ANTIOCH ON THE ORONTES(Antakyé) Turkey.
Alexander reached Syria from Asia Minor byway of the coast at Issus, and founded Alexandretta, aport girded by mountains. On the other side of theAmanus ridge, Antigonus, Alexander's successor, foundedAntigoneia on the banks of the Orontes. Seleucus Ifounded two towns, Seleucia at the mouth of the river,Antioch, 17 km from the sea, in a plain near Antigonia.Apparently Seleucia was his capital at first but Antiochsoon received the title. Greek civilization made Antiochits principal Asian outpost, replacing Aleppo, 100 km tothe E, as the leading city of N Syria. Aleppo, however, regained its former importance with the Islamic conquest;Seleucia has disappeared and Iskandarun and Antakyétoday are small towns. The chief road connecting AsiaMinor and Syria crosses the Taurus passes and dips downagain along the edge of the steppe—no longer along thevalley of the Orontes.
Even before Antioch was founded the low valley ofthe Orontes was a trade route: excavations have uncovered an Athenian trading post dating from the 5th c. B.C.at El Mina, at the mouth of the river, and some Cretanobjects in the Hittite palace of Tell Atchana. Also, excavations at Antioch, well below the monumental Romanstreet, have revealed preclassical sherds beneath the stonepaving of the Hellenistic road.
The site, between Mt. Silpius and the river, facing avast plain dominated by the peaks of the Amanus ridge,favored the establishment of a military, political, andcommercial capital, and Seleucia offered an outlet on theMediterranean to the silk route that came from the heartof Asia through Iran and the Fertile Crescent, or by wayof the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates.
The city at first occupied only a few hectares along theriver but, according to ancient chroniclers as well asarchaeological evidence, it was laid out from the beginning on the strict gridiron plan common to all Hellenisticcities in this period. The plan apparently covered thewhole area of the plain, and was followed rigorously asthe city developed.
Successive enlargements, each marked by spurts ofconstruction, are milestones in the life of the city. Seleucus II Callinicus (246-226 B.C.) set up a new quarteron the Island of the Orontes, surrounding it with a wall,and Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) extended thecity to the foothills of the mountains. This new city,called Epiphaneia, did not receive its rampart until Tiberius' reign, according to Malalas. Only then was its areafinally settled, except for the alterations carried out forstrategic reasons by Justinian when the city was rebuiltafter A.D. 540.
Antioch's history is also marked by a series of catastrophes, particularly earthquakes that damaged or destroyed it; efforts to repair or rebuild the city were oftenmade several times in a century, and each occasion calledfor the intervention of the emperor of Rome or Byzantium. Alexander Balas intervened in 140 B.C., Caligulain A.D. 37, Trajan in 115, Leon I in 458, and Justinianin 526 and 528. After this the destruction of the city wascompleted by Chrosroes, who seized it in a surprise raidin 540. The chroniclers also report several lesser earthquakes, to which should be added the terrible storms thatcaused the streams, especially Parmenios, to overflow.Each time torrents caused serious damage, particularlyby raising the ground level. Since the 3d c. B.C. theground has risen 11 m in the axis of the city; the stratumrepresenting the second Byzantine conquest of the 10th c.A.D. is on the average 4 m below the present ground level,that of the reconstruction under Justinian 7 m, and thatof the monumental Roman street 8.5 m.
Yet few ancient cities are as well known from the textsas Antioch. Strabo, Malalas, Evagrius, Procopius, Libanius, the Emperor Julian, John Chrysostom—have described the city, its urban plan and its monuments, andhave recounted its history and its misfortunes, its reconstruction, and the daily life of its citizens.
In the period of its greatest expansion Antioch occupied the whole plain between the Orontes and the mountains, an area of 3.2 by 1.2-1.5 km. At each end thehills and the river came closer together, almost sealingoff the plain. The great porticoed street constituted theaxis, from the Daphne Gate to the S to the Aleppo Gateto the N. The rampart wall scaled the mountain side, enclosing vast stretches of uninhabitable ground, and thecitadel was on top of Mt. Silpius. To the W the wall ranalong the river and encircled the Island, which was linkedto the ancient city by five bridges.
Inside this wall the city had from the beginning beenlaid out on a grid of blocks ca. 120 by 35 m, spreadingfrom the long axis to the river and the last inhabitedslopes. Water conduits, from the aqueducts hollowed outhigh in the mountain, followed the E-W streets, and fromthem terracotta pipes ran beneath the sidewalks of theN-S streets to supply the houses.
