The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-04-11
A Fated City.

Fated CITY.
Once more the famous city of Antioch
is reported 10 be destroyed OF all the
urea, cities of the earth there has. per
maps, never been one that mas Suffered Il
greater variety Of terrible visilations than
TINS Ated city FIR two thousand Years
and more it has been the victim OF earth
gu-,ke fire. sword and famine. Antioch
was built by >eleucus Nicator three hu
bred Years before Christ, and named in
memory ot his father, Antiochus. Fifteen
other cities, also built rs the founder OF
The Syrian monarchy, received the same
name, but this one, on The banks OF the
Orontes. was the most magnificent and
beautiful OF them all. 1t became very
popQlou~ and wealthy, ana its inhabitants
were highly intellectual but also luXuri-
Gus. studlous and frivolous, refined ana
witty, but lcenuouS and supersttlous
Aulioch was The Paris OF the time Pnnv
called ID thu. ''Qlr,-n ~ thr F4-t ana !or
-evera! centuries il deserved the name.
III the time ot Chry,o,ton, q native OF
Antioch, in the fourth century. it contain
ed population Of 2Q0,ODO one-haIt OF
whom Mere Christians belonging to the
tyrdom Of Stephen.
Bat the hard fortune OF Antioch had be-
gun long before The Jews, under
Jonathan, one OF the Macc4hees. made
war against Syria ABOUT & century ana q
halt before the Christian era aud 100000
Ot The people OF Antioch persisted lii A
j ll5, wnle the Roman Emperor Tlaian
was On 4 visit 10 this Aslatlc city, il was
=, 4
earthQ uakes, and almost totally ruined
The Emperor himself was injured among
thousands OF others bat he eNerted his
influence, and himself contributed liberal
II to It's restoration, and it wa, rebuilt in
its ancient SpeudUr. Only forty Years at
ttrward it was destroyed by lire, but was
4 second time rebuilt Uy AutUninus Plus.
Having suffered considerably III the wars
between the declining power OF the Roman
empire and that OF Persia, it fell a victim
TO three successive Iamlnes in the fourth
century. The first OF these happened in
The YEAR 33l, and was 50 terrible that q
I buohel OF wheat was sold tor tour hundred
pieces OF silver The second was in The
reign OF Julian,-but a few wears later,
and the third was in the reign OF Tbeo-
dOslu>, who sat on the throne Of the east
ern provinces from A. b, 364 TO 1875. The
last-named emperor waged war against
/ Antioch, and punished it severely for hay
/ ing resisted his extraordinary demands
/ Tor tribute Then came another series of
earthquakes. la A D. 45s, again in 526.
/ and III 581, the city was almost shaken to
! pieces The second of these earthquakes.
( that Of A. D. 526, was the most disastrous
| OF which history has preserved any record
Thousands upon thousands Of strangers
had t1ocked to Antioch to be present at
the feast of the Ascension. The whole
! city was suddenly shaken, the buildings
were thrown down, aud it is estimated
that quarter OF a million of people We're
killed in the general ruin
Notwithstanding these terrible calami-
ties Antioch retained its position as an
important city until it was taken by the
oaracens III 638, having been previously
captured BY the Perslans in $40 The
nard tate OF Antioch still pursued it after
these two seges. The Eastern Empire
recovered it in $50, and lost it again in
| lOSb. The Crusaders took ii in 1898, and
held 1t until 1868 when Bibaro, Sultan Of
Egypt, captured the city and extingushed
its last pretension to be regarded as a
powerful city. 1t has steadily declined
in Importance and population, the move
ment being occasionally FASTENED by
shocks of earthquake, like that of 1922,
until it had reached the miserable figure
of 5000 inhabitants. The buildings have
been Of late low and mean, and built OF
slight materials; the industries Of the
place We're unimportant; the ancient
churches have all disappeared, and none
have taken their places. If there has
been no exaggeraton of the last great ca
lamty, one quarter Of all the people of
Antioch have persisted, and what there
was Of the city is mass of ruins 1t will
be very strange if this awful catastrophe
does not bring to a close the long cata-
logue OF mistortunes, and place Antioch
with Babylon and Nineveh among the ex-
tinct cities of the world