BEN HUR AND CHARIOT RACES IN JERUSALEM

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MAGICAL MOVIE MOMENTS

If you’ve ever watched the chariot race sequence in the 1959 movie Ben Hur, you’ve arguably seen 17 minutes of the most dramatic movie footage ever shot. Ben Hur was the most expensive film ever made at its time. Costing $15 million and shot on a grand scale, it was a tremendous make-or-break risk for MGM Studios that ultimately saved the studio from bankruptcy. It required six years to prepare for the film shoot with over six months of on-location work in Italy. It featured more crew and extras than any other film before it — 15,000 alone for the chariot race. The scene is made all the more exciting when one realizes that Charlton Heston actually drove his own chariot during much of the filming. Those were the days, weren’t they?

The 1959 movie was the third screen adaptation of Lew Wallace’s novel, Ben Hur: The Story of the Christ. It has also been made into a stage play several times. Wallace spent years compiling the research for the book that would become the best-selling American novel of the 19^th Century. It was the first book to ever have a single press run of over a million copies and remained the best-selling American novel of all time until Gone with the Wind was released in 1936. Writing Ben Hur also changed its author, Lew Wallace. Somewhat indifferent to religion before writing the book, he said the act of writing Ben Hur produced “a conviction amounting to absolute belief in God and the divinity of Jesus Christ.”

A Map of First Century Jerusalem

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER

But putting aside the book’s success, the movie’s enormous scale and its eleven Academy Awards, one still must ask, “How realistic was it.” The plot sends Judah Ben Hur back to the land of his birth where he confronts his old nemesis and former friend, Messala, in a chariot race. This epic chariot race is depicted as taking place in, of all places, Jerusalem. Is there any historical justification for this scene? Could there really have held chariot races in the heart of Judaism and home to the Temple?

The Hippodrome from the South

The answer, in fact, is Yes. There’s very good evidence that such a race could easily have taken place in Jerusalem. In addition to constructing a huge and magnificent palace in Jerusalem, and expanding and completely renovating the Temple, Herod the Great also built a Hippodrome, or racing stadium for the enjoyment of his friends. Despite his claim to be a Jew, Herod was thoroughly Roman in his lifestyle and chariot racing was one of Rome's oldest and most popular pastimes.

CHARIOT RACING FROM THE INSIDE

Pause occasionally as you read the following description and mentally revisit the chariot race as it was depicted in the movie. Hippodromes were built as a semi-circle with tiers of seats surrounding the U-shaped arena. An elaborate ornamented barrier, the spina, ran down the middle of the course defining the path of the race. Metae, or turning posts, adorned each end of the spina. 

At the start of the race, up to twelve four-horse chariots (quadrigae) lined up at the open end of the U. The charioteers circled the spina in a counter-clockwise path until they completed seven laps. Although they all started together, the ones on the outside would have to travel faster than the others. Like our modern track events, the teams gravitated to the shorter center lane as the race progressed. Mechanical devices known as the eagle and the dolphin were raised to signify that the race had begun, and lowered one by one to signify the number of laps remaining. Do you recall the man in the movie flipping them over as the charioteers roared around the track?

Negotiating with the Owner of the Team

As depicted, the chariot driver typicallydid not own the horses, but like a modern jockey was a hired employee, or slave, of the horses’ owner. Unlike the other sporting events of that day, charioteers did not perform in the nude…most probably for safety reasons and the likelihood of a crash. Racers wore a sleeved garment called a xystis. It reached down to the ankles and was cinched at the waist. Drivers wore a pair of straps across the upper back to prevent the xystis from ballooning up during the race.

Racing chariots were modified war chariots — basically a wooden cart with two wheels and an open back. The most exciting moments occurred at the turns around each end of the spina. This was where most collisions took place. If a charioteer lost control going into the turn, his rig could be overturned  and he, along with his horses, crushed  by other chariots rounding the post. Deliberately running into an opponent was technically illegal, but there was little that could be done in the middle of a race and, like the NASCAR circuit, accidents happened with grim regularity.

 

An Aerial View of the Hippodrome

GIVE HIM AN A FOR ACCURACY

Clearly, Lew Wallace did his research well and the writers and directors of Ben Hur followed the historic record. We hope you enjoyed this nostalgic trip back to the era of the MGM movie spectacular. 

