Rome and the East
ence to veterans is certain, and there is probably an allusion to two different
villages, one known by a Greek name and one by a Semitic one. There seems
no reason to dispute its identification with Talmudic GDRW / modern Kh.
Jidru, south-east of Akko. Also south-east of Akko we have a fragmentary
Latin inscription with the wordspagoandvicinalon separate lines^78 —enough
to suggest the existence of apagusof settlers here, as at Niha in the Bekaa
valley.
Some support, but far from wholly certain, for the idea of an actual settle-
ment of veterans, is offered by the coinage of the city as acolonia; the earliest
coins, struck under Nero, name DIVOS CLAUD and have the normal symbol
of the founder with his plough marking out the boundary. Four legionary
standards are represented, but no agreement has been reached on the iden-
tification of the tiny numbers shown on them.^79 It is none the less clear that
some actual settlement of veterans took place. But from the very slight evi-
dence for the history of the city as acolonianothing is really certain except
that it continued to mint coins with Latin legends identifying itself as acolo-
niainto the reign of Valerian and Gallienus. There appear, however, to be no
Latin inscriptions from the city to illustrate public use of Latin there. The
real nature of the social and cultural mix produced by the process of founda-
tion must remain mysterious. But here too we can be reasonably certain that
no wholesale removal or disturbance of the existing population took place;
the massacre of , Jews, and the imprisonment of many others, by the
Ptolemaeans in.. must be seen as reflections of long-standing commu-
nal tensions, as they were in other cities of the region.^80 On any construction
the foundation of acoloniahere and at this moment remains a puzzle. It is
true, as Isaac points out, that there had been violent intercommunal clashes
between Jews and Samaritans in the procuratorship of Ventidius Cumanus
(probably..–), which required the judicial intervention of the im-
periallegatusof Syria, Ummidius Quadratus, and led to the dismissal of the
procuratorhimself.^81 But there is nothing to show that Quadratus, in visiting
. Avi-Yonah (n. ), , no. AE, . J. Meyer, ‘‘A Centurial Stone from Sha-
vei Tziyyon,’’Scripta Classica Israelica (–): , publishes what may be a centuriation
cippusfrom the territory of Akko. Note also the very full and suggestive study by Sh. Apple-
baum, ‘‘The Roman Colony of Ptolemais—‘Ake and Its Territory,’ ’’ in hisJudaeainHellenistic
and Roman Times: Historical and Archaeological Essays(), .
. Seyrig (n. ), –. Dr. C. J. Howgego kindly tells me that the numerals III, VI, X?,
and XI(?) can be read.
. Josephus,BJ, .
. Isaac (n. ), .