139-576: Sepphoris ( / s ɪ ˈ f ɔːr ɪ s / sif- OR -iss ; Ancient Greek : Σεπφωρίς , romanized : Sépphōris ), known in Hebrew as Tzipori ( צִפּוֹרִי Ṣīppōrī ) and in Arabic as Saffuriya ( صفورية Ṣaffūriya ) is an archaeological site and former Palestinian village located in the central Galilee region of Israel , 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north-northwest of Nazareth . It lies 286 meters (938 ft) above sea level and overlooks
278-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
417-556: A successful expedition . After Agrippina's exile, Burrus and Seneca were responsible for the administration of the Empire. However, Nero's "conduct became far more egregious" after his mother's death. Miriam T. Griffins suggests that Nero's decline began as early as AD 55 with the murder of his stepbrother Britannicus, but also notes that "Nero lost all sense of right and wrong and listened to flattery with total credulity" after Agrippina's death. Griffin points out that Tacitus "makes explicit
556-436: A synagogue dated to the first half of the fifth century were discovered on the northern side of town. Since late antiquity, Sepphoris was believed to be the birthplace of Mary, mother of Jesus , and the village where Saints Anna and Joachim are often said to have resided, where today a fifth-century basilica is excavated at the site honouring the birth of Mary. The town was later conquered by Arab Rashidun forces during
695-450: A "literary device, utilized [by Tacitus] because [he] could see no plausible explanation for Nero's conduct and also incidentally [served] to show that Nero, like Claudius, had fallen under the malign influence of a woman." Modern scholars believe that Nero's reign had been going well in the years before Agrippina's death. For example, Nero promoted the exploration of the Nile river sources with
834-601: A brief period of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors . Most Roman sources offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign. Most contemporary sources describe him as tyrannical, self-indulgent, and debauched. The historian Tacitus claims the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed the Great Fire of Rome
973-457: A center of spiritual and religious studies, it developed into a busy metropolis for commerce due to its proximity to important trade routes through Galilee. Hellenistic and Jewish influences seemed blended together in daily town life while each group, Jewish, pagan and Christian, maintained its distinct identity. In the aftermath of the Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus of 351–352, Diocaesarea,
1112-531: A cultural divide between those that sought to avoid any contact with the surrounding Roman culture and those who within limits, were prepared to adopt aspects of that culture. Rejected by Sepphoris and forced to camp outside the city, Josephus went on to Jotapata , which did seem interested in the rebellion, – the Siege of Yodfat ended on 20 July 67 CE. Towns and villages that did not rebel were spared and in Galilee they were
1251-566: A group of villages within the sanjak of Safad, which was part of the Qaysi faction, and that had rebelled against the Ottoman authorities. In 1596, the population was recorded as consisting of 366 families and 34 bachelors, all Muslim. Saffuriyya was larger than neighboring Nazareth but smaller than Kafr Kanna . The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to
1390-582: A history of anti- Yishuv activities and supported the Arab Liberation Army during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . On 1 July 1948, the village was bombarded by Israeli aircraft. On 16 July it was captured by Israeli forces along with the rest of the Lower Galilee in Operation Dekel . The villagers put up some resistance and managed to destroy several armoured cars in an ambush. Following the collapse of
1529-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
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#17328440593221668-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
1807-494: A native of Saffuriyya expelled from the town, and their relationship to the landscape of Saffuriya before 1948, are the subject of Adina Hoffman 's My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness (Yale University Press, 2009). The area remained under martial law until the general lifting of martial law in Israel in 1966. Most of the remains of Saffuriya were removed in a late-1960s program to clear depopulated Arab villages. The site of
1946-556: A new Leader was in the making." However, David Shotter noted that, despite events in Rome, Nero's step-brother Britannicus was more prominent in provincial coinages during the early 50s. Nero formally entered public life as an adult in AD 51 while 13 years old. When he turned 16, Nero married Claudius' daughter (his step-sister), Claudia Octavia . Between the years AD 51 and AD 53, he gave several speeches on behalf of various communities, including
2085-465: A population of 1,030. The area where the remains of the ancient city have been excavated, occupied until 1948 by the Arab village, was designated an archaeological reserve named Tzipori National Park in 1992. Notable structures at the site include a Roman theatre , two early Christian churches, a Crusader fort partly rebuilt by Zahir al-Umar in the 18th century, and over sixty different mosaics dating from
2224-502: A pragmatism which suited the Roman ideology. Celdrán notes that the name Sepphoris was reinstated before the end of Antoninus Pius's rule. Peter Schäfer (1990), also citing G. F. Hill 's conclusions based on his numismatic work done a century earlier, considers that the city's name was changed to Diocaesarea in 129/30, just prior to the Bar Kokhba revolt , in Hadrian 's time. This gesture
2363-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
2502-438: A press for olive oil or grape syrup and "occasional revenues"; a total of 31,244 akçe . 3/24 of the revenuer went to a Waqf . A number of important scholars came from the village during this period, including the historian, poet and jurist al-Hasan al-Burini (d. 1615), the qadi (head judge), al-Baq'a al-Saffuri (d. 1625) and the poet and qadi Ahmad al-Sharif (d. 1633). It is reported that in 1745 Zahir al-Umar, who grew up in
2641-442: A public enemy. Nero prepared himself for suicide , pacing up and down muttering Qualis artifex pereo ("What an artist the world is losing!"). Losing his nerve, he begged one of his companions to set an example by killing himself first. At last, the sound of approaching horsemen drove Nero to face the end. However, he still could not bring himself to take his own life, but instead forced his private secretary, Epaphroditus, to perform
