ÆLIA CAPITOLINA. This was the name given to Jerusalem when the Emperor Adrian, about the year of Jesus Christ 134, settled a Roman colony there, and intirely banished the Jews, forbidding them, upon pain of death, to continue there1. Some assert that they were even prohibited to circumcise their Children. St. Jerom2 says, in his time the Jews bought permission of the Roman Soldiers to look upon Jerusalem, and shed tears over its misfortune. Thus they who bought Jesus Christ with money were obliged to pay a price even for their own tears: Old Men and Women, loaded with rags and years, were observed to go weeping to the Mount of Olives, and from thence to lament the ruin of the Temple. They were forced to purchase at a very dear rate the sight of this place, and the liberty of spreading Perfumes on a stone which was there fix’d. The name of Ælia became so common that People almost forgot that of Jerusalem, which was preserved only among the Jews, and such Christians as were better informed of things than the rest. It went by this name till the Emperor Constantine’s time, when it resumed that of Jerusalem.
The name of Ælia however was not abolish’d, for it was still called so long after this, as may be seen in Greek, Latin, and Mahometan Authors. This name was given it because Ælius was that of Adrian’s Family, and it was called Capitolina from Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom the City was consecrated. There was a Temple built to him in the place where Jesus Christ rose from the dead; a marble Venus was set up at Calvary, upon the Rock where the Cross stood3; a Hog in Marble was placed upon the Gate which looked towards Bethlehem; and at Bethlehem there was a Grove planted in honour of Tammuz or Adonis4, to whom was dedicated the Cave where our Saviour was born. Notwithstanding all which, these Places consecrated by the Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, were honoured by the Christians, and continued to be in great repute among even Heathens. Adrian’s Order prohibiting the Jews to enter Jerusalem, did not exclude the Christians; they still remained there, and had Bishops of this Place. Hitherto the Church had scarce been composed of any besides convert Jews, who with the liberty of the Gospel5 retained the old legal Ceremonies; but from that time there were none but Gentile Converts, who abolished the remains of these Jewish Observances. Some affirm6, that the Emperor Adrian, when he set about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, made use of one Aquila, a Native of Sinope in Pontus, who at first embraced Christianity, then being expell’d out of the Church, received Circumcision, turned Jew, and became celebrated brated for his Translation of the Old Testament into Greek. See the two Articles ADRIAN and AQUILA.
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