Misplaced Pages

#554445

113-578: The ancient city was first mentioned in the context of the Battle of Panium , fought around 200–198 BCE, when the name of the region was given as the Panion . Later, Pliny called the city Paneas ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Πανειάς ). Both names were derived from that of Pan , the god of the wild and companion of the nymphs . Herod the Great , king of Judaea , constructed a temple dedicated to Augustus at

226-420: A civitas libera . The Roman emperors favored the city from the first moments, seeing it as a more suitable capital for the eastern part of the empire than Alexandria could be, because of the isolated position of Egypt. To a certain extent they tried to make it an eastern Rome. Julius Caesar visited it in 47 BC, and confirmed its freedom. A great temple to Jupiter Capitolinus rose on Silpius, probably at

339-490: A Mission to Augustus . At Antioch Germanicus died in 19 AD, and his body was burnt in the forum. An earthquake that shook Antioch in AD 37 caused the emperor Caligula to send two senators to report on the condition of the city. Another quake followed in the next reign. In 115 AD, during Trajan 's travel there during his war against Parthia, the whole site was convulsed by a huge earthquake . The landscape altered, and

452-472: A Moslem Sheikh. In the 1870s, Banias was described as "a village, built of stone, containing about 350 Moslems, situated on a raised table-land at the bottom of the hills of Mount Hermon. The village is surrounded by gardens crowded with fruit-trees. The source of the Jordan is close by, and the water runs in little aqueducts into and under every part of the modern village." The Syria-Lebanon-Palestine boundary

565-554: A body of Jews, punished his capital with fire and sword. In the last struggles of the Seleucid house, Antioch turned against its feeble rulers, invited Tigranes the Great to occupy the city in 83 BC, tried to unseat Antiochus XIII Asiaticus in 65 BC, and petitioned Rome against his restoration in the following year. Antioch's wish prevailed, and it passed with Syria to the Roman Republic in 64 BC, but remained

678-653: A diversion project on a nine-mile (14 km) channel midway between the Huleh Marshes and Sea of Galilee in the central DMZ to be rapidly constructed. This prompted shelling from Syria and friction with the Eisenhower Administration ; the diversion was moved to the southwest. The Banias was included in the Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan , which allocated Syria 20 million cubic metres annually from it. The plan

791-403: A lament for Adonis , the doomed lover of Aphrodite . Thus, Ammianus wrote, the emperor and his soldiers entered the city not to the sound of cheers but to wailing and screaming. After being advised that the bones of third-century martyred bishop Babylas were suppressing the oracle of Apollo at Daphne, he made a public-relations mistake in ordering the removal of the bones from the vicinity of

904-503: A park of woods and waters, in the midst of which rose a great temple to the Pythian Apollo, also founded by Seleucus I and enriched with a cult-statue of the god, as Musagetes, by Bryaxis . A companion sanctuary of Hecate was constructed underground by Diocletian . The beauty and the lax morals of Daphne were celebrated all over the ancient world; and indeed Antioch as a whole shared in both these titles to fame. Antioch became

1017-405: A place of pilgrimage for Christians . The spring at Banias initially originated in a large cave carved out of a sheer cliff face which was gradually lined with a series of shrines. The temenos (sacred precinct) included in its final phase a temple placed at the mouth of the cave, courtyards for rituals, and niches for statues. It was constructed on an elevated, 80m long natural terrace along

1130-473: A second, newly formed Byzantine army advancing on Palestine used Paneas as a staging post on the way to confront the Muslim army at the final Battle of Yarmouk . The depopulation of Paneas after the Muslim conquest was rapid, as its traditional markets disappeared. Only 14 of the 173 Byzantine sites in the area show signs of habitation from this period. The Hellenised city thus fell into a precipitous decline. At

1243-455: A site chosen through ritual means. An eagle , the bird of Zeus, had been given a piece of sacrificial meat and the city was founded on the site to which the eagle carried the offering. Seleucus did this on the 22nd day of the month of Artemísios in the twelfth year of his reign, equivalent to May 300 BC. Antioch soon rose above Seleucia Pieria to become the Syrian capital. Xenaeus (Ξεναῖος)

SECTION 10

#1732772327555

1356-742: A strong emphasis on trade, which facilitated economic prosperity in Antioch. The city became known for its diverse markets, contributing to the flow of goods and ideas between the Islamic world and the Byzantine Empire. The decline of Arab rule in Antioch began in the late 9th century with increasing pressure from the Byzantine forces. The city changed hands several times during the Byzantine-Arab wars , Before finally, in 969 AD, under

