What city can we say is worthy to be compared with this? More fortunate than the oldest, it is superior to some in size, surpasses others in the nobility of its lineage, and others in its all-producing territory," Libanius wrote in the fourth century. The city beyond compare was Antioch.

The rhetorician conceded that Constantinople may have had finer walls, but Antioch was greater "in the abundance of its water and in the mildness of its winter, in the refinement of its inhabitants and in its pursuit of learning." It was better than Rome "because of that fairest thing, Hellenic education and literature."

Located in what is today southeastern Turkey, Antioch flourished from its founding in 300 b.c. until the sixth century a.d. Sitting as it did at the crossroads between Persia and the West, Antioch drew missionaries and merchants, saints and soldiers, actors and artisans. As Libanius wrote, if a man "sits in our marketplace, he will sample every city; there will be so many people from each place with whom he can talk."

Antioch was founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great's generals. "Alexander the Great made no provisions for his succession," says Rice University historian Michael Maas, a contributor to the exhibition catalog. "After his death, his generals began to compete for the empire. After long and bloody civil wars, Seleucus founded what became the Seleucid Empire and made Antioch his capital."

Seleucus had chosen the location carefully, keeping in mind climate, water supply, and security. He built a port city, called Seleucia Pieria, where the Orontes River meets the Mediterranean and located Antioch about ten miles up the river. Halfway between the port and Antioch, he built the resort town of Daphne. Its natural springs and gorgeous vistas made it a favorite retreat for the wealthy of Antioch. Antioch's wide streets accommodated caravans carrying goods from the East. There were theaters, temples, and a library, and public squares adorned with statues of heroes and deities that provided meeting spaces for the city's inhabitants, who spent much of their time outdoors.

When the Romans defeated the weakened Seleucids in 64 b.c., they annexed Antioch and made it the capital of the province of Syria. While it behooved those who wished to gain positions of power in the Roman administration to learn Latin, Greek remained the primary language of the city.

Hellenistic culture remained intact; the Romans just added to the city's beauty and comfort, lining the main street with colonnades, building temples to Roman gods, paving the gravel roads, and constructing aqueducts. Later, as the Roman Empire became a Christian one, several magnificent churches were built.

At the time of the Roman takeover, Antioch was polytheist, but had a large Jewish sector that had been established at the time of the city's settlement.

Antioch also became an important center for the early Christians. There the Gospel of Matthew was written, and there Peter and Paul converted gentiles. It was in Antioch that followers of Christ were first called "Christians."

A series of calamities in the sixth century--a great fire, earthquakes, a Persian invasion, and plague--greatly diminished the city. Roman rule continued until 636 when the city was taken by Muslim armies who conquered, in the name of the new religion, much of what is today the Middle East and northern Africa. The city subsequently was held by Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks. After World War I, Syria controlled Antioch under French mandate. The city spent 1938 as the capital of the independent province of Hatay, and in 1939, Antioch, or Antakya, became incorporated into Turkey.

Sources:

Archaeology Today
Writer Sara Wilson
Karl Otfried Müller, Antiquitates Antiochenae
R. Forster, in Jahrbuch of Berlin Arch. Institute, xii.

The Articles of Antioch:

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