Antioch
VIEW:61 DATA:01-04-2020
speedy as a chariot
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
ANTIOCH (Syrian).By the issue of the battle of Ipsus, Seleucus Nikator (b.c. 312280) secured the rule over most of Alexander the Greats Asiatic empire, which stretched from the Hellespont and the Mediterranean on the one side to the Jaxartes and Indus on the other. The Seleucid dynasty, which he founded, lasted for 247 years. Possessed with a mama for building cities and calling them after himself or his relatives, he founded no fewer than 37, of which 4 are mentioned in the NT(1) Antioch of Syria (Act_11:19), (2) Seleucia (Act_13:4), (3) Antioch of Pisidia (Act_13:14; Act_14:21, 2Ti_3:11), and (4) Laodicea (Col_4:13-16, Rev_1:11; Rev_3:14). The most famous of the 16 Antiochs, which he built and named after his father Antiochus, was Antioch on the Orontes in Syria. The spot was carefully chosen, and religious sanction given to it by the invention of a story that sacred birds had revealed the site while he watched their flight from a neighbouring eminence. It was politically of advantage that the seat of empire should be removed from the Euphrates valley to a locality nearer the Mediterranean. The new city lay in the deep bend of the Levant, about 300 miles N. of Jerusalem. Though 14 miles from the sea, the navigable river Orontes, on whose left bank it was built, united it with Seleucia and its splendid harbour. Connected thus by the main caravan roads with the commerce of Babylon, Persia, and India, and with a seaport keeping it in touch with the great world to the W., Antioch speedily fell heir to that vast trade which had once been the monopoly of Tyre. Its seaport Seleucia was a great fortress, like Gibraltar or Sebastopol. Seleucus attracted to his new capital thousands of Jews, by offering them equal rights of citizenship with all the other inhabitants. The citizens were divided into 18 wards, and each commune attended to its own municipal affairs.
His successor, Antiochus I., Soter (b.c. 280261), introduced an abundant water supply into the city, so that every private house had its own pipe, and every public spot its graceful fountain. He further strove to render Antioch the intellectual rival of Alexandria, by inviting to his court scholars, such as Aratus the astronomer, and by superintending the translation into Greek of learned works in foreign tongues. In this way the invaluable history of Babylon by Berosus, the Chaldæan priest, has been rescued from oblivion.
The succession of wars which now broke out between the Seleucidæ and the Ptolemys is described in Dan_11:1-45. The fortunes of the war varied greatly. Under the next king but one, Seleucus II., Kallinikus (b.c. 246226), Ptolemy Euergetes captured Seleucia, installed an Egyptian garrison in it, and harried the Seleucid empire as far as Susiana and Bactria, carrying off to Egypt an immense spoil. Worsted on the field, Kallinikus devoted himself to the embellishment of his royal city. As founded by S. Nikator, Antioch had consisted of a single quarter. Antiochus I., Soter, had added a second, but Kallinikus now included a third, by annexing to the city the island in the river and connecting it to the mainland by five bridges. In this new area the streets were all at right angles, and at the intersection of the two principal roads the way was spanned by a tetrapylon, a covered colonnade with four gates. The city was further adorned with costly temples, porticoes, and statues. But the most remarkable engineering feat begun in this reign was the excavation of the great dock at Seleucia, the building of the protecting moles, and the cutting of a canal inland through high masses of solid rock. The canal is successively a cutting and a tunnel, the parts open to the sky aggregating in all 1869 ft., in some places cut to the depth of 120 ft., while the portions excavated as tunnels (usually 24 ft. high) amount in all to 395 ft.
With Antiochus III., the Great (b.c. 223187), the fortunes of the city revived. He drove out the Egyptian garrison from Seleucia, ended the Ptolemaic sovereignty over Judæa, reduced all Palestine and nearly all Asia Minor to his sway, until his might was finally shattered by the Romans in the irretrievable defeat of Magnesia (b.c. 190). After the assassination of his son Seleucus IV., Philopator (b.c. 187175), who was occupied mostly in repairing the financial losses his kingdom had sustained, the brilliant but wholly unprincipled youth Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (b.c. 175164), succeeded to the throne. With the buffoonery of a Caligula and the vice of a Nero, he united the genius for architecture and Greek culture which he inherited from his race. In his dreams Antioch was to be a metropolls, second to none for beauty, and Greek art and Greek religion were to be the uniform rule throughout all his dominions. To the three quarters already existing he added a fourth, which earned for Antioch the title Tetrapolis. Here he erected a Senate House, a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on one of the eminences of Mt. Silpius, and a strong citadel on another spur of the mountains that surround the city. From E. to W. of Antioch he laid out a splendid corso with double colonnades, which ran for 5 miles in a straight line. In wet weather the populace could walk from end to end under cover. Trees, flowers, and fountains adorned the promenade; and poets sang of the beauty of the statue of Apollo and of the Nymphæum which he erected near the river. To avert the anger of the gods during a season of pestilence, he ordered the sculptor Leios to hew Mt. Silpius into one vast statue of Charon, the infernal ferryman. It frowned over the city, and was named the Charonium. Epiphanes policy of Hellenizing Palestine evoked the determined opposition of the Maccabees, and in the wars which ensued his forces suffered many defeats, though the injuries and atrocities he committed in Jerusalem were unspeakable. With Antiochus Epiphanes died the grandeur of the Syrian throne.
Succeeding princes exercised only a very moderate influence over the fortunes of Palestine, and the palmy days of Antioch as a centre of political power were gone for ever. The city was the scene of many a bloody conflict in the years of the later Seleucidæ, as usurper after usurper tried to wade through blood to the throne, and was shortly after overcome by some rival. In several of these struggles the Jews took part, and as the power of Antioch waned, the strength and practical independence of the Jewish Hasmonæan princes increased. In b.c. 83 all Syria passed into the hands of Tigranes, king of Armenia, who remained master of Antioch for 14 years. When Tigranes was overwhelmed by the Romans, Pompey put an end to the Seleucid dynasty, and the line of Antiochene monarchs expired in b.c. 65. The strong Pax Romana gave new vigour to the city. Antioch was made a free city, and became the seat of the prefect and the capital of the Roman province of Syria. Mark Antony ordered the release of all the Jews in it enslaved during the recent disturbances, and the restoration of their property. As a reward for Antiochs fidelity to him, Julius Cæsar built a splendid basilica, the Cæsareum, and gave, besides, a new aqueduct, theatre, and public baths. Augustus, Agrippa, Herod the Great, Tiberius, and, later, Antoninus Pius, all greatly embellished the city, contributing many new and striking architectural features. The ancient walls were rebuilt to the height of 5060 ft., with a thickness at the top of 8 ft., and surmounted by gigantic towers. The vast rampart was carried across ravines up the mountain slope to the very summit of the hills which overlook the city. Antioch seemed thus to be defended by a mountainous bulwark, 7 miles in circuit. Earthquakes have in later ages demolished these walls, though some of the Roman castles are still standing.
When Christianity reached Antioch, it was a great city of over 500,000 inhabitants, called the Queen of the East, the Third Metropolis of the Roman Empire. In Antioch the Beautiful there was to be found everything which Italian wealth, Greek æstheticism, and Oriental luxury could produce. The ancient writers, however, are unanimous in describing the city as one of the foulest and most depraved in the world. Cosmopolitan in disposition, the citizens acted as if they were emancipated from every law, human or Divine. Licentiousness, superstition, quackery, indecency, every fierce and base passion, were displayed by the populace; their skill in coining scurrilous verses was notorious, their sordid, fickle, turbulent, and insolent ways rendered the name of Antioch a byword for all that was wicked. Their brilliance and energy, so praised by Cicero, were balanced by an incurable levity and shameless disregard for the first principles of morality. So infamous was the grove of Daphne, five miles out of the city, filled with shrines to Apollo, Venus, Isis, etc., and crowded with theatres, baths, taverns, and dancing saloons, that soldiers detected there were punished and dismissed the Imperial service. Daphnic morals became a proverb. Juvenal could find no more forcible way of describing the pollutions of Rome than by saying, The Orontes has flowed into the Tiber. In this Vanity Fair the Jews were resident in large numbers, yet they exerted little or no influence on the morals of the city. We hear, however, of one Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch (Act_6:5), and there may have been more. But after the death of St. Stephen, Christian fugitives from persecution fled as far north as Antioch, began to preach to the Greeks there (Act_11:19), and a great number believed. So great was the work that the Jerus. Church sent Barnabas to assist, who, finding that more help was needed, sought out and fetched Saul from Tarsus. There they continued a year, and built up a strong Church. Antioch had the honour of being the birthplace of (1) the name Christian (Act_11:26), and (2) of foreign missions. From this city Paul and Barnabas started on their first missionary journey (Act_13:1-4), and to Antioch they returned at the end of the tour (Act_14:26). The second journey was begun from and ended at Antioch (Act_15:35-41; Act_18:22); and the city was again the starting-point of the third tour (Act_18:23). The Antiochene Church contributed liberally to the poor saints in Jerus. during the famine (Act_11:27-30). Here also the dispute regarding the circumcision of Gentile converts broke out (Act_15:1-22), and here Paul withstood Peter for his inconsistency (Gal_2:11-21). After the fall of Jerusalem, Antioch became the true centre of Christianity. A gate still bears the name of St. Pauls Gate. It was from Antioch that Ignatius set out on his march to martyrdom at Rome. The city claimed as its natives John Chrysostom, Ammianus Marcellinus, Evagrius, and Libanius. From a.d. 252380 Antioch was the scene of ten Church Councils. The Patriarch of Antioch took precedence of those of Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. Antioch was captured in a.d. 260 by Sapor of Persia; in a.d. 538 it was burned by Chosroes; rebuilt by Justinian, it again fell before the Saracens in a.d. 635. Nicephorus Phocas recovered it in a.d. 969, but in a.d. 1084 it fell to the Seljuk Turks. The first Crusaders retook it in 1098 after a celebrated siege, signalized by the invention of the Holy Lance; but in 1268 it passed finally into the hands of the Turks. Earthquakes have added to the ruining hand of man. Those of b.c. 184, a.d. 37, 115, 457, and esp. 526 (when 200,000 persons perished), 528, 1170, and 1872 have been the most disastrous. The once vast city has shrunk into a small, ignoble, and dirty town of 6,000 inhabitants, still, however, hearing the name of Antaki (Turkish) or Antakiyah (Arabic). It is again the centre of a Christian mission, and the Church of Antioch, as of old, is seeking to enlighten the surrounding darkness.
