Tarichaea (Greek: Ταριχαία, Tarichaia) is the Greek place name for a historic site of disputed location. It was situated along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and mentioned in the writings of Josephus (Ant. 14.120; 20.159; The Jewish War 1.180; 2.252; Vita 32, et al.). Tarichaea was one of the first villages in Galilee to have sustained an attack by Rome, during the First Jewish-Roman War. The village (κώμη)[1] attracted to it the seditious from the outlying regions east of Galilee,[2] who mixed with the local townsfolk and who relied upon some 230[3] boats on the Sea of Galilee for protection in the event of an assault upon the village.[4] When the village was eventually overrun by the Roman army, the population surrendered.[5]
Etymology
editIn the first few centuries of the Common era, many places along the Egyptian coast had borne this name, Greek: Ταριχέαι, Tarichéai, this being a Greek loan-word derived from the people's employment in the preservation of fish, or what some called in Greek: ταρίχη, meaning, "pickled fish".[6] The name was applied to a site along the coast of the Sea of Galilee, where the townsmen are thought to have occupied themselves in the same trade. Albright thought the name to mean "Fish-curing plants", or in modern parlance, "Fish canneries."[7] Suetonius (Til. 4.3) mentions Tarichaea and Gamala as being "potent Judean cities" (Latin: urbes Iudaeae validissimae).[8]
History
editRoman invasion (52 BCE) to 54 CE
editIn ca. 52 BCE, Judea was invaded by the Roman governor of Syria, Gaius Cassius Longinus, who fell upon the town of Tarichæa and carried away thirty thousand Jews into slavery.[9]
Roughly one-hundred years later, in the first year of Emperor Nero's reign (54 CE), a stupendous gift was added to Agrippa II's realm, when Nero entrusted him with the government of a certain part of Galilee, Tiberias and Tarichæa.[10]
First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE)
editIn the 12th-year of Nero's reign (66 CE), when war broke out between Rome and the Jews of Judea, Josephus was appointed governor of the Galilee by the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, and took care to build the wall of Tarichæa, as well as the defensive walls of other towns in Galilee, in anticipation of a Roman assault against these cities.[11]
At that time, Josephus chose Tarichæa for his place of residence. When certain young men of the village Dabarittha had robbed the king's steward of six-hundred pieces of gold, no small number of silver vessels and of many costly garments, at a time when he passed through their region of the country, Josephus retrieved the money and items when they came to him at Tarichæa, secretly hoping to return such items to the king, and withal blamed them for the violence they had offered the king. However, thinking that Josephus was not of like mind with them and that he secretly entertained notions of betraying them to the king who was allied with the Romans, they raised a commotion in all the neighboring cities, saying that Josephus had designs of betraying the people to the Romans. At this accusation, some one-hundred thousand armed men came to him at Tarichæa, which multitude was crowded together in the town's hippodrome (a place that should rather be considered as a race course devoid of monumental construction), and they raised a clamor against Josephus.[12] Josephus' repartee and skill at oration was able to save himself from imminent danger, by suggesting that he had retrieved the money, not to return to the king, but to finish building the wall of Tarichæa. The indigenous people of Tarichæa, numbering then forty thousand, rose up to his defense and prevented his bloodshed.[13] When the people of Tiberias eventually revolted against Josephus, Josephus devised methods to detain many of the city's governors and principal persons (among whom was Justus of Tiberias), having them transported by boats to Tarichæa where they were incarcerated.[14]
With the exception of Jesus ben Shafat and his party who escaped from Tiberias and joined the seditious in Tarichæa, the people of Tiberias received the Roman army into their city and made peace with the Romans.[15]
Outcome of war
editJosephus, in his extensive accounts of the military history of Tarichaea, relates that Vespasian, the acting Roman general in ca. 64 CE, and his son, Titus, having received intelligence that "Tiberias was fond of innovations, and that Taricheae had revolted",[16] were resolved to punish them. From Josephus' account, it follows that the Roman army moved from Scythopolis in the south to Tiberias in a northerly direction. Vespasian and his son, Titus, encamped with three legions at a place called Sennabris (Σενναβρís),[17] south of Tiberias and "easily seen by the innovators,"[18] in preparation for the war with the insurgents. Sennabris was situated some 30 stadia (ca. 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi)) from Tiberias.[19][20] Vespasian's army first subdued Tiberias, before engaging the rebel forces in Tarichaea.