2780-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
2919-512: A son of Jerusalem's priestly elite had been sent north to recruit the Galilee into the rebellion's fold, but was only partially successful. He made two attempts to capture Sepphoris, but failed to conquer it, the first time because of fierce resistance, the second because a garrison came to assist in the city's defence. Around the time of the rebellion Sepphoris had a Roman theater, and in later periods, bath-houses and mosaic floors depicting human figures. Sepphoris and Jerusalem may be seen to symbolize
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#17328440593223058-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
3197-458: A substantial body of Roman legion infantry were eliminated. The governor of the province, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus , assembled his remaining forces and defeated the Britons . Although order was restored for some time, Nero considered abandoning the province. Julius Classicianus replaced the former procurator, Catus Decianus, and Classicianus advised Nero to replace Paulinus who continued to punish
3336-503: A theatre. At Subiaco, Lazio , near Rome he had 3 artificial lakes built, with waterfalls, bridges and walkways for the luxurious villa. He stayed at the Villa of Nero at Olympia, Greece , during his participation at the Olympic Games of AD 67. According to Suetonius , Nero had his former freedman Anicetus arrange a shipwreck, which Agrippina managed to survive. She then swam ashore and
3475-540: A tribune and a centurion of the Praetorian Guard. According to Tacitus, many conspirators wished to "rescue the state" from the emperor and restore the Republic . The freedman Milichus discovered the conspiracy and reported it to Nero's secretary, Epaphroditus . As a result, the conspiracy failed and its members were executed, including Lucan , the poet. Nero's previous advisor Seneca was accused by Natalis; he denied
3614-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
3753-681: A wisdom and moderation quite alien to his character", and that he "held our liberties in his hand and respected them". Modern scholarship generally holds that, while the Senate and more well-off individuals welcomed Nero's death, the general populace was "loyal to the end and beyond, for Otho and Vitellius both thought it worthwhile to appeal to their nostalgia ". Nero's name was erased from some monuments, in what Edward Champlin regards as an "outburst of private zeal". Many portraits of Nero were reworked to represent other figures; according to Eric R. Varner, over 50 such images survive. This reworking of images
3892-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
4031-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
4170-538: Is believed to have been settled by one of the twenty-four priestly courses , Jedayah by name, a course mentioned in relation to the town itself in both the Jerusalem Talmud ( Taanit 4:5) and in the Caesarea Inscription . Others, however, cast doubt about Sepphoris ever being under a "priestly oligarchy" by the third century, and that it may simply reflect a misreading of Talmudic sources. Aside from being
4309-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
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4448-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
4587-500: Is generally believed that these may well have been used as Mikva'ot , Jewish ritual baths. The Roman theatre sits on the northern slope of the hill, and is about 45 m in diameter, seating 4500. Most of it is carved into the hillside, but some parts are supported by separate stone pillars. The theatre shows evidence of ancient damage, possibly from the earthquake in 363. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes
4726-518: Is likewise impossible to historically verify. Jesus does not seem to have visited Sepphoris during his public ministry and none of the sayings recorded in the Synoptic Gospels mention it. The inhabitants of Sepphoris did not join the Jewish revolt against Roman rule of 66 CE. The Roman legate in Syria, Cestius Gallus , killed some 2,000 "brigands and rebels" in the area. The Jerusalemite Josephus ,
4865-513: Is often explained as part of the way in which the memory of disgraced emperors was condemned posthumously, a practice known as damnatio memoriae . Champlin doubts that the practice is necessarily negative and notes that some continued to create images of Nero long after his death. Damaged portraits of Nero, often with hammer blows directed to the face, have been found in many provinces of the Roman Empire, three recently having been identified from
5004-505: Is unclear whether Nero took his own life. With his death, the Julio-Claudian dynasty ended. Chaos would ensue in the year of the Four Emperors . According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, the people of Rome celebrated the death of Nero. Tacitus, though, describes a more complicated political environment. Tacitus mentions that Nero's death was welcomed by senators, nobility, and the upper class. The lower class, slaves, frequenters of
5143-559: The Book of Judges ( 1:30 Archived 10 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine ). According to Mishna 'Arakhin 9:6 , the old fortress of Zippori was encompassed by a wall during the era of Joshua . Evidence from ceramic remains indicates the site of Sepphoris was inhabited during the Iron Age, 1,000–586 BCE . Actual occupation and building work can be verified from the 4th century BCE, with
5282-607: The 1945 statistics , the population was 4,330; 4,320 Muslims and 10 Christians, and the total land area was 55,378 dunams . By 1948, Saffuriya was the largest village in the Galilee both by land size and population. The land in the area was considered highly fertile. In 1944/45 a total of 21,841 dunams of village land was used for cereals, 5,310 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards, mostly olive trees, while 102 dunams were classified as built-up land. Multiple olive oil factories were located nearby, and children attended one of two schools, divided by gender. The Arab village had