G. A. Frank Knight.
ANTIOCH (Pisidian).The expression Antioch of Pisidia or Antioch in Pisidia is incorrect, as the town was not in Pisidia. Its official title was Antioch near Pisidia, and as it existed for the sake of Pisidia, the adjective Pisidian was sometimes loosely attached to it. It was actually in the ethnic district of Phrygia, and in the Roman province of Galatia (that region of it called Phrygia Galatica). Founded by the inhabitants of Magnesia, it was made a free town by the Romans, and a colonia was established there by the emperor Augustus to keep the barbarians of the neighbourhood in check. The municipal government became Roman, and the official language Latin. St. Paul visited it four times (Act_13:14; Act_14:21; Act_16:6; Act_18:22), and it is one of the churches addressed in the Epistle to the Galatians.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
1. In Syria, capital of its Greek kings, and of its Roman governors subsequently. Built where Lebanon running N. and Taurus E., meet at a bend of the river Orontes; partly on an island, partly on the level left bank. Near it was Apollo's licentious sanctuary, Daphne. Nicolas the deacon was a proselyte of Antioch. The Christians dispersed by Stephen's martyrdom preached at Antioch to idolatrous Greeks, not "Grecians" or Greekspeaking Jews, according to the Alexandrine manuscript (Act_11:20; Act_11:26), whence a church having been formed under Barnabas and Paul's care, the disciples were first called "Christians" there. From Antioch their charity was sent by the hands of Barnabas and Saul to the brethren at Jerusalem suffering in the famine.
Paul began his ministry systematically here. At Antioch Judaizers from Jerusalem disturbed the church (Act_15:1). Here Paul rebuked Peter for dissimulation (Gal_2:11-12). From Antioch Paul started on his first missionary journey (Act_13:1-3), and returned to it (Act_14:26). He began, after the Jerusalem decree, addressed to the Gentile converts at Antioch, and ended, his second missionary journey there (Act_15:36; Act_18:22-23). His third journey also began there. Ignatius was subsequently bishop there for forty years, down to his martyrdom A. D. 107.
Antioch was founded by Seleucus Nicator, and Jews were given the same political privileges as Greeks. Antiochus Epiphanes formed a great colonnaded street intersecting it from one end to the other. Pompey made it a free city. The citizens were framed for scurrility and giving nick-names. "Christian" was probably a name of their invention, and not of the disciples' origination. (See CHRISTIAN.) Now called Antakia, a poor mean place; some ancient walls remain on the crags of mount Silpius. A gateway still bears the name of Paul.
2. ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA: Also founded by Seleucus Nicator. Made a colony by Rome; called also Caesarea. Now Yalobatch, on a high ridge. When Paul, on his first missionary tour with Barnabas, preached in the synagogue there, many Gentiles believed. The Jews therefore raised a persecution by the wealthy women of the place, and drove him from Antioch to Iconium, and followed him even to Lystra (Act_13:14; Act_13:50-51; Act_14:19; Act_14:21). On his return from Lystra he revisited Antioch to confirm the souls of the disciples amidst their tribulations. In 2Ti_3:11 he refers to Timothy's acquaintance with his trials at Antioch of Pisidia; and Timothy's own home was in the neighborhood (Act_16:1).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
An'tioch. (from Antiochus)
1. In Syria. The capital of the Greek kings of Syria, and afterwards the residence of the Roman governors of the province which bore the same name.
Situation. This metropolis was situated where the chain of Lebanon, running northward, and the chain of Taurus, running eastward, are brought to an abrupt meeting. Here the Orontes breaks through the mountains; and Antioch was placed at a bend of the river, 16 1/2 miles from the Mediterranean, partly on an island, partly on the levee which forms the left bank, and partly on the steep and craggy ascent of Mount Silpius, which, rose abruptly on the south.
It is about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. In the immediate neighborhood was Daphne, the celebrated sanctuary of Apollo 2Ma_4:33; whence the city was sometimes called Antioch by Daphne, to distinguish it from other cities of the same name.
Destruction. The city was founded in the year 300 B.C., by Seleucus Nicator. It grew under the successive Seleucid kings till it became a city of great extent and of remarkable beauty. One feature, which seems to have been characteristic of the great Syrian cities, a vast street with colonnades, intersecting the whole from end to end, was added by Antiochus Epiphanes.
By Pompey, it was made a free city, and such it continued till the time of Antoninus Pius. The early emperors raised there some large and important structures, such as aqueducts, amphitheatres and baths. (Antioch, in Paul's time, was the third city of the Roman empire, and contained over 200,000 inhabitants. Now it is a small, mean place of about 6000. ? Editor).
Bible History. No city, after Jerusalem, is so intimately connected with the history of the apostolic church. Jews were settled there from the first in large numbers, were governed by their own ethnarch, and allowed to have the same political privileges with the Greeks.
The chief interest of Antioch, however, is connected with the progress of Christianity among the heathen, Here the first Gentile church was founded, Act_11:20-21, here the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christians. Act_11:26. It was from Antioch that St. Paul started on his three missionary journeys.
2. In Pisidia, Act_13:14; Act_14:19; Act_14:21; 2Ti_3:11, on the borders of Phrygia, corresponds to Yalobatch, which is distant from Aksher six hours over the mountains. This city, like the Syrian Antioch, was founded by Seleucus Nicator. Under the Romans, it became a colonia, and was also called Caesarea.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a city of Upper Syria, on the river Orontes, about twenty miles from the place where it discharges itself into the Mediterranean. It was built by Seleucus Nicanor, about three hundred years before Christ; and became the seat of empire of the Syrian kings of the Macedonian race, and afterward of the Roman governors of the eastern provinces; being very centrally and commodiously situated midway between Constantinople and Alexandria, about seven hundred miles from each, in 37 17' north latitude, and 36 45' east longitude. No city perhaps, Jerusalem excepted, has experienced more frequent revolutions, or suffered more numerous and dire calamities, than Antioch; as, besides the common plagues of eastern cities, pestilence, famine, fire, and sword, it has several times been entirely overthrown by earthquakes.
In 362, the emperor Julian spent some months at Antioch; which were chiefly occupied in his favourite object of reviving the mythology of Paganism. The grove at Daphne, planted by Seleucus, which, with its temple and oracle, presented, during the reigns of the Macedonian kings of Syria, the most splendid and fashionable place of resort for Pagan worship in the east, had sunk into neglect since the establishment of Christianity. The altar of the god was deserted, the oracle was silenced, and the sacred grove itself defiled by the interment of Christians. Julian undertook to restore the ancient honours and usages of the place; but it was first necessary to take away the pollution occasioned by the dead bodies of the Christians, which were disinterred and removed! Among these was that of Babylas, a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of Decius, and after resting near a century in his grave within the walls of Antioch, had been removed by order of Callus into the midst of the grove of Daphne, where a church was built over him; the remains of the Christian saint effectually supplanting the former divinity of the place, whose temple and statue, however, though neglected, remained uninjured. The Christians of Antioch, undaunted by the conspiracy against their religion, or the presence of the emperor himself, conveyed the relics of their former bishop in triumph back to their ancient repository within the city. The immense multitude who joined in the procession, chanted forth their execrations against idols and idolaters; and on the same night the image and the temple of the Heathen god were consumed by the flames. A dreadful vengeance might be expected to have followed these scenes; but the real or affected clemency of Julian contented itself with shutting up the cathedral, and confiscating its wealth. Many Christians, indeed, suffered from the zeal of the Pagans; but, as it would appear, without the sanction of the emperor.
In 1268, Antioch was taken by Bibars, or Bondocdar, sultan of Egypt. The slaughter of seventeen thousand, and the captivity of one hundred thousand of its inhabitants, mark the final siege and fall of Antioch; which, while they close the long catalogue of its public woes, attest its extent and population. From this time it remained in a ruinous and nearly deserted condition, till, with the rest of Syria, it passed into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, with whose empire it has ever since been incorporated.
