The shallot (Allium cepa, var. aggregatum) is also listed in older works as Allium ascalonium after the town of Ascalon, Syria where it is said to originate. Theophrastus (372 - 288 BCE) describes the "Askolonion krommoon" which may or may not be a reference to the shallot. Pliny (23 - 79 CE) describes "the Ascalon onion, named for a town in Judaea" in the Natural History, Book XIX but this seems to be in reference to a different Allium, because it is propagated from seed rather than divisions.
The country of the Ascalonitae is a good onion-market, though the town is small.
Immanuel Loew, the German-Jewish scholar who pioneered the study of plants mentioned in ancient Jewish sources, designated the בצלצול?span> betzaltzul as A. ascalonicum.
De ui uit Askelon
Standbeelden te Askelon