(modern Antakya, Turkey)

Founding.
Antioch by Daphne. Antiochia, in northern Syria; the modern Antakya in the Hatay, southeastern Turkey. Antioch was situated at the edge of a large and fertile plain between Mount Silpius and the left bank of the river Orontes (Nahr el-Asi) where it cut through to the sea. Excavations have revealed traces of a pre-classical settlement, but the city was founded in about 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid dynasty, who named it after his father Antiochus and populated it with 5,300 Athenian and Macedoninan ex-soldier settlers (transferred from Antigonus I Monophthalmos' short-lived foundation of Antigoneia); at the same time Seleucus renamed the Orontes after the Macedonina river Axius.

3rd Century BC.
Antiochia by Daphne, which owed this name to its suburb of Daphne, famous for a shrine of Apollo (among other royal gods), became the capital of the Seleucid empire's western territories, supplanting Seleucia in Pieria, which became its harbor (except during a brief intermission from 241-219, when the port passed into the hands of the Ptolemies). Antioch was soon the principal center of northern Syria and one of the greatest cities in the world.
Its growth took place in stages. Laid out from the start according to the regular gridiron plan frequently found at contemporary Hellenistic towns, it at first only occupied a small strip beside the river; but the original plan already envisaged considerable enlargement, which was duly achieved. A new walled quarter, containing numerous handsome temples, was added by the founder's son Antiochus I Soter (281-261). Seleucus II Callinicus (246-226) created a third walled quarter on an island in the Orontes, which was linked with the main city by five bridges and adorned by a four-faced arch at the intersection of its two principal streets.
Enriched with many fine monuments and statues, including the famous Tyche (Fortune) of Eutychides (early third century), Antioch became a model of wealthy urban sophistication, blending a vast cosmopolitan range of different populations, including numerous Aramaeans and a substantial Jewish community whose privileges were said to go back to Seleucus I.

2nd Century BC.
In about 170 Antiochus IV Epiphanes built a fourth quarter, giving it the name of Epiphania, so that Antioch became known as the Tetrapolis (four cities).
Since the city was the Seleucids' western residence, its people, who were reputedly dissolute, played a prominent and tumultous part in the dyanstic revolutions that disfigured the reigns of the later rulers, as Seleucid power and influence gradually shrank but Rome expanded.

1st Century BC.
After an interval during which the armenian monarch Tigranes I the Great incorporated the city in his territories (83-66), it was annexed by Pompey the Great and became the capital of the Roman province of Syria (64). Then, in 49/8 Caesar granted its administration autonomous status, and new eras were reckoned from both these dates.

1st Century AD.
During the Roman Principate many easterners migrated from Antioch to Rome, so that the satirist Juvenal complained that the Orontes had flowed into the Tiber. It was here that Mucianus, governor of Syria, planned the rebellion that led to the accession of Vespasian (AD 69). The city was also the principal base for recurrent military operations against the Parthians in Mesopotamia.
This ancient city has an important place in Christian history. After the stoning of Stephen in Jerusalem (Acts 7) in 33 A.D. many of Jesus' followrs went to Antioch. Nicholas of Antioch, a recent convert to Judaism and then to Christianity, became one of "seven men of good reputation" (Acts 6:3-5) and took charge of the communal body of believers. In 40 A.D., with so many new followers, group needed a name to distinguish itself from the others and adopted the name "Christian" for the first time in history. During the time of Paul and Barnabas, there was a large Greek speaking Jewish community in Antioch. The Christian community of Antioch was not as conservative as the one in Jerusalem. That is why Christianity was spread out to the world from Antioch rather than Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas struggled to wellcome everyone into Christianity not only the Jews (Acts 15:1). Paul started his missionary journeys from Antioch. Crusaders discovered a grotto to the east of the city, known as St.Peter's Grotto. There are some other hidden churches and buildings found from the same era, believed to be used by early Christians for secret meetings.

2nd Century AD
One of the emperors who used it for this purpose, Trajan, gave the Antiochenes funds for sumptuous rebuilding after one of the numerous earthquakes that afflicted the area (115), like Hellenistic and Roman rulers before him and other Roman and Byzantine emperors in subsequent centuries.
During the civil wars of the later second century, its adherence to the pretender Pescennius Niger (193-198) brought about its degradation by the victorious Septimius Severus.

3rd Century AD.
In 201, it was restored to its former rank, and received the honorary title of colony from his son and successor Caracalla.
Antioch became host to ten assemblies of the church between 252 and 300 A.D. The Patriarch of Asia, St.Jerome settled in the city.
At some point during the 250s or 260s- perhaps at the beginning of the sole reign of Gallienus (260), during Valerian's captivity- the city fell briefly into theh ands of the Sassanian (Persian) monarch Sapor (Shapur) I (who deported a large number of the inhabitants to Susiana). Soon afterward, it formed a vital part of the territories first of the usurpers Macrianus and Quietus (260-61) and then of the breakaway Palmyrene monarch Zenobia (271): the first of the major battles in which Aurelian defeated her armies was fought nearby.

5th Century AD.
St. Simeon Stylites lived in the area until his death in 459 A.D. and he was buried in Antioch.