To distinguish it from other cities of the same name, the capital of Syria was called Antiochia apud Daphnem, or Antioch near Daphne, a village in the neighbourhood, where was a temple dedicated to the goddess of that name; though, in truth, the chief deity of the place was Apollo, under the fable of his amorous pursuit of the nymph Daphne; and the worship was worthy of its object. The temple stood in the midst of a grove of laurels and cypresses, where every thing was assembled which could minister to the senses; and in whose recesses the juvenile devotee wanted not the countenance of a libertine god to abandon himself to voluptuousness. Even those of riper years and graver morals could not with safety breathe the atmosphere of a place where pleasure, assuming the character of religion, roused the dormant passions, and subdued the firmness of virtuous resolution. Such being the source, the stream could scarcely be expected to be more pure; in fact, the citizens of Antioch were distinguished only for their luxury in life and licentiousness in manners. This was an unpromising soil for Christianity to take root in. But here, nevertheless, it was planted at an early period, and flourished vigorously. It should be observed, that the inhabitants of Antioch were partly Syrians, and partly Greeks; chiefly, perhaps, the latter, who were invited to the new city by Seleucus. To these Greeks, in particular, certain Cypriot and Cyrenian converts, who had fled from the persecution which followed the death of Stephen, addressed themselves; and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
When the heads of the church at Jerusalem were informed of this success, they sent Barnabas to Antioch, who encouraged the new disciples, and added many to their number; and finding how great were both the field and the harvest, went to Tarsus to solicit the assistance of Paul. Both this Apostle and Barnabas then taught conjointly at Antioch; and great numbers were, by their labours during a whole year, added to the rising church, Act_11:19-26; Act_15:22-35. Here they were also joined by Peter, who was reproved by Paul for his dissimulation, and his concession to the Jews respecting the observance of the law, Gal_2:11-14.
Antioch was the birthplace of St. Luke and Theophilus, and the see of the martyr Ignatius. In this city the followers of Christ had first the name of Christians given them. We have the testimony of Chrysostom, both of the vast increase of this illustrious church in the fourth century, and of the spirit of charity which continued to actuate it. It consisted at this time of not less than a hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were supported out of the public donations. It is painful to trace the progress of declension in such a church as this. But the period now referred to, namely, the age of Chrysostom, toward the close of the fourth century, may be considered as the brightest of its history subsequent to the Apostolic age, and that from which the church at Antioch may date its fall. It continued, indeed, outwardly prosperous; but superstition, secular ambition, the pride of life; pomp and formality in the service of God, in place of humility and sincere devotion; the growth of faction, and the decay of charity; showed that real religion was fast disappearing, and that the foundations were laid of that great apostasy which, in two centuries from this time, overspread the whole Christian world, led to the entire extinction of the church in the east, and still holds dominion over the fairest portions of the west.
Antioch, under its modern name of Antakia, is now but little known to the western nations. It occupies, or rather did till lately occupy, a remote corner of the ancient enclosure of its walls. Its splendid buildings were reduced to hovels; and its population of half a million, to ten thousand wretched beings, living in the usual debasement and insecurity of Turkish subjects. Such was nearly its condition when visited by Pococke about the year 1738, and again by Kinneir in 1813. But its ancient subterranean enemy, which, since its destruction in 587, never long together withheld its assaults, has again triumphed over it: the earthquake of the 13th of August, 1822, laid it once more in ruins; and every thing relating to Antioch is past.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
An?tioch. Two places of this name are mentioned in the New Testament.
Antioch, 1
A city on the banks of the Orontes, 300 miles north of Jerusalem, and about 30 from the Mediterranean. It was situated in the province of Seleucis, called Tetrapolis. It was the metropolis of Syria, the residence of the Syrian kings, and afterwards became the capital of the Roman provinces in Asia. It ranked third, after Rome and Alexandria, among the cities of the empire, and was little inferior in size and splendor to the latter. Its suburb Daphne was celebrated for its grove and fountains, its asylum and temple were dedicated to Apollo and Diana. It was very populous; within 150 years after its erection the Jews slew 100,000 persons in it in one day. In the time of Chrysostom the population was computed at 200,000, of whom one-half, or even a greater proportion, were professors of Christianity. Cicero speaks of the city as distinguished by men of learning and the cultivation of the arts. A multitude of Jews resided in it. Seleucus Nicator granted them the rights of citizenship, and placed them on a perfect equality with the other inhabitants. These privileges were continued to them by Vespasian and Titus. Antioch is called libera by Pliny, having obtained from Pompey the privilege of being governed by its own laws.
The Christian faith was introduced at an early period into Antioch, and with great success (Act_11:19; Act_11:21; Act_11:24). The name 'Christians' was here first applied to its professors (Act_11:26). Antioch soon became a central point for the diffusion of Christianity among the Gentiles, and maintained for several centuries a high rank in the Christian world. A controversy which arose between certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem and the Gentile converts at Antioch respecting the permanent obligation of the right of circumcision was the occasion of the first apostolic council or convention (Acts 15). Antioch was the scene of the early labors of the apostle Paul, and the place whence he set forth on his first missionary labors (Act_11:26; Act_13:2). Ignatius was the second bishop or overseer of the church, for about forty years, till his martyrdom in A.D. 107.
As the ecclesiastical system became gradually assimilated to the political, the churches in those cities which held the highest civil rank assumed a corresponding superiority in relation to other Christian communities. Such was the case at Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, and, in the course of time, at Constantinople and Jerusalem, where the term Exarch was applied to the resident bishop, but shortly exchanged for that of Patriarch. At the present time there are three prelates in Syria who claim the title of patriarchs of Antioch, namely: (1) the patriarch of the Greek church; (2) of the Syrian Monophysites; (3) of the Maronites.
Few cities have undergone and survived greater vicissitudes and disasters than Antioch. In A.D. 260 Sapor, the Persian king, surprised and pillaged it, and multitudes of the inhabitants were slain or sold as slaves. It has been frequently brought to the verge of utter ruin by earthquakes; by that of A.D. 526 no less than 250,000 persons were destroyed, the population being swelled by an influx of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The emperor Justinian gave forty-five centenaries of gold (180,000l.) to restore the city. Scarcely had it resumed its ancient splendor (A.D. 540) when it was again taken and delivered to the flames by Chosroes. In A.D. 658 it was captured by the Saracens. In A.D. 975 it was retaken by Nicephoras Phocas. In A.D. 1080 the son of the governor Philaretus betrayed it into the hands of Soliman. Seventeen years after the Duke of Normandy entered it at the head of 300,000 Crusaders; but as the citadel still held out, the victors were in their turn besieged by a fresh host under Kerboga and twenty-eight emirs, which at last gave way to their desperate valor. In A.D. 1268 Antioch was occupied and ruined by Boadocbar or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and Syria; this first seat of the Christian name being dispeopled by the slaughter of 17,000 persons, and the captivity of 100,000. About the middle of the fifteenth century the three patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem convoked a synod, and renounced all connection with the Latin church.
Antioch at present belongs to the Pashalic of Haleb (Aleppo), and bears the name of Antakia. The inhabitants are said to have amounted to twenty thousand before the earthquake of 1822, which destroyed four or five thousand. The present town stands on scarcely one-third of the area enclosed by the ancient wall, of which the line may be easily traced.
Antioch, 2
Antioch in (or near)Pisidia, being a border city, was considered at different times as belonging to different provinces. It was founded by Seleucus Nicanor, and its first inhabitants were from Magnesia on the Maeander. After the defeat of Antiochus (III) the Great by the Romans, it came into the possession of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, and was afterwards transferred to Amyntas. On his death the Romans made it the seat of a proconsular government, and invested it with the privileges of immunity from taxes and a municipal constitution similar to that of the Italian towns. When Paul and Barnabas visited this city (Act_13:14), they found a Jewish synagogue and a considerable number of proselytes, and met with great success among the Gentiles (Act_13:48), but, through the violent opposition of the Jews, were obliged to leave the place, which they did in strict accordance with their Lord's injunction (Act_13:51, compared with Mat_10:14; Luk_9:5).
Till within a very recent period Antioch was supposed to have been situated where the town of Ak-Sheker now stands; but later investigations have determined its site to be adjoining the town of Yalobatch; and Mr. Arundell observed there the remains of several temples and churches, besides a theater and a magnificent aqueduct; of the latter twenty-one arches still remained in a perfect state.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Antioch
(Α᾿ντιόχεια, from Antiohus), the name of two places mentioned in the New Testament.