After entering Tiberias, Vespasian sent against Tarichaea four-hundred horsemen and two thousand archers, under Antonius and Silo, to repel those that were upon the wall. Josephus informs his readers that "after the battle, Vespasian held a court-martial in Tarichaea. Making a distinction between the residents and the newcomers whom he considered responsible for the war, he put the question to his staff whether these too should be spared. The verdict was that it would be against the public interest to set them free."[21] By way of a contrivance, Vespasian permitted the residents to take leave only by the road that led to Tiberias, and when they had gone a certain distance, without suspecting anything, the Roman soldiers conducted them into the Stadium that was built in Tiberias. Of these, the aged and useless, numbering some 1,200, were slain by the soldiers at Vespasian's orders. Of the young men, he picked out 6,000 of the strongest and sent them to Nero at the Isthmus, to help in digging the Corinth Canal. The rest of the people, to the number of 30,400, he sold at auction, excepting only those whom he presented to Agrippa and who had come from his own kingdom.[22]
Before the fall of the city, Josephus escaped and continued the prosecution of the war in Jotapata (Hebrew: יודפת), until he was captured there.[23]
Geographical location
editThe location of Tarichæa has been the subject of intensive debate; scholars not readily agreeing with each other on the site's location.
Location | |
---|---|
Region | Lower Galilee |
Coordinates | 32°49′30″N 35°30′56″E / 32.82500°N 35.51556°E |
Josephus' description
editJosephus frequently refers to a wealthy Galilean town, destroyed by the Romans in the Jewish War (66-73 CE)[24] that has the Greek name Tarichaia from its prosperous fisheries. Josephus does not give a Hebrew name.
Josephus places Tarichæa along the shores of Lake of Gennesaret, 30 stadia from Tiberias, and places Gamala "over against Tarichæa, but on the other side of the lake."[25] Josephus adds that while Gamala belonged to the Lower Gaulonitis, Tarichæa belonged to Lower Galilee.[26] Another geographical feature of Tarichæa, according to Josephus, was that it was situated at the bottom of a mountain, and where there was also a plain before the city.[27]
When Vespasian "was informed that Tiberias was fond of innovations, and that Taricheae had revolted,"[28] he and his son, Titus, came from Scythopolis and encamped with three legions at Sennabris (Σενναβρís - סנבראי), south of Tiberias,[29] at a place "easily seen by the innovators."[18]
Magdala
editW.F. Albright proposed that the Arab village of Al-Majdal (the ancient Magdala) was to be identified with Tarichæa.[30][31][32] This opinion is maintained by many scholars today,[33][34][35][36][37] who, in this way, identify Tarichaea with Magdala. Thus, Migdal Nunayya ("the Tower of the Fish") would be the Hebrew name of Tarichaea ("the industry of salting fish"). It was also known in biblical times for flax weaving and dyeing.[34] Although Josephus does not say if Tarichaea was north or south of Tiberias, he places the city some thirty stadia (furlongs) from Tiberias, or what are a little more than 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi),[38] which is approximately the distance from Tiberias to Magdala. Indeed, his description of the war against Tiberias and Tarichaea (cf. The Jewish War, book iii, chapter ix, § 7), putting Vespasian's camp at Sennabris, taking first Tiberias and then attacking Tarichaea, makes very plausible this position.[39] Josephus, however, points out that Vespasian had left the bulk of his army at the station Sennabris when he sent a small contingent of 50 horsemen to make trial of the situation at Tiberias, further north, hoping to bring them under submission before it came to a fight.[40][41] When the people of Tiberias welcomed the Roman army, and offered them their hands in peace, the army was then free to engage the rebels at Tarichaea. Given these difficulties, Albright himself recognised that "it may safely be said that the question of the exact site of Taricheae is the most complicated topographical problem in Palestine."[42]
In 1878, H.H. Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund suggested that the citadel of Tarichæa was to be identified with the ruin Khurbet Kuneitrîah, between Tiberias and Al-Majdal, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) northwest of Tiberias.[43] He retained that the "town itself was probably on the plain to the north, along the seashore, where there are traces of ruins and springs of water".[43]
The main problem for this identification is that Magdala is in the west of the lake of Gennesareth, north of Tiberias, while Pliny the Elder places Tarichaea in the south of lake: The lake "is skirted by the pleasant towns of Julias and Hippo on the east, of Tarichea on the south (a name which is by many persons given to the lake itself), and of Tiberias on the west, the hot springs of which are so conducive to the restoration of health" (Naturalis Historia V:27).[44]
Another difficulty has been pointed out by archaeologist Mordechai Aviam, who admits that during the archaeological excavations conducted at the site "no remains of fortifications or a destructionlayer were found",[45] against what Josephus says of Tarichaea. Nevertheless, the same Aviam maintains that could be due to the fact that the walls "had been built with no deep foundations and in a very simple way" and therefore they "were taken apart either at the commandof the Romans or when the towns and cities grew many years after the war",[46] and therefore he maintains the identification of Magdala and Tarichaea.[47]