Antiochepedia = Musings Upon Ancient Antioch

Alexander II Zabinas and the Statuette

2012-01-19T15:27:00.004-05:00

I have not dwelt much on the pre-Roman history of Antioch mainly because there is so little physical evidence excepting the political history of the fractious Seleucid Dynasty.

One tidbit appeared to us this week about Alexander II Zabinas (Greek Ἀλέξανδρoς Zαβίνας), ruler of the Greek Seleucid kingdom, was a counter-king who emerged in the chaos following the Seleucidian loss of Mesopotamia to the Parthians.

The part of his story which interests me most is that when he fled to Antioch in 123 BC, he reputedly plundered several temples, including that of Zeus, reputedly to pay his troops. He is said to have joked about melting down a statuette of the goddess of victory Nike which was held in the hand of a Zeus statue, saying "Zeus has given me Victory".

He is pictured on the obverse of this coin holding the statuette of Nike in his hand.

Enraged by his impiety the Antiochenes cast Zabinas out of the city. He soon fell into the hands of robbers, who delivered him up to Antiochus, by whom he was put to death, in 122 BC.

For more controversies on this character one might visit:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seleukids/message/2184

Another Curse Scroll

2012-01-04T20:30:00.004-05:00

On the 2nd of January, 2012, in an article by Sindya N. Bhanoo the New York Times reported on the unravelling of a cruse scroll found in the 1930s by the Excavation Committee. It clearly represents a good example of the treasures that lie awaiting calssification and proper examination in the basements of Princeton University.

The article says:

"A vegetable seller named Babylas was the target of an alarming curse nearly 2,000 years ago. Written on a lead tablet found in Antioch, one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, the curse calls on the gods to tie up the hapless greengrocer, then “drown and chill” his soul.

The curse is described in the German journal Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik by Alexander Hollmann, a classicist at the University of Washington who studies Greek and Roman magic.

The curse was written on both sides of the tablet. One side calls upon the god Iao to bind Babylas; the other side addresses multiple gods and calls for the tablet to be thrown down and “killed” in a well — followed, in the same way, by Babylas.

“It also shows where he lives,” Dr. Hollmann said. “It’s all sort of designed so the gods know exactly where to find him.”

Although the author of the curse is not mentioned in the writing, Dr. Hollmann speculates that it may have been a rival businessman.

“This is a pretty serious curse,” he said. “And we have other evidence that these kinds of practices went on.”

The tablet was found in a well in the 1930s, presumably the same one it was dropped in. Since then, along with many other items excavated from Antioch, which lies near Turkey’s Syrian border, the tablet has been at the Princeton University Art Museum.

Curse tablets like this one have shown up in Rome, in Carthage in Africa and throughout the ancient Mediterranean region, said Dr. Hollmann, who has deciphered one other such tablet from Antioch and is working on six others.

“They are so similar, because professionals were using magic books that circulated,” he said. “These had templates that were used for hundreds of years.”"

Yet another Toselli Discovery

2011-12-31T18:53:00.005-05:00

Richard Forster, the most prominent Antioch scholar between Muller and Downey, worte a small piece in the Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Volume 16 in 1901 highlighting another find by the enigmatic Engineer Toselli.

Speaking of this find, Toselli said "Je vous joins ici le releve de inscription gravee sur la roche dans laquelle est ouvert un puisard sur le canal des eaux de Daphne un peu au sud et en amont des ruines du Monastere antique des St St Pierre et Paul laquelle est gravee en trois lignes dans un encadrement de 40 centimetres environ de la maniere suivante:"

Forster dismisses the likelihood of its dating from the time of Trajan's building of the water channel and instead thinks it is late Greek. He transliterated the above as: ΘΠΟΙ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΟΥ ΡΑΛΛΑΔΙΟΝ.

Procopius' lost Monody

2011-11-22T18:58:00.002-05:00

The paucity of materials on Antioch in the ancient literature means that each mention much be cherished. One of the pieces that we know of and that is now lost is the Monody for Antioch by Procopius. This work appears to have still existed into the 12th century when it was used as a reference source for some homilies written and delived by a Sicilian monk, Philagathus Cerami (otherwise known as Filogato Cerameo).

The most extensive reference to this lost work is made in an article by one, Aldo Corcella in, «Echi del romanzo e di Procopio di Gaza in Filagato Cerameo», Byzantinisches Zeitschrift 103, 2010, pp. 25-38..

Procopius (c. 465-528 AD) came from Gaza, a city now better known for its political football status, but back in the fifth century had somewhat of a literary fame. The Monody (in form most usually a poem in which one person laments another's death) he wrote was in relation to the devastating earthquake of AD 526 that flattened Antioch.

Thus far all attempts to get my hands on Philagathus's Homily No 24: "In sanctos Innocentes dicta in ambone archiepiscopalis ecclesiae" on the theme have proven fruitless...for these would appear to be the last remaining vestige of this elusive work by Procopius.

Hilton in the Forum of Valens?

2011-10-17T21:53:00.005-04:00

Rumours that a "Hilton" was being built on the site of the Forum of Valens have swirled for a couple of years now. The brand name may be wrong but the latest discovery on the site would seems to suggest that we are talking of a site that could very well be the long-lost forum that was redesigned by the Emperor Valens. The area had structures built by the Romans as far back as Julius Caesar, while others such as Tiberius and Commodus has added to the mix.

The article recording the discovery is here:

The site photo in the article shows the massive area uncovered.

Our thoughts are that 3,000 sq metres of marble paving is not even one of the famed marble streets but quite clearly a very large open space. Morover the 850 sq metre mosaic uncovered is clearly not a domestic structure to have a room of such dimensions and could very well be one of the many basilicas the surrounded the forum, or the Library (the Museion) or some other significant structure.

Here is the google maps view:

This is an enormous shame that this will be buried in a "museum" in the hotel's basement. There should be no building at all in the still lightly covered northern section of the old walled city. While the mayor of Antakya gets all excited about tourists he should maybe look to Ephesus to see what his real potential could be rather than building over the sites. This hotel should go somewhere else.

A Triple Arch/Gate

2011-10-10T20:34:00.002-04:00

The search for information on Antioch is now reduced to serendipity as so much of what is left extant is known. Well may we say that "there is little new under the sun" for what we need to know still remains out of daylight.

In my peregrinations I stumbled upon an article in Revue archeologique, Volume 4, Part 1 of 1847 entitled "Arc de Triomphe de Theveste" by Antoine Jean Letronne.

"A la troisième espèce, tripyle, appartiennent les arcs qui se composent de trois portes : une grande pour les voitures, deux petites pour les piétons. Tels sont les arcs de Septime Sévère et de Constantin à Rome, l'arc d'Auguste à Fano, la porte d'Herculanum à Pompéi, la porte d'Autun, deux des portes de Lambésa. Je pense que c'est une de ce genre qui était désignée par le mot tripylon, dans un passage où Théophane parle d'une porte d'Antioche qu'il désigne par η πυλη τηζ πολεωζ επι το χαλουμενον τριπυλον , ce qui veut dire que cette porte d'Antioche était formée par un arc triple, comme celle d'Autun ; et l'on peut même conclure de l'expression το λεγομενον τριπυλον , que cette porte était à Antioche la seule de ce genre.

The passage from Theophanes' Chronographia page 36 (ed.Bonn).

What this effectively tells us is that one of the city gates was a triple gate with a large central arch for traffic and two side arches for pedestrians to pass through. As most of the city gates were at the riverside, it would seem that Theophanes is most likely talking about either the Beroea gate or the gates leading to Daphne, the internal Cherubim gate and the external Golden Gate.

Descriptions of the Imperial Palace in the original Greek

2011-09-05T16:00:00.002-04:00

From Libanius in the Antiochikos

αὐτὰ δὲ τὰ βασίλεια κατείληφε μὲν τῆς νήσου τοσοῦτον, ὥστε εἰς τέταρτον μέρος τῆς ὅλης τελεῖν. τοῦ μέσου γάρ, ὃν ὀμφαλὸν προσείληφεν, ἐφάπτεται καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἔξω μοῖραν τοῦ ποταμοῦ προβέβηκεν, ὥστε καὶ τὸ τεῖχος ἀντ’ ἐπάλξεων κίονας δεξάμενον θέα βασιλεῖ πρέπουσα κατεσκεύασται τοῦ ποταμοῦ μὲν ὑπορρέοντος, τῶν προαστείων δὲ πανταχόθεν εὐωχούντων τὰς ὄψεις. (207) καὶ δι’ ἀκριβείας μὲν ὑπὲρ τούτου τοῦ μέρους βουλομένῳ διελθεῖν τοῦτ’ αὐτὸ ποιητέον ὑπόθεσιν, ἀλλ’ οὐχ ἑτέρας μέρος, δεῖ δὲ ὅμως τοσοῦτον εἰπεῖν, ὅτι τῶν ὄντων ἁπανταχοῦ τῶν μὲν ἐκ μεγέθους λαβόντων ὄνομα, τῶν δὲ ἐπὶ κάλλει βεβοημένων τῶν μὲν οὐδαμῇ λείπεται, τῶν δὲ καὶ πολὺ κεκράτηκεν, εἰς κάλλους μὲν λόγον οὐδαμοῦ νικώμενον, ἐν μεγέθους δὲ κρίσει πανταχοῦ νικῶν, εἰς τοσούτους θαλάμους καὶ στοὰς καὶ ἀνδρῶνας διῃρημένον, ὥστε καὶ τοὺς λίαν ἐθάδας ἐκ θυρῶν ἐπὶ θύρας ἰόντας εἰς πλάνην ἐμπίπτειν. τοῦτό μοι δοκεῖ κἂν μόνον ἐν πόλει φαύλως ἐχούσῃ κείμενον, οἵας πολλὰς ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης ὁρῶμεν, ἔνθα οὐ πολλαὶ καλύβαι ποιοῦσι τὰς πόλεις, εἰ τούτων μιᾷ τοῦτο ἐνέκειτο, πάντως ἂν παρεῖχεν ἐν ἐξετασμῷ πόλεων τῇ κεκτημένῃ μεγαλαυχεῖσθαι.

Foerster, R. (ed.), Libanii opera 1.2 (Leipzig 1903; repr. Hildesheim 1997), 11.206‑208.

A description of the palace by Theodoretus of Cyrrhus

Βορρᾶθεν μὲν Ὀρόντης ὁ ποταμὸς παραρρεῖ τὰ βασίλεια, ἐκ δὲ μεσημβρίας στοὰ μεγίστη διόροφος τῷ τῆς πόλεως ἐπῳκοδόμηται περιβόλῳ, πύργους ὑψηλοὺς ἑκατέρωθεν ἔχουσα. μεταξὺ δὲ τῶν τε βασιλείων καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ λεωφόρος ἐστὶν ὑποδεχομένη τοὺς ἐκ τῶν τῇδε πυλῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἄστεως ἐξιόντας καὶ εἰς τοὺς προαστείους ἀγροὺς παραπέμπουσα. διὰ ταύτης Ἀφραάτης παριὼν ὁ θεσπέσιος εἰς τὸ πολεμικὸν ἀπῄει γυμνάσιον...

Theodoretus of Cyrrhus, Ecclesiastical history, IV, 26, 1‑3, Parmentier, L. (ed.), Theodoret, Kirchengeschichte (Berlin 1998), pp. 264‑5.

Some Names of Quarters from the Liber Pontificalis

2011-09-05T13:35:00.004-04:00

Through a roundabout hunt I ended up looking at an English translation of the Liber Pontificalis for information on Antioch. This source is: THE BOOK OF THE POPES, (LIBER PONTIFICALIS) I - TO THE PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY I, Translated with an introduction by LOUISE ROPES LOOMIS, Ph.D., published by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1916.

What I stumbled upon in this volume was a gift of some assets in the city of Antioch to the Basilica of St Peter's in Rome. These consisted of:

the house of Datianus, yielding 240 solidi
the little house in Caene, yielding 20 and one third solidi
the barns in Afrodisia, yielding 20 solidi
the bath in Ceratheae, yielding 42 solidi
the mill in the same place, yielding 23 solidi
the cook shop in the same place, yielding 10 solidi
the garden of Maro yielding 10 solidi
the garden in the same place, yielding 11 solidi

The footnote in the translation described Caene, Afrodisia and Ceratheae as "all quarters of Antioch". This perked up our interest as the names of the quarters are scarcely mentioned elsewhere. The first two locations are new to us. Ceratheae would seem to be the same as that area known as the Kerateion, which is mentioned more than any other area in the sources. We have also written on it in the past.

Then we have the issue as to whether the "garden of Maro" is in a quarter called Maro, or belonged to someone of that name. More intriguing still is the "house of Datianus". Is this a person or a place (near to the Baths of Datianus)? Or was this in fact the Baths? The rent that it yields is a vast multiple of that of the "little house in Caene".

In other translations (eg Raymond Davis) the places names are given as Aphrodisia and Cerateae.

This intrigued us enough to track down the Latin version(s) in Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaire, Volume 1, Part 1 edited by Louis Duchesne, Cyrille Vogel (published by E. Thorin, 1884). This work collected together the various versions then extant. Thus in Latin:

domus Datiani, praest. sol. CCXL;
domunucula in Caene :i. praest. sol. XX et tremissium;
cellae in Afrodisia, praest. sol. XX;
balneum in Cerateas, praest. sol. XLII;
pistrinum ubi supra, praest. sol. XXIII;
propina ubi supra, praest. sol. X;
hortum Maronis, praest. sol. X;
hortum ubi supra, praest. sol. XI;

However the footnotes reveal that in some versions of the MSS:

Datiani was shown as Daciani
Caene was shown as Gaene, Genae and Cene
Afrodisia was also Afrodia and Afrondisia
Cerateas was also Ceratheas, Cerathenas, Caereteas, Cereteas, Ceretheas, Ceretias and Ceretes
Maronis was shown as Aronis

As for the barns in Afrodisia, it seems strange to have a barn in the city. Did the author mean stables? We note however that the translation of cellae covering many types of small rooms, in houses, inns, brothels and temples.

On Julian's Anger at (and towards) Antioch

2011-09-02T20:21:00.005-04:00

Our sneaking admiration for the much maligned Julian has probably been evident, but this last great lover/hater of Antioch did not generate much except dislike from the Antiochenes during his lengthy sojourn in the city.

In a piece, AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS AND THE ANGER OF JULIAN that we recently stumbled upon , Barbara Sidwell, discusses this issue. We have excerpted the part specifically dedicated to Julian's stay in Antioch.

"Antioch was for Julian a place in which he was confident that his Hellenism would be readily accepted, for this cosmopolitan city epitomised for him a centre of culture and learning on the scale of Alexandria. This city still retained its pagan shrines, and was home to Libanius, whose lectures on the old traditions had certainly made an impact on the young Julian at Nicomedia. However, it was also here in Antioch that Julian’s reforms were put to the greatest test, and were
not received in the manner that the new Augustus had optimistically anticipated.
It was Julian’s sincere hope and strong belief that the Antiochenes would actively embrace paganism along with the reinstitution of sacrifices and worship of the old gods. However, according to Ammianus at 22.13.2, certain incidents made it clear to Julian that Christianity was a prevalent and growing force in Antioch. For example in 363 the temple of Apollo, situated in Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, was burnt down. The inference that Julian drew was that the Christians deliberately burnt down the temple in retribution for the expense Julian was paying towards pagan shrines,34 as opposed to supporting Christian places of worship. As a consequence for the Christians, the greater church (maiorem ecclesiam) at Antioch was ordered to be closed. Through the expression of hostile anger (ira), Julian ordered ‘stricter investigations than usual’ to be made.
Though the emperor may have sensed his response as being righteously angry (as he probably did on all occasions of his anger), it is possible that his anger was not justified, for Ammianus does reveal that it was conceivable, though based on rumore leuissimo, that some tapers were left alight accidentally by the elderly philosopher Asclepiades, which might consequently have sparked the woodwork and thus burnt down the entire building (22.13.3). Nevertheless, his perceptions of the Christians and their behaviour towards pagans meant that Julian had clearly judged them capable of such a deed. Consequently, and with a great deal of anger (ira), Julian himself wrote bitterly to the Antiochenes of the indifference of the Senate and stated that the god had left the shrine before the fire had occurred, for their neglect had made them unworthy of the god’s care (Mis. 361B-C; 363A-C). After Julian’s death Libanius (17.30; 2.218F) wrote, ‘This then was the meaning of the destruction by fire of Apollo’s temple; the god left earth, which was about to be defiled. Christian writers responded to this by stating that the fire was divine retribution for Julian’s desire to revive worship of the god Apollo.38 However, Ammianus writes nothing further on this matter, so the outcome is not apparent. It is sufficient to show that when a group that already held reservations towards him for his renewal of the ancient traditional forms of worship pushed Julian, then he could submit them to reprisals. In the manner of his description of this incident, Ammianus nowhere suggests the cruelty and terror that characterised Constantius’ conduct when he was investigating anti-Christian behaviour. This was not the last time that Julian would vent his rage against the ungrateful citizens of Antioch.

In 363, during a corn-crisis, Ammianus reports that Julian raged (saeuiens) against the Senate at Antioch when it was pointed out that he could not lower the price of commodities at that time (22.14.2). As a supporter of the upper classes in Antioch who controlled the food supply into the city, Ammianus at this point removes himself from actively supporting the policy of Julian, as it seemed negatively to affect the social class he most identified with. Indeed, the measures that Julian was trying to introduce were understood to be a direct attack on the elite. Not surprisingly, Ammianus portrays Julian’s policy as superfluous for he saw that it was a measure designed to increase his popularity (popularitatis amore, 22.14.1). Thus it seems that the historian saw the emperor’s anger as not justified; for he never once mentions Julian’s own economic accounts of the food supply, which Julian included in his Misopogon, though surely the historian would have read it. Ammianus also does not acknowledge the failure of the rains leading to a bad harvest,which would have contributed significantly to this crisis, and to which Julian’s Misopogon (359A) also refers. That these measures would have created financial hardship, if not for Ammianus, then at least for people he knew, especially within the curial class, must have influenced his decision in showing that this manoeuvre was purely to gain popularity for the emperor and to distract from his Persian campaign, which undoubtedly would have diverted much of the food resources in preparations for the military activity.

As a consequence of his anger towards his dissenters because of these and other reasons, Julian chose the rather extraordinary response of dressing down the Antiochenes through the writing of his Misopogon or Beard-Hater, composed during the celebration of the Kalends in late January or early February 363. In order to visually express his displeasure with the Antiochenes, this satire was put on display outside the imperial palace for the public to read. The Misopogon was a lengthy treatise that has been described as ‘an expression of the bitterest disappointment and rage’, and ‘a work which might have been witty, but the bitterness of its angry and sensitive author overwhelmed his efforts at humour’. It is the end of the Misopogon which is dominated by undisguised anger. After writing this document, Julian underestimated the reaction of the populace, for Ammianus writes (22.14.2):

quocirca in eos deinceps saeuiens ut obtrectatores et contumaces uolumen conposuit inuectiuum, quod Antiochense uel Misopogonem appellauit, probra ciuitatis infensa mente dinumerans addensque ueritati conplura. post quae multa in se facete dicta conperiens coactus dissimulare pro tempore ira sufflabatur interna.

Although, as we discussed in the introduction, anger control in the fourth century was no longer prominent in political texts, Ammianus does make much of Julian concealing his wrath, for although the populace caricatured Julian, comparing him to a dwarf and a goat (due to his characteristic beard), and openly objected to the number of sacrifices he made to the gods, the emperor ‘held his peace, kept his temper under control, and went on with his solemnities’ (A.M. 22.14.3). Individuals react differently when placed in the public eye and when emotions get the better of them. Some behave like Tiberius who, unable to cope with the constant pressure from the Senate in particular, took to self-imposed exile. Others, such as Nero, took public life to the extreme and deliberately presented themselves to the populace, relishing all the attention, oblivious to any outside criticism. For Julian, neither was a suitable option, and his anger led him to react as only a man of his scholarly nature could, which was through the writing of a piece of literature meant to explain his position, and point out how much of a disappointment the citizens were to him.

For Julian, as someone who was in such an esteemed position, to be made the object of ridicule was an enormous insult. However, Ammianus does justify some of the Antiochenes’ jibes, and held the belief that the Misopogon’s objections were more punitive than he thought warranted:

probra ciuitatis infensa mente dinumerans, addensque ueritati complura (22.14.2).

The historian does not criticise Julian for the dissertation, which suggests that he perhaps believed that the Antiochenes were being unduly harsh towards the emperor. Ammianus does, however, point out Julian’s unwarranted behaviour on other occasions in Antioch, which the historian disapproved of: for example when Julian excitedly ran out of the Senate to greet Maximus (22.7.3), and when Julian carried the sacred standards, rather than letting the priests, for whom it was their sacred duty (22.14.3). Interestingly, Sozomen, the fifth century Christian historian, was in support of the dissertation, and wrote of Julian (Hist. Eccl. 5.19), ‘he suppressed his feelings of indignation and repaid their ridicule by words alone; he composed and sent to them a most excellent and elegant work under the title of Beard Hater’. Zosimus, the pagan historian who lived a short time after Julian, called it a ‘most polished composition’ (3.11.5). The second century Roman rhetorician Fronto (Ep. ad Marc. Ant. 2.7) was also in support of such devices, for he believed that emperors ought to ‘repress by their edicts the faults of provincials, give praise to good actions, quell the seditious and terrify the fierce ones. All these are assuredly things to be achieved by words and letters’. Libanius, in his Epistles, never once mentions the Misopogon definitively, although he does, in his sixteenth oration, attempt to argue against the dissertation in stages. The language and rhetorical devices of the piece would also have not failed to impress Ammianus.

Twice Ammianus gives us comments on Julian’s anger which foreshadow his death; the manner of his language and hindsight are given over to this paradox. The first instance occurs at the time the emperor stormed out of Antioch on 5 March, 363 (23.2.4), furious (ira) at the citizens and their jibes against him, and promising never to return. He swore to the delegates who escorted him from the city that he would spend the winter at Tarsus. Ammianus tells us that he did, but as a corpse rather than in the way Julian intended. The second occurs, ominously, not long before Julian’s death, when a bitter sign was described by Ammianus (24.6.17). This incident occurred on his Persian expedition, when Julian made a successful engagement outside Ctesiphon. In light of this success, Julian wanted to make an ample sacrifice to Mars Ultor. But of the ten bulls that were brought there nine fell dead before arriving at the altar; and the tenth broke its bonds and took much effort to control. When it had finally been sacrificed, the omens it gave were unfavourable. At this sight Julian was seized by an attack of anger (exclamauit indignatus), and took Jupiter to witness that he would not sacrifice to Mars any more; this oath was not retracted because his death occurred very shortly thereafter. Being deeply superstitious Julian clearly reacted out of fear and angst. For example, Ammianus (25.4.17) characterises the emperor as superstitiosus magis quam sacrorum legitimus obseruator. The knowledge that a bitter end might occur for him would have begun to play on his mind (cf. A.M. 25.2.4.). In his language, Ammianus (22.5.2, 22.12.6) does not show support for Julian’s behaviour, partly because, being a ‘more conservative pagan’, he was censorious of the emperor’s exorbitant sacrifices. One may point out though that Marcus Aurelius, whom Julian sought to emulate, also made excessive sacrifices, which were also criticised by the populus (A.M. 25.4.17).

As we have seen then, anger was very much apparent in Julian as a result of the behaviour of the citizens of the city of Antioch, who had verbally attacked and insulted him for a variety of reasons, not least his physical appearance and his reinstitution of overly indulgent pagan rituals. If Ammianus had sought to write a panegyric on Julian, who combined the elements of miles and graecus to construct his own selfhood, much as Ammianus did through his closing statement, then surely it ended here. For in Antioch all of the emperor’s great ideas, such as his desire to restore pagan institutions, to decide in legal matters and to make reforms in the Senate, were mocked and chastised by the very people whom he believed would actively support him. The city of Antioch was, for Julian, a place in which he was confident that his perception of fourth century Hellenism would be readily accepted. For this cosmopolitan city epitomised for him a centre of culture and learning on the scale of Alexandria. Julian’s restoration of all things Greek, including culture, worship of the old gods and identification with the city of Antioch, all support this. In reality, Antioch did still retain many of its pagan shrines, and was home to the rhetorician Libanius,
whose lectures on the old traditions had certainly made an impact on the young Julian at Nicomedia.

Unfortunately, Antioch also became the city where, as Ammianus shows us, the emperor who had so far held himself together remarkably well against all the odds, suddenly came undone under pressure from the Senate and populace. For Julian was aggrieved when the citizens as well as the Senate did not accept his reforms wholeheartedly (cf. Lib. Or. 15.55; 16.13-14), and even mocked him at the New Year celebrations, something that his ego could not tolerate. As a consequence of this treatment by the Antiochenes, at the outset of his Persian expedition,67 the young emperor left Antioch in a fury. According to Ammianus, the people of Antioch responded by begging for his glorious return and praying that his anger would by then be abated. Instead, Julian manifested his anger through a verbal outburst, claiming that he had no intention of visiting the Antiochenes again (23.2.4). The consequence for the people of Antioch was that Julian replaced himself with a cruel governor, one Alexander of Heliopolis, who, he allegedly believed, would keep the greedy and rebellious people of the city in check. As stated above, his words upon his departure seemed eerily to seal his own fate, and Julian died on his Persian expedition before he had a chance to renounce them".

Inscriptions in US Museums

2011-08-10T08:28:00.002-04:00

The organisation of information on-line continues apace. The latest to appear is a database of ancient inscriptions in the US. It is located at this site.

We delved in and located those related to Antioch & Daphne. Here they are:

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=CA.Berk.UC.HMA.G.8-4300

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=CA.Malibu.JPGM.G.96.AI.146

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=DC.DO.G.38.87

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=DC.DO.G.38.77

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=DC.DO.G.38.91

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=FL.WiPark.RC.G.Tmp97.3.1

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P2209-I23_S91

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P3278-I29

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P3399-I44

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P3782-I69_S241

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P3783-I70

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P3784-I71

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.P4754-I131_S241

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb143-I275_S519

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb21-I259_S500

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb290-I279_S534

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb30-I260_S503

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb42-I264_S508

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb50-I266

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb75-I268_S514

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pb94-I271

http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NJ.Princ.PU.AM.G.Pc370-I308

We reserve a special wrist slap for those institutions (the Getty?? and Dumbarton Oaks?? - shame on you!) that, in this day and age of digital photography, can't be bothered taking a photo of their inscription to accompany the entry on the object.