5421-541: The Bar Kokhba revolt , in Hadrian 's time. This gesture was done in honour of the visiting Roman emperor and his identification with Zeus Olympias, reflected in Hadrian's efforts in building temples dedicated to the supreme Olympian god. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–135, many Jewish refugees from devastated Judea settled there, turning it into a center of Jewish religious and spiritual life. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi ,
5560-538: The Beit Netofa Valley . The site holds a rich and diverse historical and architectural legacy that includes remains from the Hellenistic , Roman , Byzantine , early Islamic , Crusader , Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Sepphoris was a significant town in ancient Galilee. Originally named for the Hebrew word for bird, the city was also known as Eirenopolis and Diocaesarea during different periods of its history. In
5699-745: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
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5838-517: The Hellenistic period . In 104 BCE, the Judean priestly dynasty of the Hasmoneans conquered Galilee under the leadership of either Alexander Jannaeus or Aristobulus I and at this time the town may have been administered by a quarter-master, probably Jewish, and by the middle of the 1st century BCE, after the campaigns of Pompey , it fell under Roman rule in 63 BCE. Around 57 BCE, the city became one of
5977-556: The Muslim conquest of the region , a new village rose on the ruins of ancient Zippori/Sepphoris, known by the name Saffuriya. Saffuriya's main development occurred during the Mamluk period (13th–16th centuries). Various Islamic dynasties controlled the site, with an interlude during the Crusades, from the 630s and up until World War I. The ninth-century Islamic scholar Ya'qubi noted that Saffuriyyah
6116-468: The Tiber . Returning, Nero sought a place where he could hide and collect his thoughts. An imperial freedman, Phaon , offered his villa, 4 mi (6.4 km) outside the city. Travelling in disguise, Nero and four loyal freedmen , Epaphroditus , Phaon , Neophytus , and Sporus , reached the villa, where Nero ordered them to dig a grave for him. At this time, Nero learned that the Senate had declared him
6255-531: The United Kingdom . The civil war during the year of the Four Emperors was described by ancient historians as a troubling period. According to Tacitus, this instability was rooted in the fact that emperors could no longer rely on the perceived legitimacy of the imperial bloodline, as Nero and those before him could. Galba began his short reign with the execution of many of Nero's allies. One such notable enemy included Nymphidius Sabinus , who claimed to be
6394-505: The lyre while Rome burned "is at least partly a literary construct of Flavian propaganda ... which looked askance on the abortive Neronian attempt to rewrite Augustan models of rule". Tacitus suspends judgment on Nero's responsibility for the fire; he found that Nero was in Antium when the fire started, and returned to Rome to organize a relief effort, providing for the removal of bodies and debris, which he paid for from his own funds. After
6533-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
6672-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
6811-524: The 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant and remained under successive Muslim rule until the Crusades . Before the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , Saffuriya was a Palestinian Arab village with a population of approximately 5,000 people at the time of its depopulation . Moshav Tzippori was established adjacent to the site in 1949. It falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council , and in 2022 had
6950-553: The Arab village was planted with pine trees. By 2011, five books about the Palestinian village history had been published. On 20 February 1949, the Israeli moshav of Tzippori was founded southeast of the older village. The pomegranate and olive trees were replaced with crops for cattle fodder. Saffuriya is among the Palestinian villages for which commemorative Marches of Return have taken place, typically as part of Nakba Day , such as
7089-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
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#17328440593227228-571: The Christians were all Roman Catholics. By the 1931 census the population had increased to 3,147; 3,136 Muslims and 11 Christians, in a total of 747 houses. In summer of 1931, archaeologist Leroy Waterman began the first excavations at Saffuriya, digging up part of the school playground, formerly the site of the Crusader fort. A local council was established in 1923. The expenditure of the council grew from 74 Palestine pound in 1929 to 1,217 in 1944. In
7367-591: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( / ˈ n ɪər oʊ / NEER -oh ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus ; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68)
7506-448: The Empire, a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return . After his death, at least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as " Nero reborn " to gain popular support. Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37 in Antium (modern Anzio ), eight months after the death of Tiberius . He was an only-child, the son of the politician Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina
7645-421: The Galilee, and, sacking its treasury and weapons, armed his followers in a revolt against Herodian rule. The Roman governor in Syria, Varus is reported by Josephus – perhaps in an exaggeration, since archaeology has failed to verify traces of the conflagration – to have burnt the city down, and sold its inhabitants into slavery. After Herod's son, Herod Antipas was made tetrarch , or governor, he proclaimed
7784-591: The Great recaptured Sepphoris in 37 BCE after it had been garrisoned by the Parthian proxy, the Hasmonean Antigonus II Mattathias . Herod seemingly built a royal palace-fortress that doubled as an arsenal, likely positioned within the acropolis enclosed by the city's wall. After Herod's death in 4 BCE, a rebel named Judas, son of a local bandit, Ezekias, attacked Sepphoris, then the administrative center of
7923-544: The Iceni to his daughters, was denied. When the Roman procurator Catus Decianus scourged Prasutagus' wife Boudica and raped her daughters, the Iceni revolted. They were joined by the Celtic Trinovantes tribe and their uprising became the most significant provincial rebellion of the 1st century AD. Under Queen Boudica, the towns of Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St. Albans) were burned, and