1469-645: A trove of 44 pure gold coins from the early 7th Century CE. While some of the coins were minted by the Byzantine-Roman Emperor Phocas (602-610 CE), most date to the reign of his successor, Emperor Heraclius (610-641). The latest of the coins date to the period of the Arab conquest of the Levant. Upon Zenodorus 's death in 20 BC, the Panion ( Greek : Πανιάς ), including Paneas, was annexed to

1582-457: A word which would ordinarily mean all human beings of any age, sex, or social status , seemingly indicating a decline in the population since the first century. Chrysostom also says in one of his homilies on the Gospel of Matthew , which were delivered between 386 and 393, that in his own time there were 100,000 Christians in Antioch, a figure which may refer to orthodox Christians who belonged to

1695-715: Is somewhat analogous to the manner in which several popes, heads of the Roman Catholic Church remained "Bishop of Rome" even while residing in Avignon , in present-day France, in the fourteenth century. The Maronite Church, which has also moved the seat away to Bkerké , Lebanon, continues the Antiochene liturgical tradition and the use of the Syro-Aramaic language in their liturgies. Emperor Constantine who had decriminalised Christianity in 313 , begun

1808-524: The Battle of Antioch , after which the city fell to the Sassanians, together with much of Syria and eastern Anatolia. Antioch gave its name to a certain school of Christian thought, distinguished by literal interpretation of the Scriptures and insistence on the human limitations of Jesus . Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia were the leaders of this school. The principal local saint

1921-620: The Circus Maximus in Rome and other circus buildings throughout the empire. Measuring more than 490 metres (1,610 feet) in length and 30 metres (98 feet) of width, the Circus could house up to 80,000 spectators. Zarmanochegas (Zarmarus) a monk of the Sramana tradition of India, according to Strabo and Dio Cassius , met Nicholas of Damascus in Antioch around 13 AD as part of

2034-546: The Diadochi , divided up the territory he had conquered. After the Battle of Ipsos in 301 BC, Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he proceeded to found four "sister cities" in northwestern Syria, one of which was Antioch, a city named in honor of his father Antiochus ; according to the Suda , it might be named after his son Antiochus . He is reputed to have built sixteen Antiochs. Seleucus founded Antioch on

2147-566: The Fatimids again briefly took control, only to lose it again to the Qarāmita. The old population of Banias along with the new refugees formed a Sunni sufi ascetic community. In 975 the Fatimid al-'Aziz wrested control in an attempt to subdue the anti-Fatimid agitation of Mahammad b. Ahmad al-Nablusi and his followers and to extend Fatimid control into Syria. al-Nabulusi’s school of hadith

2260-625: The Great Church as opposed to members of other groups such as Arians and Apollinarians , or to all Christians of any persuasion. When the emperor Julian visited in 362 on a detour to the Sasanian Empire , he had high hopes for Antioch, regarding it as a rival to the imperial capital of Constantinople . Antioch had a mixed pagan and Christian population, which Ammianus Marcellinus implies lived quite harmoniously together. However, Julian's visit began ominously as it coincided with

2373-774: The Herodian Kingdom of Judea , a client of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire . Josephus mentions that Herod the Great erected a temple of 'white marble' nearby in honor of his patron; it was found in the nearby site of Omrit . In 3 BCE, Herod's son, Philip (also known as Philip the Tetrarch ) founded a city which became his administrative capital, known from Josephus and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as Caesarea or Caesarea Philippi , to distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima and other cities named Caesarea ( Matthew 16 , Matthew 16:13 , Mark 8 , Mark 8:27 ). On

SECTION 20

#1732772327555

2486-682: The Iqta' of Hussam al-Din Bishara. In 1200, Sultan al-Adil I sent Fakhr al-Din Jaharkas to seize Kŭl’at es-Subeibeh , a fortress located on a high hill above Banias, from Hussam al-Din, and reaffirmed Jaharkas as the holder of the iqta' in 1202. A strong earthquake the same year had its epicenter close to Banias, and the city was partially destroyed. Jaharkas rebuilt the burj (fortress tower). He took control of other properties - Tibnin, Hunin, Beaufort and Tyron. After his death, these lands were in

2599-542: The Maccabean revolt . It was these Seleucids who built a pagan temple dedicated to Pan at Paneas. In 2020, an altar with a Greek inscription was found in the walls of a church of the 7th century A.D. The inscription records that the altar was dedicated by Atheneon, son of Sosipatros, from the city of Antioch to the god Pan Heliopolitanos. In 2022, the Israeli Antiquities Authority discovered

