Roman Temple
Sitting atop the Chambers 3 and 4 of the gate complex are the remains of a 1st-century temple (Level 2), built by Phillip Herod sometime around 29 BCE and dedicated to the deified wife of Caesar Augustus. The temple was built over an earlier Persian period cultic place that rested upon the walls of the 9th-century gate and remains integrated with it. According to Josephus, Bethsaida was expanded by Philip Herod as a polis and renamed Bethsaida-Julias. The temple was built mostly of fieldstones but adorned with dressed stones carved with geometric meanders and flowered rosettes. The building suffered earthquake damage in the early centuries CE, and many of its cut stones were subsequently looted. In modern times, the environment was subject to further disturbance by Syrian military entrenchments.
Several looted stones may be observed in connection with the 5th-century synagogue and residences at nearby Chorazin, three miles toward the west. Upon measuring the pediment at Chorazin, Bethsaida excavators R. Arav and N. Roddy found that its 5 m-width fits exactly the dimensions of the Bethsaida temple. At the apex of the pediment one finds an eagle, the Roman imperial symbol, and tucked away under the cornice this writer discovered the design of a fish—which would make sense for a lakeside Bethsaida building, but not for Chorazin. Thus, it is almost certainly that dressed stones from the collapsed temple at Bethsaida were dragged to Chorazin for reuse, a much less expensive enterprise than having new ones commissioned. Later in time, other stones from the temple and other Roman-period structures were used in the construction of tombs by local Bedouin tribes.
Located at the apex of the tell, the temple, which measures 5.5 m x 18 m in size, is situated in an east-west orientation. Its well-constructed walls, made up of large slabs and fieldstones, average 1 m thick. The foundational remains of a columned portico are still visible, but only one of its original four columns, about 0.5 m in diameter, has been found. Inside, one enters the pronaos, which leads to the rectangular naos and the inner shrine portico, or adyton, marked by a column base that is preserved directly above the northwest chamber of the IA II city gate. The northern wall of the structure leans slightly inward, likely the result of seismic activity.
In 1988, a small figurine, the bust of a veiled female believed to be Julia, not unlike other Roman-cult objects, was unearthed in proximity to the temple. A second figurine, also of a female, was found nearby in a subsequent session. In 1996, as the temple was being uncovered, a bronze incense shovel was found just outside the temple. The shovel was nearly identical to shovels discovered by Y. Yadin in the Cave of Letters and identified with the Roman imperial cult. Several coins minted by Philip Herod in honor of Livia Julia were also recovered.