Tarichaea (Greek:Ταριχαία,Tarichaia) is theGreek place name for a historic site of disputed location. It was situated along the shore of theSea of Galilee, and mentioned in the writings ofJosephus (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 theFirst 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]
In the first few centuries of theCommon era, many places along theEgyptian 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 inGreek:ταρίχη, meaning, "pickled fish".[6] The name was applied to a site along the coast of theSea 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 andGamala as being "potent Judean cities" (Latin:urbes Iudaeae validissimae).[8]
In ca. 52 BCE,Judea was invaded by the Roman governor ofSyria,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 EmperorNero's reign (54 CE), a stupendous gift was added toAgrippa II's realm, when Nero entrusted him with the government of a certain part of Galilee,Tiberias and Tarichæa.[10]
In 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 theGalilee 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 villageDabarittha 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'shippodrome (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 ofTiberias eventually revolted against Josephus, Josephus devised methods to detain many of the city's governors and principal persons (among whom wasJustus 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]
Josephus, in his extensive accounts of the military history of Tarichaea, relates thatVespasian, 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 fromScythopolis in the south to Tiberias in a northerly direction. Vespasian and his son, Titus, encamped with threelegions at a place calledSennabris (Σενναβρís),[17] south of Tiberias and "easily seen by the innovators,"[18] in preparation for the war with the insurgents. Sennabris was situated some 30stadia (ca. 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi)) fromTiberias.[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 toNero at theIsthmus, to help in digging theCorinth Canal. The rest of the people, to the number of 30,400, he sold atauction, excepting only those whom he presented toAgrippa and who had come from his own kingdom.[22]
Before the fall of the city, Josephus escaped and continued the prosecution of the war inJotapata (Hebrew:יודפת), until he was captured there.[23]
The location of Tarichæa has been the subject of intensive debate; scholars not readily agreeing with each other on the site's location.
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  Map of Israel | |
| Location |  |
|---|---|
| Region | Lower Galilee |
| Coordinates | 32°49′30″N35°30′56″E / 32.82500°N 35.51556°E /32.82500; 35.51556 |
Josephus frequently refers to a wealthy Galilean town, destroyed by the Romans in theJewish War (66-73 CE)[24] that has the Greek nameTarichaia from its prosperous fisheries. Josephus does not give a Hebrew name.
Josephus places Tarichæa along the shores ofLake of Gennesaret, 30 stadia from Tiberias, and placesGamala "over against Tarichæa, but on the other side of the lake."[25] Josephus adds that while Gamala belonged to the LowerGaulonitis, Tarichæa belonged toLower 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]
WhenVespasian "was informed that Tiberias was fond of innovations, and that Taricheae had revolted,"[28] he and his son, Titus, came fromScythopolis and encamped with threelegions atSennabris (Σενναβρís -סנבראי), south of Tiberias,[29] at a place "easily seen by the innovators."[18]
W.F. Albright proposed that the Arab village ofAl-Majdal (the ancientMagdala) 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 withMagdala. 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 thirtystadia (furlongs) from Tiberias, or what are a little more than 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi),[38] which is approximately the distance from Tiberias toMagdala. 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 stationSennabris 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 thePalestine Exploration Fund suggested that the citadel of Tarichæa was to be identified with the ruinKhurbet Kuneitrîah, between Tiberias andAl-Majdal, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) northwest of Tiberias.[43] He retained that the "town itself was probably on the plain to thenorth, 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]
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Map of Israel | |
| Alternative name | Taricheæ, Tarichaeae |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Region | Lower Galilee |
| Coordinates | 32°43′05″N35°34′19″E / 32.717958°N 35.571864°E /32.717958; 35.571864 |
Pliny the Elder, in hisNatural History, placed Tarichæa to the south of the Sea of Galilee, while Tiberias is to the west of the lake.[48]
Accordingly, the German traveller,Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, described Tarichaea in 1806 as being on the banks of the Sea of Galilee at its "southward extremity," near the town ofSennabris, saying that some ruins and some walls were still visible, and that the place still bore the name ofel-Malahha, orArd-el-Malahha,[49] which is equivalent with the Greek name of Tarichæa,[50] a name derived from the Greek wordtarichos (salted fish).[51] Seetzen surmised that the inhabitants of Tarichæa made use of ground salt that was plentiful in their town to cure the quantities of fish produced by the lake. Seetzen described the plain which he saw, directly upon leaving the vicinity ofel-Malahha towards its south, southwest: "Here begins the beautiful plain ofel-Ghôr, which greatly resembles the plain ofel-B'kaa, betweenAnti-Libanus andLibanus, only that the two chains of mountains that surround it are not so striking as those ofel-B'kaa."[52] This plain would be the one described by Josephus as stretching in front of Tarichaea. The Arabic place-name can be spelled el-Malaḥa, Mallâha.
Still in the 19th century,Robinson suggested that Tarichaea wasKhirbet Kerak, a place situated to the south of Tiberias.[53] This opinion was followed by almost all 19th-century authors,Conder, C.R.,[54][55]W.M. Thomson,[56]D.F. Buhl,[57]E. Schürer[58] and Ernest W.G. Masterman,[59] among others.Victor Guérin thought that Tarichaea was to be placed either atKh. el-Mallaḥa orKh. Kerak, both south of Tiberias.[60]
In 2010, archaeologist and historian Nikos Kokkinos proposed that Tarichaea was to be sought somewhere between the two Kinneret settlements, Moshava andKvutza, or what is[clarification needed] 1 to 1.5 km north and north-west ofTel Bet Yerach/Khirbet Kerak.[61]
One of the arguments advanced by Kokkinos for locating Tarichaea south of Tiberias is that the Roman army was encamped at the station calledSennabris, a place "well within view (Greek:εὐσύνοπτος) of the rebels" (The Jewish War iii.443). Had Tarichaea been situated at Magdala or atKhurbet Kuneitrîah to the north of Tiberias, as opined by W.F. Albright and by H.H. Kitchener, respectively, the rebels could not have seen the Roman army encampment at Sennabris, 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) to the south, since this place is completely obstructed by the intervening hills.[62]
The difficulty with these identifications is that some historical geographers have reasoned that the movement of the Roman army would have proceeded from a southern to northerly direction, without breaking off the movement.[63] According to Josephus, Vespasian arrived from the south ( Scythopolis) with his troops, and pitched his camp at Sennabris (a place nearKhirbet Kerak).[64] If Tarichaea indeed lay to the south of Tiberias, it seemed inconceivable that it would be bypassed by the Romans, without being dealt with first, whileen route to Tiberias.[65]
However, according to Kokkinos, this view would not take into account military stratagems, if they indeed existed, such as reconnoitering the Roman army to a place further north (Tiberias) where insurgents were also known to be, and to prevent their sallying-out to their brothers' defence in the south, and only afterwards to engage the enemy in the south (Tarichaea). Kokkinos, citingThe Jewish War 3.462 and 4.11, suggests that, after the Roman army had subdued and secured Tiberias, Vespasian moved the remainder of his troops toAmmathus, onebiblical mile south of Tiberias, where there are hot springs and where he could refresh his troops.[66] Securing this site was deemed a strategic necessity, as it prevented those insurgents who fled from seeking refuge in Tarichaea.[66] Had Tarichaea been situated to the north of Tiberias, moving the Roman army to Ammathus would not have prevented insurgents from escaping to the rebel stronghold. When Tarichaea was eventually subdued, it was from Ammathus also that the Roman army launched its attack againstGamala, opposite the lake.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
The Antiquities of the Jews public domain audiobook atLibriVoxThe Wars of the Jews public domain audiobook atLibriVox