2712-679: The Middle Ages due to warfare, repeated earthquakes, and a change in trade routes . The city still lends its name to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch , one of the most important modern churches of the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean. The city also attracts Muslim pilgrims who visit the Habib-i Najjar Mosque , which they believe to contain the tomb of Habib the Carpenter , mentioned in

2825-780: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 , and the unratified and later annulled Treaty of Sèvres , stemming from the San Remo conference , the 1920 boundary extended the British controlled area to north of the Sykes Picot line, a straight line between the mid point of the Sea of Galilee and Nahariya . In 1920 the French managed to assert authority over the Arab nationalist movement and after the Battle of Maysalun , King Faisal

2938-606: The Ptolemaic governor of Coele-Syria , defected to the side of Antiochus III the Great , the ruler of the Seleucid Empire . Antiochus invaded and occupied most of the province, including the city of Gaza , by the autumn of 201 BC, when he returned to winter quarters in Syria. The Ptolemaic commander Scopas of Aetolia reconquered parts of the province that winter. Antiochus gathered his army at Damascus and in

3051-754: The Roman and Byzantine Empire . During the Crusades , Antioch served as the capital of the Principality of Antioch , one of four Crusader states that were founded in the Levant . Its inhabitants were known as Antiochenes . The modern city of Antakya , in Hatay Province of Turkey , was named after the ancient city, which lies in ruins on the Orontes River and did not overlap in habitation with

3164-748: The Surah Yā-Sīn of the Quran . Two routes from the Mediterranean Sea , lying through the Orontes river gorge and the Belen Pass , converge in the plain of the Antioch Lake, now called Lake Amik , and are met there by: A settlement called "Meroe" pre-dated Antioch. A shrine of the goddess Anat , called by Herodotus the " Persian Artemis ", was located here. This site was included in

3277-627: The Treaty of Deabolis Bohemond died, and Tancred remained regent of Antioch until his death during a typhoid epidemic in 1112. After the death of Tancred, the principality passed to Roger of Salerno , who helped rebuild Antioch after an earthquake destroyed its foundations in 1114. With the death of Roger at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis in 1119, the role of regent was assumed by Baldwin II of Jerusalem , lasting until 1126. In 1126 Bohemond II arrived from Apulia to gain regency over Antioch. In 1130 Bohemond

3390-602: The advance to the Litani during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign ; Free French and Indian forces also invaded Syria in the Battle of Kissoué . Banias's fate in this period was left in a state of limbo since Syria had come under British military control. When Syria was granted independence in April 1946, it refused to recognize the 1923 boundary agreed between Britain and France. Following the 1948 Arab Israeli War ,

3503-449: The malaria -infested Hula marshes . The pre-Hellenistic deity associated with the spring of Banias was variously called Ba'al-gad or Ba'al Hermon . The spring lies close to the 'way of the sea' mentioned by the Book of Isaiah , along which many armies of Antiquity marched. It was certainly an ancient place of great sanctity, and when Hellenised religious influences began to overlay

Banias - Misplaced Pages Continue

3616-641: The spice trade and lay within close reach of the Silk Road and the Royal Road . The city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire from 240 BC until 63 BC, when the Romans took control, making it the capital of the province of Syria and later of Coele Syria . During the late Hellenistic and Roman Principate periods, Antioch's population may have reached a peak of over 500,000 inhabitants (most generally estimate between 200,000 and 250,000), making

3729-734: The Banias spring remained in Syrian territory, while the Banias River flowed through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into Israel. In 1953, at one of a series of meetings to regularize administration of the DMZs, Syria offered to adjust the armistice lines, and cede to Israel 70% of the DMZ, in exchange for a return to the pre-1946 International border in the Jordan basin area, with Banias water resources returning to Syrian sovereignty. On 26 April,

3842-625: The Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas , the city was captured after the siege of Antioch (968–969) by the Byzantine general Michael Bourtzes and the stratopedarches Peter . It soon became the seat of a doux , the civil governor of the homonymous theme , but also the seat of the somewhat more important Domestic of the Schools of the Orient , the supreme military commander of the imperial forces on

3955-528: The Governor of Banias. In 1179, Saladin took personal control of the forces of Banias and created a protective screen across the Hula through Tell al-Qadi . In 1187, Saladin's son al-Afdal was able to send a force of 7,000 horsemen from Banias, that participated in the Battle of Cresson and the Battle of Hattin . By the end of Saladin's life, Banias was in the territory of al-Afdal, Emir of Damascus, and in

