ASCALON (Hebr. 'Alqelôn; Assyr. Asqalâna; Egypt. Asqalna; modern Arab. Hirbet 'Asqalân). – Palestinian city between Azotus and Gaza, almost on the coast.
It was a Canaanite center between 2500 and 2000 B.C. It was often subject to Egypt; it appears in the “Execration Texts” of the XIᵃ^ Egyptian dynasty (19th cent. B.C.). It came under the influence of Cypriot and Mycenaean culture (from the 16th cent. B.C.). It was conquered by Ramses II (13th cent.); then, around 1200, it became one of the five Philistine cities (v. LEONTOPOLI). Joshua was unable to conquer it (Ios. 13, 3); Judah occupied it in the time of the Judges, but only briefly (Iudic. 1, 18).
It was a vassal of the Assyrians and, during the Persian period, of Tyre. It was devoted to the worship of the ichthyomorphic deity Derceto (Atargatis) and of Astarte (Herodotus, I, 105); perhaps the temple of Astarte mentioned in I Sam. 31, 10 was located at A. After Alexander’s conquest, it became a center of Hellenistic culture (the philosopher Antiochus, Cicero’s teacher, should be mentioned). In the 3rd cent. B.C. it belonged to the Ptolemies, but under Antiochus III (v.) it passed to the Seleucids. Twice it opened its gates to the Maccabees Jonathan and Simon (I Mach. 10, 86; 11, 60).
From 104 B.C. it was a free city, with its own era and coinage, and flourished under the protectorate of Rome. Herod the Great adorned it with monuments (Flavius Josephus, Bell. Iud., I, 21, 11), although it does not seem that he was a native of A., as many have held (E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüd. Volkes, I, 4ᵃ^ ed., Leipzig 1901, p. 293; U. Holzmeister, Historia aetatis Novi Test., 2ᵃ^ ed., Rome 1938, p. 24). A. was always hostile to the Jews.
Paganism remained vigorous there, and under Julian the Apostate the people martyred many Christians (Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., III, 3: PG 82, 1692). Before 300 it was an episcopal see: besides Longinus, to whom Peter of Alexandria wrote concerning Arianism, and Sabinus, who took part in the Council of Nicaea, six bishops are known up to 940, when Muslims and Jews burned the cathedral and the bishop fled to Ramleh. The Crusaders united the see of A. with that of Bethlemmé. Under the Muslims from 644 (with a brief interval during the Crusader period, 1154-1270), it was destroyed in 1270 by Sultan Baibars, and never recovered. The episcopal see of A. has since been titular.
Important excavations directed by Garstang (1920-24) on Tell el-Hadra, at maritime A., and at ancient A., have confirmed the historical data concerning the various civilizations that succeeded one another there. In addition to Herod’s agora, an
exedra, statues of Victory and Isis, and notable Christian remains have been discovered there (a Byzantine basilica of the 7th cent., and a Latin church of the Crusaders).