1. ANTIOCH IN SYRIA. A city on the banks of the Orontes, 300 miles north of Jerusalem, and about 30 from the Mediterranean. This metropolis was situated where the chain of Lebanon, running northward, and the chain of Taurus, running eastward, are brought to an abrupt meeting. Here the Orontes breaks through the mountains; and Antioch was placed at a bend of the river, partly on an island, partly on the level which forms the left bank, and partly on the steep and craggy ascent of Mount Silpius, which rose abruptly on the south. It was in the province of Seleucis, called Tetrapolis, from containing the four cities Antioch, Seleucia, Apamea, and Laodicea; of which the first was named after Antiochus, the father of the founder; the second after himself; the third after his wife Apama; and the fourth in honor of his mother. The same appellation (Tetrapolis, Τετράπολις) was given also to Antioch, because it consisted of four townships or quarters, each surrounded by a separate wall, and all four by a common wall. The first was built by Seleucus Nicator, who peopled it with inhabitants from Antigonia; the second by the settlers belonging to the first quarter; the third by Seleucus Callinicus; and the fourth by Antiochus Epiphanes (Strabo, 16:2; 3:354). It was the metropolis of Syria (Tac. Hist. 2, 79), the residence of the Syrian kings, the Seleucidae (1Ma_3:37; 1Ma_7:2), and afterward became the capital of the Roman provinces in Asia. It ranked third, after Rome and Alexandria, among the cities of the empire Josephus, War, 3, 2, 4), and was little inferior in size and splendor to the latter or to Seleucia (Strabo, 16:2; 3:355, ed. Tauch.). Its suburb Daphne was celebrated for its grove and fountains (Strabo, 16:2; 3:356, ed. Tauch.), its asylum (2Ma_4:33), and temple dedicated to Apollo and Diana. The temple and the village were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every hill, preserved the verdure of the earth and the temperature of the air (Gibbon, ch. 23). Hence Antioch was called Epidaphnes (Α᾿ντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Δάφνῃ, Josephus, Ant. 17, 2, 1; Epidaphnes cognominata, Plin. Hist. Nat. 5,18). It was very populous; within 150 years after its erection the Jews slew 100,000 persons in it in one day (1Ma_11:47). In the time of Chrysostom the population was computed at 200,000, of whom one half, or even a greater proportion, were professors of Christianity (Chrysos. Adv. Jud. 1, 588; Hom. in Ignat. 2, 597; In Matthew Hon. 85, 7:810). Chrysostom also states that the Church at Antioch maintained 3000 poor, besides occasionally relieving many more (In Matthew Hom. 7, 658). Cicero speaks of the city as distinguished by men of learning and the cultivation of the arts (Pro Archia, 3). A multitude of Jews resided in it. Seleucus Nicator granted them the rights of citizenship, and placed them on a perfect equality with the other inhabitants (Josephus, Ant. 12, 3, 1). These privileges were continued to them by Vespasian and Titus an instance (Josephus remarks) of the equity and generosity of the Romans, who, in opposition to the wishes of the Alexandrians and Antiocheans, protected the Jews, notwithstanding the provocations they had received from them in their wars (Apion, 2, 4). They were also allowed to have an archon or ethnarch of their own (Josephus, War, 7, 3, 3). Antioch is called libera by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 5,18), having obtained from Pompey the privilege of being governed by its own laws (see Smith, Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.).
The Christian faith was introduced at an early period into Antioch, and with great success (Act_11:19; Act_11:21; Act_11:24). The name Christians was here first applied to its professors (Act_11:26). No city, after Jerusalem, is so intimately connected with the history of the apostolic Church. One of the seven deacons or almoners appointed at Jerusalem was Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch (Act_6:5). The Christians who were dispersed from Jerusalem at the death of Stephen preached the Gospel at Antioch (Act_11:19). It was from Jerusalem that Agabus and the other prophets who foretold the famine came to Antioch (Act_11:27-28); and Barnabas and Saul were consequently sent on a mission of charity from the latter city to the former (Act_11:30; Act_12:25). It was from Jerusalem, again, that the Judaizers came who disturbed the Church at Antioch (Act_15:1); and it was at Antioch that Paul rebuked Peter for conduct into which he had been betrayed through the influence of emissaries from Jerusalem (Gal_2:11-12). Antioch soon became a central point for the diffusion of Christianity among the Gentiles, and maintained for several centuries a high rank in the Christian world (see Semler, Initia societatis Christ. Antiochiae, Hal. 1767). A controversy which arose between certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem and the Gentile converts at Antioch respecting the permanent obligation of the rite of circumcision was the occasion of the first apostolic council or convention (Act_15:1). Antioch was the scene of the early labors of the Apostle Paul, and the place whence he set forth on his first missionary labors (Act_11:26; Act_13:2). Ignatius was the second bishop or overseer of the Church, for about forty years, till his martyrdom in A.D. 107. In the third and following centuries a number of councils were held at Antioch, SEE ANTIOCH, COUNCILS OF, and in the course of the fourth century a new theological school was formed there, which thence derived the name School of Antioch. SEE ANTIOCH, SCHOOL OF. Two of its most distinguished teachers were the presbyters Dorotheus and Lucian, the latter of whom suffered martyrdom in the Dioclietian persecution, A.D. 312 (Neander, Ahegemeine Geschichte, 1, 3, p. 1237; Gieseler, Lerbuch,. i,. 272; Lardner, Credibility, pt. 2, ch.55, 58). Libanius (born A.D. 314), the rhetorician, the friend and pangyrist of the Emperor Julian, was a native of Antioch (Lardner, Testimonies of Ancient Heathens, ch. 49; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc. ch. 24). It had likewise the less equivocal honor of being the birthplace of his illustrious pupil, John Chrysostom, born A. D. 347, died A.D. 407 (Lardner, Credibility, pt. 2, ch. 118; Neander, Allgemeine Geschichte, 2, 3, p. 1440-1456, Hug, Antiochia, Berl. 1863). On the further history of the Church of Antioch, see ANTIOCH, PATRIARCHATE OF.
Antioch was founded, B.C. 300, by Seleucus Nicator, with circumstances of considerable display, which were afterward embellished by fable. The situation was well chosen, both for military and commercial purposes. Antioch grew under the successive Seleucid kings till it became a city of great extent arnd of remarkable beauty. Some of the most magnificentl buildings were on the island. One feature, which seems to have been characteristic of the great Syrian cities a vast street with colonnades, intersecting the whole from end to end was added by Antiochus Epiphanes. Some lively notices of the Antioch of this period, and of its relation to Jewish history, are supplied by the books of Maccabees (see especially 1Ma_3:37; 1Ma_11:13; 2Ma_4:7-9; 2Ma_5:21; 2Ma_11:36). The early emperors raised there some large and important structures, such as aqueducts, amphitheatres, and baths. Herod the Great contributed a road and a colonnade (Josephus, Ant. 16, 5, 3; War, 1, 21, 11). In A.D. 260 Sapor, the Persian king, surprised and pillaged it, and multitudes of the inhabitants were slain or sold as slaves. It has been frequently brought to the verge of utter ruin by earthquakes (A.D. 340, 394, 396, 458, 526, 528); by that of A.D. 526 no less than 250,000 persons were destroyed, the population being swelled by an influx of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The Emperor Justinian gave forty-five centenaries of gold ($900,000) to restore the city. Scarcely had it resuned its ancient splendor (A.D. 540) when it was again taken and delivered to the flames by Chosroes. In A.D. 658 it was captured by the Saracens. Its safety was ransomed with 300,000 pieces of gold, but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government in the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, and holy, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town (Gibbon, 51). In A.D. 975 it was retaken by Nicephoras Phocas. In A.D. 1080 the son of the governor Philaretus betrayed it into the hands of Soliman. Seventeen years after the Duke of Normandy entered it at the head of 300,000 crusaders; but, as the citadel still held out, the victors were in their turn besieged by a fresh host under Kerboga and twenty-eight emirs, which at last gave way to their desperate valor (Gibbon, 58). In A.D. 1268 Antioch was occupied and ruined by Boadoebar or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and Syria; this first seat of the Christian name being depopulated by the slaughter of 17,000 persons, and the captivity of 100,000. About the middle of the fifteenth century the three patriarchs of Alexandria,.Antioch, and Jerusalem convoked a synqd, and renounced all connection with the Latin Church (see Cellar. Notit. 2, 417 sq.; Richter, Wallfahrt, p. 281; Mannert, VI, 1, 467 sq.).