4068-465: The Great ), erected a long stoa on the east, and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa ( c.  63 –12 BC) encouraged the growth of a new suburb south of this. One of the most famous Roman additions to the city was its hippodrome , the Circus of Antioch . This chariot racing venue was probably built in the reign of Augustus, when the city had more than half a million inhabitants; it was modelled on

4181-462: The Great . A fourth and last quarter was added by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC); thenceforth Antioch was known as Tetrapolis . From west to east the whole was about 6 kilometres (4 miles) in diameter and a little less from north to south. This area included many large gardens. The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers that Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia, Macedonians, and Jews (who were given full status from

4294-556: The Israeli cabinet met to consider the Syrian suggestions, with head of Israel's Water Planning Authority, Simha Blass , in attendance. Blass noted that while the land to be ceded to Syria was not suitable for cultivation, the Syrian map did not suit Israel's water development plan. Blass explained that the movement of the International boundary in the area of Banias would affect Israel's water rights. The Israeli cabinet rejected

4407-539: The Mongol conquests of the 13th century altered the main trade routes from the far east, as they encouraged merchants to take the overland route through Mongol territory to the Black Sea, reducing the prosperity of Antioch. Surrounding the city were a number of Greek, Syrian, Georgian, Armenian, and Latin monasteries. In 1100, Tancred became the regent of Antioch after his uncle and predecessor Bohemond I of Antioch

4520-542: The Orontes ( / ˈ æ n t i . ɒ k / ; Ancient Greek : Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου , romanized :  Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou , pronounced [anti.ó.kʰeː.a] ) was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period , it served as the capital of the Seleucid Empire and later as regional capital to both

4633-528: The Persian sack in 538, by Chosroes . In 387 AD, there was a great sedition caused by a new tax levied by order of Theodosius I , and the city was punished by the loss of its metropolitan status. Theodosius placed Antioch under Constantinople's rule when he divided the Roman Empire. Antioch and its port, Seleucia Pieria , were severely damaged by the great earthquake of 526 . Seleucia Pieria, which

Banias - Misplaced Pages Continue

4746-439: The Ptolemaic army was led by Scopas of Aetolia . The Seleucids achieved a complete victory, annihilating the Ptolemaic army and conquering the province of Coele-Syria . The Ptolemaic Kingdom never recovered from its defeat at Panium and ceased to be an independent great power . Antiochus secured his southern flank and began to concentrate on the looming conflict with the Roman Republic . In 202 BC, Ptolemy son of Thraseas,

4859-408: The Sarid and Wazani ). This led to military intervention from Israel, first with tank fire and then, as the Syrians shifted the works further eastward, with airstrikes. On June 10, 1967, the last day of the Six Day War , the Golani Brigade captured the village of Banias. Israel's priority on the Syrian front was to take control of the water sources. After the local residents fled to Majdal Shams ,

4972-400: The Stoic, and one Phoebus, a writer on dreams. The nicknames which they gave to their later kings were Aramaic ; and, except Apollo and Daphne , the great divinities of north Syria seem to have remained essentially native, such as the "Persian Artemis" of Meroe and Atargatis of Hierapolis Bambyce . The epithet "Golden" suggests that the external appearance of Antioch was impressive, but

5085-430: The Syrian proposals but decided to continue the negotiations by making changes to the accord and placing conditions on the Syrian proposals. The Israeli conditions took into account Blass's position over water rights and Syria rejected the Israeli counter-offer. In September 1953, Israel advanced plans for its National Water Carrier to help irrigate the coastal Sharon Plain and eventually the Negev desert by launching

5198-490: The area of Rome within the Aurelian Walls . The city was also the main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period . As one of the cities of the pentarchy , Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity " as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of early Christianity . The Christian New Testament asserts that the name "Christian" first emerged in Antioch. The city declined to relative insignificance during

5311-506: The arrival of fresh troops to the Holy Land, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem broke the three-month-old truce of February 1157 by raiding the large flocks that the Turcoman people had pastured in the area. In that year, Banias became the principal centre of Humphrey II of Toron's fiefdom, along with his being the constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem , after it had first been granted to the Knights Hospitaller by Baldwin III. The Knights Hospitaller, having fallen into an ambush, relinquished