8062-504: The Ilians; the Apameans (requesting a five-year tax reprieve after an earthquake); and the northern colony of Bologna , after their settlement had suffered a devastating fire. Claudius died in AD 54; many ancient historians claim that he was poisoned by Agrippina. Shotter has written that "Claudius' death...has usually been regarded as an event hastened by Agrippina, due to signs that Claudius
8201-517: The Younger . His mother Agrippina was the sister of the third Roman emperor Caligula . Nero was also the great-great-grandson of former emperor Augustus (descended from Augustus' only daughter, Julia ). The ancient biographer Suetonius , who was critical of Nero's ancestors, wrote that emperor Augustus had reproached Nero's grandfather for his unseemly enjoyment of violent gladiator games. According to Jürgen Malitz, Suetonius tells that Nero's father
8340-403: The Younger, the aunt that Nero had lived with during Agrippina's exile; Marcus Junius Silanus , a great-grandson of Augustus; and Narcissus . One of the earliest coins that Nero issued during his reign shows Agrippina on the coin's obverse side; usually, this would be reserved for a portrait of the emperor. The Senate also allowed Agrippina two lictors during public appearances, an honor that
8479-558: The administrative successes of these years. Malitz writes that in later years, Nero panicked when he had to make decisions on his own during times of crisis. Nevertheless, his early administration ruled to great acclaim. A generation later those years were seen in retrospect as an exemplar of good and moderate government and described as Quinquennium Neronis by Trajan . Especially well received were fiscal reforms which among others put tax collectors under more strict control by establishing local offices to supervise their activities. After
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#17328440593228618-481: The affair of Lucius Pedanius Secundus , who was murdered by a desperate slave, Nero allowed slaves to file complaints about their treatment to the authorities. Outside of Rome, Nero had several villas or palaces built, the ruins of which can still be seen today. These included the Villa of Nero at Antium, his place of birth, where he razed the villa on the site to rebuild it on a more massive and imperial scale and including
8757-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
8896-416: The arena and the theater, and "those who were supported by the famous excesses of Nero", on the other hand, were upset with the news. Members of the military were said to have mixed feelings, as they had allegiance to Nero but had been bribed to overthrow him. Eastern sources, namely Philostratus and Apollonius of Tyana , mention that Nero's death was mourned as he "restored the liberties of Hellas with
9035-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
9174-602: The bishop experienced unrest among the local Muslim farmers. Saffuriyyah was captured between 1263 and 1266 by the Mamluk sultan Baybars . Saffuriya (Arabic: صفورية , also transliterated Safurriya and Suffurriye ), came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire after it defeated the Mamluks at the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516. An Ottoman firman of 1572 describes Saffuriyya as one of
9313-552: The burning of Troy. Suetonius wrote that Nero started the fire to clear the site for his planned palatial Golden House . This would include lush artificial landscapes and a 30-meter-tall statue of himself, the Colossus of Nero , sited more or less where the Colosseum would eventually be built. Suetonius and Cassius Dio claim that Nero sang the " Sack of Ilium " in stage costume while the city burned. The popular legend that Nero played
9452-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
9591-468: The charges but was still ordered to commit suicide, as by this point he had fallen out of favor with Nero. Nero was said to have kicked Poppaea to death in AD 65, before she could give birth to his second child. Modern historians, noting the probable biases of Suetonius, Tacitus, and Cassius Dio, and the likely absence of eyewitnesses to such an event, propose that Poppaea may have died after miscarriage or in childbirth. Nero went into deep mourning; Poppaea
9730-455: The cithara or lyre, and whose face was similar to that of the dead emperor, appeared in 69 AD during the reign of Vitellius. After persuading some to recognize him, he was captured and executed. Sometime during the reign of Titus (79–81), another impostor appeared in Asia and sang to the accompaniment of the lyre and looked like Nero, but he, too, was killed. Twenty years after Nero's death, during
9869-599: The city after the imperial title to honor the Augustus . Sepphoris issued its first coins at the time of the First Jewish War , in c. 68 CE, while Vespasian's army was reconquering the region from the rebels. The inscriptions on the coins are honouring both the emperor in Rome, Nero (r. 54–68), and his general, Vespasian, as they read 'ΕΠΙ ΟΥΕCΠΑΙΑΝΟΥ ΕΙΡΗΝΟΠΟΛΙC ΝΕΡΩΝΙΑ CΕΠΦΩ' meaning 'Under Vespasian, ' Eirenopolis-Neronias-Sepphoris' . The name 'Neronias' honours Nero, while
10008-540: The city's new name to be Autocratoris , and rebuilt it as the "Ornament of the Galilee " (Josephus, Ant. 18.27). Antipas expanded upon Herod's palace/arsenal, and built a city wall. An ancient route linking Sepphoris to Legio , and further south to Sebastia ( ancient Samaria ), is believed to have been paved by the Romans around this time. The new population was loyal to Rome. Maurice Casey writes that, although Sepphoris during
10147-548: The compiler of the Mishnah , a commentary on the Torah , moved to Sepphoris, along with the Sanhedrin , the highest Jewish religious court. Before moving to Tiberias by 220, some Jewish academies of learning, yeshivot , were also based there. Galilee was predominantly populated by Jews from the end of the 2nd century to the 4th century CE. As late as the third-fourth centuries, Sepphoris
10286-461: The corruption of court favorites and freedmen, and above all to respect the privileges of the Senate and individual Senators." His respect for Senatorial autonomy, which distinguished him from Caligula and Claudius, was generally well received by the Roman Senate . Scullard writes that Nero's mother, Agrippina, "meant to rule through her son". Agrippina murdered her political rivals: Domitia Lepida
10425-482: The deaths of both his wife Claudia Octavia – supposedly so he could marry Poppaea Sabina – and his stepbrother Britannicus . Nero's practical contributions to Rome's governance focused on diplomacy , trade , and culture . He ordered the construction of amphitheaters , and promoted athletic games and contests . He made public appearances as an actor, poet, musician, and charioteer , which scandalized his aristocratic contemporaries as these occupations were usually