More on the Omphalos

2011-08-05T08:20:00.009-04:00

We have written before on the Omphalos, a sort of central point of the city, effectively the navel of Antioch. This is a concept which also existed in sculptural structures in Rome, Athens and Constantinople as well.

In recent reading we stumbled upon a footnote in Italian in the book:

Notizie dei rostri del Foro Romano, e dei monumenti contigui by Francis Morgan Nichols, 1885

In this he comments:

"Non mi par certo che lo Omphalos di alcuna città greca fosse un monumento particolare, come si suppone l'Umbilico di Roma. Si dice che in Costantinopoli il monte centrale si chiamasse con quel nome . (Veggasi Ducange, Gloss. med. et inf. Graec. s. v. ομφαλοζ, μεσομφαλιον.) Lo omphalos di Antiochia si descrive dallo storico bizantino Malalas, come un luogo nel mezzo dei portici che traversavano la città, dove stava, sopra una gran colonna di granito, un monumento eretto in onore dell'imperatore Tiberio, nel quale luogo vi era un'immaggine di un occhio incisa in pietra.

Ανεστησε τω αυτω Τιβηριφ χαισαρι η βουλη χαι δ δομοζ των Αντιοχεων στηλην χαλχδν υπερανω χιογοζ θηβαιου ζο τη πλατεια χατα το ρισον των ομβολων των υπ αυτον χτισθιντωπ θστιζ τοποζ χεχληται ο δμφαλαζ τηζ εχων χαι τυπον εγγεγλμμινον εν λιθω οφθαλμου ητιζ στηλη ιοταται εωζ τηζ νυν. Malalas, Clirou. lib. x. (ed. Dind. 233).

Il Mueller, il quale per οφθαλμου ha voluto leggere ομφαλον, opinò che si trattasse d'un monumento simile a quello delphico. (K. O. Mueller, Antiq. Antioch.57). Ma anche con questa lezione, le parole paiono accennare piuttosto ad un'immagine di quel simbolo intagliata, forse nella base del monumento di cui parla l'autore".

The Baths - a more definitive list

2011-08-02T20:12:00.003-04:00

We have dwelt numerous times on the baths, one of the most prominent features of this very bath-loving city.

While a definitive list will never be formed until everything is excavated (thus likely never), the best we have in the short term is a list compiled an article entitled "Bains et histoire urbaine: l’exemple d’Antioche de Syrie dans l’Antiquité" by Catherine SALIOU, the Professeur d’Histoire romaine, Univ. Paris 8 – FRANCE.

We reproduce here (and translate) her reckoning from the historical sources:

Baths of:	Références	Chronological or topographical detail
Julius Caesar	Malalas, p. 216, l. 21-23 sqq. Dindorf = p. 163, l. 54 sqq. Thurn.	On the Acropolis
Agrippianon = Ampeli(n)on	Malalas, p. 222, l. 17-20 = p. 169, l. 78-81 Thurn.	At the foot of the mountain in the Vicus Aprippa
Tiberius	Malalas, p. 234, l. 11-12 Dindorf = p. 178, l. 45-46 Thurn.	Near to the Spring of Olympias, in the section of the city created by Tiberius' extension of the city walls (cf. Libanios Or. XI, 250, who mentions the spring of Olympias : in the northern part of the city) ; to be distinguished from « Tibérinon loutron » mentioned in the Life of Syméon Stylite the Younger, which is not at Antioch but rather at the foot of “Mont Admirable”.
Gaius Casar (Caligula)	Malalas, p. 243, 15-8 Dindorf = p. 184, l. 27-31 Thurn.	At the foot of the mountain
Ouarion (Varium)	Malalas, p. 244, l. 7 sqq. Dindorf = p. 184, l. 37 sqq. Thurn.	At the foot of the mountain, near to the river and the city walls, a construction by the Senator Varius, sent by Caligula to supervise the reconstruction of the city after an earthquake
Medea	Malalas, p. 263, l. 11 sqq Dindorf = p. 199, l. 52 sqq. Thurn.	Lying beside the mountain, near to the amphitheatre and the Temple of Aphrodite ; a construction of Domitian.
Trajan	Malalas, p. 276, l. 1 Dindorf = p. 208, l. 39 Thurn ; cf. Libanios, Or. 32, 2 (387) ; Évagre le Scholastique, HE II, 12.	In the Old City. Partly destroyed in the earthquake of AD458.
Hadrian	Malalas, p. 277, l. 20-278, l. 19 Dindorf = p. 209, l. 77 Thurn ; cf. P. Euphr. 1, l. 1-2 ; Évagre le Scholastique, HE II, 12.	In the Old City. Seat of the trail court of the governor in AD245. Partly destroyed in the earthquake of AD 458
Centènarion	Malalas, p. 282, l. 8-10 Dindorf = p. 213, l. 74 Thurn.	Restored by Marcus Aurelius (originally built before the earthquake of AD 115).
Commodion	Malalas, p. 283, l. 5 Dindorf = p. 215, l. 9 Thurn, cf. p. 220, l. 47, et p. 261, l. 52 Thurn.	Constructed under Commodus; facing the Sanctuary of Athéna, contiguous to the Xystos (on the « Forum of Valens ») ; transformed into the official residence of the Comes Orientes between the reign of Valens and the period of Malalas
Severianon, thermae Severianae	Malalas, p. 294, l. 17-19 Dindorf = p. 224, l. 30-31 ; Hier., Chron. sub anno 200 (Helm, p. 212) ; Évagre le Scholastique, HE II, 12.	Lying along the mountain in the Old City. Constructed by Septimus-Sévèrus. Partial destruction in the earthquake of AD 458.
Livianon	Malalas, p. 294, l. 19-p. 295, l. 5 Dindorf = p. 224, l. 36 Thurn.	In the lower part of the city. Built in the reign of Septimus Sévèrus.
Diocletianon	Malalas, p. 306, l. 22-p. 307, l. 1-2 Dindorf = p. 236, l. 87-88 Thurn.	Rèign of Dioclétian ; in the lower part of the city, near to the ”old hippodrome”
Sunklètikon	Malalas, p. 308, l. 3-5 Dindorf = p. 237, l. 15-16 Thurn.	Reign of Diocletian
3 Unnamed baths	Malalas, p. 308, l. 3-5 Dindorf = p. 237, l. 15-16 Thurn.	Reign of Diocletian
Philipus	Malalas, p. 318, l. 4-6 Dindorf = p. 234, l. 35-36 Thurn.	Abandoned, kncoked down in the reign of Constantine, at a time when it was not being used. Site of the Golden Octagon
Balneum in Cerateas	Liber pontificalis 34 ; 58, 23-27 Mommsen	Kerateion
Datianus	Libanios, ep. 114, 5 ; 435, ; 441, 7 ; 1184, 9.	In the city and outside of the city (at the city gates); construction before November AD 355
Valens	Ammien Marcellin, XXXI, 1 ; Évagre le Scholastique, HE I, 20 ; Malalas, p. 339, l. 17-18 Dindorf = p. 261, l. 68-69 Thurn.	Near the Hippodrome
The Imperial Palace	Théodoret de Cyr, Histoire Philothée 8 (Vie d’Aphraate), 9-10 ; Évagre le Scholastique, Histoire Ecclésiastique II, 12	On the Island, Intact after the earthquake of 458
Proculus	Libanios, ep. 852, 2.	Construction between AD 382 & 384.
Ellebichos	Libanios, ep. 898, 4.	Built in 387
Urbicius (et d’Eupatios ?)	Malalas, Sl. cf. Thurn, p. 316, l. *62-63.	Mentioned in the reports of an uprising between AD 484 and AD 491.
Olbia	Malalas, p. 397, l. 10-11 Dindorf = p. 325, l. 11 Thurn (voir aussi Excerpta de insidiis, p. 268, fr. 40 ; Jean de Nikiou, 89. 23-30).	Mentioned reports of the uprising of AD 507 ; near to the Basilica of Rufinos (on the agora).
Tainâdonhûs (Adonis ?)	Chronique de Jean de Nikiou (éd. Zotenberg) 90. 24-25, p. 135 trad. Charles.	Mentioned in reports of the fire of AD 525.
Of the Syrian Nation	Chronique de Jean de Nikiou (éd. Zotenberg) 90. 24-25, p. 135 trad. Charles	Mentioned in reports of the fire of AD 525.
(Demosion)	IGLS III, 786.	« Bath F » ; restored in AD 537-538.
Winter (« Bain d’hiver » ; « bains saisonniers »	La Vie ancienne de S. Syméon Stylite le Jeune, c. 224, l. 25 ; Évagre le Scholastique, HE VI, 8.	Near to a Basilica (?) called « Diphôtos », in a place within sight of the city ; mentioned in a report of an incident between AD 578 and AD 592 ; destruction after the earthquake of AD 588.

Reference: http://balneorient.hypotheses.org/1332

Tetrapylon of the Elephants - Further Thoughts

2011-07-26T21:03:00.002-04:00

This famous structure on the Island sector of the city has long intrigued us and we have previously commented upon it. We took its name as being probably because it had a quadriga of elephants drawing a chariot (as sometimes appears on Roman and Seleucid coins) atop the structure.

However, we stumbled upon a reference to the Victory of the Elephants in 273 BC and this started us wondering if the structure maybe had its origins in this event very early on in Seleucid history and thus was some sort of triumphal monument (not an uncommon purpose in an Arch or its more complex manifestation, the Tetrapylon).

The sequence of events that led to this victory (and maybe its commemoration was that in 280 BC, after personally assassinating Seleucus I and murdering his two young rival claimants to the throne, Ptolemy Ceraunos managed to seize the kingdom of Lysimachos (who had died the previous year, leaving no heirs strong enough to hold their father's throne). However this unscrupulous adventurer had little time to enjoy his successes. The following year he met a large army of migrating Celts. As a result of this battle, Ptolemy Ceraunos' head was forcibly removed and used to decorate a pike. These Celts were to become known to the Greeks as the Galatians. These Eastern Celtic people seemed to have fought much like their better known Gallic counterparts who later invaded Italy and sacked Rome. Except for their chieftains, these warriors were poorly armed and trained. However their terrifying, impetuous ferocity made them irresistible in battle, as Ptolemy discovered to his detriment.

The Galatians quickly scattered to plunder Macedonia, Thrace and Greece. The Greeks avoided any pitched battles with these barbarians from the north, and although the Galatian looting met with some initial success, eventually the Greek harassment drove the invaders out of Greece and Macedonia.

Retreating to Thrace, the Celts were invited to intervene in a Bithynian civil war that was raging. Around 20,000 Galatians crossed the Bosporus where they quickly settled the Bithynian question of succession. Naturally, having completed their task, the Galatians were not about to leave. They enthusiastically set about pillaging Asia Minor.

Unlike Greece, the inhabitants of Asia Minor did not resist the Celtic invaders. To avoid destruction, they paid the Galatians protection money. The Galatians thus settled down in the centre of Asia Minor to continue their profitable blackmail.

About six years later, in 273 BC, the king of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochios I, decided to deal with the Galatian interlopers. According to the (somewhat sparse) sources, the Galatians had about 20,000 cavalry alone, heavily outnumbering Antiochios. Since the Celts had crossed into Asia with only 20,000 men in total a few years ago, this number is obviously greatly inflated. Still, even if Antiochios wasn't outnumbered, most of his army consisted of light troops. The Galatians, and everyone else, were also highly convinced of the Celts' invincible fighting prowess. So the morale in Antiochios' army was probably rather poor at the outset of the battle.

The Galatians began the battle by opening their ranks of warband to let their scythed chariots pass through the infantry. However, Antiochios had taken the advice of a tactician Theodotos of Rhodes, and managed to conceal his elephants from the Celts. The chariots were bearing down on the Seleucid ranks, when the elephants suddenly appeared. Eight elephants faced the chariots in the centre; an additional four faced the Galatian cavalry on each flank.

The terrified Galatian horses, unused to the sight of these behemoths, bolted and dragged the deadly scythed chariots back through the warbands in great bloody swathes. The elephants followed up their success and trampled into the Celtic ranks, completing the rout. Antiochios I had defeated the feared Galatians.

Thus there is good reason we believe to think that the tetrapylon may have had its origin in this victory.

Acta Urbis Antiochiae

2011-07-17T13:20:00.000-04:00

This document is long lost but referred to in some of the ancient texts, particularly John Malalas.

In an article of the Maccabean Synagogue in the Italian journal Bessarione of 1st of April 1897 the author makes the following comments on the subject of the Acta and Malalas:

"......ebbe per le mani e fece uso degli Acta urbis Antiochiae, simili agli Acta diurna populi romani, dove trovavansi registrate, in uno agli editti, agli atti concernenti gli edifici, alle opere pubbliche, agli incendi e tremuoti, le memorie ancora più importanti della città e quant'altro allo stato della medesima appartenesse. Tali Acta sono espressamente citati dal Malala là dove parla della denominazione di Θεουπολιζ; data sotto Giustiniano ad Antiochia per acclamazione popolare. Nò il Muller credette ostare a che tali atti assorgessero al tempi dei Seleucidi. Da queste premesse, è tacile inferire che l'autorità del Malala rispetto alle coso antiochene conviene apprezzarla dal valore delle fonti a cui egli attinse: e tosto vedremo come il martirologio siriaco sopra citato renda alla veracità e precisione del Cronografo antiocheno nuova e splendida testimonianza".

The Earthquake of AD 115

2011-02-05T14:35:00.002-05:00

Th oft-cited evidence for the Imperial Palace bordering the Hippodrome is the tale of Trajan's escape form the tumbling palace during the earthquake of AD 115. The whole passage makes an interesting read for its broader damage. The Curse of Antioch is its earthquakes.. something the modern planners (if there are any) in Antakya should not fail to recall.

Cassius Dio (via LacusCurtius), Epitome of Book LXVIII, 24 ff., describes:

24 While the emperor was tarrying in Antioch a terrible earthquake occurred; many cities suffered injury, but Antioch was the most unfortunate of all. Since Trajan was passing the winter there and many soldiers and many civilians had flocked thither from all sides in connexion with law-suits, embassies, business or sightseeing, there was no nation of people that went unscathed; and thus in Antioch the whole world under Roman sway suffered disaster. There had been many thunderstorms and portentous winds, but no one would ever have expected so many evils to result from them. First there came, on a sudden, a great bellowing roar, and this was followed by a tremendous quaking. The whole earth was upheaved, and buildings leaped into the air; some were carried aloft only to collapse and be broken in pieces, while others were tossed this way and that as if by the surge of the sea, and overturned, and the wreckage spread out over a great extent even of the open country. The crash of grinding and breaking timbers together with tiles and stones was most frightful; and an inconceivable amount of dust arose, so that it was impossible for one to see anything or to speak or hear a word. As for the people, many even who were outside the houses were hurt, being snatched up and tossed violently about and then dashed to the earth as if falling from a cliff; some were maimed and others were killed. Even trees in some cases leaped into the air, roots and all. The number of those who were trapped in the houses and perished was past finding out; for multitudes were killed by the very force of the falling débris, and great numbers were suffocated in the ruins. Those who lay with a part of their body buried under the stones or timbers suffered terribly, being able neither to live any longer nor to find an immediate death.

25 Nevertheless, many even of these were saved, as was to be expected in such a countless multitude; yet not all such escaped unscathed. Many lost legs or arms, some had their heads broken, and still others vomited blood; Pedo the consul was one of these, and he died at once. In a word, there was no kind of violent experience that those people did not undergo at that time. And as Heaven continued the earthquake for several days and nights, the people were in dire straits and helpless, some of them crushed and perishing under the weight of the buildings pressing upon them, and others dying of hunger, whenever it so chanced that they were left alive either in a clear space, the timbers being so inclined as to leave such a space, or in a vaulted colonnade. When at last the evil had subsided, someone who ventured to mount the ruins caught sight of a woman still alive. She was not alone, but had also an infant; and she had survived by feeding both himself and her child with her milk. They dug her out and resuscitated her together with her babe, and after that they searched the other heaps, but were not able to find in them anyone still living save a child sucking at the breast of its mother, who was dead. As they drew forth the corpses they could no longer feel any pleasure even at their own escape.

So great were the calamities that had overwhelmed Antioch at this time. Trajan made his way out through a window of the room in which he was staying. Some being, of greater than human stature, had come to him and led him forth, so that he escaped with only a few slight injuries; and as the shocks extended over several days, he lived out of doors in the hippodrome. Even Mt. Casius itself was so shaken that its peaks seemed to lean over and break off and to be falling upon the very city. Other hills also settled, and much water not previously in existence came to light, while many streams disappeared.

On the Street Lighting

2011-02-01T17:06:00.003-05:00

I was perusing the book "Gallus: or, Roman scenes of the time of Augustus. With notes and excursuses illustrative of the manners and customs of the Romans" by
Wilhelm Adolf Becker, published by J. W. Parker, 1849. It does not concern us much except that in speaking of lighting (or absence thereof) in ancient Rome he notes:

"There does not seem to have been any street-lighting at Rome, till very late, as no mention is made of it before the fourth century. As far as Rome is concerned, I find no proof of it at all. For the passage quoted from Ammanius Marcellus. xiv. refers not to Rome, but to Antiochia;

"adhibitis paucis clam ferro succinctis vesperi per tabernas palabatur et compita, quaeritando Greco sermone,cujus erat impendio gnarus, quid de Caesare quisque sentiret. Et haec confidenter agebat in urbe, ubi pernoctantium luminum claritudo dierum solet imitari fulgorem".

The lighting of the streets in Antiochia in the fourth century, had already been placed beyond a doubt by the passages of Libanius".

Becker is referring to Libanius' comments in the Antiochikos:

"267. Here he is not "lord of men," neither does he draw men to himself against their will, or lull them to rest by force, but we alone of all people have shaken off his tyranny over our eyelids, and to the torch of the sun there succeeded other torches which surpass the festival of the lamps in Egypt, and among us night differs from day only in the kind of the light. Night is the same as day for the handicrafts, and some work vigorously while others laugh gently and give themselves up to song. The night is shared indeed by Hephaestus and Aphrodite, for some work at the forge and others dance; but in other cities Endymion is more honored".

The main takeaway from this is that Antioch was quite superior in this aspect of its civic amenities than was the capital of the Roman Empire.

Daphne - Poccardi's Map

2011-01-23T17:11:00.005-05:00

We have been urged to add Daphne to our coverage and have finally relented. Daphne was so famous in its heyday that the main city was known as Antioch-by-Daphne as well as its more usual title of Antioch-on-the-Orontes. This is somewhat ironic as Antioch had somewhere between 200,000 to 500,000 residents and Daphne probably never had more than a few thousand.

The expedition of the 1930s spent a considerable amount of time at Daphne particularly in the latter years when the effort devolved into a mosaic scavenger hunt and Daphne was seen as more prospective than the city.

Here we reproduce the map in "Étude de la permanence de tracés urbains et ruraux antiques à antioche-sur-l'Oronte" by Jacques Leblanc and Grégoire Poccardi, published in the journal "Syria" T. 76 (1999), pp. 91-126 of the Institut Francais du Proche-Orient. Click map to enlarge...

Better-Than-Antioch?

2011-01-07T09:45:00.004-05:00

Could there be anything "better than Antioch"? Is that not a loaded question?

After his subjection of the city in 540 AD the Sassanid King, Chosroes took the population of the city (supposedly in its entirety) off to his kingdom where he built for them a new city near Ctesiphon under the name of Veh-az-Andiv-Khusrau ("Khusrau's Better-than-Antioch"). Some reports include the juicy detail that he even took the flute-players,mimes and charioteers. He certainly knew the way to his captives' hearts!

In the history of the Sassanids, translated from the Persian of Mirkhond by Silvestre de Sacy, it is said of Nauschirvan, one of the Persian monarchs who resided at El-Madan, a city built on the ruins of the two famous ones of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, after describing his conquests in Jezireh or Mesopotamia,—" II fit pareillement la conquete de Kennasserin et d'Alep, villes de Syrie. Lorsqu'il fut arrive pres d'Antioche, la plus belle ville de la Syrie, elle lui plut tellement, qu'il la fait dessiner sur un papier, et ordonna qu'on en construisit une absolument pareille, sans la moindre difference, a peu de distance de Madain. Cette ville fut nommee Roumia; et quand elle fut achevee, Nauschirvan ordonna a tous les habitans d'Antioche de se transporter dans sa nouvelle ville. Les rues, et les places de ces deux villes, se ressemblerent si parfaitement, que chacun des habitans d'Antioche, une fois entre dans la ville de Roumia, se rendait, sans y penser, a sa maison. On dit qu'il n'y avait autre difference entre ces deux villes, si ce n'est qu'un blanchisseur de toiles, qui avait un arbre dans la maison qu' il occupait dans l'ancienne ville, n'en trouva pas dans la nouvelle. Ce trait est un de plus singuliers que l'on connoisse."—De Sacy, Memoires sur les Antiquites de la Perse. 4tO. Paris, 1793. p. 366.

This is an intriguing (and confusing) story because as this comment would seem to indicate the new city was reportedly an exact replica of Antioch. De Sacy here talks of Nauschirvan as the relocator of the population and builder of the "new Antioch".

How the replicated city plan could be possible is still not clear unless all he did was repeat the street plan. He certainly did not have a Mt Silpius at his disposal on the banks of the Tigris. What would excavation of this site (now in Iraq) reveal about the street layout of Ancient Antioch?

Warwick Ball in his book Rome in the East states that the population of the new city was around 30,000. Chosroes may have thought this "Better than Antioch" but really it must have been a pale shadow.

Baths of the Crusader Period

2011-01-07T08:35:00.004-05:00

Readers must think we "protesteth too much" when we say we aren't interested in the Christian/Arabic era of the city's history and then publish a blizzard of posts relating to these themes.

The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, we have mined out most of the Imperial period information and secondly some of the latter period information may have relevance back to the Imperial period.

We could not help thinking this when recently revisiting the volume, East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterrean: Antioch from the Byzantine reconquest until the end of the Crusader principality, edited by Krijna Nelly Ciggaar, David Michael Metcalf. The wide ranging list of essays here had previously been touched upon in reference to the Al-makarim travelography of the city.

While rereading the chapter on Adaptation to Oriental life by rulers in and around Antioch by Krijna Nelly Ciggaar we found mention of bathing practices. She notes "This takes us to the baths in Antioch of which several are mentioned in various Crusader sources: the balnea Tancredi (1131, 1140), the balnea dicta Omar (1140) and the two baths of the Hospitallers. One is reported in 1140, another was bought in 1186 by Brother Renard de Margat from the Mazoir family. Other baths are likely to have existed without being mentioned in the sources, such as the baths in private palaces and mansions".

One of the reasons why Antioch was always so well supplied with bathing establishments was its ample water supply. This makes us suspect, in light of the "make do and mend" nature of the city post-528 AD, that the baths of latter periods were probably just rebuilds of the baths that had existed from the Roman times reusing the connections to the still-functioning aqueduct system. The 1930s excavations mainly threw up the expansive baths of the Island and northern part of the city, both of which had been abandoned/depopulated in the 300s and following centuries. Thus the baths being discussed most probably were located in the densely populated section of the city south of the Parmenios which remains largely unexplored.

More on the Circus

2011-01-07T08:27:00.002-05:00

It is not often that Google Books throws up an important text of relatively recent vintage in full text mode. Thus we were very pleasantly surprised to find that John Humphrey's magisterial work, Roman circuses: arenas for chariot racing, University of California Press, 1986, for some reason or other now comes up in full text mode. We had used this as one of our sources for our previous comments on the circus.

His section (page 444-461)on Antioch's circus is extensive and well worth visiting for its rather unique maps and photos from the 1930s excavations as well as intense information on the construction materials and fate of the structure.

Byzantine Governors 976-1084

2011-01-06T20:35:00.003-05:00

One of the least documented periods of Antioch's oft-undocumented history is the period of the Byzantine "restoration". After the city fell to the Arabs in the 7th century it was to spend 300 years under Arab domination. The Byzantines eventually managed to turn the tide and recapture the city in 969 AD as the Arabs struggled with the insurgent Turks fighting for dominance of the Islamic world. This gave the Byzantines their chance and they regained control.

Antioch was very much a fringe city during that period with virtually all the territory southwards, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa and to the East (Syria and Mesopotamia) remaining out of Byzantine control. Still Antioch merited being ranked the second or third city of the Empire (tussling with Thessalonica).

As such being governor (and holding the title of Duke or Catepan) was an honour and a position of power. This devolved quite frequently to the very well connected including close relatives and associates of the Emperor. Most of the terms were limited with only one to three years being spent in the role to hamper the ability of the position holder from building a power base in the fractious political tumult of the Empire.

In an interesting paper, La Chronologie des Gouverneurs d'Antioche sous la seconde domination Byzantine (969-1084) in the Melanges (Universite de Saint-Joseph), Beirut, Second Volume XXXVIII (1962), V. Laurent wote a major piece on the governorship during this period. We thought it useful to repeat here the Chronology of the governors that Laurent compiled from the extant sources. This includes only the years for which there is evidence of the individual governing and their title, thus there are discontinuities. We use his French version of the Greek surnames.