5424-420: The beginning). According to ancient tradition, Antioch was settled by 5,500 Athenians and Macedonians, together with an unknown number of native Syrians. This number probably refers to free adult citizens, so that the total number of free Greek settlers including women and children was probably between 17,000 and 25,000. About 6 kilometres (4 miles) west and beyond the suburb Heraclea lay the paradise of Daphne,

5537-453: The building of the Domus Aurea or Great Church in 327 which served for the next two centuries as the leading church of Antioch. John Chrysostom writes that when Ignatius of Antioch was bishop in the city, the dêmos, probably meaning the number of free adult men and women without counting children and slaves, numbered 200,000. In a letter written in 363, Libanius says the city contains 150,000 anthrôpoi (plural of anthropos, human )

5650-454: The capital and court-city of the western Seleucid Empire under Antiochus I, its counterpart in the east being Seleucia ; but its paramount importance dates from the battle of Ancyra (240 BC), which shifted the Seleucid centre of gravity from Anatolia, and led indirectly to the rise of Pergamon . The Seleucids reigned from Antioch. We know little of it in the Hellenistic period , apart from Syria, all our information coming from authors of

5763-417: The centre. Shortly afterwards a second quarter was laid out, probably on the east and by Antiochus I Soter , which, from an expression of Strabo , appears to have been the native, as contrasted with the Greek, town. It was enclosed by a wall of its own. In the Orontes, north of the city, lay a large island, and on this Seleucus II Callinicus began a third walled "city", which was finished by Antiochus III

SECTION 50

#1732772327555

5876-619: The city into the Seljuk Empire . Yagisiyan was appointed governor. He became increasingly independent within the tumultuous years following Malik-Shah's death in 1092. The Crusaders' Siege of Antioch conquered the city in June 1098 after a siege lasting eight months on their way to Jerusalem. At this time, the bulk of far eastern trade traveled through Egypt, but in the second half of the 12th century Nur ed-Din and later Saladin brought order to Muslim Syria, opening up long-distance trade routes, including to Antioch and on to its new port, St Symeon , which had replaced Seleucia Pieria. However,

5989-533: The city needed constant restoration owing to the seismic disturbances to which the district has always been subjected. The first great earthquake in recorded history was related by the native chronicler John Malalas . It occurred in 148 BC and did immense damage. Local politics were turbulent. In the many dissensions of the Seleucid house the population took sides, and frequently rose in rebellion, for example against Alexander Balas in 147 BC, and Demetrius II Nicator in 129 BC. The latter, enlisting

6102-438: The city the third largest in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria and one of the most important cities in the eastern Mediterranean . From the early fourth century, Antioch was the seat of the Count of the Orient , head of the Diocese of the East . The Romans provided the city with walls that encompassed almost 450 hectares (1,100 acres), of which one quarter was mountainous, leaving 300 ha (750 acres) – about one-fifth

6215-434: The city went into a precipitous decline. During the Abbasid period (750–969 AD), Antioch continued to thrive as a hub of commerce and culture. Under the Abbasids , closer relations were developed with Byzantium, but it was not until the Fatimids opened up the Mediterranean for shipping from the end of the fourth/tenth century that the affairs of western Europe and the Near East began to interact once again. The Abbasids placed

6328-558: The city's annual feast of Apollo the only Antiochene present was an old priest clutching a goose, showing the decay of paganism in the town. The Antiochenes in turn hated Julian for worsening the food shortage with the burden of his billeted troops, wrote Ammianus . The soldiers were often to be found gorged on sacrificial meat, making a drunken nuisance of themselves on the streets while Antioch's hungry citizens looked on in disgust. The Christian Antiochenes and Julian's pagan Gallic soldiers also never quite saw eye to eye. Julian's piety

6441-461: The cliff which towered over the north of the city. A four-line inscription at the base of one of the niches relates to Pan and Echo , the mountain nymph, and was dated to 87 BCE. The once very large spring gushed from the limestone cave, but an earthquake moved it to the foot of the natural terrace where it now seeps quietly from the bedrock, with a greatly reduced flow. From here the stream, called Nahal Hermon in Hebrew, flows towards what once were

6554-414: The council of al-Jabiyah, when the administration of the new territory of the Umar Caliphate was established, Paneas remained the principal city of the district of al-Djawlan (the Djawlan) in the jund (military Province) of Dimashq ( Damascus ), due to its strategic military importance on the border with Jund al-Urdunn , which comprised the Galilee and territories east and north of it. Around 780 CE

