A Late Hellenistic Lead Coinage from Gaza

Abstract

The author attributes three previously unknown lead coins dated SE 235 (78/7 BCE) to
the city of Gaza. This new dated coinage poses a serious problem for the Josephan
account of the city’s destruction at the hands of Alexander Jannaeus in c. 95/4 BCE,
which indicates that Gaza lay in ruins until it was restored by Gabinius in 57 BCE. It is
suggested that the damage to Gaza may have been exaggerated by Josephus and that the
Gazans probably still survived as a corporate entity in some manner following the disastrous
war with Jannaeus.