writers to Ashdod, an ancient
city of Palestine, now represented by a few remains in the little village
of _'Esdud_, in the governmental district of Acre. It was situated about 3
m. inland from the Mediterranean, on the famous military route between
Syria and Egypt, about equidistant (18 m.) from Joppa and Gaza. As one of
the five chief cities of the Philistines and the seat of the worship of
Dagon (1 Sam. v.; cf. 1 Macc. x. 83), it maintained, down even to the days
of the Maccabees, a vigorous though somewhat intermittent independence
against the power of the Israelites, by whom it was nominally assigned to
the territory of Judah. In 711 B.C. it was captured by the Assyrians (Is.
xx. 1), but soon regained its power, and was strong enough in the next
century to resist the assaults of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, for
twenty-nine years (Herod. ii. 157). Restored by the Roman Gabinius from the
ruins to which it had been reduced by the Jewish wars (1 Macc. v. 68, x.
77, xvi. 10), it was presented by Augustus to Salome, the sister of Herod.
The only New Testament reference is in Acts viii. 40. Ashdod became the
seat of a bishop early in the Christian era, but seems never to have
attained any importance as a town. The Mount Azotus of 1 Macc. ix. 15,
where Judas Maccabeus fell, is possibly the rising ground on which the
village stands. A fine Saracenic kh[=a]n is the principal relic of
antiquity at 'Esdud.

AZOV, or Asov (in Turkish, _Asak_), a town of Russia, in the government of
the Don Cossacks, on the left bank of the southern arm of the Don, about 20
m. from its mouth. The ancient Tanais lay some 10 m. to the north. In the
13th century the Genoese had a factory here which they called Tana. Azov
was long a place of great military and commercial importance. Peter the
Great obtained possession of it after a protracted siege in 1696, but in
1711 restored it to the Turks; in 1739 it was finally united to the Russian
empire. Since then it has greatly declined, owing to the silting up of its
harbour and the competition of Taganrog. Its population, principally
engaged in the fisheries, numbered 25,124 in 1900.

AZOV, SEA OF an inland sea of southern Europe, communicating with the Black
Sea by the Strait of Yenikale, or Kerch, the ancient _Bosporus Cimmerius_.
To the Romans it was known as the _Palus Maeotis_, from the name of the
neighbouring people, who called it in their native language _Temarenda_, or
Mother of Waters. It was