976 Michael Bourtzes (Duke)

976 (end) Kouleib (on behalf of Bardas Scleros - Duke)

977, 978 Oubeidallah (on behalf of Bardas Scleros then later Basil II - Duke)

985 (end) Leon Melissene (Duke)

986-987 Bardas Phocas (Duke)

987-989 Leon Phocas

990-996 Michael Bourtzes (Duke)

996-998 Damien Dalassene (Duke)

999-1006 Nicephore Ouranos (Duke/Catepan)

1011 Michael the Kitonite (Duke)

1022 onwards Theophylacte Dalassene (Duke)

1025 onwards Constantine Bourtzes (Duke)

1025 Constantine Dalassene (Catepan)

1026-1029 Michael Spondyles (Catepan)

1029-1030 Constantin Karantenos (Catepan)

1030-1032 Nicetas of Mistheia (Catepan)

1034 Nicetas (brother of Michael IV) - (Catepan)

1034-1037 Constantine the Eunuch (Duke)

1037 & 1043 (between) Leon (Catepan)

1043 (around) Stephen (Duke)

1054 Romain Scleros (Duke)

1056 Kataklon Kekaumenos (Duke)

1056-1058 Michael Ouranos (Duke)

1059 Adrian (Duke)

1063 Nicephoros Nicephoritzes (1st) (Duke)

1063 Bekhd (1st) (Duke)

1067 Nicephoros Nicephoritzes (2nd) (Duke)

1067-1068 Nicephoros Botaniates (Duke)

1068 Peter Libellisios (Duke)

1069 Bekhd (2nd) (Duke)

1069-1071/2 Khatchatour (Duke or Catepan)

1072-1074 Joseph Tarchanoites (Duke)

1074-1078 Isaac Comnena (Duke)

1078 Vasak (Duke)

1078-1084 Philarete Brachamios (Duke)

An actual street address! (albeit Medieval)

2011-01-05T14:59:00.005-05:00

One of the oddities of the rise of Open Access on the internet is that one can get access to some of the best of French writings on Antioch in recent times on sites like www.persee.fr with papers written by Poccardi, Saliou and Cabouret and yet the scholars of much farther back have largely remained in a vale of obscurity induced by primitive copyright laws. If consulted these long past authors would probably be thrilled to have their views aired more widely.

One such who has become difficult to access on the internet but who was a colossus in his day was Claude Cahen. Pitifully little of his work from the 1940s to the 1970s is accessible on the internet. However, as Persee advances inexorably, some pieces are being revealed to the waiting world. One such with the less than riveting title of "Un document concernant les Melkites et les Latins d'Antioche au temps des Croisades" that appeared in: Revue des études byzantines, tome 29, 1971. pp. 285-292 and has now surfaced on Persee.

This piece contained one of those gems we seem to stumble upon in the most obscure works. In this case the document was an Arabic text detailing a transaction in which the Latin Church sold an abandoned church structure in Crusader Antioch to the Melkite church. The document had been translated to a monastery in Sicily after the fall of Antioch to the Islamic forces and remained there for 600 years.

The derelict church under discussion was Notre Dame de Gethsemeni. While we do not traffic much in the post-Imperial Antioch this piece is worthy of mention because it gives us a localisation of a structure that is more precise than anything else we have seen excepting the Antiochikos of Libanius (which was not exactly a paragon of precision either). In this case, after much preamble, the writers of the contract to pass over the Church site get around to describing where the site was located:

"Ce lieu est limité des quatre côtés comme suit: à l'est par la rue qui l'avoisine; à l'ouest, la place et la ruine sous... le couvent ; au sud les maisons et le jardin de Yânî al-Kâmîdârî et le jardin de Yârî fils de Mardalâ ; au nord enfin la rue aussi et la terre de Sire (?)... aujourd'hui aux mains de son héritier le nomîkoûs Românoûs ; c'est de ce dernier côté qu'ouvre la porte pour entrer et sortir sur la rue bordiere en ce lieu".

While not exactly "X marks the spot" this is the closest thing that exists to a street direction that we have ever encountered for pre-1300 AD Antioch.

On Cemeteries

2011-01-05T04:33:00.001-05:00

I do not usually deal much with the Christian period in Antioch but a piece recently came to my attention that deals with the evolution of the Christian cemeteries and the martyrions that were located at Antioch or thereabouts. The texts in question are Eric Rebillard's piece "Tombe, Tombe Sainte, Necropole" in MEFRA 1993 (2).

Rebillard discusses the presence, or not, within the city of a "cemetery" in which the Martyrs were interred. The focus of the piece is a reference to a place called το κοιμητηριον which he refers to as a "cemetery par excellence". The main argument relates to John Chrysostom's sermon for a Good Friday. This speech was given in a place where the Church celebrated the Resurrection. Rebillard feels that this place was probably a special cemetery outside the city walls where their existed Martyrions, or shrines to the local martyrs. Prominent amongst these were Saint Babylas and Saint Ignatius but also some other saints who have lasted the distance in hagiographies.

The Romans and Greeks were not inclined to having burials within the city walls. In Rome we can see the Via Appia lined with tombs and the only interments within the walls, of note, being the Mausoleums of Hadrian and Augustus. Quite a number of the grave goods found in Antioch have been outside the walls along the roads approaching the city. It has long been felt that there was an extensive necropolis outside the Daphne Gate.

In light though of the discovery of the Martyrion of Saint Babylas opposite the Island (and Palace) on the north bank of the Orontes, we might presume that the zone for "saints" was in this direction. Rebillard analyses Chrysostom's words and going back through his history of sermonising comes to the conclusion that his use of the word το κοιμητηριον is unique and represents not merely a necropolis but rather a very special location for saints and martyrs.

One might also presume that if the Martyrion found in the 1930s was a centerpiece of this complex then further excavations in this zone might throw up the tombs of lesser lights in the religious sphere.

He makes mention also of the fact that a migration of relics from this site outside the city began when the Christian tide started to overwhelm the old ways. Specifically he refers to the remains of Saint Ignatius being brought into the city and placed in what had been the Temple of Fortune. This sounds rather like the site of the famous statue of Tyche. Presumably the statue was displaced (and need we mention that Antioch's fortunes were never so healthy again). Rather intriguingly, Ignatius was said to have been martyred by being thrown the lions in the Coloseum in Rome. How he had any remains from this experience to be transferred back to Antioch is truly a miracle!

In other places there are accounts of the peregrinations of the remains of Saint Babylas that at one time had the Temple of Apollo in Daphne as their shrine, until Julian ousted them to be reburied at the original gravesite. It was after this that the substantial Martyrion was constructed for him.

More on the Basilicas

2011-01-04T09:02:00.000-05:00

We came across this small comment in an article "Notes on Christian Mosaics: Lost Mosaics of the East" by A.L.Frothingham Jnr in the American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 4, 1888.

"BASILICAS OF ANTIOCH - Later in the century we hear of a group of four basilicas erected in the forum of Antioch by the Emperor Valens 364-79 and which the historian Malalas (lib xiv) tells us were decorated with mosaics and many colored marbles The same writer says that the prefect Anatolios in building the basilica in Antioch called by his name and surnamed "the luminous" (διαφωτοζ) placed in it the inscription in mosaic (Εργον Θεοδοζιον βαζιλεοζ) and above it the figures of the two emperors Theodosios II and Valentinian III"

On Caravans and Camels

2011-01-04T08:35:00.000-05:00

When Jacques Weulersse wrote his work on the street patterns of Antakieh in the early 1930s the memory of the camel trains to the town was very fresh. In fact this means of transport had only faded away ten years before in the first year of the French Mandate when the break-up of the Ottoman Empire meant that "free trade" across the region was thwarted and the camel trains no longer connected together those far-flung parts of the faded Empire that used to buy and sell from Antakieh. In their sunset years, the camels had primarily moved soap, the main local product, to the four corners of the Ottoman domain.

The infrastructure was still in place and this consisted of the khans where the traders and their beasts stayed and the specialised souqs where the goods were traded. With the end of the camel trains came also the extinguishing of an activity that had been undertaken in the city since its founding in 300 B.C.

Antioch was a great commercial centre in its heyday and a far cry from the soap and leather-focused provincial backwater that Antakya had become. To get an idea of the intense interchange of goods between Antioch and the rest of the Roman Empire and beyond, the best source is Commercial Syria under the Roman Empire by Louis C. West in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association (Vol. 55 1924, pp. 159-189) Despite the work being amazingly detailed and encompassing, the one thing that author does not discuss is how the goods moved around.

The map below shows the chief trade routes of the Syrian region of the Roman Empire.

Antioch in its heyday was one of the chief entrepots of the Roman Empire as far as the China trade was concerned. Friedrich Hirth is his book, China and the Roman Orient, researches into their ancient and medieval relations. as represented in old Chinese records. Leipzig, 1885 sheds a totally new light on the Antioch story because he finds references to Chinese visitors who made it to the Roman Orient and carried back their views of what they had seen and put them to paper. An important component of this trade was silk, which arrived in Antioch and was then sent down to the Lebanese coast which was the main production centre for Tyrian Purple dyes for silk.

Interesting to note also is that the Byzantine Empire moved silk production to Constantinople thus removing the middleman role of Antioch in this trade. Also we would note that the China trade fell off heavily after Diocletian when the Roman Empire ran short of gold to fund its purchases in what was mainly a one-way trade situation with China.

It would indeed be interesting to find "China goods" if ever excavations of Antioch's ruins can be revived.

With the waning of the Roman Empire and its demand for luxury goods there must have been a severe crimping of Antioch's role as a trade centre and as an industrial converter of raw materials from the East into products for the rest of the Empire. Such was the city's importance in its heyday that the traffic in camels must have been truly enormous through and around the city.

Further Finds under the Streets

2010-07-11T20:52:00.003-04:00

My trusty colleague Jorgen Christensen-Ernst sent a recent dispatch on some further street finds this time in the Hurriyet Caddesi. This street runs south from the major junction at the old bridge.

Thus what we see in the following photos is a structure that is parallel to the river bank. Without more information we can only conjecture but there is clearly a series of arches (below) of some form visible.

Then here is a single arch.

And some less distinct images.

This is a very interesting find. Note how close to the surface these ruins are. it would be interesting to know the exact orientation of these arches and whether they run in the direction of the Hippodamian Plan of the Greek city.

Visualising Antioch - a major breakthrough

2010-05-24T21:02:00.004-04:00

Some time ago a comment was left on a post that referred to a project that the commenter was working on to create a recreation, using CAD/CAM software, of the city of Antioch in its glory days. The commenter was I think in Japan or Thailand but could never get any more detail as they never left an email address.

Now up pops a comment from Dr.Kayhan KAPLAN, at Hatay's Mustafa Kemal University, on one of my weekend postings that indicates that he has recreated the city from four different angles using computer graphics. Frankly it is a major contribution to visualising the city and a great start to the task of making Ancient Antioch real for people for whom a map is a mystery.

The images can be found at:

http://www.ancientantioch.com/index.html

The recreation is obviously modeled on Wilber's map. I now subscribe to the Poccardi and Uggeri visions of a longer pointed island towards the southern end rather than Wilber's "roundish" island.

Some comments I would note:

The river branches are wider than I suspect they were.
I have my doubts about the amphitheater on the Island (this would seem to have been on the mountain slopes where the recreation also shows another amphitheater)
The aqueducts (there were two) ran partly underground on the slopes of Mt Silpius so weren't always visible from a bird's eye view.
Most evidence seems to suggest the palace was parallel to the hippodrome and abutted it along own side rather than being at a 45 degree angle as portrayed here
The street patterns of the Island are clearly shown to be at a different angle to the rest of the city which is as Poccardi theorises
The blocks of the city don't seem to be as dense as they probably were (or as many of in number, over 200 in some estimations) to accommodate 400-500,000 inhabitants.
The palace recreation is clearly based on Split which is entirely understandable and does a great service in making the loggia facing the suburbs (as per Libanius) make sense
I doubt the area outside the Gate of the Cherubim was as extensive or as rural as portrayed
I also think the walls along the Orontes branch running through the city were probably much lower and less important than shown here. With the Theodosian rebuild they became more important.

This is truly a great job and certainly something the raises the challenge of getting some real digs going to underpin this vision. In the good old days, Dr Kaplan might have been cheered along the Colonnaded Street for this job!

Some Aqueduct Views

2010-05-23T10:31:00.008-04:00

JCE has been out and about in the spring weather and sent me some recent photos of the remains of one of the aqueducts that fed the city with water from the springs at Daphne.

By way of contrast we include a postcard from around 1900 that shows part of the aqueduct.

The Niebuhr Map

2010-05-23T10:28:00.005-04:00

JCE came across this map (click to enlarge) from Niebuhr and kindly sent it to me. He was visiting the Danish Institute in Damascus and found the Danish translation of Carsten Niebuhr's journeys in the Middle East (German 1774) which includes this map of Antioch. Thus it is from the second half of the 18th century.

Accurate in detail but seems to compact the non-urban part of the city within the old walls. Not as good as Rey's map but still a useful snapshot of a point in time.

John Lydus on the Disasters of the AD 520s

2010-05-22T18:50:00.005-04:00

I stumbled across this book "Joannis Laurentii Lydi Philadelpheni De magistratibus reipublicae Romanae" which is a Latin translation of John Lydus (John the Lydian) a court official of the Byzantine Empire. Most is a relating of procedures relating to magistrates but in a a digression he talks about the disasters of Antioch in the AD 520s. Here is his text from Book Three - Chapter 54:

His quoad Persas, innumeris vero aliis bellis coortis, in posterum literatis ad praefecturam aditus non patuit. Pecunia autem opus erat, neo sine ea quidquam eorum, quae oportebat, fieri poterat. Ac ne quid in evertenda pristina felicitate praetermitteretur, exsultantes terramque findentes motus Seleuci Antiochiam radicitus eruerunt, super jacenti colle urbem tegentes; nullo ut discrimine montis urbisque locis relicto, totum valles et scopuli occuparent, qui praeterfluenti urbem Orontae umbram quondam praebuerant. Immensam itaque auri copiam effundere praefectus cogebatur, quo elatae ruina moles, quae in excelsa aviaque juga intumuerant, interim auferrentur: etenim periculosum erat, Syrorum principem urbem dejectam negligere. Cum autem multo labore et pecuniae vi artiumque ope quasi ex erebo urbs enasceretur, Justino fato fungente, fatalis Chosroes per Arabiam cum innumerabili exercitu in Syrias irruit, ipsamque nuper collapsam urbem, facilem sibi, ut pote apertam, superatu visam, bello captam, infinita caede patrata, combussit; signis autem, queis ornata erat, cum tabulis, lapidibus picturisque omnibus una ablatis, totam in Persas Syriam abegit. Neque vero agricola aut collator fisco relictus erat : et tributum quidem nullum imperatori inferebatur; at militem sustentare praefectus cogebatur, omnesque consuetos reipublicae sumtus praebere, qui non tantum Syrorum tributa, quae quidem sola magni imperantibus momenti erant, amisisset, sed addere insuper sumtus numero majores cogeretur, cum in captas urbes, tum in collatores, si quos elapsos Persarum vinculis in desertis admirabilium quondam locorum errare contingeret.

The Dig at the Daphne Bridge

2010-05-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

My colleague in Antakya, Jorgen Christiansen-Ernst is constantly on the lookout for ad hoc excavations and developments with relation to the historic sites. Interestingly he came across a dig going on at the south side of the city.

It would appear that some municipal workers doing some canalisation work at the corner northwest of the barracks (Uğur Mumcu Caddesi) came across a bridge that might have been that which led from the Daphne Gate across the Phyrminos stream and then on to Daphne.

The preservation of the arch looks exceptionally good. The road surface can be seen at the top of the photo above and it is not very much higher than the top of the bridge suggesting that some judicious excavations in the district might uncover the Daphne Gate itself.

JCE feels that this bridge is the one seen northwest of the barracks in the aerial photos taken in the 1930s that were published in the article (Survivances urbains) of Gregoire Poccardi page 98 (seen below).

The Comes Orientis - Count of the East

2010-04-24T20:37:00.000-04:00

I have bemoaned before the loss of information (or more correctly the loss of access to information) caused by the sinking of important theses into the mists of time. The most prominent examples being Stinespring and Haddad in the world of Antiochene studies. But then again how many other studies have disappeared and we don't even know that we have lost them.

Curiously the most recent example I have found of lost theses is actually that of the mid-century doyen of Antioch studies, Glanville Downey. He pretty much "wrote the book" on Antioch but far fewer would know that the subject of his thesis at Princeton was a sort of prosography of the holders of the title of Counts of the East. This title holder had his seat in Antioch and as I have mentioned before was given the former Temple of the Muses to serve as his praetorian prefecture. All I found of the thesis, which presumably resides in the bowels of Princeton somewhere, is an abstract of around 15 pages that was published as a pamphlet and was somehow embedded in a volume of disparate pamphlets dating from the 1930s in the New York Public Library. Truly praise must go to whatever intrepid librarian more than 70 years ago that decided to bind all these scraps together.

The abstract, despite its seeming flimsiness, is actually a very detailed work and tells enough for our current purposes. I have previously published a list of the governors. The Downey discovery now provides us with a fairly comprehensive list of the Comes Orientis holders and also a more limited list of the Consulares Syriae and finally some surmising on others who may have served in the latter role.

The information in parentheses indicates that their is a firm "sighting" of the individual in that role on that date, month or season.

Felicianus 335

Vulcacius Rufinus 342 (5 April)

Leontius 349 (6 April)

Marcellinus 349 (3 Oct)

Honoratus 353-354

Nebridius 354-357 (358?)

Fl. Domitius Modestus 358-362

Iulianus 362-363 (Feb or March)

Aradius Rufinus 363 (Feb or March) - 364 (Spring)

Iulianus 364 (17 April) different from the aforementioned Iulianus

C. Valerius Eusebius between 364 and 380-82

Fl. Eutolmius Tatianus Sept 370 and Feb 374

Felix 380 (8th July)

Tuscianus 381 (31 March)

Glycerius 381 (19 July)

Philagrius 382 (20 Sept)

Proculus 383 (8 March) - 384 (Summer)

Icarius 384 (summer) - 385

Deinias 386

Palladius 390

Martinianus 392 (10 Nov)

Lucianus 392 (Nov) 393 (Summer)

Infantius 393 (30 Dec)

Claudianus 396 (24 April)

Eleutherius ca 400

Abthartius 435 (29 Jan)

Theodorus (reign of Zeno)

Calliopus 494/5

Constantius 494/5

Basilius 507 (until July)

Procopius 507 (July)

Irenaeus 507 (after July)

Theodotus in or before 522/3

Ephraemius 522/3-524 (Nov)

Anatolius 525 (Oct)

Ephraemius 526 (May)

Zacharias 527 (Aug-Oct)

Patricius 527 (Oct)

Cerycus before 529

Lazarus 542 (1st May)

Zemarchus 561 (?)

Asterius 588 (until June or earlier)

Johannes 588 (after June or earlier)

Paulus (?) 588/9

Bonosus 608/9 (?)

It can be noted that after the death of Libanius in the 390s the record becomes more patchy (i.e. bigger gaps between firm information) for the sources are not as good as Libanius who "moved and shook" with the great and powerful and whose letters represented a great source on the incumbents in this and other important offices in the East. We have a mere five names for the totality of the 5th century.

Downey also lists the following as possibly being either Comes Orientis or Consulares Syriae:

Anatolius possibly cons Syr 349 or before 354-55 and possibly com. Or. before 354-355

Protasius 378 or earlier

Iullus before 392

Romulianus 393 (?)

Memnonius (reign of Theodosius II)

Zoilus (reign of Theodosius II)

Callistus (reign of Theodosius II)

The Consulares Syriae

2010-04-24T20:18:00.003-04:00

Downey goes on to list the holders of this title. Many of these graduated to become the Comes Orientis.

Hierocles 344 (9th Dec)

Theodorus 347 (8 March)

Hierocles 348 (24 April)

Honoratus (date unknown)

Theophilus 354

Nicentius 358 (Summer)

Sabinus 358-359 (Autumn)

Tryphonianus 359-360

Italicianus 360

Siderius 361

Alexander 363 (Feb or Mar until July)

Celsus 363 (Summer)

Marcianus 364

Festus 365 or 368

Aetherius before Fall of 371

Tatianus between 370 and 374

Marcellinus 382

Pelagius 382 or 383

Eumolpius 384

Tisamenus 386

Timocrates after 382 possibly in 387

Celsus 387

Lucianus 388 (until March - August)

Eustathius 388 (March - August) - 389 (January - June)

Eutropius 389 (after January - June)

Infantius between 389 -392

Florentius 392 (after Sept)

Severus before 393

Downey also these these individual that may have held the office:

Dionysius 355

Gymnasius 355-6

Capitolinus 391

Polemius before 392

Further Musings on the Palace in Antioch

2010-01-18T15:11:00.009-05:00

I have written a number of times both directly and tangentally about the Imperial Palace which was situated in the Island Quarter of the city. There is no firm evidence for its location. Despite being one of the largest administrative complexes in the whole of the Roman Empire and home to various Emperors for short or extended periods of time, the number of concrete references to it are very few.

The main facts in positioning the structure are:

that Trajan fled the earthquake of 115 AD by fleeing from the Palace into the circus
that Libanius wrote that it was on the Island, took up a quarter of the terrain and that the shorter of the four colonnaded streets on the Island ran up to it (and his various other comments on it, but no more locational than that mentioned)
that Valens spied Aphraates scurrying past the Palace during a curfew and engaged in a conversation. This seems to situate it on the riverbank (which is corroborated by Libanius) and that there was a bridge nearby that Aphraates had crossed or was about to cross.
Evagrius' comment that the palace had the river on its north side and "on the south there is a large portico with two stories which touch the walls of the city, and which have two high towers. Between the palace and the river is a public road leading from the city to the suburbs".

Thin pickings indeed. The information above has been employed to position the Palace at the side of the Hippodrome (in fact on the north-west side) with some sort of connection being imagined between the two structures to allow ingress and egress by the "powers that be" without them having to resort to the streets. The Palatine Palace in Rome adjoined (quite literally) the Circus Maximus and the palace of Galerius at Thessalonika was directly connected to the hippodrome. On of the best sources on the palaces of Diocletian and Galerius is "Late-Antique Palaces: The Meaning of Urban Context" by Slobodan Ćurčić in Ars Orientalis, Vol. 23, Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces (1993), pp. 67-90

Some have conjured up images of a version of Diocletian's Palace at Split, but on the Orontes banks instead of the shores of the Adriatic. Well, not a "version" almost an exact copy. This has brought with it the totally unfounded conjecture that the Palace was laid out like a military camp (in four segments) like the Palace at Split.

It is also claimed that the Palace had some sort of portico or cryptoportico facing the river, from which one could gaze to the suburbs and gardens on the other side of the river.

All these speculations may indeed be true. I take this opportunity to throw some more wood on the fire. I spent some time looking at the Split complex recently. I attach Robert Adam's reconstruction of the plan.

First I would note that while Diocletian finished the rebuilding of the Antioch complex, it had been started by Galerius so Diocletian was working with material that was already started. Split also was a retirement villa for Diocletian while the Palace in Antioch was a major administrative complex from which much of the Eastern Empire was run when the Emperors were in residence (or the "junior" Emperors and Caesar's during the Tetrarchic and Constantianian periods when split leadership prevailed). Thus all things being equal the Antioch Palace would have had vastly more functions than Split was built for and thus may have been significantly larger.

Did parts of the "older" iterations of the Palace survive these rebuildings? The Palatine Palace complex in Rome was accretive as have been more recent examples like the Louvre in Paris and the old Schloss in Berlin, so why should we imagine that Galerius leveled the old structures and rebuilt from scratch? Did the Palace include significant gardens? Libanius said it took up a quarter of the Island. Even if exaggerating that would have been a lot of territory to be exclusively covered by one structure. Did it include barracks? Was there a Praetorian Guard-like complex as is Rome?

Some (e.g. Deichmann) have imagined that the Golden Octagon might have been inside the Palace. This seems to rely almost literally upon the Split comparison(where there was an octagonal structure called the Temple of Jupiter) imagining the Octagon as a recycled Temple or a Heroon or Mausoleum.

Was the palace fortified? Did its river wall (if there was one) comprise part of the wall that Libanius describes as running around the Island "like a crown"? Did it need to be fortified? After all the Palatine was not fortified.... Split was fortified but it was in the middle of nowhere compared to Antioch.

Conclusion here.. none.. We do not know enough about the palace to claim it is a copy of Split or any other known structure. The main way to dispel this confusion involves a pick and shovel.

The Misopogon - Julian vs the Antiochenes

2010-01-14T14:53:00.002-05:00

One of the most famous documents ever concocted in Antioch and directed at the local populace was the Misopogon (or the Beard-hater) written by no less than the Emperor Julian. Its text in English and Greek can be found here:

http://www.archive.org/details/worksofemperorju02juliuoft

Julian was, with Marcus Aurelius, the most literate of the Roman Emperors, who tended to be a rather brutish lot. When they ran to any culture at all (beyond an appreciation of architecture) it tended to end up almost cartoonish or kitschy as can be noted in the actions of Nero and Elagabalus. Robert Graves in his "I, Claudius" would have us believe that Claudius was some form of frustrated academic. Maybe so, but his works have not survived to enlighten us either way. Amongst the worst must be ranked Jovian who burnt down the books from the library at Antioch in a spasm of faux religious zeal.

While Marcus Aurelius has come down through history as an enlightened humanist, he was also of the warrior disposition and led the Roman forces in various campaigns. Julian had a fair amount in common with Marcus Aurelius but has received little credit and much opprobrium due to his attempts to "wind back the clock" by reviving the "old gods" (we shall not call it paganism). But was he winding back the clocks? He may in fact have just been representing the will of the majority, or at least a large minority, who had been religiously disenfranchised when Constantine, and most particularly his successors, foisted Christianity upon the Empire as the State religion. What had been a rich and relatively tolerant religious regime for hundreds of years suddenly became monotheistic and monolithic.

We have always found it hard to believe that Julian was a lone wolf in his campaign and that he was reintroducing the "old gods" for his own predilection. That would have been shallow indeed for reviving all the temples and rites for merely one person was clearly impractical. It looks more like he was giving voice to the frustrations of a largish chunk of the general population, in some parts maybe the majority.

This has relevance when coming to look at the Misopogon, which was posted at the Tetrapylon of the Elephants in front of the Imperial Palace in Antioch's Island quarter in early 363. This satiric note was an address by the Emperor to the people of Antioch whom, he felt, had impugned and insulted him. Critics over the intervening centuries have attacked Julian for lowering the Imperial prestige by engaging in a literary dialogue with his detractors using (false?) modesty and self-deprecation. I frankly think the work is quite daring and certainly illuminating. He was addressing his work not to po-faced churchmen but to the pleasure-seeking Antiochenes who clearly oscillated between religiosity and a penchant for races and theatres. Hypocrisy was alive and well in early Christian Antioch. Indeed his self-criticisms focus upon sleights made of his looks which remind me of the attacks upon Jimmy Carter for wearing a cardigan and urging others to do so (to conserve energy in the 1970's crises). They did not like Julian's scraggly beard, his clothes or his way of walking. The "style-police" were clearly in the ascendancy.

