Jerome, Letters 108.8.1-2
created: This entry is taken from Letters 108.8.1-2 written by Jerome in 403 C.E.. This w
edition published: 2023-06-30-05:00
language: la; la
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https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/61

Stratonis turrem

,

Caesaream

,

Strato’s Tower

, and

Caesarea

are directly attested at Jerome, Letters 108.8.1-2. This passage was written ca. 403 C.E. possibly in Bethlehem. Among the voluminous correspondence of St. Jerome is this famous letter, written as a consolation to Eustochium on the death of her pious mother Paula. Paula lived a life of opulence as a prominent aristocrat at Rome before converting to Christianity and traveling in a large group with Jerome to Palestine, where the two established the monastery at Bethlehem in 386 C.E. In this passage Jerome gives a detailed account of Paula’s pilgrimage, listing the sites of biblical interest in sequence from the Phoenician coast past Caesarea to Ioppa and inland.

(1) Omitto Syriae Coeles et Phoenicis iter—neque enim odoeporicum eius disposui scribere—ea tantum loca nominabo, quae sacris in voluminibus continentur. Beryto, Romana colonia, et antiqua urbe Sidone derelicta in Sareptae littore Heliae est ingressa turriculam, in qua adorato domino salvatore, per harenas Tyri, in quibus Paulus genua fixerat, pervenit Accho, quae nunc Ptolemais dicitur, et per campos Mageddo Iosiae necis conscios intravit terram Phylistiim. (2) mirata ruinas Dor, urbis quondam potentissimae, et versa vice Stratonis turrem ab Herode rege Iudaeae in honorem Caesaris Augusti Caesaream nuncupatam, in qua Cornelii domum Christi vidit ecclesiam et Philippi aediculas et cubiculum quattuor virginum prophetarum, dein Antipatrida semirutum oppidulum, quod patris ex nomine Herodes vocaverat, et Lyddam versam in Diospolim, Dorcadis atque Aeneae resurrectione ac sanitate inclutam, haut procul ab ea Arimathiam, viculum Ioseph, qui dominum sepelivit, et Nob, urbem quondam sacerdotum, nunc tumulos occisorum, Ioppen quoque, fugientis portum Ionae et—ut aliquid perstringam de fabulis poetarum—religatae ad saxum Andromedae spectatricem, repetitoque itinere Nicopolim, quae prius Emmaus vocabatur, apud quam in fractione panis cognitus dominus Cleopae domum in ecclesiam dedicavit.

[Ed. Hilberg and Slovak 1996]

(1) I say nothing of (Paula’s) journey through Syria Coele and Phoenicia (for it is not my purpose to write her itinerary); I shall only name those places mentioned in the sacred books. After leaving the Roman colony of Berytus and the ancient city of Sidon, she entered Elijah’s town on the shore at Sarepta and there adored her Lord and Savior. Next, passing over the sands of Tyre on which Paul had once knelt, she came to Accho, or as it is now called Ptolemais, and crossing the Plains of Megiddo, where Josiah was slain, she entered the land of the Philistines. (2) She admired the ruins of Dor, once a most powerful city; and Strato’s Tower, which, though at one time insignificant, was rebuilt by Herod, king of Judaea, and named Caesarea in honour of Caesar Augustus. Here she saw the house of Cornelius now turned into a Christian church, the humble abode of Philip, and the chamber of the four virgin prophetesses. She arrived next at Antipatris, a small town, partly in ruin, named by Herod after his father Antipater; Lydda, now named Diospolis, a place made famous by the resurrection of Dorcas and the restoration to health of Aeneas; not far from there Arimathaea, the village of Joseph, who buried the Lord; Nob, once a city of priests but now the tomb in which their slain bodies rest; and Joppa, the port of Jonah’s flight, which also—if I may touch on something from the tales of poets—saw Andromeda bound to the rock. Again resuming her journey she came to Nicopolis, once called Emmaus, where the Lord, recognized in the breaking of bread, dedicated the house of Cleopas as a church.

[Adapted from Fremantle 1893]

Works Cited

[...] 108 8.1-2
[...] 198

[1 Samuel 22:17-19

2 Kings 23:29

Acts 21: 8-9

Acts 21:5

Acts 9:32-34

Acts 9:36-41

John 19:38

Jonah 1:3

Josephus, BJ 3.9.3

Luke 24:13

Luke 24:28-31]

[Antipatris

Arimathaea

Beirut (Berytus)

Dor (Dora)

Emmaus Nicopolis

Joppa (Ioppa, Ioppe, Jaffa)

Judaea

Lydda (Diospolis)

Megiddo, Plains of

Nob (Beit Nuba)

Philistines, Land of the

Phoenicia

Ptolemaïs (Accaron, Acco, Accho, Acre, Akko)

Sarepta

Sidon

Syria Coele

Tyre]

[Aeneas, early Christian at Lydda

Antipater the Idumaean

Augustus, emperor

Cleopas the Disciple

Cornelius, early Christian at Caesarea

Dorcas, early Christian at Joppa

Elijah the Prophet

Eustochium

Herod I, king

Jesus Christ

Jonah the Prophet

Joseph of Arimathea

Josiah, king

Paul the Apostle

Paula

Philip, early Christian at Caesarea]

[Christian Bible

Christianity

Death and Burial

Geography

Government and Law

Hebrew Bible

History of Israel

Judaism

Pilgrimage

Roman History

Travel

Urban Topography]