From the 2d c. A.D. on, the colonnaded street was over27 m wide, ca 9 m for the roadway and for each portico.In his praise of Antioch, Libanius dwells particularly onthe breadth, beauty, and convenience of these porticos.A similar road, not located, led to the Island from anopen place—the omphalos—where the Temple of theNymphs stood. The latter was also a fountain, frequently described. At one of the other intersections of themain street stood the column of Tiberius, at another theΜέση Πύλη, the central gate built by Trajan. The Islandalso had a gridiron plan, laid out like that of the city butprobably on different axes: two porticoed streets at rightangles to each other with a tetrapylon at the intersection. One street led to the palace, rebuilt by Diocletian,and the hippodrome, erected in 56 B.C.
Two main streams flowed into the Orontes: Phyrminusto the S, which skirted part of the outer rampart, andParmenios in the center of the city, which invaded thetown itself during floods. In every period protectivemeasures were necessary: Hellenistic arches, discoveredduring excavation, the vaults of the Forum of Valens,and a dam built by Justinian at Bab el Hadid.
Aerial photographs have revealed the Hellenistic gridiron plan: it can still be traced in the Turkish town,barely hidden under the jumble of winding streets; it reappears in the olive grove that now occupies four-fifthsof the ancient site, in the cart-tracks, and the propertylimits. The main street of the modern town, which iscontinued to the NE on the same axis by the Alepporoad, follows the axis of the ancient city: excavationshave shown that it was built over the W portico of thecolonnaded street.
The depth of the ancient strata made excavation difficult: in the beginning only a few walls could be seen,mainly sections of the surrounding wall built by Seleucus I, enlarged, probably by Antiochus Epiphanus, andrebuilt by Tiberius and Justinian. In the 18th c. Cassasdrew some impressive overall views of the wall, but afterthat it served, at least its S section, as a quarry for a newbarracks. The wall, 18 km around, climbed Mt. Silpiusand topped the crest, which was crowned with a citadel.Farther N it ran down a steep slope to Parmenios, thenscaled the other side, on Mt. Stauris. Here are the IronGates, Bab el Hadid, where architects of the 6th c. A.D.built a dam to curb the floods. Beyond Mt. Stauris thewall turned W where the mountain is closest to the river,then crossed the monumental axis and headed back 5,following the river bank. Only one Roman bridge survives out of the five that led to the Island (now gone).No trace could be seen of the wall on the whole W face,although it has been located here and there during laterexcavation.
A few houses built on the terracing of the mountainslopes have been uncovered, along with their mosaics;a monumental rock-hewn bust, evidence of a chthoniccult, in the Charonion area remains visible. But otherexcavations in the city had to contend with the problemsof deep excavation. Part of an amphitheater at the footof Mt. Silpius was uncovered, however, and, farther N,some immense baths, probably built by Tiberius but containing a mosaic dated by an inscription after the 528earthquake. Excavations on the edge of the main streethave clarified the history of the street and its porticos,which had been buried in the earthquakes and quarriedin every period.
In the 3d c. B.C. the street was paved with stone—aroad rather than a street, with no monuments. Later, ina higher stratum, modest structures appear on both sides,and then narrow sidewalks. To the N of Parmenios in aslightly higher stratum are traces of a monumental reconstruction dating from about the beginning of our era:sidewalks 4.4 m wide were added, probably lined with thefirst colonnade, which included a series of shops and isattributed by the texts to Herod and Tiberius. Then thestreet was destroyed (probably in the earthquake of A.D.115, under Trajan); after some provisional restoration itwas completely rebuilt, and the total width increased tomore than 40 m. The roadway was paved with opuspolygonale, and the colonnade had disappeared, exceptfor the foundations (in one excavation the intercolumniation measured 4.8 m, elsewhere 3.65 m). This sumptuouscomplex was begun under Trajan and completed underAntoninus, and when Justinian later rebuilt the street, helaid a pavement of lava 1 m higher and set the columnsupright again.
These layers partly explain the confusion of the chroniclers and historians. Only Procopius, in a somewhatfanciful account, shows us Justinian's city built on theruins of the Roman one. But the colonnade that Malalasdescribes, where Libanius and the Antiochians strolledto the satirical amusem*nt of the emperor Julian, is notthat of Herod and Tiberius but of Trajan and Antoninus,which was 2 m higher and retained only the orientationof the older street.
