Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-04-11
sketch of the City of Antioch.

kAt Wy oA &AhtAOths
The 9th of Antioch-or, as it is now
called, Antakieh now again, for the
fourth or fifth time, destroyed by an
earthquake, was in ancient times one of
the most famous in Syria, and at one
period was even more wealthy and
splendid and populous than either of its
great rivals, AleppO and Damascus. 1t
is situated on the river Aazi (the ancient
OrOntes, about twenty miles from its
mouth, and thirty-four miles west of
AleppO. 1t was founded about 300 B.
G. by Seleucus NicatOr, and named by
him in honor of his father AntiOchus,
fifteen other cities, none of which have,
however, so successfully survived the
attacks of time, enjoying at about the
same period like distinction. Situated
directly in the track of the caravans
from MesOpOtamia and Persia, in beau
tiful valley at the foot of the mountains,
which rise at this point from narrow
fringe of low lying shore, with abun-
dance of water and singularly fertile
soil, the city soon became wonderfully
prosperous, and the wares of Bagdad
and MOSul, of Cashmere and Benares,
halted in its Caravansaries on their way
to the bazaars of Byzantium and the
markets of Rome. One cause of its
wealth and greatness was no doubt the
the energy and industry of the colony
of Greeks, of Athenian ancestry by
whom it was peOpled, and who had
been removed from the neighbOring city
of AntigOnium by Seleucus. 1t was for
several generations the favOrite residence
of the SeleuCid Princes and became the
capital of Syria. Splendid palaces and
amphitheatres and temples were built by
the munitiCenCe of its rulers until
it was as celebrated all over the
Eastern world for the grandeur of its
architecture as for the wealth and lux
ury and devotion to pleasure of its in
habitants. No doubt it fairly earned
the compliment of being termed Anti
och the Beautiful" and the Queen of
the East At the height of its splendOr
it numbered 700,0 600 inhabitants, and
was the scene of almost uninterrupted
spoCtaCles and t6teS. It's surburbs were
especially noted for their beauty \
ring of verdure surrounded its walls of
reddish stone, and its gates were the
sacred fountains and groves of Daphne
and a world-famous Temple of Apollo.
1t fell into the hands of the Romans in
81 B, c., and was planted with a Latin
colony, whose members enjoyed the es-
pecial privileges of Roman citizens.
Soon after the death of Christ the Cos
pei was preached by the Apostles, and a
tlourishing Christian Church was found
ed. Indeed. it was at Antioch that the
followers of Jesus first assumed the
name of Christians.
About lis A. D., it suffered terribly
from an earthquake, but was restored by
the Emperor Trajan. In 155 A. D., it
was destroyed by fire, but was again re-
built. As the Christian religion spread
over the Roman empire its inhabitants
gradually became gradually exclusively
Christian, and in the second, third and
fourth centuries it was the principal seat
of the true faith in the East, ten Coun-
ellis being held within It's walls between
the wears 352 and $50. When the Latin
power waned it suffered greatly from
the attacks of Persia, and about the
same period endured three great famines
one Of which, in 33f, was SO severe that
wheat rose to the pnCe of four hundred
pieces of silver to the bushel Between
the fourth and seventh centuries the city
was three times destroyed by earth
quakes. In the sixth century it was
made the seat of Il patriarchate, which
included in its province the Syrian. Mes
OpOtanian and Cilician churches. 1t was
taken by the SaraCens in CPS, together
with the rest of Syria, and from that
time has steadily declined in importance.
In 975 it was again annexed to the West
ern Roman Empire, and, having been
retaken by the Moslem in 1884 was in
1898 captured by the Crusaders and
made the seat of little Christian
kingdom, under BohemOnd, the son of
Robert Guiscard. 1t remained in Chris
tian hands for nearly two centuries, and
was then taken, after terrible losses by
Bibarro, Sultan Of Egypt, Since then
its history has been one of constantly
waning prosperity. The Christian re
ligiOn almost died out, and, though it
had fourteen mosques, it did not possess a
single Christian church until an Ameri-
can missionary was sent there a few
years ago to found new church. In
this he met with signal success, and the
missionary journals occasionally contain
very interesting accounts of this revival
of the influence of the Cross. In 1922
1t was again destroyed by a terrible
earthquake. In appearance Antakieh is
at present miserable little Arab city,
OF about seven thousand inhabitants
built of square mud houses, with slop-
ing and flat roofs-by the way an unus-
ual thing for an Eastern City-and with
narrow little streets, nOisome with stag
nant pools of water, and alive with
troops of hungry, NANCY ours. Strange
as il may seem, the American civil war
somewhat for a time improved the pros.
poets of this ruined city. Stimulated
by the high price of cotton the indolent
owners of the soil in the neighborhood
which is very well fitted forsuc culture,
became industrious cotton raisers, and
there was even a cotton mill founded by
an English company. The latter enter
prise, however, did not pay, and was
abandoned about a couple of years ago,
and since cotton has gone down the land
ed proprietors have subsidized into their
natural state of needy idleness.
From the preceding sketch it will be
seen that there have previously been
destructive earthquakes in Aleppo in the
years 115, 45S, 526, 587, and 1922. 1t is
curious fact that this city is within a
thousand miles of the antipodes of Cali
fornia where our last earthquake sensa-
ton occurred.