=His Work as a City Builder.= As a builder Herod made a deep impression upon the Palestine of his age. After the battle of Actium the city of Samaria had been presented to him by Augustus. Herod transformed it into a Græco-Roman city of the most magnificent type. Its name was changed to Sebaste, the Greek for Augusta, in honor of his patron. On the top of the hill was built the huge Roman temple, the ruins of which have recently been laid bare by American excavators.^{(59)} The city was encircled by a colonnade, twenty yards wide and over a mile long, with pillars sixteen feet in height. A beautiful natural theatre was built on the northern slope of the hill, overlooking the fertile plain. Splendid public buildings made it one of the glories of Herod's kingdom. He also transformed Straton's Tower on the Mediterranean coast into a Græco-Roman metropolis and named it Cæsarea,^{(115)} in honor of the emperor. On a comparatively level plain rose a temple, theatre, amphitheatre, and palaces of marble. Since it was intended to be the seaport of both Samaria and Judea, a great breakwater two hundred feet wide was constructed out of huge stones. The harbor opened to the north, thus protecting ships from the prevailing southwest winds. At strategic points throughout his kingdom he fortified natural strongholds, such as the high conical hill east of Bethlehem known as the Herodium.^{(86)} In Athens and in other cities outside his kingdom Herod reared magnificent public buildings. =Herod's Temple.= In many ways the crowning achievement of Herod's zeal for building was the great temple which he reared in Jerusalem. The temple area was first extended to the south so that it was double its former size.^{(99)} A viaduct and four gates connected it with the central and western part of the city. Two large gateways also led up from the ancient City of David on the south. The entire temple area was encircled with a double row of huge marble columns. On the south side of the court were four rows of lofty columns with Corinthian capitals. The sanctuary itself, which stood on its original site in the northern part of the temple area on a platform of native rock, was surrounded by an inner group of elaborate buildings, approached by splendid gateways on the north, east, and south. In front of the comparatively small temple structure was reared a large porch, one hundred cubits high and one hundred cubits broad, which brought it into harmony with Herod's huge constructions. The work on the temple was begun about 20 B.C. Provisions were made so that it continued uninterruptedly after Herod's death. The temple was completed only a few years before the final destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.