"In the last days of paganism the great god of Gaza, now known as Marnas (our lord), was regarded as the god of rains, and invoked against famine. That Marnas was lineally descended from Dagon is probable, and it is therefore interesting to note that he gave oracles, that he had a circular temple, where he was sometimes worshipped by human sacrifices, that there were wells in the sacred circuit, and that there was also a place of adoration to him, situated, in old Semitic fashion, outside the town. Certain _Marmora_ in the temple, which might not be approached, especially by women, may perhaps be connected with the threshold which the priests of Dagon would not touch with their feet"[19] (1 Sam. v. 5). Herod Agrippa I became King of Judæa A.D. 41, and possessed the entire kingdom of Herod the Great. Among the coins of Agrippa I under Claudius, Madden (_Coins of the Jews_, p. 137, No. 2) reproduces a coin which probably represents a ceremony taking place in the temple of the god Marnas at Gaza. "There were in Gaza eight temples of the Sun, of Venus, of Apollo, of Proserpine, and of Hecate; that which is called Heroon, or of the Priests, that of the Fortune of the City, called Τυχεῖον, and that of Marneion, which the citizens said is the Cretan-born Jupiter, and which they considered to be more glorious than any other temple in existence." Dr. Donald Coles, of Haifa, has, in his collection of over one hundred specimens of Gaza coins, an exceptionally interesting coin of Hadrian, A.D. 130, in excellent condition, re-struck under Simon Bar-Cochab, A.D. 132-135. This Hadrian bronze coin is quoted in De Saulcy's _Numismatique de la Terre Sainte_, p. 215, No. 1, and the re-struck coin during the Revolt of the Jews, A.D. 132-135 is reproduced on Plate XV, No. 4, in his _Recherches sur la numismatique judaïque_. It was not unusual for these Simon Bar-Cochab coins to be re-struck from Ascalon, and other current coinage. Among all the writers in the _Quarterly Statement_ of the P. E. F. from 1894-1901 on the Swastica, or Fylfot, not one of them seems to be aware that the Swastica is constantly found as the distinguishing mint-mark of Gaza, _e.g._ on Plate XI of _Numismatique de la Palestine_, Gaza coins, there are both the sign [swastica sign] of the male Swastica, and the more common [swastica sign] female Swastica, revolving in the opposite direction on the reverse of coins of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, Faustina Junior and Lucilla, Julia Domna, Plautilla, Geta. The Swastica is an Eastern symbol of the Sun, and is occasionally known as Gammadion, and mystic Fylfot. The latest idea formed regarding the Swastica is, that it may be a form of the old wheel symbolism, and that it represents the solar system. It is often connected with the Sun, as in the Island of Melos, first colonised by Phœnicia. Its great diffusion in Eastern Asia is due to its being a Buddhist emblem, "the wheel of the law."