10564-670: The demonstrations organized by the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced (ADRID). Much of the town has been excavated, revealing Jewish homes along a main cobblestone street. Several images have been found carved into the stones of the street, including that of a menorah , and another image that resembles some ancient game reminiscent of tic-tac-toe . Stepped pools have been uncovered throughout Sepphoris, and it
10703-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
10842-506: The domain of slaves, public entertainers, and infamous persons . However, the provision of such entertainments made Nero popular among lower-class citizens. The costs involved were borne by local elites either directly or through taxation, and were much resented by the Roman aristocracy . During Nero's reign, the general Corbulo fought the Roman–Parthian War of 58–63 , and made peace with
10981-470: The early first century was "a very Jewish city", some of the people there did speak Greek . A lead weight dated to the first century bears an inscription in Greek with three Jewish names. Several scholars have suggested that Jesus, while working as a craftsman in Nazareth , may have travelled to Sepphoris for work purposes, possibly with his father and brothers . Casey states that this is entirely possible, but
11120-449: The epicenter of the revolt, was razed. Philostorgius , speaking of these times, wrote: "The Jews of Diocæsarea (Sepphoris) also took up arms and invaded Palestine and the neighboring territories, with the design of shaking off the Roman yoke. On hearing of their insurrection, Gallus Caesar, who was then in Antioch , sent troops against them, defeated them, and destroyed Diocæsarea." Diocaesarea
11259-449: The evening in the palace. After sleeping, he awoke at about midnight to find the palace guard had left. Dispatching messages to his friends' palace chambers for them to come, he received no answers. Upon going to their chambers personally, he found them all abandoned. When he called for a gladiator or anyone else adept with a sword to kill him, no one appeared. He cried, "Have I neither friend nor foe?" and ran out as if to throw himself into
11398-723: The event that the Emperor survived. Suetonius differs in some details, but also implicates Halotus and Agrippina. Like Tacitus, Cassius Dio writes that the poison was prepared by Locusta, but in Dio's account it is administered by Agrippina instead of Halotus. In Apocolocyntosis , Seneca the Younger does not mention mushrooms at all. Agrippina's involvement in Claudius' death is not accepted by all modern scholars. Before Claudius' death, Agrippina had maneuvered to remove Claudius' sons' tutors in order to replace them with tutors that she had selected. She
11537-505: The fire an accident, as the merchant shops were timber-framed and sold flammable goods, and the outer seating stands of the Circus were timber-built. Others claimed it was arson committed on Nero's behalf. The accounts by Pliny the Elder , Suetonius, and Cassius Dio suggest several possible reasons for Nero's alleged arson, including his creation of a real-life backdrop to a theatrical performance about
11676-496: The fire, Nero opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors. Tacitus writes that to remove suspicion from himself, Nero accused Christians of starting the fire. According to this account, many Christians were arrested and brutally executed by "being thrown to the beasts, crucified, and being burned alive". Tacitus asserts that in his imposition of such ferocious punishments, Nero
11815-469: The first century CE, it was a Jewish city, and following the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–135, Sepphoris was one of the Galilean centers where rabbinical families from neighboring Judea relocated. In late antiquity , Sepphoris appears to have been a predominantly Jewish, serving as a spiritual and cultural center, though it also housed a Christian bishopric and maintained a multi-ethnic population. Remains of
11954-608: The first treason trial of his reign ( maiestas trial) against Antistius Sosianus. He also executed his rivals Cornelius Sulla and Rubellius Plautus . Jürgen Malitz considers this to be a turning point in Nero's relationship with the Roman Senate . Malitz writes that "Nero abandoned the restraint he had previously shown because he believed a course supporting the Senate promised to be less and less profitable." After Burrus' death, Nero appointed two new Praetorian prefects: Faenius Rufus and Ofonius Tigellinus . Politically isolated, Seneca
12093-567: The five synods of Roman influence in the Near East. It appears that Sepphoris remained predominantly Jewish through late antiquity . In the centuries between the rule of Herod Antipas (4 BCE - c. 39 CE) and the end of the Byzantine era in the 630s, the city reportedly thrived as a center of learning, with a diverse, multiethnic and multireligious population of some 30,000 living in relatively peaceful coexistence. The Roman client king , Herod
12232-663: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
12371-461: The governor of Hispania Tarraconensis , to join the rebellion and to declare himself emperor in opposition to Nero. At the Battle of Vesontio in May 68, Verginius' forces easily defeated those of Vindex, and the latter committed suicide. However, after defeating the rebel, Verginius' legions attempted to proclaim their own commander as Emperor. Verginius refused to act against Nero, but the discontent of
12510-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
12649-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
12788-589: The hostile Parthian Empire . The Roman general Suetonius Paulinus quashed a major revolt in Britain led by queen Boudica . The Bosporan Kingdom was briefly annexed to the empire, and the First Jewish–Roman War began. When the Roman senator Vindex rebelled, with support from the eventual Roman emperor Galba , Nero was declared a public enemy and condemned to death in absentia . He fled Rome, and on 9 June AD 68 committed suicide. His death sparked
12927-423: The inscription " ΔΙΟΚΑΙCΑΡΙΑ ΙΕΡΑ ΑCYΛΟC ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΝΟΜΟC " ("of Diocaesarea, Holy City of Shelter, Autonomous"). Celdrán notes that the name Sepphoris was reinstated before the end of Antoninus Pius's rule. This name was not used by Jewish writers, who continued to refer to it as Zippori. The Hebrew Bible makes no mention of the city, although in Jewish tradition it is thought to be the city Kitron mentioned in
