Antonia

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

A fortress on N. W. side of Temple at Jerusalem (Acts 21:31-40³¹And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. ³³Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. ³⁴And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. ³⁵And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. ³⁶For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him. ³⁷And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? ³⁸Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? ³⁹But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. ⁴⁰And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying, (Acts 21:31‑40)).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

A tower or fortress built by Herod the Great near the temple at Jerusalem in which he placed a guard to watch over the approaches to the sacred edifice. Josephus (Wars 5. 5, 8) says it was situated “at the corner of two cloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that on the north; it was erected upon a rock fifty cubits in height, and was on a great precipice.” Where this precipice was is not known, for it is a much disputed question upon what part of the temple area the temple was built. There is a tower, now called Antonia, on the N. W. angle, and there are indications of a similar one having stood on the S. E. angle.