboνe all creatures; it no less hates the crocodile and the crocodile it, sο that they mutually seek out one another. But the ydrus renders itself shapeless with mud so as not to be recognised by its enemy, and offers itself to the crocodile, which, walking around it two or three times, ignorantly swallows it. The ydrus eats through the prison in which it has been shut up, shakes the organs, breaks apart the liver, tears the heart into pieces, perforates the sides, and comes out after slaying its enemy.How crocodiles come to be at Caesarea Ι shall explain briefly. In old times two brothers reigned at Caesarea with equal authority. The older of them, because he was not reigning alone, plotted the death of his brother, who was also a well-known leper. He thought to himself that, if he could get two pairs of crocodiles from the Νile for the rivers mentioned before, his brother, who regularly visited the river to bathe in the summertime, would perhaps be killed, and that he would obtain the kingdom. This very thing actually happened, and so the older brother became sole ruler.Ten miles from Caesarea toward the east is Scariathias, from which Judas the traitor was nicknamed Scarioth. 2

Translation Note

Trans. J. L. Rife with ref. to MacPherson 1896

Works Cited

1 Rorgo Fretellus, Appendice: Descriptions de Jérusalem et de la terre sainte au moyen âge. I.1., in Les églises de la Terre Sainte, ed. Melchior de Vogüé (Paris: Victor Didron, 1860), 407–33, p: 430-431.
2 Rorge Fretellus, Fetellus, trans. James Rose MacPherson, Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society 5 (London: Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, 1896), p: 46-48.

How to Cite This Entry

Joseph L. Rife, “Rorgo Fretellus, Description of the Holy Places 430-431,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/310.

Bibliography:

Joseph L. Rife, “Rorgo Fretellus, Description of the Holy Places 430-431.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/310.

About this Entry

Entry Title: Rorgo Fretellus, Description of the Holy Places 430-431

Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:

Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “Rorgo Fretellus, Description of the Holy Places 430-431”
Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “Rorgo Fretellus, Description of the Holy Places 430-431”

Additional Credit:

TEI encoding by William L. Potter
Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife

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