Raphia
Raphia is a historic coastal town located at the southern boundary of the Gaza Strip, bordering the Sinai Peninsula. It has a rich history, being a significant station on the ancient coastal road known as Via Maris, which was recognized as early as the second millennium BC. The town was the site of several notable battles, including a significant confrontation in 720 BC when the Assyrian King Sargon II defeated an Egyptian force. Another major battle occurred in 217 BC between the Seleucid King Antiochus III and Ptolemy IV of Egypt, which concluded with an Egyptian victory that had lasting implications for the political dynamics in the region.
Throughout its history, Raphia has seen various rulers, including annexation by the Hasmonaean monarch Alexander I Jannaeus and liberation by Pompey the Great. It was later rebuilt by Aulus Gabinius in 58 BC. The geographer Ptolemy described Raphia as part of Judaea, and local coinage from different historical periods often referred to the town as "holy." In the later Roman Empire, Raphia became an episcopal see, indicating its continued significance in the region. This overview of Raphia highlights its strategic importance and evolving political landscape throughout history.
Raphia
(Rafah)
A coastal town at the southwestern extremity of Judaea (on the southern boundary of the Gaza strip, administered by Israel, bordering the Sinai peninsula, now returned to Egypt). A station on the coastal road (Via Maris, Ways of Horus) already heard of in the second millennium BC, although according to Diodorus it afforded no anchorage and was subject to shoals. In 720 an Egyptian force that had come to the aid of Gaza was defeated at Raphia by the Assyrian King Sargon II.
In 217 it was again the scene of a major battle, when very large forces of the Seleucid Antiochus III the Great and Ptolemy IV Philopator clashed in the neighborhood. After the Egyptian right wing had routed its opponents, and the Seleucid right wing had done the same, the battle was decided by the two great masses by heavy infantry at the center, fighting on both sides with their flanks uncovered; the Egyptians proved victorious, and Antiochus fled to Raphia and thence to Antioch, his imperialistic plans checked. But the battle also had longterm effects on the stability of the Ptolemaic monarchs, since it was their native Egyptian troops who had won the battle, so that this ethnic element henceforward felt able to assert itself as a political force.
The Jewish (Hasmonaean) monarch Alexander I Jannaeus (103–76) annexed Raphia to his kingdom. As Josephus records, the city was liberated by Pompey the Great in 64 and rebuilt by Aulus Gabinius in 58, when it inaugurated a new era. The geographer Ptolemy (cAD 100–78) described it as a city of Judaea (Syria Palaestina). Local coinage, sometimes describing the place as `holy’ (hiera), extends from Marcus Aurelius (161–80) to Philip the Arab (244–49). In the later empire the city was an episcopal see of Palaestina Prima, on its border with Palaestina Tertia (Salutaris).