If anything the chief takeaway from Julian's essay is that the Antiochenes having found religion had not found piety and were as frivolous and fashion-loving as ever. They were censorious of the serious side of life and yet wallowed in swinging censers (to coin a pun) and the embroidery of ecclesiastical robes. Well he may have said "Apres moi, le deluge" for within 180 years, they were all swept away by earthquakes, famines, invasions and the forced march to "Better-than-Antioch".

Despite it all, one suspects that Julian had a sneaking admiration for the Antiochenes. His former tutor, Libanius, was ensconced there and, despite being a devotee of the old gods, was an ardent fan of the city in competition, or comparison, against all others. If Julian had lived beyond his ill-fated campaign against the Persians he might have chosen to spent his time in Antioch (or Rome), but almost certainly not Constantinople. This might have had very interesting consequences for the evolution (or indeed the eclipse) of Christianity. As so many who adhered to the Constantinian conversion were fair-weather followers there might have been a long term drift to the favoured religion if Julian had remained the source of power and prestige for decades after, instead of mere months. The eventual heir(s) might have continued and consolidated this trend. Instead the oafish Jovian was followed by the intellectually limited Valens and history evolved in the way we now have things.

A House of Ill Repute?

2010-01-07T10:11:00.002-05:00

Again ploughing through the Suda for the scant references to Antioch we came upon this juicy piece of gossip on the famous poet Juvenal and one of Domitian's dalliances...

"A Roman poet. This man lived when Domitian was emperor of Rome. Domitian was friendly with the dancer of the Green faction, known as Paris, concerning whom there was slander from the senate and Juvenal the poet. The emperor exiled Juvenal to Pentapolis in Libya, but enriched the dancer and sent him to Antioch; he established a house and baths outside the city and died there".

Ἰουβενάλιος, ποιητὴς Ῥωμαῖος. οὗτος ἦν ἐπὶ Δομετιανοῦ βασιλέως Ῥωμαίων. ὁ δὲ Δομετιανὸς ἐφίλει τὸν ὀρχηστὴν τοῦ πρασίνου μέρους, τὸν λεγόμενον Πάριν, περὶ οὗ καὶ ἐλοιδορεῖτο ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου καὶ Ἰουβεναλίου τοῦ ποιητοῦ. ὅστις βασιλεὺς ἐξώρισε τὸν Ἰουβενάλιον ἐν Πενταπόλει ἐπὶ τὴν Λιβύην, τὸν δὲ ὀρχηστὴν πλουτίσας ἔπεμψεν ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ: ὃς κτίσας οἶκον καὶ λουτρὸν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἐκεῖ τελευτᾷ.

It sounds like one of the establishments the Antiochenes would have frequented!

The Danikon

2010-01-07T09:53:00.002-05:00

The source for this is the Suda, which is an encyclopedic work upon which criticism is sometimes heaped. I include it for its trivia sake.

"The danikon is in currency at Great Antioch of Syria, which they use for small transactions".

ἐπιχωριάζει τῇ μεγάλῃ Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῆς Συρίας τὸ δανικόν, ᾧπερ χρῶνται εἰς μικρὰς πραγματείας.

and

"This is the name of a coin which in the old days they gave to the corpses as they buried them, as the fare on the boat over Acherousia. Acherousia is a lake in Hades, which the dead cross, and as they do so they give the aforementioned coin to the ferryman".

Δανάκη: τοῦτο νομίσματός ἐστιν ὄνομα, ὃ τοῖς νεκροῖς ἐδίδοσαν πάλαι συγκηδεύοντες: νεὼς Ἀχερουσίας ἐπίβαθρον. Ἀχερουσία δέ ἐστι λίμνη ἐν ᾅδου, ἣν διαπορθμεύονται οἱ τελευτῶντες τὸ προειρημένον νόμισμα τῷ πορθμεῖ διδόντες.

The Lost Work of Pausanias

2010-01-06T12:18:00.000-05:00

Pausanias underlies quite a bit of the information we have on early Antioch and yet remains a somewhat obscure figure. This ancient travel writer is only extant in one of his works, with most of the rest having perished over the centuries.

He was revived early in the second millenium when Stephano of Byzantium came across a copy of his Travel Guide to Greece in its ten (surviving) volumes and gave the work a new lease of life. This creation has proven to be invaluable in the information it brings on Greece and its cities in the first years of the Roman Empire. Alas, much of the rest of Pausanias' output has been lost. One of these works was his book De Antiochia, of which only a snatch of text still survives, again a legacy of Stephano's efforts.

Some scholars feel that Pausanias may never even have been published in his own heyday and that he may have only made a single copy of his work and thus it is quite a miracle that so much of the work on Greece survived until Stephano's time and consequently no surprise also that most of the Antiochene writings should have perished.

The ubiquitous Karl Ottfried Muller produced the Greek text in Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, Volume 4 which can be found here on page 467.

He provides a Latin translation which we repeat here:

DE ANTIOCHIA.

Seleucobellis, urbs Syriae finitima. Civis Seleucobelites et Seleucobclaeus Dicitur etiam Seleucensis ad Belum: sic enim Pausanias habet in libro De Antiochia.

Perseus quum per multos annos imperium Persidis tenuisset, certior factus lonitas, ex Argivis oriundos, in Syria sedes suas posuisse, eo concedit ad Silpium montem, eos tanquam sanguine sibi conjunctos visitaturus. Ab his autem honorifice exceptus est, ut qui scirent cum genus suum ab Argivis lopolitis duxisse: summa ¡taque laetitia affecti Perseum suum in celebrabant. Tempestate vero ingruente, quum Draco fluvius, qui nunc est Orontes, lopolim ргаetегfluens, supra motum imbribus auctus esset, Perseus lonitas, ut preces funderent, bortatus est. Quibus precantibus sacraque peragentibus, globus ignis fulminalis e coelo delapsus tempestatem sedavit, fluminisque impetum coercuit. Mirabundus ad boc Perseus stetit, et ex igne illo statim ignem accendens, apud se religiose asservavit : quem in Persidem, regnum suum, secum tulit. Persas autem edocuit divinos honores eidem exhibere, utpote quem de cœlo delapsum se vidisse asserebat. Persae itaque ignem etiamnunc colunt, pro numine habentes. Ipse autem Perseus lonitis fanum condidit igni aeterno sacrum. Aliud etiam templum in Perside igni exstruxit, ubi illius ministres posuit sánctos quosdam vires, quos magos nominavit. Haec Pausanias sapientissimus chronographus conscripsit.

Seleucus Nicator statim post victum Antigonum Poliorceten urbes nonnullas condere in animo habens , initium condendi suinpsit ab Syria: oris maritimis. Itaque ad mаге descendens urbem conspexit exiguam, in monte sitam, a Syro Agenoris filio olim conditam. Xanthi ¡taque vicésima tertia die Cäsium montem conscendit, Jovi Casio sacra facturus. Quibus rite peractis et carnibus in frustula concisis, precibus rogavit, ubinam loci condenda esset urbs. Derepente vero aquila ex sacrificio carnis offulam surripiens detulit eam Palaeopolim: quam insecuti Seleucus quique cum eo erant auspices projectam invenerunt offulam ad emporium Pieriam, quam vocant, prope mare, infra Palaeopolim. Designate ¡taque muro, urbis statim jecit fundamenta; quam e nomine suo Seleuciam vocavit. Inde deo gratiis actis, lopolim contendit, urbem in monte Silpio sitam , ubi fanum erat a Perseo Pici ex Danae filio exstructum. Hîc post tres dies festum Jovi Ceraunio celebravit, sacrificium faciens Artemisii mensis die primo. Antigoniam deinde profectus, urbem ab Antigono Poliorcète conditam (quae inter paludem Arceuthamque fluvium, qui et Japtha dictus, ex ea emanantem media interjacens situ gaudebat tutissimo), sacra illic Jovi fecit super altaribus, quae erexerat ibi Antigonus: et excisis offulis, una cum sacerdote Amphione numen exoravit, ut signo aliquo edisceret, utrum ibi in Antigonia, mutato loci nomine, sedem poneret, an potius alio in loco novae urbis fundamenta jaceret. Repente igitur ex aère descendens aquila ingens, arreptis ex ara ignescentibus victimae carnibus, per aerem fertur in montem Silpium. Hanc ¡taque Seleucus et qui cum illo erant, insecuti, sacratam offulam in monte invenerunt, aquilamque ei incubantem. Sacerdos autem et auspices et ipse Seleucus, portentum hoc videntés, dixerunt omnes: « Hic sedes nobis ponendae sunt; Antigoniam vero пес incoli ñeque urbem fieri fas est; quippe sic numini visum.» Consilium itaque cum iis inibat Seleucus, quo tandem in loco urbis fundamenta tuto ponerentur. Cavens autem sibi ab effluviis montis Silpii et ab aquis hiberno tempore inde exundantibus, fundamenta urbis molitur in planitie convallis, ex opposito montis, juxta Draconem fluvium magnum, qui postea Orontes vocatus est; ubi et vicus fuit, nomine Bottia, e regione lopoleos. Rem vero divinam fecit immolante Amphione, sacerdote et mysta, virginem, Aemathen nomine, die vicésimo secundo Artemisii sive Maji mensis, hora diei prima, sub ortum solis. Urbem vero ab Antiochio Sotere filio suo Antiochiam vocavit. Fanum deinde exstruxit Jovi Bottio sacrum; moeniaque urbis excitavit summo studio stupenda, Xenaeo usus architecto. Statuam praeterea aeneam, urbis Fortunam, erexit; cui juxta fluvium collocatae sacra statim peregit. Antigoniam deinde repetens, eam funditus evertit, utilemque ruinarum materiam flumine inde deportavit. Antigoniae autem urbis Fortunae statuam aeream erexit, Amaltheae cornu manu tenentem; eamque in sublimi collocavit in sacello quattuor columnarum, aramque excelsam ante illud exstruxit. Hanc Fortunae urbis statuam post Seleuci mortem Demetrius, Antigoni Poliorcetis filius, devexit in Rhosum, Ciliciae urbem, a Cilice, Agenioria filio, conditam. Seleucus vero post Antigoniam eversam Athenienses, qui eam incoluerunt, relictos ibi ab Antigono cum Demetrio filio, praeterea etiam Macedones (quorum omnium numerus fuit virorum quinqué millium et trecentorum) in Antiochiam magnam a se conditam transtulit. Ubi staluam etiam aerecam plane stupendam Minervae posuit, propter Athenienses qui eam colunt. Cretenses etiam deduxit Seleucus, quos arcam summasque urbis partes habitare fecit olim Casus Inachi filius. Et cum his Cyprios etiam in eandem Antiochiam traduxit. Casus enim rex uxorem habuit Amycen, quae et Cittia vocata est, Salaminis, Cvpriorum régis, filiam: cum hac Cyprii venientes summitates urbis incoluerunt. Amyce deinde mortua, centum ab urbe stadiis sepulta est; a qua regio illa Amyce dicta est. Argivos etiam lonitas hiortatus est, ut lopoli relicta in Antiochiam migrarent ; quos tanquam sacerdotales et optimates urbem administrare jussit. Idem Seleucus lapideiim simulacrum aquilae ante urbem posuit. Menses item Syrorum Macedonum mensium nominibus vocari jussit, quod invenit in hac etiam regione olim gigantes habitasse. Nam duobus ab Antiochia millibus passuum locus est ubi humana corpora reperiuntur, ira del in lapides conversa, quos in hunc usque diem Gigantes vocant. Porro Pagram quendam gigantem, illius loci incolam, igné coelesti consumptum ib¡ periise ferunt. Ante urbem vero ad ripam fluminis ulteriorem Seleucus alíud etiam posuit simulacrum, capitis scilicet equini, juxtaque cassidem deauratam, qiiibus haec inscripta sunt : Huic insidens Seleucus Antigonum fugiens evasit : et deinde reversus eum occidit. Amphioni etiam sacerdoti, qui cum ipso auspicia captaverat, Seleucus columnam posuít marmoream, intra portam quam vocant Romanesiam. Porro Seleucus Nicator urbem concedit etiam in Syria marítima, quam a filia sua Laodiceam nominavit. Antes ibi fuerat vicus, cui nomen Mazabda. Sacris autem Jovi pro more peractis, numinque rogato ubinam urbs condenda esset, advolans aquila, ut antea, offuílam ex ara surripit: quam dum rex insequitiir, occurrit ei арer ingens ex arundineto: hunc Seleucus hasta quam ferebat interfecit; et occisi apri circumtrahens cadaver, missa aquila, sanguine ejus designatis moenibus fundamenta urbis in illo posuit: parata in victimam virgine intacta, nomine Agave ; cui etiam statuam aeream erexit in Fortunam urbis. ídem Seleucus Nicator incidens in vicum quendam Syriae, cui Pharnace nomen, mœnibus eum cinxit, urbemque fecit magnam, a filiiae suae nomine Apameam vocans. Quam deinde Seleucus, mulato nomine, Pellam ab urbis Fortuna; nomine (sic dictae, quod a Pella Macedoniae urbe ipse oriuindus erat) appellavit. In sacrificium habuit taurum et hircum. Et aquila tum rursus advolans tauri hircique capita abripuit. Quorum ex sanguine moenia urbis designavit. Praeterea alias urbes quam plurimas Seleucus condidit in aliis regionibus et in Perside etiam, numero septuaginta quinqué, uti sapiens Pausanias chronographus memoriae prodidit: quas omnes vel nomine suo vel liberorum suorum pro lubitu Seleucus insignivit. Sapiens autem Pausanias tradidit Seleucum Anliochia; magnae nomen dédisse a patre suo Antiocho. Verum nemo urbis conditor eam in demortui nomen vocare solet: absurdum enim est; sed viventis alicujus et superstitis nomen ei indit. Itaque et hanc urbem Seleucus Antiochi filii sui nomine Antiochiam vocavit, uti in prioribus dictum. Ceterum et alia multa sapientissimus ille Pausanias poetarum more ficta tradidit.

Eodem imperante Claudio primores et populus Anliochienus ad imperatorem referebant, ab eo pétentes, ut divino ejus edicto facultatem sibi haberont Olympia a Pisaeis redimendi ex annuis illis reditibus urbis suae a Sosibio quodam cive et senatore Antiochieno olim legatis. Facultatem ¡taque Olympia redimendi concessit eis Claudius imperator, anno aeгаe Antiochenae XCII. Factum nempe hoc ab Antiochenis, aegre ferrent in magistrabus suis ea quae de supra dictis Sosibii reditibus factitata essent. Sosibius enim, uti scriptum reliquit Pausanias sapiens chronographus, Antiochiae magnae Iegavit moriens quindecim auri talenta annuatim urbi solvenda, sicuti superius in Augusti Octaviani temporibus memoratum est. Reditum vero hunc annuum Sosibius Antiochenis Iegaverat, ut haberent unde sumptus facerent in varium spectaculum scenicorum, thymelicorum, tragicorum, athleticorum ludorum, gladiatorum quoque et certaminum equestrium, quod quinto quoque anno, Hyperberetaeo sive Octobri mense, per triginta dies celebrandum esset. Et initio quidem ludos hosce gymnasiarchae rite celebrabant; deinceps vero Iucellum captantes, celebrationem hanc penitus omittebant, donec divino imperatoris edicto primores urbis Olympia a Pisaeis redimerent.

Imports and Exports

2010-01-02T18:02:00.006-05:00

A key text on the trading activities of the Antiochenes (and their neighbours) is the article "Commercial Syria under the Roman Empire" by Louis C. West that was published in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 55 (1924), pp. 159-189.

It is interesting to read in context of the aforementioned visit of Theophanes to Antioch. West though deals with the external trade of the province and as Syria was largely self-sufficient in food (grains for instance) and most fruit (besides dried versions) did not travel well, these basic foodstuffs do not figure in the external trade patterns.

I shall excerpt here the list of imports that have been documented by the historic sources. The list is Syria wide, but as the chief consumer of luxury goods (and imports tended to be luxuries due to the high transport costs) Antioch features prominently.

West spends much more time on exports though and a reading gives the impression that Antioch had some relevance but little importance. From my reading over broader territory I would beg to disagree. West concedes to Antioch an export source for wine and olive oil, though this would have been the surrounding countryside rather than the city. In medical remedies, he mentions the city as the source of "oil of lilies" and oenanthe (a product that went into around 21 potions). The city was mentioned as a source of race horses (though this may have been training "value-added") and camels were said to come from city, as did geese and poultry. John Chrysostom mentions the city as a producer of copper goods.

While the import lists show Antioch as an importer of perfumes I would suggest that it was more of an importer of ingredients for Antioch was renowned as being a producer of perfumes for exports. Likewise it was an important center for silver and ghold jewellery production, which necessitated the import of the precious metals for conversion in the end products. West doesn't credit the province with much in the way of mining but in fact, Kisladag, just a few miles north of Antakya has been a gold mining site since Roman days and still is exploited in a desultory fashion.

The city certainly wasn't a silk production center but may have been a source of value added, such as embroidery and making up into clothing articles. West makes no mention of textiles from Antioch but we know the city was a major wool center with the Fuller's Canal, which I have dwelt on before being a major industrial complex the likes of which was not seen again until Britain in the Industrial Revolution. There was also the very important tanning industry, which if we hazard a guess must have used goat and pig skins as a major input. If we cast our minds back to the sticky end met by Euphrasius in a vat of tar/wax used by wineskin makers then one can find at least one outlet for goatskins.

West concedes that Antioch was an important center for arms manufacturing due to it being a leading base for the Eastern Armies on the Persian frontier.

A. F. Norman also writes in his article, The Book Trade in Fourth-Century Antioch
in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 80, (1960), pp. 122-126, of the importance of the publishing industry. Antioch was clearly a major site for production of Greek language books for the Empire.

One should also not lose sight of the city as an exporter of carved and sculptural works (including sarcophagi) from its workshops reflecting the high standing of its craftsmen.

Foraging with Theophanes - what the Antiochians ate

2010-01-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

Around 320 AD, Theophanes, a lawyer and public figure from the Nile valley city of Hermopolis, made a six-month business-related journey to Antioch. His experiences on this trip are detailed in "The Journey of Theophanes: travel, business, and daily life in the Roman East" by John Frederick Matthews which was published by Yale University Press in 2006.

The day to day details of Theophanes journey were preserved on papyrus documents and cover everything from distances traveled to daily food purchases, from medicinal supplies to fees paid for services. The collection of papyrus is known as the Archive of Theophanes and was published by C. H. Roberts in 1952, in volume IV of the Catalogue of the Greek and Latin Papyri in the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester (hence its standard abbreviation as P.Ryl. 616-51).

While I have oft bemoaned the lack of new sources on Antioch it just goes to show that the papyrus troves of Egypt (not to mention obscure Arab or Syriac sources) may yet yield us new information to plug some of the many gaps in our knowledge of the mundane in the ancient metropolis. This source is thus fresh meat (and drink) literally to the Antiochophile community. The dossier of material relating to the journey consists of over fifteen hundred lines of close documentation, is a fascinating record of an episode in Theophanes' life.

In the book, the classicist and historian John Matthews translated these important documents and puts them in the wider context of the social history of the Graeco-Roman world. The memoranda relating to Theophanes’ journey are presented within a historical narrative that offers an array of revelations on diet, travel, social relations, and other fascinating topics.

The Antioch picture given by the papyri has attracted the attentions of a number of historians besides Matthews. An important article (in modern Greek) was published by J. Kalleris soon after the appearance of the archive and discussed the terminology of its many references to food and drink. A paper, Ein Monat in Antiochia, by Hans-Joachim Drexhage studied the evidence for costs and prices relating to the period of Theophanes' residence at Antioch. (Actually Theophanes spent two and a half months in Antioch not "ein Monat"!)

Matthews, in talking of those who preceded him in working on the subject of Theophanes, refers to "some characteristically acute remarks by Ramsay MacMullen on Theophanes in his public role, some informative pages in Lionel Casson's book on Roman travel, and a somewhat inaccessible article on the same subject by Patrice Cauderlier".

As Theophanes did his peregrinations in the years preceding the rise of Constantine this is a good snapshot of the city in its pre-Christian apogee.

Reading through Matthews on Theophanes one is almost tempted to see the ancient traveller as the Samuel Pepys of Antioch. His stay was relatively brief and his record is not a commentary but quite literally a reckoning of his daily expenditures but compared to the inaccuracies of Malalas and the high level politicking of Libanius, Theophanes is the closest we get to a street-level correspondent on the way things were.

He travelled to Antioch on some sort of business, what exactly is never revealed though he eventually signs an agreement and seemingly has a party to celebrate then swiftly hits the road back to Egypt. He came with a small retinue of slaves/retainers most of whom bear Egyptian names. These had to be fed and were entrusted with buying expeditions and thus have been immortalised in their master's budgetary statements. It seems that Theophanes had rented lodgings (as he had to buy firewood almost daily for the cooking requirements) and Matthews speculates that he was staying in a house rented from a widow (due to a large payment paid to somesuch at the end of the stay.

Theophanes dated his trip and was thus there during the months (on the Egyptian civil calendar) of Pachon, Epheibe and Pauni. Epheibe, at least in 320 AD, corresponded roughly to July of our calendar. This has relevance because some of the diet is dictated by seasonal availability. Everyday Theophanes had bread purchased in two qualities, refined and plain/common (the latter presumably for the slaves and maybe factotums). The shopping records include purchases of vegetables (gourds, cucumbers, lettuce, pot herbs, leeks, onions, carrots etc), eggs, olives, olive oil (of different qualities), pickled and fresh fish and cheeses. Wine was also purchased on a daily basis. He also acquired a herb-flavoured wine, absinthion, which is somewhat akin to today's vermouth. He also bought wine vinegar.

He bought fruit frequently. From the very start of his Antioch stay he bought figs (both dried and fresh) as well as nuts. He bought apricots (armenia) and plums (damaskenoi) when they came into season. He also bought melons, apples and peaches (the latter as apricots went out of season). From mid-July onwards until the end of his stay he was a buyer of grapes. One one occasion mulberries figures as a purchase, as do nettles. Generally the diet was the far of Antiochians of an elevated standing in the summer time, when fruits were mainly in season. Winter must have been much more restrictive in the choice available.

As well as the fish we previously mentioned, he also bought meat in sizeable quantities and seasoning like garum (an ancient fish sauce) to flavour it ( or moreover hide the flavour!). He also acquired, salt, syrup and sweet wine and speices such as coriander and cumin for augment the favour of food. He also bought luxury items like honey and on at least one occasion, garlic. He was a very frequent buyer of meet, sometimes up to eight pounds in a day while some of its is dedicated to salting, a necessary action to preserve meat prior to refrigeration. On several occasions he also bought smoked sausages (loukanika) and chopped meat called eissikia (on two occasions) to be made into meatballs. On various occasions he bought trotters (presumably pigs) both boiled/cooked and even once bought a head. The meat is seldom specified but on the occasions when it was mentioned it was either goat or pork.

Matthews then goes on to describe the amounts of money expended and the types of meals that were either eaten amongst intimates or with guests present.

Int he translated shopping accounts, soap is also mentioned as a purchase as well as "foam of nitre". He also notes buying a sponge from the physician. The cost of a trip to the baths (with Antoninus) figures as costing 200 drachmas. A pair of slippers for the baths was purchased. The repair of crockery is mentioned, as is the cost of buying some wooden bowls. Gourds were purchased also for cooking vegetables in. He also notes buying papyrus (to write up these accounts) but also presumably to draft the agreement (symbole) which concluded his business successfully in Antioch. Finally on the eve of his return he stocks up on loukanika, presumably a portable snack for the road home.

All in all, Matthews retelling of Theophanes visit is fascinating and makes the daily grind in Antioch come alive. Never has a shopping list been so valuable! Theophanes obviously was a man of means to take such a retinue on his trip. He clearly wanted to live in some style (and entertain) in Antioch, maybe it was all part of making an impression upon whoever he was bargaining with over the still mysterious object of his mission.

The Peutinger Tafel

2009-12-31T17:03:00.002-05:00

I have spoken before of the Antioch image on the Peutinger Tafel, which is one of the oldest maps extant (at least on perishable material).

In this instance I have come across a better image than I used before.

As can be seen the "lordly" figure is seated in the middle of a curling "aqueduct" which wraps itself around the river bank. One comment I read called the undressed figure a "water spirit". Though to me it seems like it might also have links to the Orontes figure that appears underfoot in the classic Tyche representation. Maybe the "aqueduct" is also not what it appears and might well be the supposed arcades along the riverbank that supported/adorned the Imperial Palace.

A 17th Century Map/Image

2009-12-31T16:16:00.000-05:00

This image, though grossly inacurate and fanciful, is worth showing. I actually own a copy (purchased on Ebay in the non-coloured form) which frankly is easier to discern details upon.

The artist is sometimes described as unknown and sometimes as being Agustinus Calmet, though he may be the engraver. It an copper engraving of a view of Antioch, supposedly as it was in the year 1630.

Euphorion of Chalcis

2009-12-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

A number of names are thrown into the ring when the subject of the "first" librarian is brought up. Almost all have some relationship to Alexandria. However, a close-run candidate is the learned epic poet, Euphorion of Chalcis, who at least appears to be the first librarian at Antioch.

The life of this poet and fragments of his works were published by Augustus Meinecke in his magisterial, De Euphorionis Chalcedonsis, vita et scriptis in Analecta Alexandrina. It is frankly amazing that Meinecke found so much to say about the fellow.

Euphorion, the son of Polymnetus, was born at Chalcis in Euboea, in some versions around 274 BC. He later obtained the right of citizenship at Athens. He was the pupil of Lacydes and Prytanis in philosophy, and of Archebulos in poetry.

Antiochus III established a library in Antioch, which in 220 B.C. was placed under the care of Euphorion, then aged 50, who held the position until his death.

Euphorion principally devoted himself to epic poetry, but be also wrote elegies and epigrams. He also produced some treatises on grammar and history. He was charged with being obscure in his expressions, and with using words in a forced sense.In the following century he became a favourite model with poets such as Tibullus, Propertius, and Cornelius Callus, besides being the theme of a passing reference in Virgil (Eclogues x 50).

He wrote a book on the Isthmian Games.

A Sultan's Progress

2009-12-02T23:25:00.002-05:00

I have stumbled upon an interesting text relating a progress made around his domains by the Sultan Qa'itbay. This translation and commentary was written by Henriette Devonshire in the Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in 1922.