Antioch at present belongs to the pashalic of Haleb (Aleppo), and bears the name of Antakia (Pococke, 2 - 277 sq.; Niebuhr, 3, 15 sq.). The inhabitants are said to have amounted to twenty thousand before the earthquake of 1822, which destroyed four or five thousand. On the south-west side of the town is a precipitous mountain ridge, on which a considerable portion of the old Roman wall of Antioch is still standing, from 30 to 50 feet high and 15 feet in thickness. At short intervals 400 high square towers are built up in it, containing a staircase and two or three chambers, probably for the use of the soldiers on duty. At the east end of the western hill are the remains of a fortress, with its turrets, vaults, and cisterns. Toward the mountain south-southwest of the city some fragments of the aqueducts remain. After heavy rains antique marble pavements are visible in many parts of the town; and gems, carnelians, and rings are frequently found. The present town stands on scarcely one third of the area enclosed by the ancient wall, of which the line may be easily traced; the entrance to the town from Aleppo is by one of the old gates, called Bab Bablous, or Paul's gate, not far from which the members of the Greek Church assemble for their devotions in a cavern dedicated to St. John (Madox's Excursions, 2, 74; Buckingham, 2:475; Monro's Summer Ramble, 2, 140-143; Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 1, 121-126). The great authority for all that is known of ancient Antioch is Muller's Antiquitates Antiochenoe (Gott. 1839). Modern Antakia is a shrunken and miserable place. Some of the walls, shattered by earthquakes, are described in Chesney's account of the Euphrates Expedition (1, 310 sq.; comp. the history, ib. 2, 423 sq.), where also is given a view of the gateway which still bears the name of St. Paul.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
ANTIOCH (Syrian).By the issue of the battle of Ipsus, Seleucus Nikator (b.c. 312280) secured the rule over most of Alexander the Greats Asiatic empire, which stretched from the Hellespont and the Mediterranean on the one side to the Jaxartes and Indus on the other. The Seleucid dynasty, which he founded, lasted for 247 years. Possessed with a mama for building cities and calling them after himself or his relatives, he founded no fewer than 37, of which 4 are mentioned in the NT(1) Antioch of Syria (Act_11:19), (2) Seleucia (Act_13:4), (3) Antioch of Pisidia (Act_13:14; Act_14:21, 2Ti_3:11), and (4) Laodicea (Col_4:13-16, Rev_1:11; Rev_3:14). The most famous of the 16 Antiochs, which he built and named after his father Antiochus, was Antioch on the Orontes in Syria. The spot was carefully chosen, and religious sanction given to it by the invention of a story that sacred birds had revealed the site while he watched their flight from a neighbouring eminence. It was politically of advantage that the seat of empire should be removed from the Euphrates valley to a locality nearer the Mediterranean. The new city lay in the deep bend of the Levant, about 300 miles N. of Jerusalem. Though 14 miles from the sea, the navigable river Orontes, on whose left bank it was built, united it with Seleucia and its splendid harbour. Connected thus by the main caravan roads with the commerce of Babylon, Persia, and India, and with a seaport keeping it in touch with the great world to the W., Antioch speedily fell heir to that vast trade which had once been the monopoly of Tyre. Its seaport Seleucia was a great fortress, like Gibraltar or Sebastopol. Seleucus attracted to his new capital thousands of Jews, by offering them equal rights of citizenship with all the other inhabitants. The citizens were divided into 18 wards, and each commune attended to its own municipal affairs.
His successor, Antiochus I., Soter (b.c. 280261), introduced an abundant water supply into the city, so that every private house had its own pipe, and every public spot its graceful fountain. He further strove to render Antioch the intellectual rival of Alexandria, by inviting to his court scholars, such as Aratus the astronomer, and by superintending the translation into Greek of learned works in foreign tongues. In this way the invaluable history of Babylon by Berosus, the Chaldæan priest, has been rescued from oblivion.
The succession of wars which now broke out between the Seleucidæ and the Ptolemys is described in Dan_11:1-45. The fortunes of the war varied greatly. Under the next king but one, Seleucus II., Kallinikus (b.c. 246226), Ptolemy Euergetes captured Seleucia, installed an Egyptian garrison in it, and harried the Seleucid empire as far as Susiana and Bactria, carrying off to Egypt an immense spoil. Worsted on the field, Kallinikus devoted himself to the embellishment of his royal city. As founded by S. Nikator, Antioch had consisted of a single quarter. Antiochus I., Soter, had added a second, but Kallinikus now included a third, by annexing to the city the island in the river and connecting it to the mainland by five bridges. In this new area the streets were all at right angles, and at the intersection of the two principal roads the way was spanned by a tetrapylon, a covered colonnade with four gates. The city was further adorned with costly temples, porticoes, and statues. But the most remarkable engineering feat begun in this reign was the excavation of the great dock at Seleucia, the building of the protecting moles, and the cutting of a canal inland through high masses of solid rock. The canal is successively a cutting and a tunnel, the parts open to the sky aggregating in all 1869 ft., in some places cut to the depth of 120 ft., while the portions excavated as tunnels (usually 24 ft. high) amount in all to 395 ft.
With Antiochus III., the Great (b.c. 223187), the fortunes of the city revived. He drove out the Egyptian garrison from Seleucia, ended the Ptolemaic sovereignty over Judæa, reduced all Palestine and nearly all Asia Minor to his sway, until his might was finally shattered by the Romans in the irretrievable defeat of Magnesia (b.c. 190). After the assassination of his son Seleucus IV., Philopator (b.c. 187175), who was occupied mostly in repairing the financial losses his kingdom had sustained, the brilliant but wholly unprincipled youth Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (b.c. 175164), succeeded to the throne. With the buffoonery of a Caligula and the vice of a Nero, he united the genius for architecture and Greek culture which he inherited from his race. In his dreams Antioch was to be a metropolls, second to none for beauty, and Greek art and Greek religion were to be the uniform rule throughout all his dominions. To the three quarters already existing he added a fourth, which earned for Antioch the title Tetrapolis. Here he erected a Senate House, a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on one of the eminences of Mt. Silpius, and a strong citadel on another spur of the mountains that surround the city. From E. to W. of Antioch he laid out a splendid corso with double colonnades, which ran for 5 miles in a straight line. In wet weather the populace could walk from end to end under cover. Trees, flowers, and fountains adorned the promenade; and poets sang of the beauty of the statue of Apollo and of the Nymphæum which he erected near the river. To avert the anger of the gods during a season of pestilence, he ordered the sculptor Leios to hew Mt. Silpius into one vast statue of Charon, the infernal ferryman. It frowned over the city, and was named the Charonium. Epiphanes policy of Hellenizing Palestine evoked the determined opposition of the Maccabees, and in the wars which ensued his forces suffered many defeats, though the injuries and atrocities he committed in Jerusalem were unspeakable. With Antiochus Epiphanes died the grandeur of the Syrian throne.
Succeeding princes exercised only a very moderate influence over the fortunes of Palestine, and the palmy days of Antioch as a centre of political power were gone for ever. The city was the scene of many a bloody conflict in the years of the later Seleucidæ, as usurper after usurper tried to wade through blood to the throne, and was shortly after overcome by some rival. In several of these struggles the Jews took part, and as the power of Antioch waned, the strength and practical independence of the Jewish Hasmonæan princes increased. In b.c. 83 all Syria passed into the hands of Tigranes, king of Armenia, who remained master of Antioch for 14 years. When Tigranes was overwhelmed by the Romans, Pompey put an end to the Seleucid dynasty, and the line of Antiochene monarchs expired in b.c. 65. The strong Pax Romana gave new vigour to the city. Antioch was made a free city, and became the seat of the prefect and the capital of the Roman province of Syria. Mark Antony ordered the release of all the Jews in it enslaved during the recent disturbances, and the restoration of their property. As a reward for Antiochs fidelity to him, Julius Cæsar built a splendid basilica, the Cæsareum, and gave, besides, a new aqueduct, theatre, and public baths. Augustus, Agrippa, Herod the Great, Tiberius, and, later, Antoninus Pius, all greatly embellished the city, contributing many new and striking architectural features. The ancient walls were rebuilt to the height of 5060 ft., with a thickness at the top of 8 ft., and surmounted by gigantic towers. The vast rampart was carried across ravines up the mountain slope to the very summit of the hills which overlook the city. Antioch seemed thus to be defended by a mountainous bulwark, 7 miles in circuit. Earthquakes have in later ages demolished these walls, though some of the Roman castles are still standing.
When Christianity reached Antioch, it was a great city of over 500,000 inhabitants, called the Queen of the East, the Third Metropolis of the Roman Empire. In Antioch the Beautiful there was to be found everything which Italian wealth, Greek æstheticism, and Oriental luxury could produce. The ancient writers, however, are unanimous in describing the city as one of the foulest and most depraved in the world. Cosmopolitan in disposition, the citizens acted as if they were emancipated from every law, human or Divine. Licentiousness, superstition, quackery, indecency, every fierce and base passion, were displayed by the populace; their skill in coining scurrilous verses was notorious, their sordid, fickle, turbulent, and insolent ways rendered the name of Antioch a byword for all that was wicked. Their brilliance and energy, so praised by Cicero, were balanced by an incurable levity and shameless disregard for the first principles of morality. So infamous was the grove of Daphne, five miles out of the city, filled with shrines to Apollo, Venus, Isis, etc., and crowded with theatres, baths, taverns, and dancing saloons, that soldiers detected there were punished and dismissed the Imperial service. Daphnic morals became a proverb. Juvenal could find no more forcible way of describing the pollutions of Rome than by saying, The Orontes has flowed into the Tiber. In this Vanity Fair the Jews were resident in large numbers, yet they exerted little or no influence on the morals of the city. We hear, however, of one Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch (Act_6:5), and there may have been more. But after the death of St. Stephen, Christian fugitives from persecution fled as far north as Antioch, began to preach to the Greeks there (Act_11:19), and a great number believed. So great was the work that the Jerus. Church sent Barnabas to assist, who, finding that more help was needed, sought out and fetched Saul from Tarsus. There they continued a year, and built up a strong Church. Antioch had the honour of being the birthplace of (1) the name Christian (Act_11:26), and (2) of foreign missions. From this city Paul and Barnabas started on their first missionary journey (Act_13:1-4), and to Antioch they returned at the end of the tour (Act_14:26). The second journey was begun from and ended at Antioch (Act_15:35-41; Act_18:22); and the city was again the starting-point of the third tour (Act_18:23). The Antiochene Church contributed liberally to the poor saints in Jerus. during the famine (Act_11:27-30). Here also the dispute regarding the circumcision of Gentile converts broke out (Act_15:1-22), and here Paul withstood Peter for his inconsistency (Gal_2:11-21). After the fall of Jerusalem, Antioch became the true centre of Christianity. A gate still bears the name of St. Pauls Gate. It was from Antioch that Ignatius set out on his march to martyrdom at Rome. The city claimed as its natives John Chrysostom, Ammianus Marcellinus, Evagrius, and Libanius. From a.d. 252380 Antioch was the scene of ten Church Councils. The Patriarch of Antioch took precedence of those of Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. Antioch was captured in a.d. 260 by Sapor of Persia; in a.d. 538 it was burned by Chosroes; rebuilt by Justinian, it again fell before the Saracens in a.d. 635. Nicephorus Phocas recovered it in a.d. 969, but in a.d. 1084 it fell to the Seljuk Turks. The first Crusaders retook it in 1098 after a celebrated siege, signalized by the invention of the Holy Lance; but in 1268 it passed finally into the hands of the Turks. Earthquakes have added to the ruining hand of man. Those of b.c. 184, a.d. 37, 115, 457, and esp. 526 (when 200,000 persons perished), 528, 1170, and 1872 have been the most disastrous. The once vast city has shrunk into a small, ignoble, and dirty town of 6,000 inhabitants, still, however, hearing the name of Antaki (Turkish) or Antakiyah (Arabic). It is again the centre of a Christian mission, and the Church of Antioch, as of old, is seeking to enlighten the surrounding darkness.
