The independence of the city is proved by the fact that Gaza had then its own independent kalendar.
a.d. 129-130.—Special tokens of favour were bestowed upon Gaza by Hadrian. The twenty-two coins of Gaza (the new era), as described in detail by De Saulcy, Numismatique de la Palestine, pp. 215-18, refer to Hadrian's residence within the city. Dr. Coles, of Haifa, possesses a large number of Hadrian's Gaza coins.
"In the second and third centuries Gaza became a prosperous centre of Greek commerce and culture. Her schools were good, but her temples were famous, circling round the Marneion.... The schools of Gaza in philosophy and rhetoric grew more and more distinguished. Students, it is said, left Athens to learn the Attic style in Philistia, and even Persia borrowed her teachers." —G. A. Smith.
c. a.d. 300-371.—St. Hilarion, the first hermit of Palestine, was born at Thabatha, five miles from Gaza. (The reader is referred to Chapter IX for the Life of St. Hilarion.)
a.d. 307.—Copies of the Holy Scriptures had escaped their general destruction under Diocletian's Edict, and were still in use at Gaza when persecution raged there in this year.
a.d. 308.—St. Sylvanus, Bishop of Gaza, and others were martyred on May 4, during the persecution of Maximianus I.
a.d. 330.—Asclepas, Bishop of Gaza, who was accused of being "secretly tainted with Arianism," was deserted by the majority of the devout clergy and laity, and deposed, a.d. 341, but afterwards he received full acquittal.
Asclepas was present at the first Œcumenical Council of Nicæa, a.d. 325.
c. a.d. 335.—Constantine the Great rewarded the inhabitants of Mayoumas, the port of Gaza, for their unanimous adoption of Christianity, by erecting their town into "the city of Constantia" (Κωνστάντεια). It seems that this emperor, finding the inland city authorities obdurately pagan, gave a separate Constitution to its sea-town, but Julian (a.d. 361-363) took these privileges away.