ASCALON (Heb. 'Alqelôn; Assyr. Asqalâna; Egyp. Asqalna; mod. Arab. Hirbet 'Asqalân). - A Palestinian city between Ashdod 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 11th Egyptian dynasty (19th century B.C.). It came under the influence of Cypriot and Mycenaean culture (from the 16th century B.C.). It was conquered by Ramses II (13th century); then around 1200 it became one of the five Philistine cities (v. PENTAPOLI). Joshua did not succeed in taking it (Josh. 13:3); Judah occupied it in the period of the Judges, but only for a short time (Judg. 1:18).
It was a vassal of the Assyrians, and, in the Persian period, of Tyre. It was devoted to the worship of the Hittite-form deity Derceto (Atargatis) and of Astarte (Herodotus, I, 105); perhaps the temple of Astarte, of which there is mention in 1 Sam. 31:10, was at A. After Alexander's conquest, it became a center of Hellenistic culture (noteworthy is the philosopher Antiochus, teacher of Cicero). In the 3rd century B.C. it belonged to the Ptolemies, but with Antiochus III (v.) it passed to the Seleucids. Twice it opened its gates to the Maccabees Jonathan and Simon (1 Macc. 10:86; 11:60).
From 104 B.C. it was a free city, with its own era and coinage, and it flourished under the protectorate of Rome. Herod the Great adorned it with monuments (Flavius Josephus, Bell. Iud., I, 21, 11), although it does not appear that he was a native of A., as many held (E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüd. Volkes, I, 4th ed., Leipzig 1901, p. 293; U. Holzmeister, Historia aetatis Novi Test., 2nd ed., Rome 1938, p. 24). A. was always hostile to the Jews.
Paganism remained vigorous there, and under Julian the Apostate the populace martyred many Christians there (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 of it 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 Bethlehem. Under the Muslims from 644 (with a brief interval in the crusading period, 1154-1270), it was destroyed in 1270 by the sultan Baibars, and never rose again. The episcopal see of A. has since then been titular.
Important excavations directed by Garstang (1920-24) on Tell el-Hadra, on maritime A. and on ancient A., have confirmed the historical data on the various civilizations that succeeded one another there. There have been discovered, besides Herod's agora, an exedra, statues of Victory and of Isis, notable Christian remains (a Byzantine basilica of the 7th century, a Latin church of the Crusaders).
Bibliography5 works
Gaetano M. Perrella