G. A. Frank Knight.
ANTIOCH (Pisidian).The expression Antioch of Pisidia or Antioch in Pisidia is incorrect, as the town was not in Pisidia. Its official title was Antioch near Pisidia, and as it existed for the sake of Pisidia, the adjective Pisidian was sometimes loosely attached to it. It was actually in the ethnic district of Phrygia, and in the Roman province of Galatia (that region of it called Phrygia Galatica). Founded by the inhabitants of Magnesia, it was made a free town by the Romans, and a colonia was established there by the emperor Augustus to keep the barbarians of the neighbourhood in check. The municipal government became Roman, and the official language Latin. St. Paul visited it four times (Act_13:14; Act_14:21; Act_16:6; Act_18:22), and it is one of the churches addressed in the Epistle to the Galatians.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
1. In Syria, capital of its Greek kings, and of its Roman governors subsequently. Built where Lebanon running N. and Taurus E., meet at a bend of the river Orontes; partly on an island, partly on the level left bank. Near it was Apollo's licentious sanctuary, Daphne. Nicolas the deacon was a proselyte of Antioch. The Christians dispersed by Stephen's martyrdom preached at Antioch to idolatrous Greeks, not "Grecians" or Greekspeaking Jews, according to the Alexandrine manuscript (Act_11:20; Act_11:26), whence a church having been formed under Barnabas and Paul's care, the disciples were first called "Christians" there. From Antioch their charity was sent by the hands of Barnabas and Saul to the brethren at Jerusalem suffering in the famine.
Paul began his ministry systematically here. At Antioch Judaizers from Jerusalem disturbed the church (Act_15:1). Here Paul rebuked Peter for dissimulation (Gal_2:11-12). From Antioch Paul started on his first missionary journey (Act_13:1-3), and returned to it (Act_14:26). He began, after the Jerusalem decree, addressed to the Gentile converts at Antioch, and ended, his second missionary journey there (Act_15:36; Act_18:22-23). His third journey also began there. Ignatius was subsequently bishop there for forty years, down to his martyrdom A. D. 107.
Antioch was founded by Seleucus Nicator, and Jews were given the same political privileges as Greeks. Antiochus Epiphanes formed a great colonnaded street intersecting it from one end to the other. Pompey made it a free city. The citizens were framed for scurrility and giving nick-names. "Christian" was probably a name of their invention, and not of the disciples' origination. (See CHRISTIAN.) Now called Antakia, a poor mean place; some ancient walls remain on the crags of mount Silpius. A gateway still bears the name of Paul.
2. ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA: Also founded by Seleucus Nicator. Made a colony by Rome; called also Caesarea. Now Yalobatch, on a high ridge. When Paul, on his first missionary tour with Barnabas, preached in the synagogue there, many Gentiles believed. The Jews therefore raised a persecution by the wealthy women of the place, and drove him from Antioch to Iconium, and followed him even to Lystra (Act_13:14; Act_13:50-51; Act_14:19; Act_14:21). On his return from Lystra he revisited Antioch to confirm the souls of the disciples amidst their tribulations. In 2Ti_3:11 he refers to Timothy's acquaintance with his trials at Antioch of Pisidia; and Timothy's own home was in the neighborhood (Act_16:1).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
An'tioch. (from Antiochus)
1. In Syria. The capital of the Greek kings of Syria, and afterwards the residence of the Roman governors of the province which bore the same name.
Situation. This metropolis was situated where the chain of Lebanon, running northward, and the chain of Taurus, running eastward, are brought to an abrupt meeting. Here the Orontes breaks through the mountains; and Antioch was placed at a bend of the river, 16 1/2 miles from the Mediterranean, partly on an island, partly on the levee which forms the left bank, and partly on the steep and craggy ascent of Mount Silpius, which, rose abruptly on the south.
It is about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. In the immediate neighborhood was Daphne, the celebrated sanctuary of Apollo 2Ma_4:33; whence the city was sometimes called Antioch by Daphne, to distinguish it from other cities of the same name.
Destruction. The city was founded in the year 300 B.C., by Seleucus Nicator. It grew under the successive Seleucid kings till it became a city of great extent and of remarkable beauty. One feature, which seems to have been characteristic of the great Syrian cities, a vast street with colonnades, intersecting the whole from end to end, was added by Antiochus Epiphanes.
By Pompey, it was made a free city, and such it continued till the time of Antoninus Pius. The early emperors raised there some large and important structures, such as aqueducts, amphitheatres and baths. (Antioch, in Paul's time, was the third city of the Roman empire, and contained over 200,000 inhabitants. Now it is a small, mean place of about 6000. ? Editor).
Bible History. No city, after Jerusalem, is so intimately connected with the history of the apostolic church. Jews were settled there from the first in large numbers, were governed by their own ethnarch, and allowed to have the same political privileges with the Greeks.
The chief interest of Antioch, however, is connected with the progress of Christianity among the heathen, Here the first Gentile church was founded, Act_11:20-21, here the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christians. Act_11:26. It was from Antioch that St. Paul started on his three missionary journeys.
2. In Pisidia, Act_13:14; Act_14:19; Act_14:21; 2Ti_3:11, on the borders of Phrygia, corresponds to Yalobatch, which is distant from Aksher six hours over the mountains. This city, like the Syrian Antioch, was founded by Seleucus Nicator. Under the Romans, it became a colonia, and was also called Caesarea.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a city of Upper Syria, on the river Orontes, about twenty miles from the place where it discharges itself into the Mediterranean. It was built by Seleucus Nicanor, about three hundred years before Christ; and became the seat of empire of the Syrian kings of the Macedonian race, and afterward of the Roman governors of the eastern provinces; being very centrally and commodiously situated midway between Constantinople and Alexandria, about seven hundred miles from each, in 37 17' north latitude, and 36 45' east longitude. No city perhaps, Jerusalem excepted, has experienced more frequent revolutions, or suffered more numerous and dire calamities, than Antioch; as, besides the common plagues of eastern cities, pestilence, famine, fire, and sword, it has several times been entirely overthrown by earthquakes.
In 362, the emperor Julian spent some months at Antioch; which were chiefly occupied in his favourite object of reviving the mythology of Paganism. The grove at Daphne, planted by Seleucus, which, with its temple and oracle, presented, during the reigns of the Macedonian kings of Syria, the most splendid and fashionable place of resort for Pagan worship in the east, had sunk into neglect since the establishment of Christianity. The altar of the god was deserted, the oracle was silenced, and the sacred grove itself defiled by the interment of Christians. Julian undertook to restore the ancient honours and usages of the place; but it was first necessary to take away the pollution occasioned by the dead bodies of the Christians, which were disinterred and removed! Among these was that of Babylas, a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of Decius, and after resting near a century in his grave within the walls of Antioch, had been removed by order of Callus into the midst of the grove of Daphne, where a church was built over him; the remains of the Christian saint effectually supplanting the former divinity of the place, whose temple and statue, however, though neglected, remained uninjured. The Christians of Antioch, undaunted by the conspiracy against their religion, or the presence of the emperor himself, conveyed the relics of their former bishop in triumph back to their ancient repository within the city. The immense multitude who joined in the procession, chanted forth their execrations against idols and idolaters; and on the same night the image and the temple of the Heathen god were consumed by the flames. A dreadful vengeance might be expected to have followed these scenes; but the real or affected clemency of Julian contented itself with shutting up the cathedral, and confiscating its wealth. Many Christians, indeed, suffered from the zeal of the Pagans; but, as it would appear, without the sanction of the emperor.
In 1268, Antioch was taken by Bibars, or Bondocdar, sultan of Egypt. The slaughter of seventeen thousand, and the captivity of one hundred thousand of its inhabitants, mark the final siege and fall of Antioch; which, while they close the long catalogue of its public woes, attest its extent and population. From this time it remained in a ruinous and nearly deserted condition, till, with the rest of Syria, it passed into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, with whose empire it has ever since been incorporated.
