page_title: Antioch
section_title: Roman period
hierarchical_section_title: Antioch / History / Roman period
caption_attribution_description: English: Amazonomachy, detail: Amazon warrior armed with a labrys is seized by her Phrygian cap by a hippeus. Roman mosaic emblema (marble and limestone), 2nd half of the 4th century AD. From Daphne, a suburb of Antioch on the Orontes (modern Antakya in southern Turkey). Français&#160;: Amazonomachie, détail&#160;: un cavalier citoyen grec saisit par le bonnet phrygien une Amazone armée d'une labrys. Embléma à mosaïque romaine (marbre et calcaire), deuxième moitié du IVe siècle av. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: Daphné, faubourg d'Antioche-sur-l'Oronte (actuelle Antakya en Turquie).
context_page_description: Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. Its ruins lie near the current city of Antakya, Turkey, to which the ancient city lends its name.
  Antioch was founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals. The city's geographical, military, and economic location benefited its occupants, particularly such features as the spice trade, the Silk Road, and the Royal Road. It eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East. The city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 BC, when the Romans took control, making it the seat of the governor of the province of Syria. From the early fourth century, the city was the seat of the Count of the Orient, head of the regional administration of sixteen provinces. It was also the main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. Antioch was one of the most important cities in the eastern Mediterranean of Rome's dominions. It covered almost 1,100 acres within the walls of which one quarter was mountain, leaving 750 acres about one-fifth the area of Rome within the Aurelian Walls.
context_section_description: The Roman emperors favored the city from the first moments, seeing it as a more suitable capital for the eastern part of the empire than Alexandria could be, because of the isolated position of Egypt. To a certain extent they tried to make it an eastern Rome. Julius Caesar visited it in 47 BC, and confirmed its freedom. A great temple to Jupiter Capitolinus rose on Silpius, probably at the insistence of Octavian, whose cause the city had espoused. A forum of Roman type was laid out. Tiberius built two long colonnades on the south towards Silpius.
  Agrippa and Tiberius enlarged the theatre, and Trajan finished their work. Antoninus Pius paved the great east to west artery with granite. A circus, other colonnades and great numbers of baths were built, and new aqueducts to supply them bore the names of Caesars, the finest being the work of Hadrian. The Roman client, King Herod (most likely the great builder Herod the Great), erected a long stoa on the east, and Agrippa (c. 63–12 BC) encouraged the growth of a new suburb south of this.
  One of the most famous urban additions to Antioch, done by the Romans probably under Augustus when the city had more than half a million inhabitants, was the Circus of Antioch: it was a Roman hippodrome. Used for chariot racing, it was modelled on the Circus Maximus in Rome and other circus buildings throughout the empire. Measuring more than 490 metres (1,610 feet) in length and 30 metres (98 feet) of width, the Circus could house up to 80,000 spectators.
  Zarmanochegas (Zarmarus) a monk of the Sramana tradition of India, according to Strabo and Dio Cassius, met Nicholas of Damascus in Antioch around 13 AD as part of a Mission to Augustus. At Antioch Germanicus died in 19 AD, and his body was burnt in the forum.
  An earthquake that shook Antioch in AD 37 caused the emperor Caligula to send two senators to report on the condition of the city. Another quake followed in the next reign.
  Titus set up the Cherubim, captured from the Jewish temple, over one of the gates.
  In 115 AD, during Trajan's travel there during his war against Parthia, the whole site was convulsed by a huge earthquake. The landscape altered, and the emperor himself was forced to take shelter in the circus for several days. He and his successor restored the city, but the population was reduced to less than 400,000 inhabitants and many sections of the city were abandoned.
  Commodus (r. 177–192 AD) had Olympic games celebrated at Antioch.
  In 256 AD, the town was suddenly raided by the Persians under Shapur I, and many of the people were slain in the theatre. It was recaptured by the Roman emperor Valerian the following year.
caption: A Greek rider seizes a mounted Amazonian warrior (armed with a double-headed axe) by her Phrygian cap; Roman mosaic emblema (marble and limestone), 2nd half of the 4th century AD; from Daphne, a suburb of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (now Antakya in Turkey)
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