APOLLONIA
later SOZUSA Israel.
A town on
the Mediterranean coast, between Jaffa and Caesarea
(Plin.
HN 5.14), ca. 24 km from Jaffa. The Semitic-Phoenician name of the place was Rishpon, “the city of
the god Resheph,” identified by the Greeks with Apollo.
It is possible that Apollonia had already been conquered
by John Hyrcanus I, but certainly by the time of Alexander Jannaeus it was incorporated into the Hasmonaean
kingdom (
Joseph. AJ 13.395). The city was freed by
Pompey in 64 B.C. and was subsequently rebuilt by Gabinius (
Joseph. BJ 1.166). Although there is no written
evidence, it is certain that Apollonia was given to Herod
at the beginning of his reign and received the status of a
polis. After the destruction of the Temple it was once
again made autonomous by Vespasian.
Apollonia was one of the few coastal cities that did
not mint coins. It is possible therefore that during most
of the Late Roman period, for which we have no written
records, Apollonia was an insignificant town, and revived
only in the Byzantine period when its name was changed
from Apollonia to Sozusa, “City of the Savior
(Hierocles
Synecd. 719.5). It has not been excavated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Avi-Yonah,
The Holy Land from
the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 B.C. to A.D.
640). A Historical Geography (1966).
A. NEGEV