6667-409: The death of Agrippa II around 92 CE came the end of Herodian rule, and the city returned to the province of Syria . In the late Roman and Byzantine periods the written sources name the city again as Paneas, or more seldom as Caesarea Paneas. In 361, Emperor Julian the Apostate instigated a religious reformation of the Roman state, in which he supported the restoration of Hellenistic polytheism as

6780-440: The death of Nūr ad-Din in May 1174, King Amalric I of Jerusalem led the crusader forces in a siege of Banias. The Governor of Damascus allied himself with the crusaders and released all his Frankish prisoners. With the death of Amalric I in July 1174, the crusader border became unstable. In 1177, King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem laid siege to Banias and again the crusader forces withdrew after receiving tribute from Samsan al-Din Ajuk,

6893-412: The death of Philip in 34 CE his kingdom was briefly incorporated into the province of Syria , with the city given the autonomy to administer its own revenues, before reverting to his nephew, Herod Agrippa I . The ancient city is mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark , under the name of Caesarea Philippi , as the place where Jesus confirmed Peter 's assumption that Jesus was the Messiah ;

SECTION 60

#1732772327555

7006-411: The dominant population up to the Crusades. As the empire disintegrated rapidly before the Komnenian restoration , Dux of Antioch & Domestic of the Schools of the East Philaretos Brachamios held the city until Suleiman ibn Qutalmish , the emir of Rum , captured it from him in 1084. Two years later, Suleiman was killed fighting against Tutush , the brother of the Seljuk Sultan , who annexed

7119-438: The earliest missionaries. Evangelized by, among others, Peter himself, according to the tradition upon which the Patriarchate of Antioch still rests its claim for primacy, its converts were the first to be called Christians. This is not to be confused with Antioch in Pisidia , to which Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus later travelled. Between 252 and 300 AD, ten assemblies of the church were held at Antioch and it became

7232-436: The eastern frontier. Sometimes both offices were held by the same person, usually military officers such as Nikephoros Ouranos , or Philaretos Brachamios , who managed to retain the integrity of the eastern borderline after the Seljuk conquest of Anatolia. The size of the Melkite community increased during that time due to immigration from Christians from Fatimid Egypt but also other parts of the Near East and Christians remained

7345-448: The eastern suburbs of Antioch. There was a village on the spur of Mount Silpius named Io , or Iopolis . This name was always adduced as evidence by Antiochenes ( e.g. Libanius ) eager to affiliate themselves to the Attic Ionians —an eagerness which is illustrated by the Athenian types used on the city's coins. Io may have been a small early colony of trading Greeks ( Javan ). John Malalas also mentions an archaic village, Bottia , in

7458-417: The emperor himself was forced to take shelter in the circus for several days. He and his successor restored the city, but the population was reduced to less than 400,000 inhabitants and many sections of the city were abandoned. Commodus (r. 177–192 AD) had Olympic games celebrated at Antioch. In 256 AD, the town was suddenly raided by the Persians under Shapur I , and many of the people were slain in

7571-433: The empire's cities to be more self-managing, as they had been some 200 years before . However, Antioch's city councilmen showed themselves unwilling to shore up Antioch's food shortage with their own resources, so dependent were they on the emperor. Ammianus wrote that the councilmen shirked their duties by bribing unwitting men in the marketplace to do the job for them. Further, Julian was surprised and dismayed when at

7684-405: The end of 198 BC. Coele-Syria came under Seleucid control and the Ptolemies were compelled to sign a peace treaty with Antiochus in 195 BC. As one of the battle's results, the Ptolemaic state was forced to scale down the role of the Macedonian settler phalanx in the years that followed. Some biblical commentators see this battle as being the one referred to in Daniel 11 :15, where it says, "Then

7797-485: The enemy cavalry and charged the rear of the Ptolemaic phalanx. Pressed from two sides by war elephants, phalangites, and cataphracts, the relatively immobile Ptolemaic phalanx was almost annihilated where they stood. Scopas, situated on the right wing, fled the field, taking 10,000 troops with him. Scopas led 10,000 men to seek refuge at Sidon ; other Ptolemaic contingents fled to Jerusalem , Phoenicia , Samaria and Decapolis . All of them were forced to surrender by

7910-424: The fiefdom. On 18 May 1157, Nūr ad-Din began a siege on Banias using mangonels , a type of siege engine. Humphrey was under attack in Banias and Baldwin III was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford in June 1157. The fresh troops arriving from Antioch and Tripoli were able to relieved the besieged crusaders. The Lordship of Banias which was a sub-vassal within the Lordship of Beirut ,

