Akko 3

A K K O

A short history in antiquity. Part 3.

Phoenician Period.

In the beginning of the 9^th century BC the town is refortified and new residential quarters and large public buildings arise in the northern and eastern sectors of the tell.

Finally a 20 hectares wide settlement exists about 700 meters from the sea on the northern bank of the river Na’aman, which turned just before the Kurkar hill to the west.  

It can not be established whether Acco overseas participated in the Phoenician expansion.

Assyrian period.

In 727 BC Acco was forced to join a anti-Tyrus coalition by king Salmannassar V of Assyria. They fought half hearted a sea battle and were driven away from Tyre.

The Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 BC: “In my third campaign I went against the Hittite land (Syria). Luli, king of Sidon, - the terrors of the splendours of my sovereignty overcame him and far off in the midst of the sea he fled. There he died. Great-Sidon, Little-Sidon, Bit-Zitti, Sarepta, Mahalliba, Ushu, Akzib, Akka, his strong, walled cities where there were fodder and drinking-places for his garrisons, - the terror of the weapons of Assur, my lord, overpowered them and they bowed in submission at my feet….”

The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC) says: “I slaughtered the rebel populace of Acco. Their corpses I hung on stacks around the city. I carried away the survivors to Assyria, joined them to my military organisation, adding to the many troops which Assur had given me.” (ARAB II, 830). Around 640 BC Acco is fully under Assyrian state-control.

Persian period.

The Persians consider Acco as a Phoenician town.

In this period Acre (Acco) was more important than its northern neighbour Akzib for in 374 BC it played a strategic role, and Artaxerxes II concentrated his troops there in preparation for his campaign against Egypt (Diod.15.410). Under the Achaemenids (Cambyses) Acco becomes a important administrative centre.

At the end of this period the residents of Tell el Fukhar moved to the peninsula and made there a new harbour. This peninsula is 700m long and 300-600m wide. They started to make a breakwater in order to make a safe haven against the incoming winds. These expanded harbour constructions at the port of Acco attests to the burgeoning commerce and economy.

Acco has developed to an important maritime base for the Persians (Strabo XVI 2,25 + Diod. XV 41,3). It has become also an important centre for Greek trade.

Hellenistic Period.

Ptolemais I tears down the walls of the town in 312 BC (Diod.XIX 93,7).

Ptolemais II got hold of Acco in 281 BC and decorated it. He renamed it to Ace-Ptolemaïs.

Acco swithes between the empires of the Ptolemaic rulers and the Seleucids.  Antiocus VII gives it the title: holy and inviolable.  After a intermediate period under Alexander Janné, Ptolemeus IX and Tigranes of Armenia the Roman period begins.

Roman period.

In 54 AD the town got the name Colonia Ptolemaïs.