1 Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 4a. 2 M. Stern, “Jerusalem, the Most Famous of the Cities of the East (Pliny, Natural History V, 70)” in Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period: Abraham Schalit Memorial Volume , eds. A. Oppenheimer, U. Rappaport, M. Stern (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press and Ministry of Defense, 1980), 257–70, in Hebrew. 3 L. I. Levine, Jerusalem: Portrait of the City (538 B.C.E.–70 C.E.) (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 2002), 219–253, surveys the extant literary and archaeologi- cal evidence, and provides the essential bibliography. 4 Josephus, War 5, 185–226; Antiquities 15, 380–425. 5 B. H. Isaac, “A Donation for Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem,” Israel Exploration Journal 33 (1983): 86–92; rpt. in The Near East Under Roman Rule: Selected Papers, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998), 21–8. Abstract The Temple of Jerusalem was reconstructed and enlarged under the patronage of Herod the Great beginning in 20/19 BCE. This essay assembles epigraphic sources from Jerusalem and literary sources pre- served in the writings of Flavius Josephus and the ancient rabbis for benefaction to the Temple by individual wealthy Jews. Donors from as far afield as Rhodes, Alexandria and Adiabene may be identi- fied, with Nicanor of Alexandria and Queen Helena and her son Monobazus of Adiabene appearing in archaeological remains, Josephus and rabbinic literature. This corpus provides a controlled example of ways that literary sources of various genre and archaeological remains may be placed in conversation so as to elicit historical evidence that may be of use to students of Jewish and general Roman antiquity. The ancient Rabbis claimed that “Whosoever has never seen the building of Herod [that is, the Temple] has never seen a beautiful building” 1 and indeed Josephus, the New Testament, Roman authors and Rabbinic literature describe this impres- sive shrine glowingly. 2 Beginning in 20/19 B.C.E., Herod the Great embarked upon his massive rebuilding of the Temple, increasing the size of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by sixty percent and expanding its glory and renown. 3 Josephus describes the building project twice, once in the Jewish War, and a second time in his Antiquities of the Jews. 4 In Antiquities 15, 396, Josephus describes the Temple emphatically as a project financed and carried out by Herod: “and he surpassed his pred- ecessors in spending money, so that it was thought that no one else had adorned the Temple so splen- didly.” Through donation, Jews, royal proselytes, and perhaps even non-Jews displayed their piety publicly, thus enhancing their status within the Jewish world of the Roman period. Major dona- tions to the Temple by individuals are known from the archaeological record and mentioned by Josephus and the early rabbis. I. Archaeological Sources A. A Dedicatory Inscription from the Temple Mount Excavations: [S]Paris son of Akeson of Rhodes This partially preserved Greek inscription was uncov- ered by Benjamin Mazar in his excavations near the Temple Mount. It was discovered in Area 23, locus 23008, which is located south of the southern wall of the Temple Mount. According to Benjamin Isaac, the principle investigator of this inscription, it was found “90 m south of the Triple Gate and 70 m south of the plaza which runs along the south- ern wall of the Temple Mount,” in the debris that “filled a pool in a palace of the Herodian period, destroyed in 70 C.E.” 5 The stone is made of local limestone, and Isaac suggests that it was a “plaque inserted in a wall.” The artifact measures 20 cm in height by 26 cm in width, and is 12 cm thick. Isaac translates the text as follows: . . . year 20 [of Herod the Great] . . . [S]Paris son of Akeson . . . of Rhodes . . . the pavement . . . drachmas Though the inscription was not found in situ, there is no doubt that this donation of [S]Paris was con- nected with the Temple. Josephus reports that the southern court of the Temple was “completely paved © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 IMAGES 2 Also available online – brill.nl/ima DOI: 10.1163/187180008X408663 NOAH GREENFIELD AND STEVEN FINE Yeshiva University “REMEMBERED FOR PRAISE”: SOME ANCIENT SOURCES ON BENEFACTION TO HEROD’S TEMPLE