13066-401: The intention of going to the port of Ostia and, from there, to take a fleet to one of the still-loyal eastern provinces. According to Suetonius, Nero abandoned the idea when some army officers openly refused to obey his commands, responding with a line from Virgil 's Aeneid : "Is it so dreadful a thing then to die?" Nero then toyed with the idea of fleeing to Parthia , throwing himself upon
13205-535: The kingdom, and the town was called in Old French: le Saforie or Sephoris . In 1187, the field army of the Latin kingdom marched from their well-watered camp at Sephoris to be cut off and destroyed at the Battle of Hattin by the Ayyubid sultan, Saladin . In 1255, the village and its fortifications were back in Crusader hands, as a document from that year shows it belonged to the archbishop of Nazareth , but by 1259,
13344-534: The legions of Germania and the continued opposition of Galba in Hispania did not bode well for him. While Nero had retained some control of the situation, support for Galba increased despite his being officially declared a "public enemy". The prefect of the Praetorian Guard , Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus , also abandoned his allegiance to the Emperor and came out in support of Galba. In response, Nero fled Rome with
13483-420: The majority. Coins minted in the city at the time of the revolt carried the inscription Neronias and Eirenopolis , "City of Peace". After the revolt, coins bore depictions of laurel wreaths, palm trees, caduceuses and ears of barley, which appear on Jewish coinage albeit not exclusively. George Francis Hill and Peter Schäfer consider that the city's name was changed to Diocaesarea in 129/30, just prior to
13622-474: The mercy of Galba, or appealing to the people and begging them to pardon him for his past offences "and if he could not soften their hearts, to entreat them at least to allow him the prefecture of Egypt ". Suetonius reports that the text of this speech was later found in Nero's writing desk, but that he dared not give it from fear of being torn to pieces before he could reach the Forum. Nero returned to Rome and spent
13761-446: The name 'Eirenopolis' declares Sepphoris to be a 'city of peace' ( Koinē Greek : Εἰρήνη , romanized: Eirēnē means tranquillity and peace, and polis is a city). Pancracio Celdrán interprets this name choice as the result of the city's cultural synthesis between three elements – Jewish faith, moderated by the exposure to Greek philosophy and made more tolerant than other, more fanatic contemporary orthodox Jewish places, and
13900-402: The new emperor. Nero's mother married Claudius in AD 49, becoming his fourth wife. On 25 February AD 50, Claudius was pressured to adopt Nero as his son, giving him the new name of "Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus". Claudius had gold coins issued to mark the adoption. Classics professor Josiah Osgood has written that "the coins, through their distribution and imagery alike, showed that
14039-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
14178-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
14317-528: The period was riddled with deflation and that Nero intended his spending on public-work and charities to ease economic troubles. Nero became emperor in AD 54, aged 16. His tutor, Seneca , prepared Nero's first speech before the Senate. During this speech, Nero spoke about "eliminating the ills of the previous regime". H. H. Scullard writes that "he promised to follow the Augustan model in his principate, to end all secret trials intra cubiculum , to have done with
14456-451: The population even after the rebellion was over. Nero decided to adopt a more lenient approach by appointing a new governor, Petronius Turpilianus . Nero began preparing for war in the early years of his reign, after the Parthian king Vologeses set his brother Tiridates on the Armenian throne. Around AD 57 and AD 58 Domitius Corbulo and his legions advanced on Tiridates and captured
14595-440: The reconstruction, Nero's government increased taxation. Particularly heavy tributes were imposed on the provinces of the empire. To meet at least a portion of the costs, Nero devalued the Roman currency , increasing inflationary pressure for the first time in the Empire's history. In AD 65, Gaius Calpurnius Piso , a Roman statesman, organized a conspiracy against Nero with the help of Subrius Flavus and Sulpicius Asper ,
14734-548: The reign of Domitian , there was a third pretender. He was supported by the Parthians, who only reluctantly gave him up, and the matter almost came to war. In Britannia (Britain) in AD 59, Prasutagus , leader of the Iceni tribe and a client king of Rome during Claudius' reign, had died. The client state arrangement was unlikely to survive following the death of Claudius. The will of the Iceni tribal King Prasutagus, leaving control of
14873-462: The remaining 550 were resettled in neighboring Arab villages such as 'Illut . Many settled in Nazareth in a quarter now known as the al-Safafira quarter because of the large number of Saffuriyya natives living there. As the Israeli government considers them present absentee , they cannot go back to their old homes and have no legal recourse to recover them. The works of the poet Taha Muhammad Ali ,
15012-460: The resistance, all but 80 of the villagers fled. Some made their way northwards toward Lebanon , finally settling there in the refugee camps of Ain al-Hilweh and Shatila and the adjacent Sabra neighborhood . Others fled south to Nazareth and the surrounding countryside. After the attack, the villagers returned but were evicted again in September 1948. On 7 January 1949, 14 residents were deported and
15151-567: The significance of Agrippina's removal for Nero's conduct". He began to build a new palace, the Domus Transitoria , from about AD 60. It was intended to connect all of the imperial estates that had been acquired in various ways, with the Palatine including the Gardens of Maecenas , Horti Lamiani , Horti Lolliani , etc. In AD 62, Nero's adviser Burrus died. That same year, Nero called for
15290-494: The slope of a hill. The village contained the remains of the Church of St. Anna and a square tower, said to have been built in the mid-18th century. The village had an estimated 2,500 residents, who cultivated 150 faddans (1 faddan = 100–250 dunams), on some of this land they had planted olive trees. A population list from about 1887 showed that Sepphoris had about 2,940 inhabitants; all Muslims. In 1900, an elementary school for boys
