The excavations at Horvat ‘Aqav and Horvat Eleq, has unearthed remains from three periods: a small Phoenician shrine, a Herodian estate manor and a Byzantine period villa.
According to the Roman historian Herodian, the imperial Parthian army led by Emperor Artabanus IV of Parthia, reformed many of their armies and units resulting in the emergence of a new force of camel mounted cataphracts.
It is possible that, to gain adherents, the Herodian party may have been in the habit of representing that the establishment of a Herodian Dynasty would be favourable to the realization of the theocracy; and this in turn may account for pseudo Tertullian's (Adversis Omnes Haereses 1,1)) allegation that the Herodians regarded Herod himself as the Messiah.
Titus took his four legions, breached the walls and captured the Herodian Towers and the Antonia Fortress.