204 CHAPTER SEVENthan a village, of a caravansarai with ninety-six beds suggests something about
the role of a possibl yexpanding commerce in the growth of the region.^4 It
ma yat least be suggested that cultural changes (e.g., the sedentarization of
desert tribes perhaps connected to their christianization) played a role, too.^5
Evidence for the growth of other Palestinian cities is more ambiguous: the
walls of Caesarea and apparentl yTiberias were extended, some formerl yunin-
habited districts of Scythopolis and Sepphoris became residential, and so on.
But the consensual view that on the whole the urban population of Palestine
increased in the late empire, an aspect of a general increase in population,
seems entirel yplausible.^6
Less controversial is the transformation in character and physical appear-
ance of the cities: where the yhad once been pagan in appearance, the ywere
now Christian, though in man yplaces older structures continued to be main-
tained and used. The Palestinian cities thus participated in changes that oc-
curred throughout the eastern empire. Pagan temples were destroyed or
turned into churches, theaters and amphitheaters fell into ruin or were filled
in with market stalls or private houses,agoraiand other public spaces became
cramped bazaars and residential districts.^7 Monumental construction cer-
tainl ydid not cease and was not restricted to churches. The Tiberians built a
new bathhouse in the fourth century, and the Sepphorites built lavishly decor-
ated public buildings and a classical-style colonnaded street in the fifth.^8 But
in general there was massivel ymore public expenditure on religious buildings,
and, conversely, much less expenditure on other types of public buildings than
there had been previously.^9
Though some of the Palestinian cities were notorious, at least among
church fathers, for their resistance to Christianity—Gaza, Raphia, and Petra
because of their inveterate paganism, and Tiberias and Sepphoris because of
(^4) See C. J. Kraemer Jr.,Excavations at Nessana, vol. 3, Non-Literary Papyri(Princeton: Prince-
ton Universit yPress, 1958), no. 31; on trade, see the discussion on pp. 26–28.
(^5) On the Negev settlements, see the important discussion of C. Foss, “The Near Eastern Coun-
tryside in Late Antiquity,” JRA suppl. 14 (1995): 225–31.
(^6) See the surveys of Palestinian cities in Y. Tsafrir,Eretz Israel, pp. 317–32; Y. Dan,The City
in Eretz-Israel during the Late Roman and Byzantine Periods(Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 1984), pp.
51–68. In general, Dan assumes more growth and provides slightl yhigher population figures,
but his disagreements with Tsafrir are minor. For Sepphoris see, pending publication, the annual
surveys inHAin the 1990s, and note also the comments of Netzer and Weiss,Promise and
Redemption, pp. 9–10. For Tiberias, see the report of Y. Hirschfeld inHA104 (1995): 32–38, and
the discussion of Hirschfeld and G. Foerster inNEAEHL, s.v.
(^7) However, see Foss, “Near Eastern Countryside,” 226, who revives the view that urban plan-
ning broke down onl yin the seventh and eighth centuries.
(^8) On the Tiberian bathhouse, see Y. Hirschfeld, “Tiberias,” inNEAEHL1466–67; on Sep-
phoris, Z. Weiss, “Sepphoris,” inNEAEHL1327.
(^9) See Tsafrir and Dan; on the transformation of the late antique city, see M. Sartre,Bostra:
Des origines a`l’Islam(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1985), pp. 119–39; H. Kennedy, “From Polis to
Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Earl yIslamic S yria,”Past and Present106 (1985):