In the process of this journey he visits Antioch. He was the Sultan of Egypt from 872-901 A.H. (AD 1468-1496). While Antioch is only briefly mentioned it does give some colour from a period where there are virtually no texts. Again this is in French and I shall translate it when I get some more time.

"Nous trouvames dans cette ville d'immenses et solides constructions; les murs enormes et garnis de tours vont de haut de la montagne jusqu'a l'embouchure de la riviere, de sorte que la ville entiere avec ses cultures, ses champs, ses proprietes et sa riviere se trouve a l'interieur des murailles. La ville meme contient sept collines sur une desquelles se trouve une citadelle; la longeur des murs est de 12 milles; les tours sont au nombre de 136 et les creneaux de 24,000. Antakiya fut conquise par El Malik ez Zahir Beibars; elle contient beaucoup de boutiques, des marches, et la population en est nombreuse. Mais ce sont Turcomans peu civilises et leurs maisons ont des pignons dont les toits en pente sont de bois recouvert de fascines de chaume que l'on appelle bourda. C'est la que se trouve le Sanctuaire de Sidi Djib en Nadjdjar - que Dieu nous soit propice par ses vertus! - situe entre deux larges collines a pentes douces."

A few points to note include the seemingly robust commercial sector considering that Baibars had ravaged the place only 200 years before. The seven hills are mentioned for the first time we have heard. We cannot imagine what these are. A river "inside the walls" is mentioned, presumably the Parmenios. We have what I think is the first mention I have found of the Najjar mosque.

Miscellaneous Toselli Finds

2009-11-29T10:28:00.009-05:00

In the Revue des études anciennes, Volume 6 of 1904, the ever-present Victor Chapot highlights a few more inscriptions that Toselli had encountered. He also indicates that he had been working with Toselli's son (unnamed) on his travels around Syria over the previous three years.

"Petite stèle de marbre, haute de 0.53 m sur 0.35 m de large. Le croquis de M. Eugène Toselli montre qu'elle se termine par un entablement grossier : le sommet du fronton est dominé par un acrotère; deux demi-acrotères plus petits au bas des rampants. Dans le tympan, une rosace ù quatre feuilles. Au milieu de la stèle, un espace évidé en forme d'arcosolium; dans le bas, un personnage couché sur un lit sommaire, pourvu d'ornements lenticulaires. Au-dessous :

La forme des lettres ne laisse pas supposer une très basse époque.

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Épitaphe en grandes lettres d'environ 6 ou 7 centimètres. — Estampage.

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Petite dalle etroite, et longue de 0.22 m.

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Plaque de marbre cassee, actuellement au Musee du Louvre. Hauteur des letters: 3 a 4 cms. Estampage.

Les lettres sont trop minuscules pour laisser supposer que celle inscription figurait à la porte de quelque sanctuaire chrétien, comme un salut adressé aux arrivants; elle doit, elle aussi, avoir été gravée sur une pierre tombale. L'invocation qu'elle renferme se retrouve sur d'autres monuments, mais avec des variantes:

Dans notre texte, elle a une valeur rigoureusement personnelle : c'est une prière pour les seuls morts de cette tombe; ils devaient être au moins deux, les chrétiens n'éprouvaient pas à cet égard les scrupules des païens.

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De Harbié (nom actuel de l'ancienne Daphne, faubourg d'Antioche) : Petite dalle, large de 0.25 m, haute de 0.8 m, bizarrement et maladroilemcnt ornée. D'après le croquis de M. Eug. Toselli : au milieu, une table, du type appelé Delphica, soutenue sur trois pieds reliés entre eux à mi-hauteur par une barre horizontale; elle porte une coupe, un peigne et, semble-t-il, des fleurs mal rendues. A droite et à gauche de la table deux pilastres, avec moulures en forme de disques séparés par un ove allongé. Au bas de la pierre :

L'intérêt de ce petit monument est dans son grossier bas relief : c'est surtout dans les pays de langue latine, plutôt que dans le monde grec, qu'on trouve des mensae funéraires, où sont représentés des plats et des écuelles; on en a beau coup d'exemples pour l'Afrique, en particulier à l'époque chrétienne, où le mot mensa servit principalement, vers les IV et V siècles, à désigner une tombe de martyr (cf. Bull, de la Soc. nat. des Antiq. de Fr., 1902, p. 269)".

Another Toselli Find

2009-11-28T18:09:00.006-05:00

In this edition of Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France

Victor Chapot wrote of a Greek inscription of Christian origin which had been found at Harbié, (ancient Daphné) which had been borught to his attention by the ubiquitous Eugène Toselli.

"Ci-gît Kalliopios, qui a vécu vingt-sept ans, âme très fidèle, célébrant par ses louanges le Dieu dispensateur de la vie des mortels, qui t'a procuré l'entrée de la cité céleste".

Chapot goes on to say: "La grande métropole de Syrie et son faubourg ont livré un nombre extraordinairement faible d'inscriptions; celle-ci n'en a que plus de prix. De plus, je la crois assez ancienne pour une inscription manifestement chrétienne : les lettres sont petites, et leur forme anguleuse n'est pas celle des caractères de très basse époque. Aucune croix n'a été gravée en tête du texte ni à la fin. Mais surtout la formule est anormale, et je n'en ai pas trouvé d'exemple, même approchant.

PISTIXOS et EUXOS sont deux termes extrêmement rares en épigraphie; quant à EUFHMES, c'est une expression de la langue païenne. Parmi les textes cités au Thesaurus et qui contiennent ce mot, il en est d'Eschyle, d'Aristophane, de Platon, de Xénophon; mais, en réalité, c'est Hérodien qui l'emploie le plus, et pour désigner l'acclamation aux empereurs. Ce texte me parait appartenir à une époque où le formulaire chrétien des épitaphes n'est pas fixé (IVe siècle sans doute) et s'embarrasse encore de restes du paganisme.

Le nom du mort semble avoir été fréquent en Syrie : on a trouvé en Égypte (in syringe Rhamsis IX) l'inscription suivante : KALLIOTIS ANTIOCHEUS EL[TH]ON XAI EI[D]ON TAS SUPIGG[A]S ETHAYMASA. KALLIOPIS est pour KALLIOPIOS, comme Bœckh le fait remarquer.

Enfin, un certain Kalliopas eut son rôle dans l'émeute qui éclata à Antioche sous Anastase (491-518)".

A Lintel Inscription

2009-11-28T17:47:00.011-05:00

In the aforementioned text with relation to the mysterious Toselli, the Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France, Volume 66 includes an article in which the noted French epigrahist of that time M. V. Chapot, made the following commentary on a discovery he stumbled across:

"On sait que la région d'Antioche a plus d'une fois souffert des tremblements de terre. En 528, il y en eut un terrible, qu'a raconté Théophane. A la suite des processions de supplication que provoqua la catastrophe, un saint homme avait été, disait-on, gratifié d'une vision, au cours de laquelle il connut que tous les survivants devaient faire graver sur le linteau de la porte de leur maison cette inscription : Le Christ est avec nous, demeurez. Et ainsi s'apaisa la colère divine i.e «Cette formule, dit dom H. Leclercq, aurait donc été commune c à Antioche; or, jusqu'à ce jour, on n'en a relevé, a notre connaissance, aucun exemplaire".

« Peut-être, de même que ce passage de Théophane m'avait échappé, le savant bénédictin n'a-t-il pas pris garde à une courte inscription que j'ai publiée jadis et qui est entrée depuis au Musée du Louvre. Bien que la pierre soit mutilée, il en reste assez pour que la lecture ne fasse pas doute : [+]'O XRISTOS METH YM[ON]. J'écrivais alors : « Les lettres sont trop minuscules, — elles mesurent 3 à 4 centimètres de hauteur, — pour laisser supposer que cette inst cription figurait à la porte de quelque sanctuaire chrétien, comme un salut adressé aux arrivants; elle doit avoir été gravée sur une pierre tombale. Je crois bien maintenant que l'argument n'est pas décisif, et je serais porté, la paléographie ne s'y opposant pas, à rapporter l'inscription à l'événement dont il s'agit. La formule, il est vrai, diffère quelque peu de celle qu'indique l'historien grec. Pourquoi cependant n'aurait-elle pas été apposée au seuil, non d'une maison privée, mais de quelque édifice ouvert aux étrangers, comme une hôtellerie ou SsvoSoxcïov? La variante s'expliquerait fort bien, et la petitesse des caractères n'aurait rien enlevé à leur vertu.

Puisque je m'occupe d'Antioche, je signalerai un sceau byzantin, conservé dans une collection particulière de cette ville, chez M. Toselli. Celui-ci a eu l'amabilité de me faire parvenir une empreinte de ce plomb, qui est de faibles dimensions. Au droit, l'on voit une représentation intéressante et qui ne se rencontre pas fréquemment sur ce genre de monuments. Le Christ, tenant sa croix, appelle à la résurrection les défunts, que figurent quatre personnages à ses pieds. Dans le champ, la légende :

And on the reverse:

which translates as "Syméon (ou Simon) II, died in 1099,was raised to the dignity of Patriarch of Jerusalem at the most latest in 1094".

The mysterious Monsieur Toselli

2009-11-28T17:39:00.010-05:00

A personage that late 19th century visitors to Antakia frequently mention is an Italian engineer called Eugene (presumably Eugenio) Toselli. Forster mentions him as do others. In Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France, Volume 66

the author of the article mentions visiting Toselli's house and being shown works from his collection. In another source we found reference to excavations that Toselli paid for out of his own pocket. Where and what these were is not clear.

In the Comptes Rendus of 1932-3, the venerable Chapot was still receiving new material, in this case from the son of Toselli, who must have still been living there all those many years later.

I found an interesting reference to an auction in 1908 of Prehistoric Items (Préhistorique ages de la pierre, du bronze, du fer: Catalogue spécial des objets provenant de la collection Eugène Boban et des collections Émile Collin, du Chambon, Gaberel, Landesque, etc. etc by Charles Schleicher, Publisher Schleicher Frères, 1908) that included some Bronze Age articles sourced from the Toselli Fouilles (Toselli Excavations) in Syria giving credence to his history as some sort of amatuer archaeologist. This is a mere handful of items though.

It would be very interesting to know more of the trajectory of this man as clearly he had quite a meaningful collection and its whereabouts would be an addition to scholarship in the field. By trawling through Google Books I have come upon some references to some of these (which very well may be lost works from the very limited Antioch opus of inscriptions as per Mommsen). I shall publish these as I come upon them to keep them out of obscurity.

Syrian Governors

2009-11-23T18:14:00.015-05:00

Antioch was, of course, the seat of the Roman governors in Syria, one of the largest, most populated and most economically important provinces. It was also one of the most strategic with its border with the Persian/Parthian/Sassanid Empire and the all-iportant trade route to Asia, particularly China. Being named governor of this province was a major career prize. Sometimes it could also be a curse...

The names of the governors are only patchily recorded. Modern authors have combined historical sources with inscirptions to create a listing that is rather extensive.

In the article "Syrie Romaine, de Pompee a Diocletien" by J.-P. Rey-Coquais in The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 68, (1978), pp. 44-73 the author compiled a blended list of the different versions to give a fairly definitive list of the governors who would have ruled out of Antioch. As the article is in French we shall initially include his comments here in French and, given time, translate them into English at our own pace. Thus here is Rey-Coquais' listing:

"From the creation of the province by Pompey until the death of Nero, the list has been established by F. Millar and G. Vermes ; G. W. Bowersock has added some refinements, in signallingprincipallly a study by R. Syme,essential for the years near to the birth of Christ.

From the Flavians until the end of the reign of Hadrian, the list rests upon the study by W. Eck.

M. Aemilius Scaurus, 65-2 avant J.-C.
L. Marcius Philippus, 6I-60.
Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, 59-8.
A. Gabinius, 57-5.
M. Licinius Crassus, le triumvir, 54-3.
C. Cassius Longinus, 53-I. I1 etait questeur de Crassus; la defaite de Carrhes et la mort du triumvir lui donnerent le gouvernement de la Syrie, bien que depuis 58 la Syrie fut une province consulaire.
M. Calpurnius Bibulus, tue par les Parthes dans l'Amanus, 51-50.
Veiento, 50-49.
Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, 49-8.
Sex. Iulius Caesar, 47-6.
Entre 46 et 44, le chevalier Q. Caecilius Bassus, du parti de Pompee, fut maitre d'une grande partie de la Syrie.
C. Antistius Vetus, 45.
L. Staius Murcus, 44.
C. Cassius Longinus, 44-2. Venu en Syrie apres le meurtre de Cesar, il recut l'appui de Caecilius Bassus.
L. Decidius Saxa, 4I-40.
P. Ventidius Bassus, 39-8.
C. Sosius, 38-7.
L. Munatius Plancus, 35.
L. Calpurnius Bibulus, de 34/3 h 33/2.
Q. Didius, en 31? et 30.
M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, entre 30 et 28.
M. Tullius Cicero, 29? - 27? ou 27? - 25?
(M. Terentius?) Varro, 24-23 (?).
M. Vipsanius Agrippa, 23-13.
A partir de 10 avant J.-C., il est difficile d'etablir les titulaires du gouvernement de Syrie et les dates de leur gouvernement. L'inscription de Tibur (CIL xiv, 3613), mutilee, mentionne un gouver-neur de Syrie non identifie. I1 y a contradiction dans les donnees evangeliques relatives a la date de la naissance du Christ: a Bethleem de Judee au temps du roi Herode le Grand (Mt 2, i); lors d'un premier recensement de 'toute la terre ' ordonne par Auguste et effectu6 alors que Quirinius etait gouverneur de Syrie (Lc 2, i-2). Contradiction aussi entre ces donnees evangeliques et les indications de Josephe sur les recensements en Palestine. Une inscription non datee atteste un recensement en Syrie sous Quirinius. Nous suivons les hypotheses de R. Syme :
C. Sentius Saturninus, de 9 jusqu'a 6 (?).
P. Quinctilius Varus, de 7/6 A 4 avant J.-C. II intervint en Palestine a la mort d'Herode le Grand en 4 avant J.-C. (Josephe, Ant. 17, 286; Bell. 2, 40).
L. Calpurnius Piso, dont le gouvernement pourrait se placer entre 4 et x avant J.-C.; son proconsulat d'Asie ne date pas necessairement de 3/2 avant J.-C.
Lollius, peut-etre, de l'avant J.-C. a 2 apres J.-C., date de sa disgrace et de sa mort, survenues en Syrie (Velleius Paterculus 2, 102, i) et P. Sulpicius Quirinius, de 2 a 3 apres J.-C., auraient peut-etre et6 gouverneurs de Syrie en meme temps que conseillers de C. Caesar, investi d'un imperium pro-consulaire sur l'Orient de i avant J.-C. a 4 apres J.-C.
L. Volusius Saturninus, de 4 i 5 apres J.-C. Des monnaies a son nom ont ete emises par l'atelier d'Antioche en l'an 35 d'Actium.
P. Sulpicius Quirinius etait certainement gouverneur de Syrie en 6 apres J.-C.; il intervint en Judee ai la deposition d'Archelaiis (Josephe, Ant. 17, 365; i8, i).
Q. Caecilius Metellus Creticus Silanus, 12-17.
Cn. Calpurnius Piso, 17-I9. Son gouvernement fut marque par sa dramatique opposition a Germanicus.
Cn. Sentius Saturninus, 19-21.
L. Aelius Lamia, de 23 environ jusqu'en 32. II gera sa charge sans quitter Rome (Tacite, Ann. 6, 27, 2).
L. Pomponius Flaccus, 32-5.
L. Vitellius, 35-9.
P. Petronius, de 39 a 41/2. Des monnaies a son nom furent frappees a Antioche entre l'automne 41 et l'automne 42.
C. Vibius Marsus, 41/2 - 44/5.
C. Cassius Longinus, de 44/5 jusque vers 50.
C. Ummidius Durmius Quadratus, gouverneur en 50, mort en poste avant 60. A une date inconnue, anterieurea u gouvernementd e Corbulon, un gouverneura u cognomend e Marinus ou Marianus est nomme dans le ' Tarif de Palmyre '
Cn. Domitius Corbulo, 60-3.
C. Cestius Gallus, 63? - 66.
C. Licinius Mucianus, 67-9.
L. Caesennius Paetus, de 70 a 71/2, temporairement reprdsent6 avant son arrivee en Syrie par Cn. Pompeius Collega, prolegat (Josephe, Bell. 7, 58).
· P. Marius Celsus, 72/3.
M. Ulpius Traianus, pere du futur empereur Trajan, de 73/4 a 78/9.
L. Ceionius Commodus, 78/9-81/2.
T. Atilius Rufus, 82/3-84/5.
P. Valerius Patruinus, 87/8-89/90.
A. Bucius Lappius Maximus, 90/1-94, atteste comme gouverneur de Syrie par un dipl6me militaire du 12 mai 91, et par la dedicace du theatre de Gerasa, datee de l'an 153 de l'ere pompeienne de cette ville, soit 90/I apres J.-C.
M. Cornelius Nigrinus Curiatius Maternus aurait ete gouverneur de Syrie entre 94/5 et 97, selon H. Devreker, H. Hanfmann et G. Alfoldy; R. Syme prefererait le placer plus tot, W. Eck le situe sans preciser davantage dans la seconde moitie du Ier siecle. Selon G. Alfoldy et H. Hanfmann, ce serait a lui que Pline, Ep. 9, 13, I , penserait sans le nommer; W. Eck placerait en 97/8 le gouvernement de cet inconnu, et dans la seconde moitie du Ier siecle le gouverneur anonyme de CIL xIII, 2662.
A. Larcius Priscus, commandant la legion IV Scythica, assura comme prolegat l'interim du gouvernement de Syrie sous Nerva.
C. Octavius Tidius Tossianus L. Javolenus Priscus, de 98/9 a 99/100 environ, fut le premier legat de Trajan en Syrie.
C. Antius A. Julius Quadratus, I00/1-103/4 (Cf. IGLS 4010).
A. Cornelius Palma Frontonianus, 104/5-107/8.
L. Fabius Justus, o08/9-I 1/2?
C. Julius Quadratus Bassus, de 114/15 a 116/17 selon W. Eck, entre 100 et 117 selon Chr. Habicht. II est nomme dans une inscription d'Apamee sur l'Oronte, sous Trajan Germanicus Dacicus mais non encore Parthicus. Un cursus anonyme d'Heliopolis IGLS 2775 mentionne sous Trajan un gouverneur de Syrie que Chr. Habicht, comme naguere A. von Premerstein, identifie avec Julius Quadratus Bassus; je reste sensible aux diff6rences notees IGLS 2775 entre l'inscription de Baalbek et l'inscription de Pergame. Selon Chr. Habicht, Julius Quadratus Bassus aurait quitte la Syrie en aouit 117 pour la Dacie, oi il remplaga C. Avidius Nigrinus et oi il mourut dans l'hiver 117/18.
P. Aelius Hadrianus, en I I7. Il etait gouverneur de Syrie quand il devint empereur.
L. Catilius Severus Julianus Claudius Reginus, 117/I8-118/I9. Hadrien le nomma lorsqu'il partit pour Rome.
C. Ummidius Quadratus se placerait entre 121 et 124.
C. Quinctius Certus Poblicius Marcellus, 130/I-134/5. En 132, il partit pour la Judee avec une grande partie de l'armee de Syrie; C. Julius Severus, 16gat de la legion IV Scythica, devint prolegat.
C. Julius Severus est honore a Apamee sur l'Oronte par deux inscriptions grecques oui W. van Rengen, se fondant sur la longueur des lacunes, restitue [Ora]T-rK6s plutot que [auyK]rl]TKoes , enconsiderant donc que ces dedicaces sont posterieures a son consulat suffect de I39; la raison de ce honneurs echappe d'autant plus que je ne crois pas a la parente de C. Julius Severus avec l'illustre famille apamdenne de L. Julius Agrippa.
Cn. Minicius Faustinus Sex. Julius Severus, de 135/6 jusque vers 137/8.
Les consulaires Bruttius Praesens et Julius Major, attestes en Syrie en avril 138, ne sont pas des gouverneurs, mais des clarissimes en mission extraordinaire, comme W. Eck l'etablit par l'etude de leur cursus.
L. Flavius Arrianus,287e ntre 137 et 147.
Le philosophe Arrien de Nicomedie, apres avoir ete gouverneur de Cappadoce de 131/2 a I37, aurait ete gouverneur de Syrie. Chr. Habicht confirme cette hypothese de G. A. Harrer, acceptee par E. Honigmann.288 Ce pourrait etre Arrien que designerait Lucien, Peregrin. 14. Mais W. Eck exclut Arrien de la liste des gouverneurs de Syrie.
L. Burbuleius Optatus Ligarianus, en 142.
Sulpicius Julianus, en 149.
D. Velius Fidus, vers 153/4.
M. Cassius Apollinaris, entre 154 et 156 (PIR2 c 484).
L. Attidius Cornelianus, atteste comme gouverneur de Syrie en 157 par le diplome ILS 9057, en i62 par une inscription trouvee pres de Damas (CIL II, I29, corr. 6658). I1 fut mis en deroute par Vologese II.
Un A. Larcius Priscus, que E. Honigmann placait en I62 et qui selon E. Groag assurait l'interim du gouvernement de Syrie, doit disparaitre de la liste.
C. Julius Commodus Orfitianus n'a pas ete gouverneur de Syrie, mais de Palestine (PIR2 I 271).
M. Annius Libo, 163 (?). Cousin de Marc-Aurele, il fut envoye comme legat en Syrie au temps de la guerre parthique et il y mourut subitement (Vita Veri 9, 2). E. Groag (PIR2 A 668) place cette mort en 163; R. Syme doute que Libo ait vraiment ete gouverneur de Syrie.
Cn. Julius Verus, 163?-i66. Commandant les armees romaines engagees dans la guerre parthique, il remporta la victoire de Soura et libera la Syrie. Les inscriptions de la route d'Abilene (CIL III, I99-20I) le designent comme ami des empereurs et gouverneur de Syrie. L. Petersen (PIR2 1 618) voit en lui le successeur d'Attidius Cornelianus et place son gouvernement entre 163 et 166.
C. Avidius Cassius, legat de Syrie de 166 a 171 au moins; en 172, il fut charge de reprimer en Egypte le soulevement des Boukoloi. Nomme par Marc-Aurele rector totius Orientis, il se souleve en 175 et conserva la pourpre six mois avant etre assassine.
M. Pontius Laelianus Larcius Sabinus, en 176.
P. Martius Verus, 177-9.
P. Helvius Pertinax, I80-2.
C. Domitius Dexter, 182-3, mentionne dans une inscription de Soueida (IGR III, 1276) et dans une inscription de la garnison de Palmyre.
Julius Saturninus, I85-7.
Asellius Aemilianus, I87-90. Dans l'inscription de Batanee IGR III, I262, le nombre des annees de regne de Commode n'est pas certain. Herodien assure qu'il eut Niger pour successeur dans le gouvernement de Syrie.
C. Pescennius Niger, en 191.
Vainqueur de Niger en 194, Septime-Severe divisa la Syrie en deux provinces, la Syria Coele au Nord, la Syria Phoenicea u Sud. J. F. Gilliam a dresse la liste des l6gats de Syria Coeled e Septime- Severe a Diocletien; un grand nombre sont connus seulement par les documents de Doura- Europos.298 Une inscription de Bulla Regia a permis d'ajouter un nom a cette liste.
Alfenus Senecio, vers 200.
Marius Maximus Perpetuus Aurelianus, atteste a Doura en 208. J. F. Gilliam rejette le L. Calpurnius que mentionnerait comme gouverneur de Syria Coele sous Septime-Severe une inscription de Han Qoseir, au Nord de Damas (CIL iI, 128), connu seulement par une copie plus ou moins interpolee de Des Monceaux dans les Voyages de Corneille Le Bruyn.
Minicius Martialis, procurator Augusti, agissait sans doute comme vice-gouverneure n 209-11.
Aurelius Mam- - -, en 216.
Fabius Agrippinus, en 218 ou 219, mis a mort sous Elagabale (Dion Cassius 79, 3, 4).
Antonius Seleucus, vir clarissimus consularisn oster,a tteste a Doura en 221; peut-etre le meme qu'un tyran du temps d'Elagabale.
Q. Atrius Clonius, vers 22.
[Claudius Sollem]nius Pacatianus, atteste a Doura vers 235.
Q. Aradius Rufinus Optatus Aelianus, avant 238, date a laquelle il fut sans doute proconsul d'Afrique, connu par une insciption de Bulla Regia.
- -- nius, vir clarissimusc onsularisn oster, atteste a Doura en 239.
Attius Rufinus, legatus Augusti pro praetore, en 241, ou peut-etre en 239, a Doura; c'est peut-etre le meme qu'un P. Attius Pudens Rufinus Celsianus, v. c. cos. n.
D. Simonius Proculus Julianus, vers 245.
Flavius Antiochus, atteste a Doura entre 244 et 249.
Atilius Cosminus, v. c. cos. n., atteste a Doura en 250 et en janvier et mars 251.
Pomponius Laetianus, vir egregius procurator Augustorum nostrorum, atteste a Doura en avril et mai 25I, agissant peut-etre comme vice-gouverneur.
Arrius Maximus, au milieu du IIIe siecle, connu par une inscription de Seleucie de Pierie, IGLS I1 4I.
Virius Lupus, praeses, vers 265.
Maximinus, en 275-6, sans doute un senateur, parent de l'empereur Tacite, tue par ses propres troupes.
Julius Saturninus, pretendant a l'empire et adversaire de Probus, etait gouverneur de Syria Coele selon Zosime i, 66, vers l'annee 278.
Charisius, praeses Syriae en 290.

Il parait inutile de poursuivre cette liste, a laquelle s'ajoutent plusieurs anonymes de date incertaine; on la trouvera dans The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire."

The list includes some famous names. Most notable are Marcus Agrippa, Trajan's father, Ulpianus Traianus, Hadrian, Arrian (the philosopher), Calpurnius Piso (under whose reign Germanicus was murdered in Antioch, possibly via his machinations) and C. Pescennius Niger (the usurper under Septimius Severus).

