ANTONIA. - A fortress that arose in Jerusalem, on the eastern hill, northeast of the Temple, at the foot of the Bezeta rock. Its purpose was to protect the city’s most vulnerable side, the northern one, while the other three sides were protected by natural valleys (Cedron to the east, Geenna to the south, el-Meise to the west).
It was originally the “tower of Hananeel,” existing in the time of Ier. 31, 38 (cf. Neh. 3, 1; 12, 39, and Zach. 14, 10). Subsequently restored by the Hasmonaean prince (135–104) Giovanni Ircano I (Flavio Giuseppe, Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 4, 3), it was simply called Bira, “fortress” (Aramaized as Birtà, and Hellenized by Flavio Giuseppe as Baris: Antiq. Iud., XIII, 11, 2; Bell. Iud., I, 5, 4, etc.). Erode il Grande rebuilt it with extraordinary strength and splendor, and named it after his protector Marco Antonio (Antiq. Iud., XV, 2, 4). Its magnificence, already known to us from Flavio Giuseppe’s description (Bell. Iud., V, 5, 8), has been confirmed by the excavations directed in that area by Fr. Vincent in 1931–32.
In A.D. 70, Tito captured and destroyed it (Flavio Giuseppe, Bell. Iud., II, 17, 7). On the relationship of the Antonia to Pilato’s praetorium, V. PRETORIO.
Gaetano M. Perrella