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[408]
And when he observed that there was a city by the sea-side that was
much decayed, (its name was Strato's Tower,) but that the place, by the
happiness of its situation, was capable of great improvements from his
liberality, he rebuilt it all with white stone, and adorned it with several
most splendid palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated his magnanimity;
for the case was this, that all the sea-shore between Dora and Joppa, in
the middle, between which this city is situated, had no good haven, insomuch
that every one that sailed from Phoenicia for Egypt was obliged to lie
in the stormy sea, by reason of the south winds that threatened them; which
wind, if it blew but a little fresh, such vast waves are raised, and dash
upon the rocks, that upon their retreat the sea is in a great ferment for
a long way. But the king, by the expenses he was at, and the liberal disposal
of them, overcame nature, and built a haven larger than was the Pyrecum
1 [at
Athens]; and in the inner retirements of the water he built other deep
stations [for the ships also].
1 That Josephus speaks truth, when he assures us that the haven of this Cesarea was made by Herod not less, nay rather larger, than that famous haven at Athens, called the Pyrecum, will appear, says Dean Aldrich, to him who compares the descriptions of that at Athens in Thucydides and Pausanias, with this of Cesarea in Josephus here, and in the Antiq. B. XV. ch. 9. sect. 6, and B. XVII. ch. 9. sect. 1.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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