Description : Anthedon (Ancient Greek: Ἀνθηδών) was a Hellenistic city near Gaza. and former Roman Catholic bishopric, now a Latin Catholic titular see. The location of ancient Anthedon is inside the Gaza Strip, at a place with the Arabic name Tell Blakhiyah 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of the port of Gaza). It has been identified with Tida or Theda, a site near Beit Lahiya known from medieval Arab sources. Immediately to the north of it there is a hill still called Teda; the name seems to be a corruption of "Anthedon". Some parts of the city wall are still standing, and port structures are visible: they have been explored by a Franco-Palestinian archaeological expedition between 1995 and 2005, under the direction of Father Jean-Baptiste Humbert. Potsherds have also been found in sandy dunes. On April 2, 2012, the Ancient city was listed as a tentative World Heritage Site by Palestine. In 2013, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, bulldozed part of the harbour to expand its military training zone. The Deputy Minister of Tourism in Gaza, Muhammad Khela, said the location would not be damaged by the expansion, despite criticism from local activists and the UNESCO office in Gaza. Located between Gaza and Ascalon, the city served as port to the former. It was inhabited from the Mycenaean era to the early Byzantine age, but it was during the Hellenistic period that the port northwest of Gaza, populated by immigrants from Anthedon, Boeotia, became an independent city under the name Anthedon. As a Greek city, it had an agora and temples. The citizens' life was chiefly dedicated to fishing and shipbuilding. The city was governed by a Council of 500 members and had its own army commanded by a strategos. Anthedon is first mentioned by Flavius Josephus in Jewish Antiquities, dealing with the period when it was conquered by the Jewish leader Alexander Jannaeus and destroyed. In 64 BC it was liberated by Pompey and subsequently rebuilt by his successor Gabinius. Later on, Anthedon along with coastal Province Judea passed into the hands of Cleopatra and then to Augustus, who assigned it to Herod. The latter renamed the city Agrippias in honor of Agrippa, a Roman general and son-in-law to Octavian Augustus. During the "Jewish War" (66–70 AD), the religious faction of the Zealots attacked Anthedon, but the attack was successfully repelled and the city remained Hellenistic. It was important enough in the Roman province of Palestina Prima to become a suffragan bishopric of its capital's Metropolitan Archbishop of Caesarea in Palestina, but later faded.
See on map »Description : Anthedon (Ἀνθηδών) was a town in Boeotia, Ancient Greece, located on the coast of the Gulf of Euboea, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Chalcis, at the foot of Mount Messapius. It was member of the Amphictyonic League, and served as port for Thebes. In ancient times, it was believed to have had one of the mythical characters named Anthedon as its eponym. The ruins of the town are situated 1 1/2 mile from the village Loukisia. The oldest mention of the city is found in Homer's Iliad, Catalogue of Ships, where it is given the epithet "furthermost", i. e. the most geographically remote town of Boeotia to the northern Gulf of Euboea. Ancient inhabitants of Anthedon derived their origin from the sea-god Glaucus, who was believed to have been originally a native of the place. A surviving ancient coin now stored in the Archaeological Museum of Chalkis bears on one side a representation of Glaucus. The Anthedonians appear to have been a different race from the other people of Boeotia, and are described by one writer as Thracians (this is a misinterpretation; in this case Anthedon is a Thracian man and not Anthedon the city in Boeotia). Dicaearchus informs that they were chiefly mariners, shipwrights and fishermen, who derived their subsistence from trading in fish, purple (dye, from seashells), and sponges. He adds that the agora was surrounded with a double stoa, and planted with trees. An important archaeological guide to Anthedon is Pausanias' Description of Greece, which informs that there was a sacred grove of the Cabeiri in the middle of the town, surrounding a temple of those deities, and near it a temple of Demeter and Persephone. Outside the walls was a temple of Dionysus, and a spot called “the leap of Glaucus.” The wine of Anthedon was celebrated in antiquity. The tomb of Iphimedeia and her sons, the Aloadae, was shown at Anthedon.
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