AZOTO (Heb. 'Asdôdû; Assyr. Asdûdû; Gr. "Açô-705; today Esdûd). — One of the five Philistine cities (Jos. 13:3), which remained such throughout (1 Sam. 5:1-8). Located 5 km from the Mediterranean, equidistant (55 km) between Gaza and Jaffa, on the road between Egypt and Syria, it held strategic and commercial importance. It was famous for the temple of Dagon, the Philistine deity, where the Philistines brought the ark of the covenant after capturing it in battle (1 Sam. 5:1-8; Judg. 16:23).
Sargon, king of Assyria, captured it in 711 B.C. (Is. 20:1), and according to Herodotus (II, 157), so did Psammetichus I, king of Egypt (663-610 B.C.). In 163 and 143 B.C., it was taken and destroyed by the Maccabees (1 Macc. 5:68; ibid. 10:77-84; 11:4). Under Roman rule, it was declared free by Pompey and rebuilt in 55 B.C. by Gabinius, proconsul of Syria (Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, XIV, 5, 3; Bellum Judaicum, I, 8, 4). Populated by Jews and Greeks, it later belonged to the kingdom of Herod, who by testament bequeathed it to his sister Salome (4 B.C.).
In 1 Macc. 9:15, instead of "mountain of A.," unknown and in contrast to the context, it has been proposed to read "mountain of Hasor," which would be Baal-Hasor of 2 Sam. 13:23, the present-day Gebel el-'Asûr (F.-M. Abel, in Revue Biblique, 33 [1924], pp. 380-87; L. Pirot, Asot, in DBs, I, cols. 682-84).
Evangelized by the deacon Philip (Acts 8:40), it was the seat of a bishopric in Palaestina Prima in the 4th-6th centuries. Silvanus, bishop of A., attended the Council of Nicaea in 325; three other bishops of A. are known: Charisius, Heraclius, Lazarus. Since the 14th century it has been a titular see, which until the mid-18th century was conferred upon the auxiliaries of Trier.
GAETANO M. PERRELLA