Antioch

an'ti-ok, once a name ranking with Rome, Athens, Alexandria, and Babylon; now an obscure city of Syria. It is situated on the Orontes, fifteen miles from the Mediterranean. It was founded in the midst of a beautiful fertile plain, 300 B. C. When Alexander's kingdom broke into fragments, the capital of the eastern or Babylonian kingdom was located finally at Antioch. The city was noted for the splendor and magnificence of its public buildings. A straight street four miles in length led eastward through its center. A covered portico, supported by a double row of marble pillars, rose along each side. The river Orontes and a dark cypress grove sacred to Daphne added to the beauty of the vicinity. "Antioch, the Beautiful," "The Crown of the East," were favorite names. Thirteen successive monarchs were proud to be called Antiochus. A royal palace, senate house, gilded temple of Jupiter, theater, amphitheater, aqueduct, public gardens, and baths were erected in a style exhibiting the combined influence of Grecian art, eastern luxury, and unlimited wealth. Situated only fifteen miles from a safe seaport at the mouth of the little river, favored by the government, Antioch became the western terminus of the eastern caravan trade.

The city has had a varied history. Under the Roman Empire it was a city of importance, and became a center of the Christian faith. Antioch is referred to in Acts xi: 26: "And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Many Christian churches were erected. Ten general councils of the church were held here.

Antioch passed successively into the hands of the Saracens, the Greek emperors, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes of Egypt, and finally in 1516, into the hands of the Turks. Earthquakes and hovel builders have left little of the old splendor standing. The present city is a squalid place of 20,000 people. There is some export trade in silks, leather, carpets, goat's wool, and beeswax; but, with a better day dawning on the Orient, Antioch may again become a city of importance.

See Smyrna