The RomanColoniaeof the Near East theChroniconPaschaleand by Joannes Malalas.^98 Although much archaeologi-
cal effort has been devoted in recent years to Roman and Byzantine Aelia,
the results remain both controversial and incompletely published, and there
is little that can be said with certainty as to the second-century city or the
quarters of the Legion X Fretensis which may have occupied part of it.^99
There is nothing in our evidence to make clear whether the citizens of
the newcoloniawere drawn from veterans or from civilians; if the latter, a
new population must have been recruited, for contemporary sources make
clear that Jews were excluded.^100 Acoloniaformed not from an existing city
but from new civilian settlers would however be unique in this period, and it
may be better to accept the colonial coins withvexillaof the legion X Freten-
sis as evidence that veterans were settled. If so, however, Aelia then provides
a unique combination of a legionary camp with acoloniaof veterans from
the same legion.^101 In either case, Aelia Capitolina and Mursa in Pannonia
Inferior represent the only two ‘‘genuine’’coloniaeof Hadrian’s reign, and the
last suchcoloniaein the history of Rome.^102
With the new foundation there was associated an extensive programme
of road building in Judaea, and milestones from the relevant roads reflect,
though in Greek, the new status and name of Jerusalem: for instanceἀπὸ
κολ.ΑἰλίαςΚαπιτωλ.μιλ.ε´.^103 We would naturally suppose that the impact
of the foundation on the surrounding territory was considerable. Given the
model of Berytus, we might also suppose that Aelia, as (apparently) a new
veterancolonia, backed by a legionary camp, on a site whose original popu-
lation had either been slaughtered or driven out, would have represented
another long-standing ‘‘Latin island.’’ If it did, however, there is remarkably
little evidence to show it. Christian sources of course have precisely focused
interests, but they do reveal that, apart from the temple of Juppiter, there
was also one of Venus, subsequently identified as the site of the Holy Sep-
ulchre.^104 But as an active expression of the city’s colonial status and Latin
character we have almost nothing to go on except its coins, where it ap-
.Chron. Pasch. , ; Malalas,Chron. . Note the translation by E. Jeffreys, M. Jef-
freys, and R. Scott ().
. For a general account, see N. Avigad,Discovering Jerusalem(), –. See also
H. Geva, ‘‘The Camp of the Tenth Legion at Jerusalem: An Archaeological Reconstruction,’’
IEJ (): ; R. Reich, ‘‘Four Notes on Jerusalem,’’IEJ (): , on –.
. Justin, Apol. , ; Eusebius,HE, , , quoting Ariston of Pella.
. For these points, see Isaac (n. ), –.
. See M. Zahrnt, ‘‘Vermeintliche Kolonien des Kaisers Hadrian,’’ZPE (): .
.CILIII,OGIS; cf.IGRIII and Thomsen (n. ), –.
. E. D. Hunt,Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire,..–(), .