8023-406: The garrison of Subeiba. Al-Sa'id Hasan of Banias, released by Hulegu during the Mongol invasion of Syria, allied with him, and took part in the Battle of Ain Jalut . The traveller J. S. Buckingham described Banias in 1825: "The present town is small, and meanly built, having no place of worship in it; and the inhabitants, who are about 500 in number, are Mohammedans and Metouali , governed by

8136-702: The hands of Sarim ad-Din Khutluba. Shortly after the start of the Fifth Crusade , Banias was raided by the Franks for three days. Later, Al-Mu'azzam Isa , son of al-Adil, started to dismantle fortifications across Palestine, in order to deny their protection should the Crusaders gain them, by fight or by land exchange. So, in March 1219, Khutluba was forced to relinquish Banias and destroy its fortress. Probably at

8249-461: The insistence of Octavian , whose cause the city had espoused. A forum of Roman type was laid out. Tiberius built two long colonnades on the south towards Silpius. Strabo , writing in the reign of Augustus and the first years of Tiberius, states that Antioch is not much smaller than Seleucia and Alexandria; Alexandria had been said by Diodorus Siculus in the mid-first century BC to have 300,000 free inhabitants, which would mean that Antioch

8362-489: The king of the North will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city." Based on the loss rates of the phalanxes at the battles of Magnesia in 190 BC and Pydna in 167 BC, the 25,000 Ptolemaic phalangites may have sustained 17,500–20,825 losses, killed or captured. 33°14′55″N 35°41′40″E  /  33.24861°N 35.69444°E  / 33.24861; 35.69444 Antioch Antioch on

8475-440: The late Roman time. Among its great Greek buildings we hear only of the theatre, of which substructures still remain on the flank of Silpius, and of the royal palace, probably situated on the island. It enjoyed a reputation for being "a populous city, full of most erudite men and rich in the most liberal studies", but the only names of distinction in these pursuits during the Seleucid period that have come down to us are Apollophanes,

8588-463: The modern city. Antioch was founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great 's generals, as one of the tetrapoleis of Seleucis of Syria . Seleucus encouraged Greeks from all over the Mediterranean to settle in the city. The city's location offered geographical, military, and economic benefits to its occupants; Antioch was heavily involved in

8701-425: The nickname axeman , wrote Ammianus. The emperor's high-handed, severe methods and his rigid administration prompted Antiochene lampoons about, among other things, Julian's unfashionably pointed beard . Julian's successor Valens endowed Antioch with a new forum, including a statue of his brother and co-emperor Valentinian I on a central column, and reopened the great church of Constantine, which stood until

8814-523: The night. The cataphracts opened the battle by attacking and quickly routing the hapless Ptolemaic cavalry under Ptolemy. In the center, the Ptolemaic phalanx forced back their Seleucid counterparts. The Seleucid elephants neutralized this Ptolemaic success by charging through the gaps in the Seleucid phalanx and halting their advance. The cataphracts under Antiochus the Younger ended their pursuit of

8927-566: The nun Hugeburc visited Caesarea and reported that the town 'had' a church and a great many Christians, but her account does not clarify whether any of those Christians were still living in the town at the time of her visit. The transfer of the Abbasid Caliphate capital from Damascus to Baghdad inaugurated the flowering of the Islamic Golden Age at the expense of the provinces. With the decline of Abbasid power in

9040-592: The place is today a place of pilgrimage for Christians . In 61 CE, king Agrippa II renamed the administrative capital Neronias in honor of the Roman emperor Nero , but this name was discarded several years later, in 68 CE. Agrippa also carried out urban improvements. In 67 CE, during the First Jewish–Roman War , Vespasian briefly visited Caesarea Philippi before advancing on Tiberias in Galilee. With

9153-434: The plain by the river. Alexander the Great is said to have camped on the site of Antioch and dedicated an altar to Zeus Bottiaeus; it lay in the northwest of the future city. This account is found only in the writings of Libanius , a fourth-century orator from Antioch, and may be legend intended to enhance Antioch's status. But the story is not unlikely in itself. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his generals,

9266-462: The presence of cataphracts , the elite cavalry agema , Tarentine soldiers and more cavalry, phalangites , hypaspists , war elephants , unidentified infantry and light skirmishers in the ranks of the Seleucid army at Panium. Antiochus the Younger , the firstborn son of Antiochus III, commanded the elite cataphracts of the Seleucid army and seized Tel Hamra, a foothill of Mount Hermon, in

