Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/146

Rh 132 A N T I C H increase the tendency to superstition, of which there was an instance in the magician Dabbonius, who placed a bust on a purple column in the centre of the city, and inscribed it acmcrra aTrrwra, but in vain, for the next earthquake cast it down. Much more severe was the earthquake 115 A.D., while the city was full of the Eoman army which Trajan was to lead against the Parthians. The rivers changed their courses, Mount Casius shook, and it was only by taking shelter for several days in the circus that Trajan himself escaped danger from the falling buildings. The city being restored partly by the aid of Trajan and Hadrian, was spared any serious calamity of this kind till 526 A.D. when it was entirely destroyed, the loss of life, all the greater because of an assembly of Christians then met, being reckoned at 250,000 persons. There had before been two shocks, 341 and 457-8 A.D., the latter attended with considerable loss. Again, on Nov. 29, 528 A.D., occurred another earthquake, through which 5000 lives were lost. There appears to have been a violent shock, 587 A.D., followed on the last day of October 588 by another, attended with a terrible destruction of life. But the people of Antioch were not without troubles of their own making, as when, by their disaffection towards the king Demetrius, they caused him to seek the aid of a body of Jews, with whom he fell upon his subjects, slaying a vast number, and setting fire to the city. In 83 B.C. Tigranes, either by invita tion or by force, took Antioch, but was compelled to leave it by Lucullus, who placed on the throne Antiochus Philopator. Syria became a Roman province in the time of Pompey, who (64 A.D.) enlarged the temple at Daphne, and conceded to Antioch autonomy. In 47 A.D. Cresar visited Antioch on his expedition from Alexandria against Pimm aces, and was regarded as a benefactor, and styled dictator, because he allowed the town to retain its freedom, and added several public works of importance. Augustus was no less favourably inclined to the famous Eastern city, which on the news of the defeat of Antony at Actium, hastened to espouse the cause of the emperor, and even instituted an era from the day of that battle, which, how ever, was not long retained. The usual era from which reckonings were made in Antioch, and over a great part of the East, down to the 10th century, was 312 B.C., in which year Seleucus took Babylon. It was known as the era of the Seleucidre. Successive emperors showed their favour for the city by visits or the erection of public works. Germanicus died at Antioch 19 A.D. ; his body was burned in the forum, and a monument erected over his ashes. Titus, it is said by Malala, placed the cheru bim which he removed from Jerusalem on one of the gates of Antioch, and there seems to be confirmation of this statement in the fact, that one of the gates continued long to be named after these figures. Hadrian built an aqueduct for the town with a reservoir (castellum) at Daphne, in the form of a temple to the nymphs ahd naiads. Under Commodus a new splendour was given to Antioch by the celebration of the Olympic games at Daphne. Buildings were erected for the practice of athletic feats generally, and in particular for the use of those who competed in the games. In 266 A.D. the Persians invaded Antioch, appearing suddenly on the hills while the people were assembled in the theatre, where many were slain by the enemy s arrows before escape was pos sible. The Christian church, partly built by Constantine, and finished by his son, has already been mentioned, and from its great size it may be assumed that the Christian population of Antioch was already considerable. In the time of Theodosius the entire population is given by Chrysostom at 200,000, of which number about the half were orthodox Christians, a name which was here first applied to the disciples of Christ (Acts xi. 26). From 252 to 380 A.D. ten assemblies of thethurch were held at Antioch. It had been the residence of the apostle Peter, as it was afterwards that of the Patriarch of Asia. But in the history of Christianity at Antioch no period is so memor able as the reign of the emperor Julian, whose measures directed against the new religion such as closing the church and allowing the temple of the Jews to be restored brought upon himself an amount of odium which was far from being counterbalanced by success in his efforts, to revive the old rites of Apollo and Jupiter. Valens, though not orthodox, was yet liberal in the erection of new build ings in Antioch, among them a forum surrounded by four basilicas, and with a high column in the centre sur mounted by a statue of Yalentinianus. This he did after having made peace with the Persians, Nov. 10, 371 A.D. The reign of Theodosius the Great was signalised by a fierce sedition in Antioch, caused by a tax which he had imposed in 387 or 388 A.D., a year of famine. The statues of the emperor and the imperial family were thrown down, and a tumult raised which was suppressed with difficulty. Many of the offenders were punished with great severity,, while the town itself was deprived of its privileges as a metropolis. In the time of Leon a temple was erected in. Antioch to Simeon Stylites, whose body was conveyed to the city from the hill, between 30 and 40 miles to the east, where, on the top of a column 40 or 60 feet high, he had lived in self-imposed martyrdom for thirty years. Under Zeno great efforts were made to restore the city to its original splendour before the earthquakes of 526 and 528 A.D. Its name was now changed to Theopolis, but the change was of short duration, as were also the new build ings ; for in 538 A.D. Chosroes, the king of Persia, took the town, and, after removing all the plunder, even that of the church, gave it over to his soldiers, by whom the greater part of it was set on fire. It was again partly revived by Justinian, but from this time gradually sank from its high position of queen of the East. Under Heraclius (635 A.D.) it fell into the hands of the Saracens r who held it till 969 A.D., when it was restored to the Eoman dominion by Michael Burza and Peter the Eunuch, and so retained till 1084 A.D., when it fell into the power of the Turks, from whom again it was captured by the Crusaders, 1098 A.D. In 1268 A.D. it was taken by the sultan of Egypt, and never revived from the destruction which it then suffered. Of the ancient city little now remains except a great aqueduct bridge and part of the massive walls, which are still to be seen scaling step by step the precipitous hills. At one place the wall is carried over a deep ravine with an &quot;arch about 60 feet high. Across the Orontes is a bridge of nine arches, with two- towers having gates plated with iron, whence the bridge is, known as the iron bridge. Neither the harbour nor the ancient walls which divided the four parts of the city can now be traced. As in the case of many other Greek citiea in Asia, once famous for their beauty, the site of Antioch. is now studded with squalid hovels of mud and straw- The people live by the produce of the mulberry trees and by growing tobacco, which is of a fine quality. It is still called (Antioch) Antakie, and is sometimes, as in 1822, reminded of its ancient calamities arising from earthquakes. In 1835 it contained 5600 inhabitants, with 6000 Egyptian soldiers under Ibrahim Pasha, who had then his head quarters there. (C. O. Miiller, Antiquitates Antiochence, Gottingen, 1839, from which the plan of Antioch has been here adapted ; Bishop Pococke, Description of the ast, Loncl. 1 743-5 j Taylor, La Syrie, la Palestine, et la Judee, Paris, 1855 ; and Voyage Pittoresque de Syrie.) The ancient writers, from whom most of our information con cerning Antioch is derived, are (1) Malala (Johannes), Antiochenus, Historia Glironica, Oxon., 1691; (2) Liba-