The Holy Land and the Bible; . ter his death, Salome,his sister, received the city from Caesar as part of her dowry; and inher days, as in those of Herod, alongside the worship of Derketo flour-ished that of a multitude of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses,which were not dethroned till the days of Arcadius, 400 3ears the last great Jewish war, Ascalon suffered terribly; the Hebrewshaving turned against it, in fierce revenge for its population havingmassacred 2,500 of their race in an outbreak of anti-Semitism of avery malignant type. But before the Crusades it had risen, once more, 1
The Holy Land and the Bible; . ter his death, Salome,his sister, received the city from Caesar as part of her dowry; and inher days, as in those of Herod, alongside the worship of Derketo flour-ished that of a multitude of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses,which were not dethroned till the days of Arcadius, 400 3ears the last great Jewish war, Ascalon suffered terribly; the Hebrewshaving turned against it, in fierce revenge for its population havingmassacred 2,500 of their race in an outbreak of anti-Semitism of avery malignant type. But before the Crusades it had risen, once more, 1 Judg. i. 18. 2 Diod. sic. (ii. 4) has a curious legend respecting it. Tlie position of the lake isonly conjectural. 3 1 Mace. x. S6; xi. 60. 4 2 Sam. i. 20. The Ascalon noticed in the history ofSamson may have been a town of that name near his own country in the hills. He could hardlyhave ventured into a great place lilvc the sea-side Ascalon, to slay thirty rwiistines. 5 Jer. ; xlvii. 5—7, 6 Jos, BeU. Jud., i. 21, ^•1 ASCALON. 127 under the Arabs, to be a flourishing town, and it was only wrestedfrom them in a. d. 1153, after a seven months siege, by Baldwin years later it was retaken by Saladin, and dismantled, sothat the reign of the Crusaders was short. It iiad, in Iact, fallen belbreRichard the Lion-hearted set foot in the Holy Land. I^o make its ruinmore com{)lete, its miserable harbor was filled up with stones, so thatfor 700 years no vessels conld make it their haven. Fierce and bloodybattles between Saracen and Crusader stormed round and within thehalf-circle of these walls. Merchants of all lands bn^ight their waresto it wliile it w^as a Christian city, but from the time that Saladindestroyed it, in 1187, it has been desolate. The Ascalon of the Cru-saders now lies under many feet of soil, from which memorials of itsgreatness in days far earlier than the Middle Ages continue, as we haveseen to be dug up. Beside the marble pillars thus re
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishern, booksubjectbible