15429-765: The slope of the Aventine overlooking the Circus Maximus , or in the wooden outer seating of the Circus itself. Rome had always been vulnerable to fires, and this one was fanned to catastrophic proportions by the winds. Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and modern archaeology describe the destruction of mansions, ordinary residences, public buildings, and temples on the Aventine, Palatine, and Caelian hills. The fire burned for over seven days before subsiding; it then started again and burned for three more. It destroyed three of Rome's 14 districts and severely damaged seven more. Some Romans thought
15568-471: The son of Emperor Caligula . Otho overthrew Galba. Otho was said to be liked by many soldiers because he had been a friend of Nero and resembled him somewhat in temperament. It was said that the common Roman hailed Otho as Nero himself. Otho used "Nero" as a surname and reerected many statues to Nero. Vitellius overthrew Otho. Vitellius began his reign with a large funeral for Nero complete with songs written by Nero. After Nero's death in AD 68, there
15707-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
15846-638: The task. When one of the horsemen entered and saw that Nero was dying, he attempted to stop the bleeding, but efforts to save Nero's life were unsuccessful. Nero's final words were "Too late! This is fidelity!". He died on 9 June 68, the anniversary of the death of his first wife, Claudia Octavia , and was buried in the Mausoleum of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, in what is now the Villa Borghese ( Pincian Hill ) area of Rome. According to Sulpicius Severus , it
15985-419: The third to the sixth century CE. In Ancient Greek, the city was called Sepphoris from its Hebrew name Tzipori , understood to be a variant of the Hebrew word for bird, tzipor – perhaps, as a Talmudic gloss suggests, because it is "perched on the top of a mountain, like a bird". Herod Antipas named it Autocratoris (Αὐτοκρατορίδα). Autocrator in Greek means Imperator and it seems that Antipas named
16124-454: The throne with the backing of the Praetorian Guard and the Senate. In the early years of his reign, Nero was advised and guided by his mother Agrippina, his tutor Seneca the Younger , and his praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus , but sought to rule independently and rid himself of restraining influences. The power struggle between Nero and his mother reached its climax when he orchestrated her murder. Roman sources also implicate Nero in
16263-497: The town, built a fort on the hill overlooking Saffuriya. A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Safoureh. In the early 19th century, the British traveller J. Buckingham noted that all the inhabitants of Saffuriya were Muslim, and that the house of St. Anna had been completely demolished. In the late 19th century, Saffuriyya was described as village built of stone and mud, situated along
16402-465: The usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil. It is believed that he did this out of regret for his killing of Poppaea. In March 68, Gaius Julius Vindex , the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis , rebelled against Nero's tax policies. Lucius Verginius Rufus , the governor of Germania Superior , was ordered to put down Vindex's rebellion. In an attempt to gain support from outside his own province, Vindex called upon Servius Sulpicius Galba ,
16541-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
16680-533: Was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty , reigning from AD 54 until his death in AD 68. Nero was born at Antium in AD ;37, the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger (great-granddaughter of the emperor Augustus ). Nero was three when his father died. By the time Nero turned eleven, his mother married Emperor Claudius , who then adopted Nero as his heir. Upon Claudius' death in AD 54, Nero ascended to
16819-478: Was a widespread belief, especially in the eastern provinces, that he was not dead and somehow would return. This belief came to be known as the Nero Redivivus Legend . The legend of Nero's return lasted for hundreds of years after Nero's death. Augustine of Hippo wrote of the legend as a popular belief in AD 422. At least three Nero impostors emerged leading rebellions. The first, who sang and played
16958-621: Was also able to convince Claudius to replace two prefects of the Praetorian Guard (who were suspected of supporting Claudius' son) with Afranius Burrus (Nero's future guide). Since Agrippina had replaced the guard officers with men loyal to her, Nero was subsequently able to assume power without incident. The main ancient Roman literary sources for Nero's reign are Tacitus , Suetonius and Cassius Dio . They found Nero's construction projects overly extravagant and claim that their cost left Italy "thoroughly exhausted by contributions of money" with "the provinces ruined". Modern historians note that
17097-568: Was also the center of a Christian bishopric. Three of its early bishops are known by name: Dorotheus (mentioned in 451), Marcellinus (mentioned in 518), and Cyriacus (mentioned in 536). As a diocese that is no longer residential, it is listed in the Annuario Pontificio among titular sees . The fourth century saw Jewish Zippori losing its centrality as the main Jewish city of the Galilee in favour of Tiberias, and its population dwindled away. With
17236-605: Was customarily bestowed upon only magistrates and the Vestalis Maxima . In AD 55, Nero removed Agrippina's ally Marcus Antonius Pallas from his position in the treasury. Shotter writes the following about Agrippina's deteriorating relationship with Nero: "What Seneca and Burrus probably saw as relatively harmless in Nero—his cultural pursuits and his affair with the slave girl Claudia Acte —were to her signs of her son's dangerous emancipation of himself from her influence." Britannicus
17375-461: Was done in honour of the visiting Roman emperor and his identification with Zeus Olympias, reflected in Hadrian's efforts in building temples dedicated to the supreme Olympian god. Celdrán (1995) places this name change a few decades later, during the time of Emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161), when the city minted coins using this name, and interprets it as proof of the city's high degree of Hellenisation. The city's coins during that period bore