Miscellaneous Churches

2009-09-27T18:13:00.007-04:00

Boucher states: "Among other churches were those of St. Cosmas and St. Damianus; of Cassianus, where the jewelled mantle of Justinian was displayed; of St. Stephen on the west of the city; and the martyrium of St. Leontius". We have spoken of the Cassianus elsewhere.

A very interesting source (though unfortunately short on references) is JOHN CHRYSOSTOM AND HIS TIME, VOLUME ONE, PART ONE, ANTIOCH: The Early Years (1929), by the evocatively named Reverend Chrysostomus Baur, O. S. B. who comments "Very near the Maccabees' grave, on the slope of Mount Tauris, and near the synagogue, was located the Grotto of St. Paul, in which the Apostle was said to have preached. Also a house in which he once dwelt, was held in honor, and his bed and table were shown there.

The Martyrium of St. Drosis seems to have been a fairly large mausoleum. When a visitor entered the vestibule, a multitude of graves appeared before his eyes, and he saw all around him sarcophagi, urns and monuments to the dead. As probably the custom prevailed in Antioch, as in Rome, that pious Christians wished to be buried as near as possible to the graves of the saints and martyrs, so that many a Martyrium became the focal point of a large cemetery. Another chapel (or church) which certainly was still standing in the time of Chrysostom was the Martyrium of St. Ignatius, the famous martyr bishop of Antioch, who died in Rome; Chrysostom preached a sermon on him which still survives.

Under Theodosius the Younger, the bones of St. Ignatius were transferred to the former temple of Tyche, which had been transformed into a Christian church. A piece of good fortune, that Libanius, the enthusiastic worshiper of Tyche (Fortune) did not live to see it. Also Bishop Eustathius, who had died in exile in Thrace, had his memorial chapel in Antioch.' Then there was a Church of Saint Simeon, in which the adherents of Paulinus held divine service. Other saints and blood witnesses from the times of the persecutions may have had their martyria or memorial chapels already in the fourth century, for example, Sts. Juventinus and Maximus, Pelagia, Berenice and Prosdoce; St. Lucian, the founder of the older schools of Antioch, and others. For a number of martyrs, who still rested in the common cemetery, " together with heretics (Arians), so that the people had difficulty finding their graves,''the Patriarch Flavian later built a common martyrium before the city, " in Romanesia." Here Chrysostom gave a still surviving sermon on a certain Ascension Day. This martyrium of Romanesia attained a special significance in the later life of our John".

This excerpt is rich in detail and meshes with some other information. We had wondered why the Bridge Gate was called the Romanesia Gate (and also seemingly Philonauta) and now we find that the area across the river (sometimes also referred to as the site of the Campus Martius military camps) was called Romanesia. We have the obligatory mention of the Maccabean graves but here locating them near the Grotto of Saint Paul (which in our view is somewhere near the Charonion) rather than the Kerateion where the Maccabean synagogue is usually thought to have been located. By Mount Tauris we wonder if he means Staurin, but if not then the debate turns to the subject of the gates again, with Catherine Saliou's work on the Porta Tauris which features on the Megalopsychia mosaic and has been thought to be on the Island and giving egress in the direction of the mountain range on the other side of the Orontes. We also have here the Temple of Tyche being converted into the resting place of St Ignatius' earthly remains, which is novel and something we have not seen elsewhere. It is as if Baur has access to a totally new source no one in the "nothing new under the sun" world of Antiochene studies has ever seen.

The Palaia (or Old Church)

2009-09-27T18:10:00.010-04:00

Palaia means "ancient" and was used to refer to one of the major churches in Antioch to discriminate it from the Great Church (the Golden Octagon) that I have written on elsewhere. Boucher states in his Short History that "the earliest ecclesiastical building, called Palaia, or Apostolic, traditionally ascribed to Theophilus the friend of St. Luke, was believed to stand on the spot where the Apostles first delivered their addresses. This seems to have disappeared in the persecution of Diocletian, and it is doubtful whether the church begun by Constantine and also called Apostolic was on the same site".

If Boucher was right (and he was wrong on some other details in his book) then the site of the first preaching was the Singon (or Siagon) Street that I have discussed elsewhere. This, by implication might also signal that the Palaia was at this site which some feel might be closer to the Beroea Gate than the old centre of the Seleucid city.

The Palaia, according to Wendy Mayer, was the main preaching pulpit for John Chrysostom. She speaks of it dating back to the time of the Apostles and cites Eltester 1937 (pgs 272-3). She sites it in the Old Town because it was the Old Church... The Siagon ("jawbone") street was so called because it was not straight and that does not appear to signify a street in the strictly Hippodamian Old Town. Just because the church was called "ancient" does not mean it must be in the most "ancient" part of the town.

Pietro Rentinck in his book "La cura pastorale in Antiochia nel IV secolo" says that the church was rebuilt and expanded under the bishop Vitale (around 314 AD) and after his death the work was completed by Filogonio (319-324 AD). He feels the church may have been reconstructed in a basilica form at that time. He says the sources are silent on the dimensions of the structure.

The Calendar of Feasts at Antioch

2009-08-21T20:43:00.003-04:00

The social calendar of the Antiochenes was a full one. As I have noted elsewhere they liked to party. Some of these parties emanated from religious festivals. The 4th century represented an interesting moment in which Christianity started to displace the old Graeco-Roman theology. This dealt a death blow to many of the festivals and thus made Antioch a duller place. I repeat again the feeling that Christianity did Antioch no favours.

In Jean-Francois Vieslet's definitive work on Antiochene religious festivals, Les Fastes d'Atnioche et le crepuscule du paganisme. Analyse des fetes paiennes D'Antioche au IVe s. ap. J-C. (Louvain 2004-2005) he produces a calendar whih I feel is useful to reproduce here.

Festivals

2009-07-23T16:11:00.004-04:00

The Maiuma was a festival that existed in a number of cities, but Antioch, as was typical, managed to turn a mere religious event into something very special. Antiochenes had a touch of the Gatsby about their party-going.

Chrysostom spoke on the subject on the Maiuma: "For tell me, if anyone offered to introduce you into a palace, and show you the king sitting (there), would you indeed choose to see the theatre instead of these things? … And you leave this and run to the theatre to see women swimming, and nature put to open dishonour, leaving Christ sitting by the well? … But you, leaving the fountain of blood, the awful cup, go your way to the fountain of the devil, to see a harlot swim, and to endure shipwreck of the soul. For that water is a sea of lasciviousness, not drowning bodies, but working shipwreck of souls. And while she swims naked, you, as you behold, are plunged into the depths of lasciviousness. … For in the first place, through a whole night the devil takes over their souls with the expectation of it; then having shown them the expected object, he has at once bound them and made them captives … If now you are ashamed, and blush at the comparison, rise up to your nobility and flee the sea of hell and the river of fire, (I mean) the pool in the theatre … And you, when there is a question of precedence, claim to have priority over the whole world, since our city first crowned itself with the name of Christian; but in the competition of chastity, are you not ashamed to be behind the ruder cities?"

Bouchier (quoting Malalas) reports that Commodus funded a number of building programs and also " "... the triennial nocturnal festival of Bacchus and Aphrodite called the Maiuma. For the lamps and candles with which the city was illuminated on the latter occasion certain revenues were set aside."

George Soane in his book on ancient festivals notes: "This festival was celebrated with much splendour, banquets and in offerings, as we are told by the Emperor Julian, in his satirical address, the Misopogon, to the people of Antioch, and in time it appears to have degenerated so deeply into licentiousness that it was suppressed, so far as laws could suppress it, in the reign of Constantine, together with the feasts of Pan and Bacchus. Under the united rule of Arcadius and Honorius, it was restored, though with caution, the imperial mandate declaring, " clementiae nostrae placuit ut Maiumae provincialibus laetitia reddatur ; ita tamen ut servetur honestas, et verecundia castis moribus perseveret." Imp. Cod. lib. xi. tit. 45.

The admonition, however, in regard to decency and sobriety, does not seem to have produced any very desirable effect upon the minds of the people, for in the same reign it was once more forbidden on the plea of licentiousness by a rescript to the prefect Aurelian, which is still extant in the Theodosian Code, (lib. xv. tit. vi.) It is, however, plain, that though the Maiuma might be condemned by the edicts of emperors and the fulminations of saints (i.e. Chrysostom), it persisted."

Gerald Rendall claims that Libanius declared that the essence of the Maiuma was ' not to abstain from any kind of abomination.'

It is suggested that the theatre unearthed at Daphne was inundatable so that the aquatic frolics that accompanied the Maiuma could be presented there. Some have suggested that the representation of a boating basin in the Megalopsychia Mosiac represents, possibly, the theatre at Daphne in its flooded state.

The worship of Adonis was also of great importance in Antioch. The festival associated with the commemoration (and seeming resurrection) of Adonis was called the Adonies. No evidence of a temple complex or sanctuary has been found but that is not surprising as Adonis was not a god himself but one of the favorites of Aphrodite. The festival though seems to have taken to the streets of the city. It consisted, perversely, of weeping and wailing rather than whooping it up. The main participants were women, an interesting antecedent to the public displays of mass grief that are still a feature in the Middle East.

Sir James Frazer in his book "The Golden Bough" (1922) refers to some of the festivities: "One of the earliest seats of the worship of the new god (i.e. Christianity) was Antioch, and at Antioch, as we have seen, the death of the old god (i.e. Adonis) was annually celebrated with great solemnity. A circumstance which attended the entrance of Julian into the city at the time of the Adonis festival may perhaps throw some light on the date of its celebration. When the emperor drew near to the city he was received with public prayers as if he had been a god, and he marvelled at the voices of a great multitude who cried that the Star of Salvation had dawned upon them in the East. This may doubtless have been no more than a fulsome compliment paid by an obsequious Oriental crowd to the Roman emperor. But it is also possible that the rising of a bright star regularly gave the signal for the festival, and that as chance would have it the star emerged above the rim of the eastern horizon at the very moment of the emperor’s approach. The coincidence, if it happened, could hardly fail to strike the imagination of a superstitious and excited multitude, who might thereupon hail the great man as the deity whose coming was announced by the sign in the heavens. Or the emperor may have mistaken for a greeting to himself the shouts which were addressed to the star. Now Astarte, the divine mistress of Adonis, was identified with the planet Venus, and her changes from a morning to an evening star were carefully noted by the Babylonian astronomers, who drew omens from her alternate appearance and disappearance. Hence we may conjecture that the festival of Adonis was regularly timed to coincide with the appearance of Venus as the Morning or Evening Star. But the star which the people of Antioch saluted at the festival was seen in the East; therefore, if it was indeed Venus, it can only have been the Morning Star".

The most important source on this event is Jean-Francois Vieslet of the University of Louvain in Belgium. His chapter "Les Adonies d'Antioche au IV siecle apres J.C." in his thesis "Les fastes d'Antioche et le crepuscule du paganisme. Analyse des fetes paiennes d'Antioche au IVe s. ap. J.C." was submitted in 2004-5. The chapter in question is available here. His study covers the whole gamut of the Adonis festival, its origins, its manifestations (including the use of dolls to represent Adonis and the growing of mini-gardens in pots that were then cast into the ocean), the historical record and the way in which the festival was "celebrated" in Antioch.

A missing manuscript

2009-07-23T15:38:00.002-04:00

The pool of original sources on Antioch is shallow to say the least. By a very roundabout hunt (for something else) I stumbled upon an 1866 article in a French journal (Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes) in which Leopold Delisle discusses a collection of manuscripts that Lord Ashburnham bought from a Mr Barrois. More sleuthing revealed that this collection was auctioned of in 1897 in a spectacular series of auctions. Amongst the documents that the author mentioned is one that caught my eye, seemingly a manuscript copied by the Benedictines. This document (numbered 6755) had the following subject matter in Delisle's words:

1. Une partie du manuscrit a ete copie en 1267

2. Il y a des extraits de saint Bernard et de saint Augustin

3. Il y a un traite de musique commencant par los mots Quoniam circa artem, et occupant neuf feuillets.

4. Un feuillet renferme au recto la description des environs de Jerusalem (Si quis ab occidentalibus), et au verso une court description d'Antioche (Haec urbs). Le feuillet suivants contient une liste des villes conquises en Espagne par Charlemagne.

5. Le traite de Methodius commence au verso d'un feuillet et occupe les quatre feuillets suivants.

The catalogue of Mr Barrois has an entry relating to the manuscript that says: 11. Descriptio nobilissime urbis Antiochie. Fol 61 verso. - " Haec urbs Antiochia valde et pulcra et honorabilis". So the description is short but might appear to be a pre-12th century description of the city.

Some sleuthing revealed a book called "Catalogue des manuscrits des fonds Libri et Barrois" in Google Books. This is in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The catalogue describes 180 manuscripts. Concordances on . [264]-273 indicate the correspondence of their numbers in the Bibliothèque Nationale with those in the Fonds Libri and fonds Barrois at Ashburnham Place.

Fol. 61 v°. » Descriptio nobilissime urbis Antiochie "Нес urbs Antiochia valde est pulcra et honorabilis, quia intra muros ejus sunt quatuor montanee maxime et nimis alte... "

Its location would be an interesting addition to the pool of reports on the city. Now to find out where the manuscript went in the library auction so long ago...

Decline and Fall

2009-07-07T20:19:00.000-04:00

When to write off Antioch? Well, the most obvious time to look for would be to identify when the city ceased to be Antioch the Great and instead became an also ran amongst cities. Some may care to differ but you can't get much more of a fall from greatness than effecting a name-change to reduce the threat of earthquakes. Thus I would be sorely tempted to date the "end" of the city's greatness to just after 528 AD when the name change to Theopolis was effected. We stand ready however to also plump for 540 AD when Chosroes devastated the city and carried off its population to his ersatz Antioch on the banks of the Euphrates.

We keep coming back to our simile of Berlin in the 20th century. The period 528-540 AD was very similar to 1933-45. The creative element was shipped out, scared away or destroyed while the physical nature of the city was transformed by destruction of the urban fabric of the metropolis. Rebuild and repopulate as one might the elements that came together to make, however flawed, the shining moments of the city's history could never be replaced in the former combination. Antioch went from metropolis or Weltstadt to provincial humdrum. The sole consolation was that the stupid Theopolis name went the way of all things and today's Antakya still harks back to the founding in 300 BC while Theopolis just looks like superstitious mumbo jumbo.

Even Berlin's travails pale into insignifigance compared to Antioch's. Warsaw or Konigsberg might be better simile. The 6th century was an unremitting litany of disaster.

A devastating fire in 525
the massive earthquake of 526 that destroyed the Island
the quake of 528 with even wider damage
the burning and looting by Chosroes in 540 with the wholesale transhipment of the population
bubonic plague in 542
another earthquake in 551
a cattle plague in 553
another earthquake in 557
more bubonic plague in 560
Persians burned the suburbs in 573
another earthquake in 577
a more damaging earthquake in 588
a drought killed the olive trees in 599
a weevil infestation ruined the crops in 600

Frankly with all this in prospect after 540 the lucky ones were the locals who were shipped off to "Better-than-Antioch" for there could scarcely be anywhere worse than the old Antioch!

These tribulations must have left the city massively denuded of population with the attendant collapse in services and output. I discussed elsewhere tha "big mistake" of abandoning the Island and focusing on building the Walls of Justinian which were promptly proved to be useless.

There is very little information on what the city was like by the time it fell to the Arabs in 638 AD (after a series of passing back and forth between Byzantine and Persian control). There can scarcely have been much of the classical city left or even of the later Christian establishment. The Domus Aurea never recovered from the 588 AD quake when the structure, damaged in 526 AD, finally collapsed. Swathes of other churches and civic buildings must have been destroyed and the retreat of the city from occupying the limits of the Walls of Justinian must have begun. The inhabited area seems to have not stretched much beyond the Parmenios when the Crusaders arrived in 1098. Water supply must have been compromised, the Island was clearly stripped to provide building material after the earthquakes of the 520s when it was left outside the reduced circuit of the Walls. The acropolis and temples had their building materials "recycled" for other uses in the city. The population might have fallen by 2/3rds via these various ravages and certainly cutting of the aqueducts or reduction in their capacity would have made the city less able to carry as much population as it once did.

The city was intellectually and culturally denuded by the events between 536 AD and 540 AD. It may have been repopulated with peasants from elsewhere (the Byzantine version of Lebensraum as related by Cyril Mango) but they just weren't the cheeky, saucy, inspired popluation of the past. No wonder the city scarcely warranted a mention ever again for its intellectual or cultural output.

The city went from being a "city" to being a provincial town and a rapidly declining and peripheralised one at that. The Crusaders gave it a new burst of political life and presumably some artistic revival (as much as could be managed in the medieval context) but that was shortlived and then the really Dark Ages from Baibars victory through to the 20th century fell upon the town like an impenetrable fog.

Abandoning the Island - The Fatal Mistake

2009-07-06T20:45:00.004-04:00

Small things change the course of history. A large event though prompted a decision in the history of Antioch that might very well have been the fatal flaw that sealed the city's fate and cast it into 1,500 years of obscurity.

In 526 AD a massive earthquake devastated the city but most severely damaged was the Island. The colonnades were thrown down, the palace damaged and the Domus Aurea was nearly toppled.

The upshot of this damage was that, seemingly, a decision was made to abandon the Island. The area was used as a quarry for stones to build the Wall of Justinian around the main part of the city. The Golden Octagon lingered on (now outside the city walls) until it eventually collapsed later in the century.

What if, however, the Island had not been the worst hit part of the city? What if the decision was made to fortify the Island instead of the mountainous part of the city? What might have been an alternative outcome?

The Island was the easiest part of the city to defend. If a strategy to strengthen the Island and use it as the fortress in time of extremis have been adopted then there might have been a chance that the city may have more effectively resisted the onslaught of Chosroes in 540 AD, and devastation from which the whole city went into terminal decline. As the reports of the seige make clear the Sassanid invader gained access to the city via the walls on the southern heights. These were the walls that had only just been built.

Frankly despite the enormous effort of constructing the Justinian Walls, the city was essentially indefensible in the new layout, it was too extended and the high parts of the city were too vulnerable. These encompassed, quite literally, two mountains. Defenders could not easily race to the walls.

With time the branch of the river that separated the Island from the main city became silted up, thus making the Orontes less of a moat and more of an access point. While still swampy the Crusaders in 1098 found the flatlands on the river-side of the city the most suitable place to make camp and sally forth against the Dog Gate and the Duke's Gate.

Why was the Island not chosen as the safe haven for the city? One earthquake decided its fate? We suspect though that the factors were twofold. Firstly, the Island was a sector of villas, baths and palaces. Maybe it also had stables (associated with the hippodrome) and garden areas. This implies low density. This also implies the bulk of the population that needed defending were in the other parts of the city. Thus the focus fell there with a priority of defending the majority, even if the task was well-nigh impossible. The imperial palace had not been used much by the emperors as a residence since the days of Valens over 140 years beforehand.

Then second factor is more prosaic. We have dwelt elsewhere on the possibility that the Island was supplied with its water from an aqueduct that came from the mountains to the north of the city rather than from the system geared to the springs at Daphne that supplied the rest of the city. While the Daphnetic aqueducts contained long surface and underground sections, an aqueduct from the northern mountains would have been elevated across the plain. It also could have been a prime victim of any earthquake. While not mentioned anywhere, it could very well be the case that the Island was left waterless by the earthquake of 526 AD and thus it was a "no-brainer" to rebuild the "mainland" part of the city and cede the Island to the limeburners and scavengers of stone and bricks.

Of course the builders of the Wall of Justinian did not imagine that plague, earthquakes and wars would reduce the city of over 500,000 in the 6th century to little more than 50,000 by the time the Crusaders appeared. The latter number would have easily fitted in a well-defended fortified Island instead of being sprawled across the existing fortified area with its gardens and farms because the walled area by the 11th century was way too large for practical defense.

When one considers the massive task of demolishing the Island walls, all its remnant buildings (including the hippodrome) and redeploying all this material into the construction of the city walls (so strong they lasted until the mid-19th century), then rebuilding the Island and creating a fortified city on the Island (and part of the mainland) and an unfortified portion for the rest (which seemingly was rather unfortified as evidence for the walls of Tiberius being of much substance are scance) would seem in retrospect to have been a more sensible strategy.

The road not taken by Justinian was to defend the defensible (i.e. the Island) and instead a grandiose wall-building campaign ultimately left the city more vulnerable, not less.

The Theatre Site

2009-06-23T18:28:00.000-04:00

Gregoire Poccardi marvels at how the Princeton team could have totally overlooked the theatre site in Antioch. He notes that it is even stranger because Forster in his flying visit in the 1890s identified the site. The Princeton team were supposedly looking for it, but maybe they were not looking too hard. As we noted elsewhere Antioch probably had several theatres. These would have been in all sorts of sizes and with different usages.

However, the city probably did have one main theatre for there are various references to it. Its location was identified by Poccardi, as per the map below.

The theatre is at letter T. This is now the block bounded by 4 sk, 5 sk, Bagyolu sk and Cetin Emec Cd on the Google map here.

This is in modern day Antakya is the site of a "park". We use the term loosely because we havent seen such a rugged urban park before. The main consolation is that this hasn't been built over and the town has clearly kept it for "future consideration". Our colleague, Jorgen Christensen-Ernst, ventured forth and took the following pictures recently.

Here is a view of the park from its lower western corner. The site is large enough to have encompassed a substantial theatre, with the implication that any excavation taking in the park and the surrounding streets (which are wider than need be) could reveal the complete structure.

This is a view of the park from above. One should imagine that one is standing upon the upper tiers of the cavea of the theatre here and that 1500 years of detritus moving downhill has largely filled in the slope of the structure. If the depth of the fill is anything like that in the old town (11 metres) then the lower levels of the theatre (the scenae and orchestra) could be in recognizable and quantifiable condition if the overburden is removed. This would involve losing the park and its stony wastes and dry pond.

This is a view from below showing the steepness above the theatre site (on the right of the street). If one can believe the story of the Persians surprising the locals at play in the theatre then it would have been from these upper slopes that they rained down their arrows on the crowd.

Poccardi says the theatre would have had a diameter of 120m, thus it almost certianly would have seated more than 10,000 people.

The Honorific Columns

2009-06-22T08:26:00.001-04:00

Ancient cities were a sea of columns but not all columns were created equal. The kings of the columnar world were the honorific columns for emperors and gods. Antioch had several famous examples of this form.

Russell Sturgis in "A dictionary of architecture and building biographical historical, and descriptive" published in 1901 ranks three of Antioch's columns as worthy of mention. The first was one of Theban granite surmounted by a statue of Tiberius, in the centre of the Forum of Antioch, in gratitude for the magnificent public structures of this emperor (especially the double columnar street colonnades). Lassus speculates that the round plaza on the Colonnaded Street that he excavated under the Al Nejjar Mosque was the site of this statue rather in the Forum.

Sturgis also mentions another one of porphyry at Antioch, erected under Caligula as a talisman against earthquakes. It may be this that is referred to in the Vatican's Arab text in its regaling of the various superstitions of the city.

The final column of note was one of immense size with a statue of Valentinian erected to him by his brother Valens. This almost certainly was at the Forum of Valens.

The Tribes

2009-05-14T21:13:00.000-04:00

There were 18 tribes or wards (phylae) in Antioch. The individual phylae were led by an epimeletes (or supervisor/overseer/governor). The phylae were used as electoral divisions for sending representatives to the Bouleterion (city council) for the civic administration.

Sir William Ramsey comments in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (Vol XXXVIII, 1918, pg 185),: "Certainly in various cases the tribes in a Hellenic city of Greece or Asia Minor had an ethnic character, and one nationality was often enrolled in a special tribe. This classification was often carried out in a very arbitrary fashion; e.g. Josephus mentions that all the Jews in Syrian Antioch were enrolled in the tribe Makedones, which was of course the most honourable of all in a Seleucid city".

This is the only reference to the name of one of the tribes that we have seen, excepting the possibility that some of the benefactors of the Fuller's Canal were also the names of tribes.

Chrysostom's Brush with the "Magic" Police

2009-05-01T20:13:00.010-04:00

Robert Wheler Bush relates in his The Life and Times of Chrysostom:

"A most severe decree against all who directly or indirectly practised any arts of magic, or who were in possession of any books of a magical character, had been passed by Valentinian and Valens. This decree was being enforced at this time with great rigour and cruelty at Antioch. Those charged— often times on the most frivolous grounds—with any complicity with such practices were liable to exile, torture, and even death. Soldiers were employed in carefully searching for suspected persons, and dragging them before the legal tribunals. Informers, too, abounded on every side. And not only soldiers and informers, but judges also were eager to court imperial favour by carrying out the decree with rigour and severity. No age or sex escaped. The prisons, not only in the capital, but also at Antioch, were filled with persons of all ranks and professions charged with offenses connected with magical rites, or with having in their possession books either actually bearing on magic or supposed to bear upon it. Men, in their terror, destroyed their whole libraries in order to avoid all suspicion.

When such was the state of feeling at Antioch in connection with magic, it happened that one day Chrysostom and a friend were walking on the outskirts of the city, in the gardens by the banks of the Orontes, towards the chapel of the martyr Babylas. As they were proceeding along the margin of the river, they saw some leaves of a book floating down the stream. In emulous sport they tried to catch the leaves as they passed along upon the surface of the water. They succeeded in securing some of them, when, to their consternation, they discovered that they were filled with magical signs and symbols. At this critical moment a soldier was observed approaching them. What could they do with those fatal leaves ? Should they hide them about their persons, or cast them back again into the river? If they hid them, the soldier might prosecute a search, and discovery might lead to the most fatal consequences ; if they threw them into the river again, the soldier might see the act, recover the leaves, and fasten a charge upon them for having had such a book in their possession. They hesitate in alarm as to their course of conduct, rapidly weighing and balancing in their mind the probable effect of either line of action. At last they determine to commit those perilous leaves once more to the river. Fortunately for them their conduct was unobserved by the soldier, who passed on in ignorance both of their terror and of what they had done. They thus escaped; but the fears of Chrysostom were greatly excited by the event, and he could not refrain from attributing his escape to the merciful providence of God".

The above is a rather embellished version in the Victorian taste. The more basic bones of the story, as related in Florent Heintz's essay on circus curse tablets ,is to be found in Patrologia Graeca Vol 60 pg 275.

The whole little incident is interesting as it gives the rather odious Chrysostom an almost human aspect, well at least as a child/teen.