We’ll return next Tuesday when we’ll look at a device used by the Roman Army that has been called the Roman Telegraph.

Until then, we wish Peace and Blessings.

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HEROD THE GREAT'S JERUSALEM PALACE

Herod's Palace in Jerusalem

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During his lifetime, Herod the Great, who exhibited extreme paranoid tendencies, built or rebuilt eleven fortresses throughout Israel. Some of them remained just that, defensive military outposts, but others he expanded into full blown palaces.

His palaces, in alphabetic order, were:

Caesarea Maritima. West of Jerusalem, it was a thoroughly Roman city and prosperous port city thanks to an artificial breakwater constructed by Herod’s engineers. His palace overlooked the Mediterranean and served both as his primary residence and the residence of Roman Prefect and procurators who follow d him.

Herodium. Near Jericho, it sat atop a manmade mountain with a view of Lake Asphaltitis…now known as the Dead Sea. Herod was buried there around 4 BC.

Jerusalem. Herod’s little place in the city that he used when official duties demanded his presence in the Capitol.

Masada. Probably the most famous of the group, it was a mountaintop  palace in the Judean desert near the southernmost tip of Lake Asphaltitis.

Today, I plan to concentrate on Herod’s Jerusalem palace. The photos illustrating this post are taken from an incredible model of First Century Jerusalem built by Hans Kroch, the late proprietor of the Holyland Hotel. It is built to a 1:50 scale with authentic construction materials - Jerusalem stone, Marmor, and Steel all based upon historical accounts from the Mishna, the Gemara, and Flavius Josephus. Step back into ancient Jerusalem with me. The date is 66AD…skies are clear and the weather’s mild. 

Detail of the Courtyard and Matching Stoas

Modern excavations beneath the Citadel have found remains of the foundational platform which supported Herod’s palace. This model was reconstructed on the basis of finds in Jerusalem and excavations of Herod’s palace at Jericho. The dimensions of the palace were from the area of today’s Jaffa gate to the southwest corner of the present-day, Old City walls, estimated to be about 1,050 x 415 feet. That’s about three plus football fields, folks!

 The palace was built on an elevated platform made of a series of retaining walls rising from 13 to16 feet above ground level. Amiran-Eitan’s excavations revealed some parts of the superstructure which included sections of painted plaster. The construction covered over remains of older Hasmonean buildings.

Aerial View of the Matching Wings of the Palace

The palace had two main wings, each with its own banquet halls, baths, and accommodated hundreds of guests. It was surrounded by groves of trees, canals, and ponds, and studded with bronze fountains. The two wings were named after Agrippa and Caesar. In the center of the palace were gardens with porticoes.

To put Herod’s palace in perspective, we conducted an internet search on largest houses in America. The homes of most Hollywood stars fall into the 10-15,000 square foot range, which puts them out of the running. Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Mansion is nearly 22,000 sq. ft. However, the tidy bungalow Bill Gates calls home is three times larger at 66,000 square feet. A software billionaire is constructing a castle in Missouri that will be 72,000 sq. ft. The Versailles Mansion in Orlando tops that at 90,000 sq. ft. You’ve probably heard that it takes a lot more than a million dollars to live like a millionaire these days. If you’ve ever doubted that statement, consider that George Vamderbilt’s Biltmore Mansion in Ashville, NC measured a whopping 175,000 square feet.

Jerusalem: Herod's Palace in Foreground - Temple in Upper Left

While all of these people from Brad and Jennifer, to Cher and Heffner, to Vanderbilt are known to have extravagant tastes, Herod makes them all look like pikers. Are you sitting down? Herod’s Jerusalem palace had a footprint of about 435,000 sq. ft. When you consider that the palace consisted of multiple floors, it becomes apparent that it most probably exceeded 1,000,000 square feet. No matter how you cut it, Herod was a man who lived large. They didn’t call him “the Great” for nothing.

We plan to visit Herod’s other palaces in future posts. Meanwhile, you should know that this coming Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent…the liturgical season that precedes Christmas. Beginning this Friday we’ll begin a series of posts dealing with various aspects of the Christmas Season. We invite you to drop in often. You’ll find the posts interesting, enlightening and entertaining.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.