To distinguish it from other cities of the same name, the capital of Syria was called Antiochia apud Daphnem, or Antioch near Daphne, a village in the neighbourhood, where was a temple dedicated to the goddess of that name; though, in truth, the chief deity of the place was Apollo, under the fable of his amorous pursuit of the nymph Daphne; and the worship was worthy of its object. The temple stood in the midst of a grove of laurels and cypresses, where every thing was assembled which could minister to the senses; and in whose recesses the juvenile devotee wanted not the countenance of a libertine god to abandon himself to voluptuousness. Even those of riper years and graver morals could not with safety breathe the atmosphere of a place where pleasure, assuming the character of religion, roused the dormant passions, and subdued the firmness of virtuous resolution. Such being the source, the stream could scarcely be expected to be more pure; in fact, the citizens of Antioch were distinguished only for their luxury in life and licentiousness in manners. This was an unpromising soil for Christianity to take root in. But here, nevertheless, it was planted at an early period, and flourished vigorously. It should be observed, that the inhabitants of Antioch were partly Syrians, and partly Greeks; chiefly, perhaps, the latter, who were invited to the new city by Seleucus. To these Greeks, in particular, certain Cypriot and Cyrenian converts, who had fled from the persecution which followed the death of Stephen, addressed themselves; and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
When the heads of the church at Jerusalem were informed of this success, they sent Barnabas to Antioch, who encouraged the new disciples, and added many to their number; and finding how great were both the field and the harvest, went to Tarsus to solicit the assistance of Paul. Both this Apostle and Barnabas then taught conjointly at Antioch; and great numbers were, by their labours during a whole year, added to the rising church, Act_11:19-26; Act_15:22-35. Here they were also joined by Peter, who was reproved by Paul for his dissimulation, and his concession to the Jews respecting the observance of the law, Gal_2:11-14.
Antioch was the birthplace of St. Luke and Theophilus, and the see of the martyr Ignatius. In this city the followers of Christ had first the name of Christians given them. We have the testimony of Chrysostom, both of the vast increase of this illustrious church in the fourth century, and of the spirit of charity which continued to actuate it. It consisted at this time of not less than a hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were supported out of the public donations. It is painful to trace the progress of declension in such a church as this. But the period now referred to, namely, the age of Chrysostom, toward the close of the fourth century, may be considered as the brightest of its history subsequent to the Apostolic age, and that from which the church at Antioch may date its fall. It continued, indeed, outwardly prosperous; but superstition, secular ambition, the pride of life; pomp and formality in the service of God, in place of humility and sincere devotion; the growth of faction, and the decay of charity; showed that real religion was fast disappearing, and that the foundations were laid of that great apostasy which, in two centuries from this time, overspread the whole Christian world, led to the entire extinction of the church in the east, and still holds dominion over the fairest portions of the west.
Antioch, under its modern name of Antakia, is now but little known to the western nations. It occupies, or rather did till lately occupy, a remote corner of the ancient enclosure of its walls. Its splendid buildings were reduced to hovels; and its population of half a million, to ten thousand wretched beings, living in the usual debasement and insecurity of Turkish subjects. Such was nearly its condition when visited by Pococke about the year 1738, and again by Kinneir in 1813. But its ancient subterranean enemy, which, since its destruction in 587, never long together withheld its assaults, has again triumphed over it: the earthquake of the 13th of August, 1822, laid it once more in ruins; and every thing relating to Antioch is past.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
An?tioch. Two places of this name are mentioned in the New Testament.
Antioch, 1
A city on the banks of the Orontes, 300 miles north of Jerusalem, and about 30 from the Mediterranean. It was situated in the province of Seleucis, called Tetrapolis. It was the metropolis of Syria, the residence of the Syrian kings, and afterwards became the capital of the Roman provinces in Asia. It ranked third, after Rome and Alexandria, among the cities of the empire, and was little inferior in size and splendor to the latter. Its suburb Daphne was celebrated for its grove and fountains, its asylum and temple were dedicated to Apollo and Diana. It was very populous; within 150 years after its erection the Jews slew 100,000 persons in it in one day. In the time of Chrysostom the population was computed at 200,000, of whom one-half, or even a greater proportion, were professors of Christianity. Cicero speaks of the city as distinguished by men of learning and the cultivation of the arts. A multitude of Jews resided in it. Seleucus Nicator granted them the rights of citizenship, and placed them on a perfect equality with the other inhabitants. These privileges were continued to them by Vespasian and Titus. Antioch is called libera by Pliny, having obtained from Pompey the privilege of being governed by its own laws.
The Christian faith was introduced at an early period into Antioch, and with great success (Act_11:19; Act_11:21; Act_11:24). The name 'Christians' was here first applied to its professors (Act_11:26). Antioch soon became a central point for the diffusion of Christianity among the Gentiles, and maintained for several centuries a high rank in the Christian world. A controversy which arose between certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem and the Gentile converts at Antioch respecting the permanent obligation of the right of circumcision was the occasion of the first apostolic council or convention (Acts 15). Antioch was the scene of the early labors of the apostle Paul, and the place whence he set forth on his first missionary labors (Act_11:26; Act_13:2). Ignatius was the second bishop or overseer of the church, for about forty years, till his martyrdom in A.D. 107.
As the ecclesiastical system became gradually assimilated to the political, the churches in those cities which held the highest civil rank assumed a corresponding superiority in relation to other Christian communities. Such was the case at Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, and, in the course of time, at Constantinople and Jerusalem, where the term Exarch was applied to the resident bishop, but shortly exchanged for that of Patriarch. At the present time there are three prelates in Syria who claim the title of patriarchs of Antioch, namely: (1) the patriarch of the Greek church; (2) of the Syrian Monophysites; (3) of the Maronites.
Few cities have undergone and survived greater vicissitudes and disasters than Antioch. In A.D. 260 Sapor, the Persian king, surprised and pillaged it, and multitudes of the inhabitants were slain or sold as slaves. It has been frequently brought to the verge of utter ruin by earthquakes; by that of A.D. 526 no less than 250,000 persons were destroyed, the population being swelled by an influx of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The emperor Justinian gave forty-five centenaries of gold (180,000l.) to restore the city. Scarcely had it resumed its ancient splendor (A.D. 540) when it was again taken and delivered to the flames by Chosroes. In A.D. 658 it was captured by the Saracens. In A.D. 975 it was retaken by Nicephoras Phocas. In A.D. 1080 the son of the governor Philaretus betrayed it into the hands of Soliman. Seventeen years after the Duke of Normandy entered it at the head of 300,000 Crusaders; but as the citadel still held out, the victors were in their turn besieged by a fresh host under Kerboga and twenty-eight emirs, which at last gave way to their desperate valor. In A.D. 1268 Antioch was occupied and ruined by Boadocbar or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and Syria; this first seat of the Christian name being dispeopled by the slaughter of 17,000 persons, and the captivity of 100,000. About the middle of the fifteenth century the three patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem convoked a synod, and renounced all connection with the Latin church.
Antioch at present belongs to the Pashalic of Haleb (Aleppo), and bears the name of Antakia. The inhabitants are said to have amounted to twenty thousand before the earthquake of 1822, which destroyed four or five thousand. The present town stands on scarcely one-third of the area enclosed by the ancient wall, of which the line may be easily traced.
Antioch, 2
Antioch in (or near)Pisidia, being a border city, was considered at different times as belonging to different provinces. It was founded by Seleucus Nicanor, and its first inhabitants were from Magnesia on the Maeander. After the defeat of Antiochus (III) the Great by the Romans, it came into the possession of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, and was afterwards transferred to Amyntas. On his death the Romans made it the seat of a proconsular government, and invested it with the privileges of immunity from taxes and a municipal constitution similar to that of the Italian towns. When Paul and Barnabas visited this city (Act_13:14), they found a Jewish synagogue and a considerable number of proselytes, and met with great success among the Gentiles (Act_13:48), but, through the violent opposition of the Jews, were obliged to leave the place, which they did in strict accordance with their Lord's injunction (Act_13:51, compared with Mat_10:14; Luk_9:5).
Till within a very recent period Antioch was supposed to have been situated where the town of Ak-Sheker now stands; but later investigations have determined its site to be adjoining the town of Yalobatch; and Mr. Arundell observed there the remains of several temples and churches, besides a theater and a magnificent aqueduct; of the latter twenty-one arches still remained in a perfect state.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Antioch
(Α᾿ντιόχεια, from Antiohus), the name of two places mentioned in the New Testament.