It is also interesting to note they were wandering along the Orontes bank near the shrine of Saint Babylas that was identified as being on the right bank of the river, opposite the imperial palace.

The timing is also interesting for it is around the time of the "witch hunt" (quite literally) that was let loose with particular ferocity in Antioch by Valens in his fear that magic was being used to divine when his reign would come to an end. These events are well described in the essay "Les procès d’Antioche de 371/2 (Ammien Marcellin 29.1-2) : un cas de persécution religieuse?" by Éric Fournier.

Bath C

2009-05-01T17:20:00.016-04:00

The only bath of substance fully delineated as yet in Antioch is the so-called Bath C. It adjoined a "Byzantine hippodrome" as some have termed it, which looks more like a grandiose palestra.

Above is a floor plan of Bath C. This bath stood on the Island in relative proximity to the Imperial Palace. It was fully excavated by the Princeton team and represented the most complex and substantial building found in the project. The building was around 40 metres wide and sixty metres deep from the street facade. Poccardi posits that the blocks on the Island (by utilising the "temple" as a form of measuring stick) were around 107m x 35.5m. Thus the complex of the baths/palestra were a big deviation to the usual street plan. Uggeri speculates that the stadium/palestra might have been part of the Seleucid Regia (palace). As no excavations took place on the southern side of the exercise field, this remains a possibility meriting further investigation. Bath C is certainly luxurious enough to have been part of a complex for the powers that be.

While the floor plan was clear, it was however stripped down to its foundations by subsequent looters of building material leaving little idea of what its vertical dimensions might have been.

Christine Kondoleon's excellent catalogue for the exhibition Antioch: the Lost Ancient City included several computer-generated reconstructions of these baths produced by the Boston architect and graphic artist, James Stanton-Abbott. This work, and the images, were commissioned by the Worcester Museum of Art to accompany its exhibition than ran in 2000-2001. The major essay on Antioch's baths in the catalogue is by Fikrit Yegul of University of California Santa Barbara.

The first reconstruction below (click to enlarge) reproduces and enlivens the floorplan shown above. None of the other baths found in Antioch had such a strictly symmetrical layout as these baths. This is not to say that there were not other baths in this format. Not enough has been excavated of Bath F to preclude that it did not originally have a very formalised layout. This version also adds some more detailed mosaic features. The hot rooms (caldaria) are to the left in this plan. Notice that the mosaics shown here differ from those in the floor plan. above. This was done by "reusing" images of other Antioch mosaics to give an impression of how the floors really looked rather than just using pure geometrical designs as a filler.

The second image of Bath C from the catalogue is an axonometric view of the bath complex with the wall height projected up to the level of the column capitals. this brings the building alive and gives an idea of how it might have appeared to one of the bath's clientele as they progressed through the rooms.

The ruins complex was so scoured of remains by looters that no indication remains of how the roof and ceilings may have appeared (for instance whether there may have been an open space over the octagonal pool in what was probably the frigidarium). The octagonal pool measured 9.5 m x 9.5 m x 1 m . This pool had a significantly larger capacity (c. 70.8 m3) than the pools in the cistern-fed private bathhouses of earlier periods.

Though none are shown in the octagonal room (as no evidence survived to justify them), one might consider some columns may have existed there and presumably both the frigidarium and main caldarium had high rooflines than some of the smaller rooms in the complex. The main baths in Rome, while on a much vaster scale had vaulted and coffered ceilings in these types of rooms.

The other key source on this subject is the report in Volume I of Antioch-on-the-Orontes by Elderkin and Stillwell. This relates the discovery and excavation of the baths. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they did not advance much in putting the baths (or much else they excavated) into an urban context by advancing onto the street in front of the baths and investigating the adjoining buildings. Was the baths structure on one of the four radiating avenues that Libanius speaks of?

A Circus Curse Tablet

2009-04-30T18:58:00.001-04:00

The guru on circus curses is undoubtedly Dr Florent Heintz who wrote his thesis at Harvard on "Agonistic Magic in the Late Antique Circus". He is now an expert on Egyptian antiquities at Sotheby's in New York. Several years ago when he was associated with the Worcester Museum (that off-the-beaten track Mecca for Antiochophiles) he wrote the article "Magic Tablets and the Games at Antioch" (page 163) in Christine Kondoleon's excellent catalogue for the exhibition Antioch: the Lost Ancient City.

Interestingly he starts off his thesis by invoking the chariot race scene from the film Ben Hur in which some of the drivers are seen acting out magic rituals to try and gain themselves an advantage in the race.

Below can be seen one of the circus curse tablets found ,by the Princeton team in the 1930s, rolled up in a drain along the central barrier and turning post of the Antioch hippodrome. This is currently to be found at the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. 3603-I57). This was made of a thin piece of lead which was rolled up and secreted in a location where it could do most "harm" or "good" depending on one's point of view. This example dates from the late fifth or early sixth century AD.

Dr Ana Maria Vazquez Hoys,the Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at UNED (Spain) writes on this specific example:

"Curse tablets and binding spells were quite popular in ancient Antioch, especially at the chariot races. To impress their emperor, charioteers would try to make their rivals' chariots overturn directly opposite the imperial box, and a curse tablet was one of the methods for accomplishing this. This curse tablet opens with a long invocation of divine epithets and magical names; it is addressed to Hecate and other deities of the Underworld. Then the curse itself: "Bind, lay waste, and overturn the horses of the Blue [faction]."

This is followed by 36 Greek names of horses. Usually curses aimed at circus competitors target the charioteers as well as the horses; this is an exception to the rule. By the end of the fourth century, chariot racing had been transformed from a contest of horses and drivers to one of magicians. All this was a risky business, as magic was against Roman law and severely punished. The Blue and Green factions, mentioned in this curse, were imperially sponsored organizations that took over the staging of public entertainment in the East in the fifth century AD; less curse tablets were found after this time than before".

The Obelisk (?)

2009-04-24T08:30:00.008-04:00

The Patriarch of Antioch, Euphrasius, had a varied end. Normally we do not deal with the Christian history of the city as it paralleled (and maybe partly caused) the city's decline. However in looking at the obscure subject of the obelisk in the circus the name of the patriarch appears.

The versions are various. All have one thing in common in that he died during the massive earthquake of 526 AD. We initially heard that he was crushed while conducting a service at the Golden Octagon when some part of the structure fell upon him. More recently we see it related in Humphrey's Roman Circuses that he was killed and buried by the falling obelisk that stood on the central barrier running along the circus. Presumably he had taken shelter there (like Trajan in 115 AD) when the earthquake hit.

Then we stumbled on The Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius (or the Zuqnin Chronicle) as edited by Witold Witakowski. This book is a Syriac historiographical work dating from the end of the eighth century. The work is written from the point of view of a religious dissident, (he was a Monophysite) whose personal experience as a persecuted monk in his native Mesopotamia, as well as his later life in Constantinople, make the chronicle an interesting and offbeat source. In his version the rescuers found the body of Euphrasius "... was found in a cauldron of pitch used by wineskin makers, who worked beneath his episcopal residence. When the residence collapsed and fell, he happened to fall into the cauldron. The whole of his body sank down in it and he was cooked in the pitch. His head was found (hanging, as if he had) fainted, outside the rim of the cauldron. Thus he was recognised from his face while his bones were found stripped of their flesh in the pitch".

We have to chuckle as this end would have suited a martyr but for a bishop going about his daily business it was scarcely one of the usual hazards of the job. However the author notes "for the believers however it was a wonderful thing for they remembered the impudence of his evil deeds, his cruel plans, persecution and pillage which he had done". Being a fitting end, in the author's opinion, might imply some embellishment, including moving the place of death and the means! It is hard to figure out why the Patriarchal Palace should also have doubled as a wineskin factory. Boiling pitch would have made the place insufferably odorous.

In a footnote to the Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus it is noted that
pseudo-Zacharias and Malalas have him thrown by the convulsion into a vat of boiling wax (a sticky end indeed) while the Chalcedonian writer Marcellinus comes has him crushed by an obelisk in the hippodrome (this being the source for Humphrey).

No further information is forthcoming on this obelisk. A number of circuses did have them on the central barrier. The Circus Maximus had several which have now migrated to other parts of Rome. The genuine article of course came from Egypt, so we are left to wonder whether Antioch's obelisk was an Egyptian import and what happened to it after it had fallen. Was it irretrievably smashed or was it moved somewhere else in the city when the Island was abandoned and the hippodrome was cannibalised for building materials for the expanded city walls? As it was probably of granite, if it was like the other obelisks from Egypt, it would not have been fodder for the limeburners who did so much damage to the marble and limestone of the city as parts were abandoned.

It may still await discovery, though it is most certainly not still to be found at the hippodrome.

The Jewish Quarter(s)

2009-04-11T18:20:00.000-04:00

Antioch was on of the great cities of the Jewish diaspora even before the diaspora happened. The Jewish community rapidly coalesced around the new empire in which they found themselves in the wake of Alexander's death and the carve-up of his former "domains" amongst his generals. Antioch was the capital of the Seleucid kingdom and this covered Judea. Antioch was an epicentre of politics and commerce and the community started to grow with the city.

The chief sources for discussion of these themes are:

Carl Kraeling's article "The Jewish Community in Antioch" in the Journal of Biblical Literature (Vol 51, no.2 June 1932 pp 130-160).
Samuel Krauss' article "Antioche" in the Revue des Etudes Juives 45 (1902, pp 27-49)
A. Kasher's article "The Rights of the Jews of Antioch on the Orontes" in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research (vol 49 1982 pp 69-85)

and on the more narrowly focused theme of the Gate of the Cherubim (nevertheless important for siting the community):

Glanville Downey's article "The Gate of the Cherubim at Antioch" in the Jewish Quarterly Review (pp 167-177)
W.L. Duliere's article "Les Cherubins du troisieme Temple a Antioche" in the Zeitschrift fur Religions- und geistegeschichte (1961, XIII Jahrgang, Heft 3 pp 201-219)

Then there are the sources on the Ashmunit synagogue/shrine that I cite in my comments on that issue.

Firstly I would like to give the opinion that the Jewish community did not have a "ghetto" in Antioch. As is well-known that whole concept of ghettoization did not develop until the Middle Ages (or later) in Venice. Theoretically the Jews of Antioch were free to live wherever they liked in the city (at least we have never heard of any restrictions). Moreover it should be remembered that Antioch was one of the very centres of hellenizing corruption that spurred the Maccabean Revolt.

What was "hellenization" if not assimilation? Ancient Antioch should be looked at as somewhat akin to Berlin in the 1920s: a whole gamut of different degrees of Jewishness and assimilation. Thus the most "orthodox" would have been gathered closest to the synagogues and other community facilities required to maintain the lifestyle of a religious community with strict dietary and other behavioural laws, while the most assimilated would have positioned themselves wherever their lifestyle and social status (or business or political activity) deemed most convenient for them to be. Thus some of the lavish villas of the mountain slope, the Island or Daphne may have belonged to well-off assimilated families. There is also evidence for agricultural Jewish communities, some devoted to the cultivation of rice on the Plain of Antioch.

We might also note the historical oddity that as Christianity grew in the city, there were criticisms thrown against some of the Christians, by their leaders, that they were overly fond of attending Jewish festivals (as the pagan element also seemed to enjoy doing). If Antioch was anything it was a party town and the newly converted Christians clearly didn't want to miss out on a festival no matter who was holding it! This is not a sign of a walled-off isolated community.

However, the subject of this note is the identifiable districts. With an estimated Jewish population of 60,000 at its peak (according to Kraeling) the Jewish community must have been congregated in part but certainly with other members living all over the city.

The area that is most clearly associated with the community is the Kerateion which was either just inside, or just outside, the Cherubim Gate. Now 60,000 people was 10-15% of the total population of the city. Thus we are not talking here of a block or two but of a very large group of people that grouped together would occupy a large territory. There is no indication that the Jewish community was any more, or less, crowded than the rest of the populace. Thus a whole swathe of the southern part of the city may have constituted the Jewish quarter, both within and without the walls. In our comments on the destruction by Chosroes it was noted that the quarter was the one area spared destruction in the fire that his troops started. Was this because it was outside the wall?

I have to think that the name Kerateion harks back to the very founding of the city when various Greek groups were settled in the city and their districts were named after their homelands. Thus it would seem that the district was most likely inside the Cherubim Gate (which is where Wilber's map put it) rather than an unwalled suburb (until the Theodosian Wall enveloped it).

The second Jewish area that is mentioned (and this also dates back to the Seleucid period) is the community at Daphne. I shall not go into the history of this but most of the authors date this group back a very long way. How densely populated was Daphne? It can't really have been very dense if it was to maintain its Arcadian splendour. Thus its population (pagan, Jewish or otherwise) may never have been more than a few thousand in total, with villas and upscale residences predominating. I might remind that the "theatre" (or was it the theatron) at Daphne was supposedly built on the site of the synagogue. There clearly was a community there but did it make up more than a few hundred or few thousand out of the larger number in the vicinityof Antioch?

Then there is Kraeling's theory that there was a third community. In one moment Kraeling discusses Herod the Great's role in constructing the Colonnaded Street. He takes issue with Forster's suggestion that the street went southward out of the town towards "the Jewish community at Daphne" but instead argues that the street was paved and adorned with porticos towards the northeast due to there being a Jewish community at the far northern extremity of the city. We quote:

"Marcus Agrippa, it will be recalled, improved a section along Silpius east of the town, and Marcus was known as a friend of Herod the Great and a friend of the Jews. There is nothing improbable in the supposition that Herod's building operations, and those of Agrippa, had some relation one to the other, and that both, affecting as they then did the Eastern suburbs of the Seleucid city had some immediate relation to a people or a cause in which both donors were interested. We therefore submit the hypothesis that the object of the joint enterprise was that of improving and connecting with the city a Jewish settlement of the XXXX or "plain" of Antioch. This will not preclude the existence or subsequent establishment of other similar colonies still farther out in the plain, but it will explain the tradition that the churches and sites connected with the early Christian apostles all lie in the extreme eastern part of the Justinian city, and that the Plethrion, built under Didius Julianus in the eastern portion of the Tiberian development, was constructed on the site of a house owned and inhabited by a Jew Asabinus".

Thus Kraeling associates the Vicus Agrippae with a secondary Jewish district, gives a rationale for Herod's street-building in that direction and also explains why the initial concentration of the Christian community was concentrated at the far north-east of the walled city. Something here to ponder which might eventually be helped by some more concerted exploration of the area that was between the St.Paul and the Beroea gates (or beyond) which seemed to be the area of the Agrippan settlement.

We would question the Plethron comment however as this was not in the "eastern" portion of the city but in the very centre, in proximity to the Forum of Valens. The Jewish community was not a ghetto in Antioch and thus just because Asabinus' house was subject to an ancient form of eminent domain it does not mean that he actually lived in the Jewish district.

Once again none of the areas mentioned here as likely locations for the Jewish quarters have been excavated with any thoroughness so the evidence still remains buried. The Vicus Agrippae would not be difficult to tackle and the Daphne area needs a lot a more work. The Kerateion, alas, lies under modern Antakya, and tantalisingly out of reach.

The Nymphaeum of the Theatre

2009-04-10T18:39:00.013-04:00

Again we have stumbled upon an obscure Italian language work that (maybe) fills in some unresolved issues and yet languishes in obscurity because it is in Italian.

Back in 1952, Guiseppe Spano wrote his piece Il "Ninfeo del Proscenio" del teatro di Antiochia su l'Oronte for the Rendiconti of the Accademia Lincei. Spano at the time was a veteran archaeologist having been the Royal Inspector of Pompeii decades before and was a luminary in Italian archaeology. He had a history of writing on theatres and triumphal arches. One of his other works, Il teatro delle fontane in Pompei also dealt with what he felt was a nexus between water features and theatres. So much for googling someone to find an author because he is very hard to get information on.

This major essay of his is only cited in a couple of other texts and finding the actual edition of the Rendiconti was a truly Sisyphean task, even at the New York Public Library (mainly due to the proliferation of nearly the same titles and the confusing volume and series numbers that Lincei used). It involved no less than six visits, several failed deliveries and much frustration. Rather than "published and be damned" its "publish and be forgotten" if Italian is your language of choice!

Was it worth it? Well, Spano picked himself an obscure subject indeed, even by Antiochene standards. We all make bricks without straw in this field as there is so little to go on. He chose as his topic the nature of the nymphaeum which is sometimes referred to in the ancient texts. He goes for a rather holistic solution and not only bundles the nymphaeum into the theatre (which I dealt with elsewhere), but also combines in the Shrine of Tyche and its numismatic evidence trail.

Interestingly he mixes into the subject the theme of the Septizodium in Rome, which I myself had mixed into discussing the Lesser Nymphaeum.

His main thesis is that the nymphaeum was combined with the scaenae frons of the theatre. Moreover the water feature included a central section with the Tyche shrine embedded in it and then there were elements of the seven divine bodies also in the sculptural arrangements. He even goes so far as to say that Eutychides' famous statue had the boyish Orontes figure rising literally out of the waters of the nymphaeum. An interesting piece of artistic sleight of hand.

It is true that the ancient texts mentioning the reconstructions of the theatre talk of a statue of Tyche being positioned upon the theatre in Trajan's rebuilding of the structure. However does one need to resite the famous statue into a niche at the theatre to link the two occurrences. I have long been under the impression that the shrine of Tyche was down near the riverbank of the Orontes. To me the images on the coins that show the shrine make it look like a standalone baldachin-type structure, not a broken-pedimented fountain excerpt.

While the city had other important deities, Tyche was almost Antioch's own daughter and to think that the famous statue would have been hauled up the hill to become a water feature is a tad far-fetched. Definitely a demotion in godly status if you ask me. Why should one need to draw this conclusion? Rome had various statues of Apollo and Jupiter, as did every other major city. Why shouldn't Antioch have had several Tyche's adorning its streets and fountains? I do not doubt that the theatre had an image of Tyche but I doubt that it was Eutychides' statue and there is no reason to presume she should have been positioned in the fountain when it was always sounded like she had a shrine at the top of the cavea.

The essay includes some images from the theatre at Aspendos. This is the best preserved theatre in the Roman world and is truly stunning. One of the images of the Nymphaeum at Aspendos (separate from the theatre) caused me to do a double take, because this plan of the nymphaeum looked very similar to the plan we included of the Lesser Nymphaeum excavated by Lassus with its array of rectangular and semi-circular niches for statues. This had prompted us to our Septizodium comment.

Spano goes on to make a good case for Tyche being linked to the heavenly bodies and uses the statuette below from the British Museum as a key example of this pairing.

He also discusses an image from the Megalopsychia mosaic that shows what he believes might be a naumachia even though it only has a rowing boat in it. He also discusses at length the "theatron" discovered at Daphne which others have mused upon as being some sort of ornamental reservoir/water feature, though he feels this might be the structure from the mosaic image.

The essay is well worth reading for the various novel points of view it makes. The idea of a nymphaeum on the outside wall of the scena frons makes lots of sense. Uggeri's map almost gives this "feature wall" the opportunity, via his positioning of it at right angles to one of the east-west throughfares to provide a Haussmanesque vista up one of the street/avenues rising towards the theatre. Alas the theatre is no more. The small relics that survived above ground have been "improved" out of existence by Antakya's modernizers though it is pretty well known where it was and some demolition and excavation could bring a lot more of the structure to light and answer some of the issues that Spano raises.

Bath F (The Baths of Tiberius?)

2009-04-10T10:31:00.001-04:00

That Antioch was liberally furnished with bathing establishments has long been a given. Libanius rhapsodizes over these establishments and their multiplicity. We detail some of the known information in a specific posting on the whole theme.

This note then is dedicated to the largest find by the excavators of the 1930s and one of these least reported. Bath F, which is suspected by some of being the historically cited Baths of Tiberius, was the most significant bathing complex found. Its mosaic (the Tethys mosaic) has received some coverage by art historians but the whole complex is scarcely mentioned by anyone except Hugh Kennedy in his piece on Antioch between the Romans and the Crusaders. He draws on some of the comments that were made by the excavators in their write up of the 1930s Princeton-led expedition.

I have recently come to spend some time with the second and third volumes of the Excavation reports. I would note that the first volume, written in the first flush of enthusiasm, had clear chapters for each major find (the tower on the Island, the Hippodrome, the baths on the Island). By the second and third volumes in the late 1930s the focus had switched to mosaicophilia and Bath F doesn't even merit its own chapter but rather is buried within a catch-all chapter on the boring stuff like buildings, even though it had the Tethys mosaic that set the hearts of museum directors racing in the drawing of straws to see who got to keep it for their collection.

However, Bath F is not like the plethora (five at latest count) of bathing establishments found on the Island. This is the only bath that was found on the "mainland" part of the city. And what a bath it was! The site stretched between the Colonnaded Street and the bend in the channel of the Orontes that separated the Island from the city proper. This meant that the complex was over 100 metres in length and covered a whole city block, which as we noted elsewhere were substantial in size. While not to be mentioned in the same breath as the Baths of Diocletian and Caracalla in Rome, these were nevertheless substantial and could be compared to excavated remains like the Hadrianic Baths at Leptis Magna.

The attribution of the baths to Tiberius is rather touchy-feely. There was no evidence at the baths to justify this. The only inscription uncovered related to the rededication of the complex in the 530s AD. The baths were initally substantial as we have noted. They were destroyed to a large extent in the earthquakes of the 520s. The were rebuilt in a scaled-down, and frankly mediocre fashion, as part of the efforts of Justinian, a feat that Malalas sings the praises of but of which we are skeptical. They were then destroyed again in 540 AD when Chosroes burnt down the city and were never rebuilt.

Excavations by the team did not extend to the whole site of the baths and this is an obvious target for future exploration as it is only a few metres below the surface and is still in one of the unbuilt parts of the walled city. What they did uncover was impressive enough.

In the words of the exploration report:

"Running south from a heavy masonry wall that had suffered severely from the activities of stone plunderers was a large three-aisled structure which had apparently had a wooden roof, possibly formining a clerestory over the central part. Traces of the burned roof beams were clearly to be seen on the floor.

The central aisle, some 12.40 m. wide, was floored with a mosaic pavement of floral carpet design surrounded by a geometric border. In the center was a medallion with an inscription stating that the monument was a bath and giving a date (AD 537/8) for the floor. At the north end the border is returned around the foundations of what appear to be two large half columns engaged against the north wall, The other limit of the room extends almost to the south end of a large pool.... The side aisles were floored in opus sectile of light and dark marble laid in simple geometric patterns. Each aisle is two panels wide and the designs are alternated in checkerboard fashion except for two instances in the west aisle.... Separating the nave and the side aisle s were arcades, resting on columns, many fragments of which have been recovered. The capitals include several with the abacus inscribed, apparently with an inscription that ran from one capital to the next. Several of the arcade voussoirs were found. The stylobate between the columns was paved with marble slabs....."

They finished their efforts by digging a trial trench to the Colonnaded Street to satisfy their theory that the complex went as far as the main thoroughfare. Opportunely their initial diggings focused on a area with turned out to be a sizable pool (whether hot,cold or tepid is not mentioned). This pool had originally been rectangular but subsequent "improvement" had made it octagonal and resulted in the overlaying of the original pool bottom with the Tethys mosaic.

The plan below (click to enlarge) shows the remains of the main room as uncovered by the Princeton team. The baths were sizable to have such an enormous room within them. Baths were generally a complex with the full range of different temperature rooms and ancillary facilities like libraries and changing rooms and sometimes gardens and exercise facilities. This excavation (pictured above) zeroed in on only one part of the structure. It can be noted from the size of the figure in the photo that the floor level was between 2 and 3 metres below the current surface level.

Clearly the potential exists to re-excavate what the team found (it was all filled in again after the work) and expand the scope to cover the whole block and get a perspective of the whole complex.

The plan unfortunately does not include the trench to the Colonnaded Street (which would be to the right) and the text neither signals how far the main room was from the Street in question nor what was found in the trenching exercise (e.g. other rooms, colonnades etc).

In what may be the unkindest cut of all, the Tethys mosaic (the central section of which is shown above) was lifted and sent to the Fogg Museum in 1939. It proved too large for the space and was sent to Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC where it ended up in an outdoor pool. Finally (and maybe not finally..) it was displaced by building activity at Dumbarton Oaks and migrated back to Boston where it was bought (and installed) by the Harvard Business School in 1990. It now lies in the Central Court of the Morgan Hall and serves as eye-candy for plutocrats in training.

Finally we might touch upon the water supply for this bath complex. Obviously if it covered most of a city block it was an enormous facility. Water to feed the demands of the baths must either have come from the Spring of Olympias or from one of the aqueducts that skirted the mountain. If the latter then we suspect that the supply must have come on a high-level branch from the main aqueduct and would have had to vault over the Colonnaded Street.

The Water Supply to the Island

2009-04-05T09:30:00.004-04:00

As we noted in our comments on the baths of the city, an issue to consider relates to the water supply to the Island. As we have seen there were a plethora of baths there. How did they get water? The three options are ground water, river water or a connection to the city's aqueduct system, which would have necessitated a branch of the aqueduct to run out a right angles from the main aqueduct and cross the branch of the Orontes. Aqueduct water would have provided pressure (for fountains etc.) whereas the other two means would not.

Gregoire Poccardi in his essay "L'eau domestiquee et l'eau sauvage" comments: "Le reseau d'approvisionnemente en eau de l'ile est beaucoup plus difficile a apprehender que celui de la Veille Ville. On pourrait imaginer une connexion avec le systeme d'aqueducts situe sur les flancs du Staurin, mais aucune trace de liaison n'a ete reperee. Cette connexion est techniquement possible en raison de la topographie, car ces aqueducts surplombait egalement l'ile."

D.N. Wilber in the second volume of the reports of the Princeton excavations notes: "There is no additional mention in the literary sources of other aqueducts except the ones from Daphne. However, just across the Orontes from the city and a short distance form the northern edge of the ancient island are some ruins which seem to be the debris of a number of aqueduct piers. In the excavations on the island five baths have already been uncovered and it is quite likely that the entire output of an aqueduct could have been used to in the baths and in the royal palace on the island. The location of these ruins indicate that such an aqueduct would have led from springs in the Amanus mountains, from a distance of at least ten kilometres and have been carried on a series of high level arches since the ground between Antioch and the foothills is so flat that a proper rate of descent in the channels could not have been obtained merely by following the ground contours".

