South coast (Eastern Mediterranean)
Situation and Importance
Antakya, known in antiquity as Antioch (Antiocheia) and more recently as Hatay, is the chief town of the frontier province of that name in southeastern Turkey. It lies surrounded by extensive olive groves some 30km/20mi from the Mediterranean
in the alluvial plain of the Asi (the ancient Orontes) at the foot of Mount Habib Neccar (ancient Mons Silpius).
Few vestiges remain of Antioch's former importance as one of the commercial and cultural centers of the Hellenistic World. It now gains a relatively modest subsistence from its administrative functions, its garrison and the traffic passing through the town on the way to the countries of the Levant. It is not on the railroad and no longer has a harbor.
History
In 307 B.C. Antigonos, one of Alexander the Great's generals, founded the town of Antigoneia on a site rather higher up the Orontes than present-day Antakya. Then in 301 B.C. Seleukos Nikator (305-280), founder of the Macedonian dynasty in Syria, established a new settlement on the site of the present town, naming it Antiocheia in honor of his father. The new town flourished, thanks to its situation at the intersection of the road down the Mediterranean coast and the caravan route from its port of Seleukeia into Mesopotamia. In the second century B.C. it was said to have a population of some 500,000 and to be exceeded in size only by Rome itself; it had aqueducts, a system of street-lighting and a colonnaded street 6.5km/4mi long, and was much criticized by contemporaries for its luxurious way of life. It was celebrated throughout the East for its games in honor of Apollo. Even after its conquest by Rome in 64 B.C. it continued to enjoy a large measure of autonomy.
Antioch played an important part in the history of early Christianity. The Apostle Paul made several missionary journeys here (Acts 11:26, 14:26, 15:30, 35, 18:22) and the term "Christians" (Christianoi) was first used in Antioch (Acts 11:26). In the reign of Diocletian the Christians were ruthlessly persecuted and their churches destroyed, but his successor Constantine made Christianity the state religion and caused the churches to be rebuilt. Antioch became the seat of a Patriarch.
The decline of Antioch began with its conquest and destruction by the Mamelukes in 1266. The harbor at Seleukeia silted up and Antioch gradually sank to being a provincial town of no importance.
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