1. ANTIOCH IN SYRIA. A city on the banks of the Orontes, 300 miles north of Jerusalem, and about 30 from the Mediterranean. This metropolis was situated where the chain of Lebanon, running northward, and the chain of Taurus, running eastward, are brought to an abrupt meeting. Here the Orontes breaks through the mountains; and Antioch was placed at a bend of the river, partly on an island, partly on the level which forms the left bank, and partly on the steep and craggy ascent of Mount Silpius, which rose abruptly on the south. It was in the province of Seleucis, called Tetrapolis, from containing the four cities Antioch, Seleucia, Apamea, and Laodicea; of which the first was named after Antiochus, the father of the founder; the second after himself; the third after his wife Apama; and the fourth in honor of his mother. The same appellation (Tetrapolis, Τετράπολις) was given also to Antioch, because it consisted of four townships or quarters, each surrounded by a separate wall, and all four by a common wall. The first was built by Seleucus Nicator, who peopled it with inhabitants from Antigonia; the second by the settlers belonging to the first quarter; the third by Seleucus Callinicus; and the fourth by Antiochus Epiphanes (Strabo, 16:2; 3:354). It was the metropolis of Syria (Tac. Hist. 2, 79), the residence of the Syrian kings, the Seleucidae (1Ma_3:37; 1Ma_7:2), and afterward became the capital of the Roman provinces in Asia. It ranked third, after Rome and Alexandria, among the cities of the empire Josephus, War, 3, 2, 4), and was little inferior in size and splendor to the latter or to Seleucia (Strabo, 16:2; 3:355, ed. Tauch.). Its suburb Daphne was celebrated for its grove and fountains (Strabo, 16:2; 3:356, ed. Tauch.), its asylum (2Ma_4:33), and temple dedicated to Apollo and Diana. The temple and the village were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every hill, preserved the verdure of the earth and the temperature of the air (Gibbon, ch. 23). Hence Antioch was called Epidaphnes (Α᾿ντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Δάφνῃ, Josephus, Ant. 17, 2, 1; Epidaphnes cognominata, Plin. Hist. Nat. 5,18). It was very populous; within 150 years after its erection the Jews slew 100,000 persons in it in one day (1Ma_11:47). In the time of Chrysostom the population was computed at 200,000, of whom one half, or even a greater proportion, were professors of Christianity (Chrysos. Adv. Jud. 1, 588; Hom. in Ignat. 2, 597; In Matthew Hon. 85, 7:810). Chrysostom also states that the Church at Antioch maintained 3000 poor, besides occasionally relieving many more (In Matthew Hom. 7, 658). Cicero speaks of the city as distinguished by men of learning and the cultivation of the arts (Pro Archia, 3). A multitude of Jews resided in it. Seleucus Nicator granted them the rights of citizenship, and placed them on a perfect equality with the other inhabitants (Josephus, Ant. 12, 3, 1). These privileges were continued to them by Vespasian and Titus an instance (Josephus remarks) of the equity and generosity of the Romans, who, in opposition to the wishes of the Alexandrians and Antiocheans, protected the Jews, notwithstanding the provocations they had received from them in their wars (Apion, 2, 4). They were also allowed to have an archon or ethnarch of their own (Josephus, War, 7, 3, 3). Antioch is called libera by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 5,18), having obtained from Pompey the privilege of being governed by its own laws (see Smith, Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.).
The Christian faith was introduced at an early period into Antioch, and with great success (Act_11:19; Act_11:21; Act_11:24). The name Christians was here first applied to its professors (Act_11:26). No city, after Jerusalem, is so intimately connected with the history of the apostolic Church. One of the seven deacons or almoners appointed at Jerusalem was Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch (Act_6:5). The Christians who were dispersed from Jerusalem at the death of Stephen preached the Gospel at Antioch (Act_11:19). It was from Jerusalem that Agabus and the other prophets who foretold the famine came to Antioch (Act_11:27-28); and Barnabas and Saul were consequently sent on a mission of charity from the latter city to the former (Act_11:30; Act_12:25). It was from Jerusalem, again, that the Judaizers came who disturbed the Church at Antioch (Act_15:1); and it was at Antioch that Paul rebuked Peter for conduct into which he had been betrayed through the influence of emissaries from Jerusalem (Gal_2:11-12). Antioch soon became a central point for the diffusion of Christianity among the Gentiles, and maintained for several centuries a high rank in the Christian world (see Semler, Initia societatis Christ. Antiochiae, Hal. 1767). A controversy which arose between certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem and the Gentile converts at Antioch respecting the permanent obligation of the rite of circumcision was the occasion of the first apostolic council or convention (Act_15:1). Antioch was the scene of the early labors of the Apostle Paul, and the place whence he set forth on his first missionary labors (Act_11:26; Act_13:2). Ignatius was the second bishop or overseer of the Church, for about forty years, till his martyrdom in A.D. 107. In the third and following centuries a number of councils were held at Antioch, SEE ANTIOCH, COUNCILS OF, and in the course of the fourth century a new theological school was formed there, which thence derived the name School of Antioch. SEE ANTIOCH, SCHOOL OF. Two of its most distinguished teachers were the presbyters Dorotheus and Lucian, the latter of whom suffered martyrdom in the Dioclietian persecution, A.D. 312 (Neander, Ahegemeine Geschichte, 1, 3, p. 1237; Gieseler, Lerbuch,. i,. 272; Lardner, Credibility, pt. 2, ch.55, 58). Libanius (born A.D. 314), the rhetorician, the friend and pangyrist of the Emperor Julian, was a native of Antioch (Lardner, Testimonies of Ancient Heathens, ch. 49; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc. ch. 24). It had likewise the less equivocal honor of being the birthplace of his illustrious pupil, John Chrysostom, born A. D. 347, died A.D. 407 (Lardner, Credibility, pt. 2, ch. 118; Neander, Allgemeine Geschichte, 2, 3, p. 1440-1456, Hug, Antiochia, Berl. 1863). On the further history of the Church of Antioch, see ANTIOCH, PATRIARCHATE OF.
Antioch was founded, B.C. 300, by Seleucus Nicator, with circumstances of considerable display, which were afterward embellished by fable. The situation was well chosen, both for military and commercial purposes. Antioch grew under the successive Seleucid kings till it became a city of great extent arnd of remarkable beauty. Some of the most magnificentl buildings were on the island. One feature, which seems to have been characteristic of the great Syrian cities a vast street with colonnades, intersecting the whole from end to end was added by Antiochus Epiphanes. Some lively notices of the Antioch of this period, and of its relation to Jewish history, are supplied by the books of Maccabees (see especially 1Ma_3:37; 1Ma_11:13; 2Ma_4:7-9; 2Ma_5:21; 2Ma_11:36). The early emperors raised there some large and important structures, such as aqueducts, amphitheatres, and baths. Herod the Great contributed a road and a colonnade (Josephus, Ant. 16, 5, 3; War, 1, 21, 11). In A.D. 260 Sapor, the Persian king, surprised and pillaged it, and multitudes of the inhabitants were slain or sold as slaves. It has been frequently brought to the verge of utter ruin by earthquakes (A.D. 340, 394, 396, 458, 526, 528); by that of A.D. 526 no less than 250,000 persons were destroyed, the population being swelled by an influx of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The Emperor Justinian gave forty-five centenaries of gold ($900,000) to restore the city. Scarcely had it resuned its ancient splendor (A.D. 540) when it was again taken and delivered to the flames by Chosroes. In A.D. 658 it was captured by the Saracens. Its safety was ransomed with 300,000 pieces of gold, but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government in the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, and holy, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town (Gibbon, 51). In A.D. 975 it was retaken by Nicephoras Phocas. In A.D. 1080 the son of the governor Philaretus betrayed it into the hands of Soliman. Seventeen years after the Duke of Normandy entered it at the head of 300,000 crusaders; but, as the citadel still held out, the victors were in their turn besieged by a fresh host under Kerboga and twenty-eight emirs, which at last gave way to their desperate valor (Gibbon, 58). In A.D. 1268 Antioch was occupied and ruined by Boadoebar or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and Syria; this first seat of the Christian name being depopulated by the slaughter of 17,000 persons, and the captivity of 100,000. About the middle of the fifteenth century the three patriarchs of Alexandria,.Antioch, and Jerusalem convoked a synqd, and renounced all connection with the Latin Church (see Cellar. Notit. 2, 417 sq.; Richter, Wallfahrt, p. 281; Mannert, VI, 1, 467 sq.).
Antioch at present belongs to the pashalic of Haleb (Aleppo), and bears the name of Antakia (Pococke, 2 - 277 sq.; Niebuhr, 3, 15 sq.). The inhabitants are said to have amounted to twenty thousand before the earthquake of 1822, which destroyed four or five thousand. On the south-west side of the town is a precipitous mountain ridge, on which a considerable portion of the old Roman wall of Antioch is still standing, from 30 to 50 feet high and 15 feet in thickness. At short intervals 400 high square towers are built up in it, containing a staircase and two or three chambers, probably for the use of the soldiers on duty. At the east end of the western hill are the remains of a fortress, with its turrets, vaults, and cisterns. Toward the mountain south-southwest of the city some fragments of the aqueducts remain. After heavy rains antique marble pavements are visible in many parts of the town; and gems, carnelians, and rings are frequently found. The present town stands on scarcely one third of the area enclosed by the ancient wall, of which the line may be easily traced; the entrance to the town from Aleppo is by one of the old gates, called Bab Bablous, or Paul's gate, not far from which the members of the Greek Church assemble for their devotions in a cavern dedicated to St. John (Madox's Excursions, 2, 74; Buckingham, 2:475; Monro's Summer Ramble, 2, 140-143; Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 1, 121-126). The great authority for all that is known of ancient Antioch is Muller's Antiquitates Antiochenoe (Gott. 1839). Modern Antakia is a shrunken and miserable place. Some of the walls, shattered by earthquakes, are described in Chesney's account of the Euphrates Expedition (1, 310 sq.; comp. the history, ib. 2, 423 sq.), where also is given a view of the gateway which still bears the name of St. Paul.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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