The Course of the Orontes Branch(es)

2009-03-31T21:19:00.001-04:00

Maybe the presumptions about the shape of the Island have their roots in Libanius' gushing description of the Island as being surrounded by its wall "like a crown". Much as one tries to resist it this comment evokes images of a round shape for the Island. Certainly it wasn't square, but what type of perspective could Libanius have had of the Island (short of climbing to the top of Mount Silpius to give him an all-embracing view of the Island). We suspect the "crown" analogy is merely that... an allusion. If one discards the "round" Island thesis then one can start to move away from the Wilber interpretation of how the Island was shaped in antiquity. The map below shows Wilber's speculation.

What is the matter with this interpretation? Well, geographical reality and the forces of nature are two good places to start. The Island either had two forms: Wilber's kidney shaped version or a more elongated island as Uggeri suggests.

On the basis of what I know of geography/topography the elongated form makes more sense if one perceives that the Orontes is a "strong" river rather than a weak one. There is no evidence to support a meandering Orontes either historically or in modern times. The faster a river is the more likely it is to be straighter (and its parts where it divides straighter). The Wilber version relies upon a very lazy Orontes indeed to create a river as he portrays it. In fact looking at his map the "branch" of the Orontes is the part to the west while the easternmost course (now silted up) is the main course of the river. The Orontes is a river with dramatic seasonal differences. Nowadays it is very low indeed in the summer due to the water being siphoned off upstream by the Lebanese and the Syrians that control the headwaters.

In a paper, The Geopolitics of Water by Paul Michael Wihbey and Ilan Berman, the authors comment on the current flow situation of the river: "According to Turkish estimates, Syria utilizes 90 percent of total Orontes flow (which averages 1.2 billion meters annually at the Turkish-Syrian border), allowing only a meager 10 percent to pass into Turkey. Furthermore, Syrian proposals to create two additional reservoirs along the river threaten to reduce Orontes flow to Turkey even further. In effect, Syria has used its control over Orontes water as a weapon, seriously eroding the agricultural and economic situation in Turkish Hatay".

In the winter and spring the river still carries sizable volumes of water from the heavy (and notoriously so) rainfall in the lower reaches of the Orontes valley. Thus high water is still achieved in these seasons. The flow rate of the river averages 5.04 m/sec with an annual flow of 2900 billion m3.

One can merely speculate upon the effect that the drainage of the Lake of Antioch (upstream where the valley widens out) in the post-WW2 era. Such a lake usually has the effect of storing water and slowing the flows. This massive wetlands area was eliminated to foster the cultivation of cotton with rather dire natural effects upon birdlife and the famous flow of eels up the river.

In any case the Orontes was a strong river in Antiquity. Thus there is no reason to surmise that the Island was the shape that Wilber gave it, particularly as no exploration has been done at the northern "end" of the Island to delineate its extent.

Uggeri's version, as we noted elsewhere, has a very interesting spin. He has the Island very elongated, with the rationale for the western side of Theodosian wall being as straight as it was being due to it running along the river bank for most of its western side. One does not need to be steeped in geography to see that this makes more sense with a "strong" river in a largely alluvial plain.

This has various implications. We know that the Island had five bridges connecting it to the "mainland" part of the city. Only one of these (that at the Dog Gate) has been identified. These bridges in the Uggeri context (though he only shows one) would be far more spread out than the bunched group of bridges that Wilber hypothesises. The Island with Uggeri's form allows the Regia to be near the Old Seleucid Town and yet still be on the Island which Wilber's plan made difficult to conceive.

The Uggeri plan almost makes both branches have roughly equal weighting, a true division of the river. As one silted up (maybe due to debris from the earthquakes e.g. collapsed bridges) the remaining branch would have had to move twice as much water, thus becoming wider and more powerful (and more erosive).

Finally we might speculate that the Duke's Gate (the Porta Ducis) at the time of the Crusades might have been a very long-established gate/bridge indeed, whereas it did not make much sense in the context of the Wilber plan.

The Vicus Agrippae

2009-03-20T21:10:00.002-04:00

Marcus Agrippa was ascendant to a degree after the fall of Antony. According to Boucher he had visited Antioch with his former master: "....and, delighted with the beauty of the site, began the development of a new quarter, the Vicus Agrippae, outside the east gate. A spring was opened to supply the new public Agrippianon bath, lines of houses were built, and in the older city the theatre was heightened by the addition of another zone".

Malalas states that in his time the baths of Agrippa had become known as the Ampelinon baths. Malalas calls this new development zone the Agrippitai.

This gives some definitive evidence that urban development outside the city, as we have always thought of it, was more coordinated than some sort of random exurban evolution. It also would signal that the territory outside the Beroea Gate might be fruitful grounds for exploration.

Boucher also notes the Agrippa returned at a later date and "... probably during his eastern command, restored the circus of Q. Marcius Rex, which had become filled with rubbish as a result of various shocks, and witnessed there the performance of a spectacle of great variety and splendour".

Mottershead in his work "The Constructions of Marcus Agrippa in the West" states that Agrippa had two periods in Antioch, 23-21 BC and then 17-13 BC. He suggests "Agrippa's new quarter (Agrippitai) has been interpreted from Malalas as occupying an area of some 700 by 800 metres to the north of the city outside the Beroea Gate".

Fikret Yegul in his excellent essay on the baths of Antioch states that Agrippa built two baths, one in the quarter named after him and another near a spring in a lush quiet setting on the slopes of Mt Silpius. To support this latter baths he quotes Malalas 222.17. 20). We wonder whether these might just be one and the same bath.

A further twist is added in Carl Kraeling's article "The Jewish Community in Antioch" in the Journal of Biblical Literature (Vol 51, no.2 June 1932 pp 130-160) in which he suggests that the settlement of Agrippa may have been an outpost of the Jewish community which is normally sited in the southern part of the city. This theory and its evidence is elaborated upon in my comments on the Jewish quarter(s) of ancient Antioch.

A few more thoughts on the Regia

2009-03-15T12:54:00.005-04:00

We discussed the Regia in some length previously. The further thoughts have recently come to mind in light of our discovery of the Uggeri map and his view of the city's topography.

We compare Uggeri to Wilber in another commentary. As we noted there Uggeri has the former branch of the Orontes, that created the Island as a separate quarter, running along the Theodosian Wall. It had never seemed clear to us why Wilber's map had the Theodosian Wall cutting the old Seleucid city in half and leaving the Regia and Agora seemingly outside the reduced city. However, if we take it that the new wall was built along the watercourse, as would seem natural, then there is a rationale for the Uggeri version.

While Uggeri does not show the Regia on his map he does speculate in the text that the so-called Byzantine stadium that was uncovered in the 1930s on the Island was connected in some way to the Regia. While this clashes with our previously stated suspicion that the Regia was in the Seleucid city (correspondeing with the Casianus Church and the legal complex). Maybe, as we speculated before, the palace of justice was somehow distinct from the Royal Palace (Regia). This would allow the possibility that the Regia was built on the Island and yet in relative proximity to the "old" city due to the Island being elongated, as per Uggeri, rather than roundish in shape as Wilber drew. We suspect the latter was due to Libanius' suggestion of the Island being round in shape with its wall surrounding it like a crown. This may have just been artistic license.

The Hungarian map (for which we still do not have a source beyond the Hungarian posting on Antioch in Wikipedia) shows a Regi Templom in the same general area as Uggeri speaks of the Regia being. However, the rationale behind this remains unknown.

The Uggeri Map

2009-03-14T20:35:00.000-04:00

Giovanni Uggeri, born 1939, is (was?) an academic at the University of Rome with a specialty in ancient topography. He is (was?) the editor of the Italian language Journal of Ancient Topography. I use the is/was idiom as all emails to his Rome university website bounce back even though he was shown as still running courses last year at the Rome university.

Back in 1998 he wrote an extensive article for his journal on the topography of ancient Antioch. This article was stumbled upon by some convoluted search technique but I have not seen it cited in any work on Antioch, despite the fact that it has several novel concepts contained within. The map is shown below (click to enlarge). The ways in which it differs from Wilber (which is shown again at the bottom of this posting) are many. I shall note a few of the most notable here:

in the southern wall, Uggeri shows both the Golden Gate (Porta Aurea) and the Rhodion Gate, which I have recently discussed elsewhere.
he shows the Mese Pyle (Middle Gate) above the Forum of Valens. In his text he refers to this as leading up the valley of the Parmenios as an alternative route to Apamea.
he shows a "tower" on the Colonnaded Street a few blocks northeast of the Forum of Valens
he shows the course of the silted up branch of the Orontes running along the new Theodosian Wall rather than arching away as Wilber does
he shows another silted up course of the river running through the middle of the Island cutting off the Hippodrome, palace and temple from other parts of the Island. Where he came up with this idea is not mentioned in the text of his article.
he adds an extra bridge to the Island. This bridge heads off the Island to the north crossing the main branch of the Orontes. On the far side it connects with the road to Alexandria ad Issum. The bridge is aligned with the right side of the Hippodrome (and thus coincides with Poccardi's thoughts) and aligns also with the Dog Gate and its bridge in connecting with the main part of the city. This seems to make sense but I have seen no evidence for it in any text and neither is there any archeological evidence for it.
he clearly shows the Bridge Gate under its alternative name of the Porta Philonauta, in line with the evidence from Malalas.
he sites the "emporio" or river port at the mouth of the Phyrminos. This port become virtually redundant when the river became unnavigable in early Roman days.
he aligns the theatre with the ceremonial crossing avenue that ran at 90 degrees to the Colonnaded Street. This would have created an urban vista consistent with Spano's thought that the outward facing wall of the flat side of the theatre (the scenae frons) doubled as a vast ornamental Nymphaeum
he shows two "vasca", basically water reservoirs, while Wilber shows only one
he places the acropolis way above the Charonion
he shows the Agora by the river bank within the old Seleucid City
he aligns the amphitheatre with the rondpoint that Lassus discovered under the Habib el-Najjar mosque
he fleshes out the street pattern on the main part of the city much more fully
he omits all the other bridges to and from the Island, besides those two aligned with the Hippodrome
he fudges the positioning of the bridge (the Tauriana?) which may have led twoards the the Kaoussie Church

Love it or hate it, the Uggeri map is a thought-provoking challenge to the Wilber plan that had already been debunked in part (where it relates to the Island) by Poccardi.

The Middle Gate

2009-03-14T17:51:00.004-04:00

The Mese Pyle (or Middle Gate) was a gate that stood above the Forum of Valens. It was reputedly built by Trajan, though this may have been a reconstruction. Maurice Sartre describes it as an "architectural arch" but there is some evidence to suggest that the city had a wall running along the mountain above the city but not at the mountain ridge (such as the later Theodosian Wall did). Thus a wall ran parallel to the Colonnaded Street but only a few blocks to the east of the main street. In which case this would have been a genuine city gate. Downey also calls it a monumental arch.

Uggeri speculates that this gate led to a rugged route up the valley of the Parmenios river and over the ridge (before the building of the Iron Gate dam made the route impassable). This led to Apamea by a more direct, but much more topographically challenged, route than that which went out the Beroea Gate and followed the Orontes to Apamea the long way.

The Mese Pyle has not been found and there are very few mentions of it in historical texts. One of these references though is from Malalas who records that it was adorned with a statue grouping of the Wolf & Twins (which also decorated the Beroea Gate according to the same source). Morey states that the Middle Gate was near the Temple of Ares, but does not say what source attested to that comment.

The Rhodion Gate

2009-03-14T17:50:00.005-04:00

When I first came to look at the gates of Antioch I was somewhat confused by the St Georges Gate. I had compared it to the Golden or Daphne Gate in the southern wall. This was mistaken. A rudimentary glance at Rey's map of the southern wall made in the mid-1800s shows the St George's Gate being totally out of line with the Colonnaded Street (shown as the highest street in the pink built-up zone) and where that street would have pierced the wall. This is shown below:

The gate that was later called that of St.George was apparently the old Rhodion Gate. This gate would have been named after the quarter of the city where the Rhodian contingent of immigrants were settled by the early Seleucid rulers. This zone either corresponded to the Kerateion quarter (in reality the Jewish quarter) or was even more elevated than the Jewish district.

Boucher in his Short History of Antioch refers to the origins of the Rhodion name as being with a "rose garden" rather than any settler history.

The prime mention of the Rhodion Gate is in Malalas where he relates the construction of the Theodosian Wall:

"Imperator ¡taque jussit, uti aedificia etiam quae extra urbem posita erant muro cingerentur : murus ¡taque factus est, a Philonauta quam vocant Porta Rhodionem usque dictum locum.."

We can merely speculate on why the old Golden Gate ceased to function as the main point of egress to the south. Maybe the bridge over the Phyrminus opposite the main gate was no longer usable. Maybe the higher gate was easier to defend. As the Rey map shows the St George's Gate was certainly rather distant from the village that Antakya had become by the time of his survey.

In any case, this adds another gate to the list of the those in the city walls.

The Colonnaded Street

2009-03-09T20:41:00.000-04:00

A great colonnaded street, a Via Triumphalis, was not a rarity in Roman cities. Ironically, the city that most conspicuously did NOT have one was Rome. There the streetscape was more one of interconnected open-spaces, plazas, forums and enclosed porticos that sprawled across the level parts of the city.

Antioch had its great colonnaded street (and various other colonnaded thoroughfares of minor import) as did Alexandria and Constantinople and lesser cities such as Apamea and Palmyra in the general vicinity and other places as far flung as Lepcis Magna and Ephesus.

The chief work which discusses the colonnaded street of Antioch is the belated review (Les Portiques d'Antioche) by Jean Lassus of the excavations along at the street during the 1930s. This he wrote up in the 1970s rom notes and recollections and it remains the definitive work. Curiously the street still underlies the main throughfare heading out of modern Antakya in the direction of the northeast. However as the Lassus volume shows the direction may remain the same but the intervening millenia have buried the foundations of the first street in some places (in the oldest part of Antakya) at over 11 metres (33 feet) beneath the modern route. The greatest difficulty that Lassus came across was this fact that the route was overlaid by a busy thoroughfare. It was only at the margins that he could dig in some sites and the best luck he had was when some major roadworks resulted in a temporary devaition which allowed the momentous discovery of the point where the Parmenios was channelled under the main avenue and presumably the Forum of Valens.

The colonnaded street was three thousand four hundred metres long and was collectively a work of various emperors and benefactors. Most commonly attributed the credit for the first conversion of the route to its monumental status is Herod the Great. Scholars have speculated as to why he should have been so keen to make this massive expenditure for the paving and the construction of the colonnades of a city which he did not rule.

The colonnade did not run through the then centre of the Seleucid city but rather skirted the walls and ran through the Epiphania extension of the city connecting the southern Daphnetic Gate to the Beroea Gate at the northern end of the city. In the middle of its length the street angled slightly which resulted in there not being an uninterrupted vista from one end to the other. This may have been forced by the presence of the Parmenios crossing or may have been a visual effect to ensure that the vista was not too long and ultimately unimpressive. Both the Mese in Constantinople and the colonnaded street in Palmyra had at least one angle which allowed the positioning of important structures or open spaces/complexes. Haussmann would have approved.

We deal with some of the layout issues of the city in the chapters on the Street Layout of the city and the Forum of "Valens" zone.

The colonnaded street had various iterations. Of course, it was under permanent maintenance over the eight centuries when it was most central to the city's urban fabric but it did have major revisions which are attributed to Herod, Tiberius, Antoninus Pius and Justianian. The latter two rebuilds were as a result of earthquake damage and resulted in the level of the street being raised substantially upward. Lassus holds the view, from his excavations, that the street had its apogee after the Antonine rebuild and at that time it consisted of a 9 metre wide roadway with 9 metre wide porticos on either side. This gives a rather impressive thoroughfare with nearly 100 feet of width. The colonnades were illuminated at night according to Libanius and thronged with people until very late. Lassus also notes that there were formalised stores facing into the porticos, at least in the main Epiphania commercial district. These were 6 metres deep. There may also have been tradespeople vending in the porticos from less formal stalls. Below can be seen a cross-section from Lassus's work.

Below can be seen a schematic from Lassus' seminal work Les Portiques d'Antioche. He undertook a variety of digs along the street. The most significant being at the Parmenios crossing and at the Savonerrie. This latter was a soap factory in the 1930s but ironically is now the most upscale hotel in Antakya. The owner at the time graciously let Lassus' team dig up the extensive courtyard facing the road to get access to the ruins. Here we see the nine layers that Lassus identified at this point the lowest being 11.2 metres below the street level of the 1930s. The diagram is best enlarged by double-clicking it to improve details.

The heyday of the street was Level 5 in the Antonine period. A key thing to note is that the modern day street in Level 9 now lies over the side aisle of the original street in its heyday. Through a process of encroachment (which many have noted as being a common degeneration of former streets in the Roman East from their original width into the narrow souq format of the last thousand years) the original street was built over and much restricted in width. This process began after the final restoration of the colonnades by Justinian in the 6th century.

Some feel that the street may have had plazas or tetrapylons or combinations thereof at its junctions. Lassus speculates that these may have only been at the most important junctions. Below can be seen the "Rondpoint" unearthed by Lassus under the Habib al Nejjar mosque.

As we noted in the Street Layout article the Hippodamian plan of the city was on a per strigas basis with the narrow ends of the blocks facing the main street with the long sides facing the side streets. This means that there would have been a very large number of junctions along the colonnaded street. It could be imagined as somewhat akin to the street pattern of Fifth Avenue in New York today.

There was reputedly a large plaza where a statue of Tiberius was set up on a column. There was also a plaza where the omphalos stood (though some put this on the Island). In some versions the Nymphaeum also stood at a major junction. Whether this stood in the middle of the street or framed the view up an avenue coming from the Island is not established.

While not a single full column, base or capital was discovered, some column drums were unearthed. These evidenced that the columns were 58cms to 65cms in diameter, indicating a full height of around 6 metres (before capitals, cornices,architraves etc). On the scale of things this is quite substantially less than the 9 metre columns of the Palmyrene colonnade, however, as Lassus points out (from the evidence of the spacing), the Antioch colonnade would have had an enormous requirement in stonework with around 700 columns on each side of the street giving a total of 1,400 columns, minus some deductions for street junctions and other gaps in the colonnade.

A pending issues is how important structures along the street were dealt with. Did the street open out into the Forum of Valens or did it skirt along the edge? Did it become a one-sided colonnade when it got to the forum? In other places it must have had major public buildings placed along it (possibly the Bouleterion and temples) and so did the colonnade break in front of these or was it an unbroken line of columns for all its length?

Much remains to be answered. The frustration that Lassus felt is palpable in his review written for ANRW. He was on the verge of tying the street to the Forum of Valens at the Parmenios tunnel excavation when political factors forced the end of the dig. As he notes, despite all the cross-sections the team made, not one encountered a street junction with the transversal streets.This was somewhat understandable as the excavations were limited in size and the "narrow" ends of the blocks were a sizeable 58 metres. Thus it was easy to "miss" a junction.

This left unanswered issues as to the side streets' width and how the colonnade dealt with these "interruptions". Even worse, in his view, was not finding any of the major streets that crossed the colonnade. They had been almost certain before beginning the Parmenios dig that this was the place where the main avenue to the Island intersected and yet no trace was found.

The Maccabean Connection

2009-03-06T20:42:00.001-05:00

We have come to the conclusion that, despite the greater size of the Jewish community in Alexandria, there seemed to be a greater affinity between the Diaspora in Antioch and that in Jerusalem than existed with the Diaspora in the Egyptian capital. Maybe we are wrong.

We shall deal elsewhere with the nature of the Jewish community at Antioch as there are several good texts on the subject. The object of this commentary is the Maccabean connection to Antioch. This is linked over the centuries to the worship/commemoration of the martyrs of the Maccabean Uprising most specifically the woman, supposedly Ashmûnît, and her seven sons.

As William Stinespring relates in his excellent (and as yet unpublished) translation from 1932 of the "Arab Description of Antioch":

"In this city there is a fine building , which the people, after their (conversion to) faith in Christ, changed into a church bearing the name of the Lady Saint Ashmûnît. This place had been called a house of prayer of the Jews. It is near the summit of the mountain, on the western side. It is built on arcades, and beneath it there are tombs , among which is a hidden treasure-chamber to which one descends by means of a stairway. Herein is the tomb of Ezra the priest; and the tomb of Ashmûnît, and her seven sons whom King Aghâbiyûs put to death on account of their faith in God – He is great and mighty! And they are buried in this treasure-chamber. It also contains the mantle of Moses the prophet, and the staff of Joshua, the son of Nun, with which he divided the River Jordan; also the fragments of the Tables (of the Law). And still lower beneath this building there is another treasure-chamber in which is the knife with which Jephthah killed (his daughter) in sacrifice to God; also the keys to the Ark of the Covenant, with the purified and sanctified implements, hidden away, known to nobody."

In the great Byzantine tradition, the structure was a veritable trove of religious bric a brac.

The topic of this tomb/synagogue/church/shrine is dealt with in a handful of articles over the years (most recently by Lothar Triebel in his article "Die angebliche Synagoge der makkabäischen Märtyrer in Antiochia am Orontes". and more distantly by Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro in his work "Del luogo del matirio e del sepulcro dei Maccabei"). I have also recently surveyed the Julian Obermann article (Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol 50, No 4 - 1931 - pp 250-265) . It should be noted that this was written in 1931 without access to the Stinespring translation (which ironically was being produced at almost the same time).

Obermann makes some excellent observations and brings into play an Arabic version (by Ibn Schahin) of the Rabbinical texts. He notes that the Maccabean martyrs were the only example of Jewish "saints" being drafted into the Christian hagiosphere. And in Antioch it was not merely the concept but the physical "site" that was transformed from a tomb to a synagogue and eventually to a church.

There has also been some discussion as to where exactly the martyrdom and burials took place with Jerusalem also potentially staking a claim to the event. In any case, Antioch had its "Maccabean" shrine and claimed great antiquity to its relics. Interestingly he notes that Rabbinical sources downplay the siting of the synagogue in Antioch on the site of the tomb as this circumstance would fly in the face of prohibitions against corpses or graves at the site of worship, a scruple that Christians did not indulge.

In the way of explanation, Obermann goes on to elucidate the issue of the name of the mother of the martyrs. She is referred to in the Vatican text as Ashmûnît. This he contends is really "Hasmonith" and this is a manifestation of the much more used term Hasmonean in reference to the period of the uprising. Other versions of her name include Shamuni, Salomona, Salomonis or Samona.

Utilising the text of Ibn Schahin he reveals that:

"And there was built upon them (viz. upon the martyred brothers and their mother) an eightfold synagogue." He relates that 1. Maccabees records that Simon Maccabaeus erected a memorial on the sepulchre of his family setting up seven pyramids one against another, for his father and his mother and four brethren. Over time this morphed into a shrine/synagogue eventually being coopted into a church function (and later, by some reports, the "relics of the saints" were transferred to Constantinople where holy body parts were a favorite of the hoi polloi and the great and good.

It seems this shrine was in the Kerataion or Rhodion districts near to the southern wall. This prompts us to wonder about why any tombs would be allowed inside the city walls, this not being standard practice. Then again the wall may not have extended that far up the slopes and these barrios may have been ex urbs at that time. The fact that it was built on arcades probably relates to it being on one of the steeper urbanised parts of Mt Silpius.

The Fall of the City to Sultan Baibars

2009-03-01T20:28:00.003-05:00

On the 18th of May 1268 the Crusader period of Antioch came to a devastating end and the city faded into an insignificant village over the next 650 years. The Sultan Baibars achieved this victory and his exulting letter to the count of Tripoli, describing his sack of Antioch, still exists in its original Arabic, and was published by Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (the French orientalist - December 4, 1795 - May 14, 1867) in Histoire des Guerres sous Bibar, in Journ. Asiat - July & Aug. 1827.

"We arrived under the walls of Antioch, at the commencement of the great Ramadan. Atour approach, iIn. troops of the city attempted a sortie; they were defeated, and their commander taken prisoner. Terror shook the soul of the monks. Death came to the besieged on all sides: we took Antioch by the sword on the fourth of the Ramadan. Ah, if you had but seen the knights trampled under the horses feet; the city given up to pillage; your treasures distributed by quintals; the matrons of the city sold, four for a piece of gold; if you had but seen the churches and crosses overthrown; the leaves of the sacred gospels scattered; the sepulchres of the patriarchs trodden down ;. oh! if you had seen the Mussulman, your enemy, marching on the tabernacle and the altar, sacrificing there the religious, the priest and the patriarch ; if you had seen your palace burning in the flames, and the very dead burning in the fire of this world before they could be by that of the other; certainly your soul would have exhaled itself away in sighs; your tears, by their abundance, would have extinguished the devouring fire. This letter congratulates you on your safety, for if you had been there, you should unquestionably have been, now a dead man or a prisoner, or crippled with your wounds. As no one has been saved to apprise you of what has been done, from us you shall learn it. As there is none left to felicitate you upon your escape, we have addressed to you this discourse. You know now what to expect; you need not apply to any other to inform you of the truth. Adieu.'

The Omphalos

2009-03-01T19:06:00.005-05:00

Libanius in his Antiochikos makes reference to the avenues on the Island stretching out from their point of convergence like "the four-handed Apollo". This is a curious comment and I would welcome thoughts on where the concept of an Apollo going beyond ambidextrous may have come from.

The point at which these avenues converged was thought to be the Tetrapylon of the Elephants, which we have discussed elsewhere. However, in the 1930s, the excavators where intent upon discovering another Apollonian convergence. This was the famed Omphalos (or navel) of the city which according to Evagrius was at the point at which the Colonnaded Street met the main avenue to the Island (thus somewhere near the Forum of Valens).

Stinespring's translation of the Vatican text in Arabic states: "There is in the city a place called el-Umsilbah (ο ομπηαλοσ), the explanation of which is "the middle of the city"; and an idol is there; whenever a thief or rogue bestirs himself in the city, that idol cries out with a loud cry which is heard in the farthest limits of the city." The latter part repeats the superstitious ramblings for which the Arab author is notorious.

I was recently perusing some Seleucid coinage and came upon the image (below) of Apollo seated upon the Omphalos as supposedly was the statue situated at the Omphalos. There is a bow to Apollo's side and he is holding an arrow pointed downwards.