17514-399: Was executed by Anicetus, who reported her death as a suicide. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome cautiously notes that Nero's reasons for killing his mother in AD 59 are "not fully understood". According to Tacitus , the source of conflict between Nero and his mother was Nero's affair with Poppaea Sabina . In Histories Tacitus writes that the affair began while Poppaea
17653-464: Was forced to retire. According to Tacitus, Nero divorced Octavia on grounds of infertility, and banished her. After public protests over Octavia's exile, Nero accused her of adultery with Anicetus, and she was executed. In AD 64 during the Saturnalia , Nero married Pythagoras , a freedman . The Great Fire of Rome began on the night of 18 to 19 July 64, probably in one of the merchant shops on
17792-552: Was founded, and later, a school for girls. Though it lost its centrality and importance as a cultural center under the Ottomans (1517–1918) and the British Mandate (1918–1948), the village thrived agriculturally. Saffuriyya's pomegranates , olives and wheat were famous throughout the Galilee. According to the British Mandate 's 1922 census of Palestine , Saffuriyeh had 2,582 inhabitants; 2,574 Muslims and 8 Christians, where
17931-430: Was further affected by the Galilee earthquake of 363 , but rebuilt soon afterwards, and retained its importance in the greater Jewish community of Galilee, both socially, commercially, and spiritually. Towards the end of the 4th century, church father Epiphanius described Sepphoris as predominantly Jewish, a view strongly supported by rabbinic literature , which sheds lights on the town's sages and synagogues. The town
18070-493: Was given a sumptuous state funeral and divine honors , and was promised a temple for her cult. A year's importation of incense was burned at the funeral. Her body was not cremated, as would have been strictly customary, but embalmed after the Egyptian manner and entombed; it is not known where. In AD 67, Nero married Sporus , a young boy who is said to have greatly resembled Poppaea. Nero had him castrated and married him with all
18209-406: Was instigated by Nero to clear land for his planned " Golden House ". Tacitus claims Nero seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and had them burned alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice, but personal cruelty. Some modern historians question the reliability of ancient sources on Nero's tyrannical acts, considering his popularity among the Roman commoners. In the eastern provinces of
18348-539: Was involved in a serious political scandal. His mother and his two surviving sisters, Agrippina and Julia Livilla , were exiled to a remote island in the Mediterranean Sea . His mother was said to have been exiled for plotting to overthrow the emperor Caligula. Nero's inheritance was taken from him, and he was sent to live with his paternal aunt Domitia Lepida , the mother of later emperor Claudius 's third wife, Messalina . After Caligula's death, Claudius became
18487-449: Was known to be "irascible and brutal", and that both "enjoyed chariot races and theater performances to a degree not befitting their position". Suetonius also mentions that when Nero's father Domitius was congratulated by his friends for the birth of his son, he replied that any child born to him and Agrippina would have a detestable nature and become a public danger. Domitius died in AD 41. A few years before his father's death, his father
18626-460: Was not motivated by a sense of justice, but by a penchant for personal cruelty. Houses built after the fire were spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads. Nero also built himself a new palace complex known as the Domus Aurea in an area cleared by the fire. The cost to rebuild Rome was immense, requiring funds the state treasury did not have. To find the necessary funds for
18765-613: Was poisoned after Agrippina threatened to side with him. Nero, who was having an affair with Acte, exiled Agrippina from the palace when she began to cultivate a relationship with his wife Octavia. Jürgen Malitz writes that ancient sources do not provide any clear evidence to evaluate the extent of Nero's personal involvement in politics during the first years of his reign. He describes the policies that are explicitly attributed to Nero as "well-meant but incompetent notions" like Nero's failed initiative to abolish all taxes in AD 58. Scholars generally credit Nero's advisors Burrus and Seneca with
18904-577: Was replaced by Abbasid rule. At the end of the 11th century, the First Crusade invaded the region and established Crusader states , with the Kingdom of Jerusalem replacing Muslim rule over Saffuriya. During the Crusader period, Sephoris changed hands several times. The Crusaders built a fort and watchtower atop the hill overlooking the town, and a church dedicated to Saint Anne , the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus . This became one of their local bases in
19043-472: Was showing a renewed affection for his natural son." He notes that among ancient sources, the Roman historian Josephus was uniquely reserved in describing the poisoning as a rumor. Contemporary sources differ in their accounts of the poisoning. Tacitus says that the poison-maker Locusta prepared the toxin, which was served to the Emperor by his servant Halotus . Tacitus also writes that Agrippina arranged for Claudius' doctor Xenophon to administer poison, in
19182-649: Was still married to Rufrius Crispinus , but in his later work Annals Tacitus says Poppaea was married to Otho when the affair began. In Annals Tacitus writes that Agrippina opposed Nero's affair with Poppaea because of her affection for his wife Octavia . Anthony A. Barrett writes that Tacitus' account in Annals "suggests that Poppaea's challenge drove [Nero] over the brink". A number of modern historians have noted that Agrippina's death would not have offered much advantage for Poppaea, as Nero did not marry Poppaea until AD 62. Barrett writes that Poppaea seems to serve as
19321-610: Was taken during the first conquest by the Arab armies in Palestine. in 634. Later, the city was incorporated into the expanding Umayyad Caliphate , and al-jund coins were minted by the new rulers. A stone-built aqueduct dating to the early Umayyad period (7th century CE) has been excavated. Saffuriya was engaged in trade with other parts of the empire at the time; for example, cloaks made in Saffuriyya were worn by people in Medina . Umayyad rule
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