This palace commanded the highest point of the southwestern hill. Its construction finally transferred the controlling power to the western hill, or as Josephus calls it, the “Upper City.” Ever after this the western hill was the seat of political power. When Procurators ruled Judæa this palace became the prætorium.[283] It was to this castle that our Saviour was brought to be tried by Pontius Pilate. It was to its entrance, probably on the east, that Pilate brought Jesus and offered to release him, when the people cried: “Away with this man ... crucify him” (Luke 23: 18, 21). This palace, built by one of the ablest and most unscrupulous of men, is thus associated with one of the most sacred and tragic moments of history. From that day to this it has remained the seat of political authority in Jerusalem. Its presence on the western hill has gradually drawn the name Zion from the original city of David to the western hill, and so distorted the Old Testament traditions that even several modern scholars[284] still refuse to give credence to the clear voice of the Old Testament as to the site of the original Zion. The palace, battered down and rebuilt again and again, still retains in its walls many of the massive stones of Herod. This palace was completed about 23 B. C. (2) _Herod’s Theater._--About 25 B. C. Herod founded an athletic gathering to be celebrated every five years in honor of Augustus.[285] Josephus, in speaking of this fact, says that Herod built a theater in Jerusalem, and also a very great amphitheater in the plain. If he actually built a theater in the city, all traces of it have disappeared. To the south of the city on a hill considerably beyond the Valley of Hinnom, the remains of a great theater were discovered some years ago by the late Dr. Schick.[286] This theater faced the north, its diameter was more than 130 feet, and spectators seated in it could see Jerusalem in the distance. It is thought by some scholars that this is the theater to which Josephus alludes, as Herod would hardly have ventured to outrage Jewish feeling by placing such a structure in the sacred city. If the discovery of Dr. Schick represents Herod’s theater, it is quite unknown where the “amphitheater in the plain,” to which Josephus makes reference, was situated.