Rome and the East
pears asCol. Ael. Cap. and then, from Septimius Severus onwards, asCol. Ael.
Cap. Comm(odiana) Pia Felix.^105 This latter name appears on just one inscrip-
tion from the city, from near the southern wall of the Temple mount. Dating
from the reign of Severus, it provides the title[Colonia Ael]ia Kap(itolina)
Commo[diana].^106
We are therefore left with a puzzle, on which the available evidence sheds
no real light. We have very little to illustrate the social composition, public
cults, or nature of local self-government (which we may assume was con-
ducted byduumviriand a council ofdecuriones). Some relevant Latin inscrip-
tions are indeed available: for instance a statue base in honour of Antoninus
Piusd(ecreto) d(ecurionum)(CILIII ); and another from the lintel of the
Roman gate underlying the Damascus Gate, naming theColonia Aelia Capi-
tolina.^107 In what seems to be the only scholarly publication of it, the inscrip-
tion is reported to readCo. Ael. Cap. d(ecreto) d(ecurionum).^108
The availability of such fragments of evidence will hardly serve to obscure
our total ignorance of the dominant languages and the self-identification of
the inhabitants of what had been Jerusalem (and was frequently still called
Jerusalem by Christian writers) in its period as theColonia Aelia Capitolina.
It is only when we reach the visit by the western pilgrim ‘‘Egeria’’ in the
s, that we learn that Christian services there were conducted in Greek,
with a regular translation into Aramaic, and a secondary translation, when
necessary, into Latin.^109 Much had no doubt changed since Hadrian’s trium-
. See L. Kadman,The Coins of Aelia Capitolina().
.AE, AE, ; cf. H. M. Cotton and W. Eck, ‘‘Ein Ehrenbogen für
Septimius Severus und seine Familie in Jerusalem,’’ in E. Dabrowa, ed.,Donum Amicitiae.
Studies in Ancient History Offered by Friends and Colleagues on the Occasion of the Anniversary of
the Foundation of Ancient History in the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, –.
. Alluded to in various semi-popular reports, e.g., B. Mazar,The Mountain of the Lord
(), (ascribed to Hadrian), , . A different impression, both of the location and
of the reading of the inscription, is given by N. Avigad,Discovering Jerusalem(), .
. R. W. Hamilton, ‘‘Excavations against the N. Wall, Jerusalem,’’QDAP ():
on –. For yet another impressionistic report of the area, see M. Magen, ‘‘Recovering
Roman Jerusalem: The Excavations beneath the Damascus Gate,’’Bibl. Arch. Rev. ():
. For a survey of the known Greek and Latin inscriptions, of all periods, from Jerusa-
lem, see P. Thomsen,DiegriechischenundlateinischenInschriftenderStadtJerusalem(), with
a Supplement inZDPV (): . For some updates, see B. Issac, ‘‘Inscriptions from
Jerusalem after the First Revolt’’ and ‘‘Epigraphic Remains from the Byzantine Period,’’ in
Y. Tsafrir and S. Safrai, eds.,The Historyof Jerusalem: The Roman and Byzantine Periods (–
CE)(), –, – (in Hebrew).
.PeregrinatioEgeriae, –; see P. Maraval, ‘‘Égérie, journal de voyage’’ (SourcesChré-
tiennes, ).