AZOTUS
Palestine, Israel.
A town in Philistia,
whose Biblical name was Ashdod, one of the five lordships of the Philistines. To the NW of the ancient town
a new, maritime town was built in the Hellenistic period,
known as Azotus Paralios (coastal Azotus) while the
other was then named Azotus Mesogeios (inland Azotus). Jonathan, brother of Judas Maccabeus, destroyed
inland Azotus (I Macc. 10:77-8), and Jews settled
there (I Macc. 11:4-5). During the reign of Alexander
Jannaeus it was incorporated into the Judean kingdom
(
Joseph. AJ 13.395). Pompey restored its autonomy
(
Joseph. BJ 1.156). Herod seized it early in his reign, and
maritime Azotus at that time became a Jewish town
(
Joseph. BJ 4.13), while inland Azotus was settled by
Herod's veterans. It remained part of the domain of
Herod's sister, and for some time it was in possession of
Livia, wife of Augustus, and her son Tiberius (
Joseph.
AJ 17.189; 18.31, 159). During the Jewish War the city
was conquered by Vespasian (
Joseph. BJ 4.130). Azotus
flourished in the Late Roman period (Eus.
Onom. 20.18;
22.11). In the Byzantine period it was a bishopric and
declined during the Arab period.
Extensive excavations have been in progress at inland
Azotus since 1962. The remains of the two uppermost
occupation levels (Byzantine and Roman) are poor,
seeming to confirm that maritime Azotus was the more
important town in this period. The towns of the Early
Roman and Hellenistic periods are more important. On
the acropolis, remains of large public buildings, probably
in the agora, were unearthed. The finds, including official
weights, marked with the names of agoranomoi, support
this conclusion. Remains of private dwellings were unearthed on other parts of the mound.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Dothan & D. N. Freedman, “Ashdod I, the First Season of Excavations, 1962,”
Atiqot VII
(1967).
A. NEGEV
