Ascalon and GazaThe calendars of Ascalon and Gaza, as represented in thehemerologia,^150 were
structurally identical and conterminous to the Egyptian, Alexandrian calen-
dar, with twelve 30-day months followed byfive epagomenal days ending on
28 August (except before Julian leap years, when a sixth epagomenal day
would have been added: see above and Table 5.4). Both cities, however, used
Macedonian month-names, at one month apart from each other: the month
equivalent to Thoth in the Alexandrian calendar (beginning on 29 August)
was Loos in Ascalon, and Gorpiaios in Gaza. As explained above, this one-
month difference was most likely the result of an excessive intercalation in
Ascalon in the post-Seleucid, pre-Roman period.
That these calendars were instituted in the early Roman period has been
disputed by Meimaris (1992) 37, on the basis that under the Romans a more
closely Julian calendar structure would have been chosen (e.g. with 31-day
months); in his view, the Egyptian-type calendars of Ascalon and Gaza must
have been adopted beforehand, during the Hellenistic period. Before the
arrival of the Romans, however, there is no convincing historical context for
this to have taken place. Ascalon and Gaza were under Ptolemaic rule during
the third centuryBCE, but as we have seen, in this period the Ptolemaic
Macedonian calendar was still lunar (and thus distinct from the Egyptian
civil calendar) and in dominant use in Palestine for official, administrative
purposes (see Chapter 4 n. 116). Even if Ascalon and Gaza had adopted the
Egyptian calendar in this period, it would have been with Egyptian month-
names (as in other possessions of the Ptolemaic Empire, e.g. Cyprus and Libya
Cyrenaica; see Chapter 4) rather than with the Macedonian names that were
used for the Ptolemaic lunar calendar. During most of the second centuryBCE,
Ascalon and Gaza came under Seleucid rule; in this period, they would have
had no reason to abandon the Macedonian lunar calendar of the Seleucid
kingdom in favour of the Egyptian calendar. After Gaza was annexed by
Alexander Jannaeus in the earlyfirst centuryBCE, its calendar would have
remained largely unchanged, being similar to or identical with the lunar post-
Seleucid calendar of the kingdom of Judaea. The situation in Ascalon is more
uncertain after it became independent in 104BCE, but there is no obvious
reason why it should have adopted then the calendar of Egypt.^151 Both cities
(^150) For papyrological confirmation of the calendar of Ascalon, dating from 359CE(with the
date 14 Gorpiaios = 12 October), see Kubitschek (1915) 97. The calendar of Gaza is epigraphi-
cally confirmed in southern Palestine in the 6th c.CE: Schürer (1973–87) ii. 103, Meimaris (1992)
119.
(^151) Annexation of Gaza: Schürer (1973–87) ii. 101. Independence of Ascalon: ibid. 90–1,
106 – 7, Meimaris (1992) 66. It is in this period, as I have argued earlier, that Gaza and Ascalon
made excessive intercalations to their lunar Macedonian calendar. A certain allegiance of
Ascalon to Egypt is evident in the representation of Egyptian rulers on the city’s coins after
Fragmentation: Babylonian and Julian Calendars 289