According to tradition, the church enshrines the spot where
Jesus was
flogged by Roman soldiers before his journey down the Via Dolorosa to
Calvary. However, this tradition is based on the assumption that an area of Roman
flagstones, discovered beneath the adjacent Church of the Condemnation and the
Convent of the Sisters of Zion, was
Gabbatha, or the pavement the Bible describes as the location of
Pontius Pilate's judgment of Jesus (
John 19, ). A triple-arched gateway built by
Hadrian as an
entrance to the eastern forum of
Aelia Capitolina was traditionally, but as archaeological investigation shows, mistakenly, said to have been part of the gate of
Herod's
Antonia Fortress, which was alleged to be the location of Jesus' trial. It is possible that following its destruction the Antonia Fortress's pavement tiles were brought to Hadrian's plaza. Like
Philo,
Josephus testifies that the Roman governors stayed in Herod's palace while they were in Jerusalem, Josephus indicates that Herod's palace is on the western hill, and it has recently (2001) been rediscovered under a corner of the
Jerusalem citadel near
Jaffa Gate. Archaeologists now therefore conclude that, in the first century, the Roman governors judged at the western hill, rather than the area around the Church of the Flagellation, on the diametrically opposite side of the city. ==History==