Excavation has revealed twin Hellenistic arches thatcarried the road across the Parmenios when it was inspate. They served until A.D. 526, by which time they wereclogged with alluvial deposits and Justinian's architectsbuilt the dam at the Iron Gates. No trace has been foundof the omphalos, where the second colonnaded streetleading to the Island began, nor of the Forum of Valens,the imperial palace, or the church of Constantine
In 636 Antioch was taken by the Arabs without a battle, but the monumental street was again destroyed atan undetermined date. The paving stones served as foundations for other structures and the street, now on adifferent axis, was set up over the W portico, where itremained. After Nicephorus II Phocas' conquest in 969the Byzantines built another city, part of which wasapparently on an uninhabited site. It followed the sameorientation but was far smaller, though large and wellbuilt. A church and cemetery have been uncovered onthe other side of Parmenios, and another church atDaphne. After the Mameluke conquest this city was laidwaste in its turn, and again 4 m of earth piled up in theolive grove.
On the Island the ancient strata were not as deep. Several baths were found there, some of them immense,a second hippodrome, that of Q. Marcus Rex, datingfrom 50 B.C., some distance from the first, and a villawith mosaics (the triclinium of the Judgment of Paris).Later, however, the water level was too high for excavation.
A suburb named Daphne developed 9 km S of Antiochon the first plateau overlooking the Orontes and theplain, built around the springs of Castalia and Pallas,next to which stood the Temple of Apollo. The waterreached Antioch in underground aqueducts set at a calculated slope, which then crossed several valleys on arcades and ran in high galleries along the mountainsidesabove the city. Thus, as Libanius says, every house couldhave its fountain.
At Daphne itself the original villas were later includedin an orthogonal city plan. The archaeological stratahere were only 2-3 m below the surface, but olive groves,orchards, and fields prevented extensive exploration; thusonly a few houses could be excavated, and many mosaicswere removed.
The mosaics of both Antioch and Daphne have almostall been raised and dispersed; some are in the local museum in Antioch, some in Paris, some in museums in theUnited States. Only two mosaics of the 1st c. A.D. havebeen found. They consist of geometric patterns. Figuredmosaics begin in the 2d c. and continue through to theend of the Classical period of Antioch in the 6th c. Theyform a most valuable series, illustrating the developmentof the art of the mosaicist through the Roman period.
Little sculpture and few inscriptions have survived, andthe only monuments that have been thoroughly exploredare the Theater of Daphne and the Martyrion of Qaoussié. The latter, with mosaics executed in A.D. 387, iscruciform in plan: four naves 25 by 11 m, set on thesides of a square 16 by 16 m. Instead of an apse therewas a horseshoe-shaped Syrian bema at the center of thesquare. In one corner was the sarcophagus that had heldthe body of Babylas, bishop and martyr, which the emperor Julian returned from Daphne to Antioch (identifiedby inscriptions now at Princeton University). Anotherchurch at Machouka, N of the city, was a conventionalbasilica paved throughout with flowered mosaics (6th c.).
The monuments listed in the ancient texts—templesand baths, honorific monuments, fountains, two Hellenistic agoras, a forum of the 4th c. A.D., an amphitheater,civic basilicas, palaces, churches, the octagonal Churchof Constantine, and the round Church of the Virgin builtby Justinian—can probably never be brought to light.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. O. Müller,
Antiquitates Antiochenae(1839) with map based on sources; R. Förster, “Antiochia am Orontes,”
JdI12 (1897) 103-49; L. Jalabert &R. Mouterde,
Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie(1929-);
Antioch on the Orontes1.
The Excavations of1932(1934); 2.
The Excavations, 1933-1936(1938); 3.
The Excavations, 1937-1939 (1941); 4 pt. 1.
Ceramicsand Islamic Coins(1948); 4 pt. 2.
Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Crusaders' Coins(1952); 5.
Les portiques d'Antioche(1970); C. R. Morey,
The Mosaics of Antioch(1938); D. Levi,
Antioch Mosaic Pavements(1947);A. J. Festugière,
Antioche païenne et chrétienne(1959) with an archaeological study by R. Martin; R. Stillwell,“The Houses of Antioch,”
DOPapers15 (1961) 47-57;G. Downey,
A History of Antioch in Syria from Seleucusto the Arab Conquest(1961) with abbr. & bibl.; id.,
Ancient Antioch(1963).
J. LASSUS
