Bibliography
| Title: Flavius Josephus and the Seleucid Acra in Jerusalem Secondary Title: ZDPV Volume: 105 Pages: 70-84 Type: Journal Article Year: 1989 Abstract: "Though Josephus unquestionably situates the Acra of his own day south of the Temple, it is not at all certain whether he locates the Seleucid Acra in the same place. His texts about the Acra and the City of David can be read in more than one way. The elimination of the area north of the Temple from the list of possible sites was premature".
"Essentially the first part of this article will attempt to reappraise part of the evidence Josephus gives us about the Acra. It will defend the thesis that though Josephus unquestionably situates the Acra of his own day south of the Temple, it is not at all certain whether he locates the Seleucid Acra in the same place. The second part of the article will look at the consequences of this assumption for a better understandig of the source material as a whole".
"Although Josephus unquestionably situated the Akra of his own day (1st century A.D.) south of the Jerusalem Temple, it is not at all certain whether he located the Seleucid Akra (2nd century B.C.) in the same place. On the basis of written sources we can conclude only that the center of the Akra, the "Polemaic" fortress, was somewhere in the acropolis or upper part of the city. Thus the tendency to look for the Akra north of the original City of David is perfectly admissible". - D.J.H.
"The Acra was not merely the fortress of a Macedonian garrison, as Josephus suggests, but a colony of civilian settlers, Hellenised Jews and Syrians. Its material shape was that of a confiscated quarter of the city, defended by newlybuilt walls and by a fortress. Although Josephus unquestionably situates the Acra of his own day south of the Temple, we cannot be sure whether he locates the Seleucid Acra in the same place. Nor can we be sure about what the author of 1 Macc meant by the term "City of David". Since Josephus bases his location of the Acra upon a false conception of the original city of David, we cannot rely on his information about the Acra. It can, however, be supposed with a high degree of probability that the "Polemic" citadel of Jerusalem formed the heart of the Acra colony. The location of this fortress is more problematic that is generally thought, although it is to be sought somewhere in the acropolis or upper part of the city". Keywords: Archaeology, topography, local and regional history |