The RomanColoniaeof the Near East were reflections of local conflicts, involving the Jews and their Roman rulers,
and indeed in the latter two cases there is no room for doubt on the matter.
In the case of Ptolemais, the earliest of them, a military context, and indeed
an actual veteran settlement, is probable, as Isaac has shown. But, perhaps
surprisingly, the actual process, or moment, of foundation cannot be located
within either of Josephus’ two detailed narratives of the period. Indeed, by
contrast with Berytus (n. above), Josephus nowhere alludes to either Ptole-
mais or Caesarea as acolonia/ἀποικία. The fact that Ptolemais’ foundation as a
colonia(whatever that in practise meant) took place under Claudius (..–
) is, however, attested by Pliny the Elder, writing in the s.^73 As an event,
the foundation of thenovacoloniais also reflected in a milestone of.., on
the coast road from Antioch via Berytus to Ptolemais.^74 Here too, of course,
whatever actual settlement of veterans took place did so in the context of
an ancient city, which in this instance had already acquired a Greek dynastic
name in the Hellenistic period.^75 As ‘‘Ptolemais,’’ or, as it appears on coins of
Claudius,Γερμανικεῖς, it continued to mint Greek coins up to../, so
thecoloniabelongs in the last years of the reign. Thereafter the coins show
the city with its full Latin titleCol(onia) Cla(udia) Stab(ilis) Ger(manica) Felix
Ptol(emais).^76
There is also just sufficient evidence from the surrounding area to make
clear that veterans actually were settled. An inscription from beside the Ro-
man road running north along the coast readsImp.Ner./Caesari/Col.Ptol./
Veter./,viciNeaComeetGedru.^77 The grammar is far from clear, but the refer-
. Plin.,Nat. Hist.,:Colonia Claudi Caesaris Ptolemais, quae quondam Acce.
. P. Thomsen, ‘‘Die römischen Meilensteine der Provinzen Syria, Arabia und Palae-
stina,’’ZDPV (): , on , no. , a (from the Nahr el-Ghadir, south of Beirut):[Nero
Cl]audius[CaesarAu]g(ustus)Germanicus[trib.potest.]bis,cos.[designa]tusiterum[viam?]abAnti-
ochea [munivit? ad n]ovam colon[ia]m [Ptolemaid]a....SeeR.G.Goodchild, ‘‘The Coast Road
of Phoenicia and Its Roman Milestones,’’Berytus (–): and pl. xx.
. For the evidence, see Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryII, –; cf. N. Kashtan,
‘‘Akko-Ptolemais: A Maritime Metropolis in Hellenistic and Early Roman Times, ...–
.., as Seen through the Literary Sources,’’Med. Hist. Rev. (): .
. See L. Kadman,The Coinage of Akko-Ptolemais(); see, for revisions of Kadman’s
views, H. Seyrig, ‘‘Le monnayage de Ptolmais en Phénicie,’’RN (): ScriptaNumis-
matica(), ; ‘‘Deux émissions coloniales incertaines,’’RN (): , who discusses,
on p. , the legend COL. C(onstans?) ST PTOL, found on some examples. I owe to Alla
Stein the information that the Greek coinage of Ptolemais terminates by../, rather
than / as Kadman states.
. M. Avi-Yonah, ‘‘Newly-Discovered Latin and Greek Inscriptions,’’QDAP ():
,,no.AE, .