What is lacking is any evidence that the sites are genuine. The story of the finding of the Cross is Qrst told by Ruliaus in A.D. 410, and by Theodoret about a.d. 440. The 4th cent, was an uncritical age, and many of the sites shown to pilgrims were impos.sible— such as that of Kephidim in Moab (St. Sylvia), of Job's Stone in Ba^ihan, and of the Trans tig u ration on Olivet —a blunder of the Bordeaux Pilgrim, who alM makes David to have met Goliath near JczreeL The situation of the sites which Constantine honoured awakened apparently some suspicions from an early age. Eusebius (Li/e oj i omtantine, iii. S3) speaks of the now Jerus. rising round the BasiUca opposite the old Jems, in ruins; and medisval writers all exi^>lain that the extension of the city, which in the 4th cent. a.d. surrounded the Venus temple, was due to Hadrian. A careful consideration of the topography and mihtary considerations tend, however, — as «riU be seen later, — to show that these sites were equally nithin the city at the time of the Crucifixion. The case for the traditional sites, which have remained unchanged for fifteen centuries. Is thus very weak. The buildings erected by Con- stantine have perished, but it Is generally agreed by WilUs, de Vogii^, and Prof. Haytcr Lewis, that they consisted of a hemispherical building, continued eastwards by a great basilica, with a court or atrium on its £., and an entrance (propyUxa) with pillars. This was, in fact, a building similar to that erected by Constantine at Bethlehem, where the original pillar« of the boHilica are still standing. The great leaden roof was gilded, the sacred cave was surroundwi with columns, the cloisters had galleries alK)ve ; the walls were adorned with sculpture (and posfiibly with mosaics), and, on the ^. a}'i>ar- ently, was the great tank — still traceable — in which (Cyril, Catech. Lfct.)the neophytes were baptized at Easter, by tot.ii Im- mersion, according to the usual rite. The details of the descrip- tion are not very- clear, but it is certain that the building waa large and ma^nillcent, and ihat it embraced not only the Holy Sepulchre in its open court surroundetl by the hemisphere, but also tiie rock of the supposed Mount Calvary to the S.E. nith the cave beneath. A site which bad once been a pagan temple was thus (a,a in other cases at Tyre, Ca>sarea, Ocrasa, etc) converted into a Christian shrine, but the strange festival of the Holy Eire (first noticed in the 0th cent.) seems to have perpetuated the pagan flre-feast4 uf earlier days — perhajie once celehmtcd at the bume S]X)t. In like manner the cave at Bcthlehrm hnd. acconling to Jen^tme, been sacred to Adonis before the grove woe cut down, and the church built by Con- stantine over its site.
In A.D. 336 a synod was held at Jems, aod the Church of the Anasto-sis was consecrated (Euseb. Life qf CotisL iv. 43-47). On the tem|>orar}* reversion of the ^tate to paganism, Julian Is said to have attempted to rebuild the Temple (Socrates, IJint. EccUs. iii. 2u), but was deterreil by what would seem to have boon an explosion of Ore damp, in a.d. 362. Alx>ut a.d. 460 the empress Ktnloxia, widow of Theo<losiu9 ii., retired to Jems., where eho die<l in a.d. 461. She built a Cliurx^h of St. Stephen, of whicii onlv a few fragments have been found N. of the citv, and restoretl the walls, oncloiiini: the Pool of SiUmm withia lluir circuit (Evftgriua, Hist, Ecclt$, \. tl\ During this |»erio4 tho Cfxincil of Chalcr<lon (a.d. 461) mode Jerus. a patrian-h.tte mdeiH-Ddent of Cssaan^ Short descriptiona <ol the dty (bf
590
JERUSALOr
JERUSALEM
Eucherius and Theodoeius) belong to the 6th and eth oents., and Ibe number of sacred sites shown to pilffrims steadily increased ; but the genuineness of thcw trtuiitionn is always doubtful.
Alwut A.D. 632 Justinian erected importftrit works in Jerus., Including the Church of the Virgin — usuully supposed to have stood on the site of the present Aksa Mosipie, the pillars of which have Byzantine capitals which may belong to this age- together with a hoapital to the W. of the Tcnijito enclosure, and a Church of St Sophia, which Antony of Piacenza (about A.D. 600) places at the Vraitorium, distinguishing it from St. Mary. It is also placed 'in' the I'rajtoriuni by Theoilosius for Thoodorus. a.i>. SiiO), and the I'mstorium was always shown by Christian tradition N. of the Temple at the site of Antonia, and near the Twin Pools in the fosse to the N. TTie remains of a small church in the modem barnu:ks are believed by de Vogue to represent St. Sopliia. The Temple Area it«elf, as described in the 4tb, 5tb, and 6th cents., was in ruins, and no building stood on the site of the Holy House. The S.K. comer of the enclosure stood up as a ruined 'pinnacle' to which pilgrims refer Even after the great Church of St. Mary was built, Antony of Piaceiiza speaks o7 the ' ruins of Solomon's Temple,* and these ruins are noticed by Kuchcrius (about a.v. 427-440) and by Arculf (i.D. 680). We have no account of any buildings in this area before the time of Justinian, but the description by Procopiua (de Edijiciis Jiuftiniani, bk. v. ch. U) shows that his work was extensive. Unfortunately, the account ts not very clear : cloisters (rroa^ are noticed, which may have run on the outer walls of the enclosure— except, as he says, on the E. The present Golden Gate, on the E. wall of the enolosure, is architecturally Byzantine work, and may have been built in the Clh cent, (as compared with buildings in N. Syria); it is unnotice<i by early writers, and apparently first mentioned by Saswulf early in the l'2th cent. The hospital attached to St. Mary is said (Antony of Piacenza) to bf^ve held from 3000 to 6000 beds. Procopius speaks of two hospices (^tfi»ti),—one for pilgrims and one for the sick, — but It v not clear where they stood.