Gaza

• SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:Gaza (subject)
• ANCIENT SOURCES: see Gaza (sources)

Gaza (modern Gaza, Gaza Strip) was a city on the Mediterranean coast.

History

Gaza was, like Ascalon and Azotus, a very old Philistine settlement, often recorded in ancient Jewish sources. It was with Tyre the strongest fortress along the coast.

Gaza was conquered in 529 BCE by Cambyses II. Under the Persians it was a royal fortress called Kadytis by Herodotus.

In 332 BCE Gaza was the only city in the land of Israel to oppose Alexander the Great, who besieged and razed the city and sold its inhabitants into slavery. Gaza was then under Ptolemaic and since 198 BCE, Seleucid rule.

The commercial importance of the town increased as Gaza became the Mediterranean outlet of the Incense Route controlled by the Nabateans.

Jonathan Maccabeus first attacked Gaza in 145 BCE. The city was eventually besieged by Alexander Jannaeus around 96 BCE. According to Josephus, the inhabitants of Gaza requested help from Aretas II but the Nabatean king failed to come to the rescue and the city was destroyed.

The reconstruction of Gaza occurred only in the Roman period (around 57 BCE) by Gabinius. The city was briefly under the rule of Herod the Great but after his death it was annexed once more to the province of Syria.

Gaza was attacked and sacked during the Jewish War and resurrected as a Roman colony afterward.

The city continued to flourish in Byzantine and Muslim times.

Gaza in ancient sources

• See Gaza (sources)

References

• Gaza / The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (1973-1987 Schurer / Vermes), book / 2 (1979) 98-103

External links

• Wikipedia
• Jewish Virtual Library