9379-538: The region, the cult of its local numen gave place to the worship of the Arcadian goat-footed god Pan , to whom the cave was therefore dedicated. Pan was revered by the ancient Greeks as the god of isolated rural areas, music, goat herds, hunting, herding, of sexual and spiritual possession, and of victory in battle, since he was said to instill panic among the enemy. Paneas ( Ancient Greek : Πανεάς , Latin Fanium )

9492-531: The region. The city remained an important urban center, with its multicultural population including Christians, Muslims, and Jews living together, although there were periods of tension and conflict. However, since the Umayyad dynasty was unable to penetrate the Anatolian Plateau , Antioch found itself on the frontline of the conflicts between two hostile empires during the next 350 years, so that

9605-506: The same time, the city was passed to Al-Mu'azzam's brother, al-'Aziz 'Uthman . For a while it was ruled as the hereditary principality of the dynast and his sons. The fourth prince, al-Sa'id Hasan, surrendered it to As-Salih Ayyub in 1247. He later tried to retake the land, at the time of An-Nasir Yusuf , but was imprisoned. In 1252 Banias was attacked by the forces of the Seventh Crusade and took it, but they were driven out by

9718-538: The scheme The project was to divert 20 to 30 million cubic metres of water from the river Jordan tributaries to Syria and Jordan for the development of Syria and Jordan. The diversion plan for the Banias called for a 73 kilometre long canal to be dug 350 metres above sea level, that would link the Banias with the Yarmuk . The canal would carry the Banias's fixed flow plus the overflow from the Hasbani (including water from

9831-743: The seat of one of the five original patriarchates , along with Constantinople , Jerusalem , Alexandria , and Rome (see Pentarchy ). Today five churches use the title of patriarch of Antioch for their prime bishops: one Oriental Orthodox (the Syriac Orthodox Church ); three Eastern Catholic (the Maronite , Syriac Catholic , and Melkite Greek Catholic Churches ); and one Eastern Orthodox (the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch ). This title has been maintained though most of them have moved their seat to Damascus . This

9944-571: The site. Subsequently, Herod's son, Philip the Tetrarch , further developed the area, establishing a city. In 61 CE, Agrippa II expanded and renamed the city Neronias Irenopolis . The ancient city was mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark , under the name of Caesarea Philippi , as the place where Jesus confirmed Peter 's confession that Jesus was the Messiah ; the site is today

10057-632: The state religion. In Paneas this was achieved by replacing Christian symbols with pagan ones, though the change was short lived. In the 5th century, following the division of the Empire , the city was part of the Eastern (later Byzantine ) Empire, but was lost to the Arab conquest of the Levant in the 7th century. In 635, Paneas gained favourable terms of surrender from the Muslim army of Khalid ibn al-Walid after it had defeated Heraclius ' forces. In 636,

10170-540: The summer of 200 BC, he confronted the Ptolemaic army at the stream of Panium near Mount Hermon . The Ptolemaic front line was four kilometers wide. The left wing was deployed on the plain below the Panium plateau. It consisted of the 25,000–32,000 strong Macedonian settler phalanx under the command of Ptolemy son of Aeropus, a Macedonian settler himself. These were the Kingdom's best troops. The supreme command

10283-464: The temple. The result was a massive Christian procession. Shortly after that, when the temple was destroyed by fire, Julian suspected the Christians and ordered stricter investigations than usual. He also shut up Constantine's Great Church, before the investigations proved that the fire was the result of an accident. Julian found much else about which to criticize the Antiochene; Julian had wanted

10396-426: The tenth century, Paneas found itself a provincial backwater in a slowly collapsing empire, as district governors began to exert greater autonomy and used their increasing power to make their positions hereditary. The control of Syria and Paneas passed to the Fatimids of Egypt. At the end of the 9th century Al-Ya'qubi reaffirms that Paneas was still the capital of al-Djawlan in the jund of Dimshq , although by then

10509-457: The theatre. The city was burned and some 100,000 inhabitants were killed while the rest were deported to Shapur‘s newly built city of Gundeshapur It was recaptured by the Roman emperor Valerian the following year. Antioch was a chief center of early Christianity during Roman times. The city had a large population of Jewish origin in a quarter called the Kerateion , and so attracted

10622-604: The town was known as Madīnat al-Askat (city of the tribes) with its inhabitants being Qays , mostly of the Banu Murra with some Yamani families. Due to the Byzantine advances under Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces into the Abbasid empire, a wave of refugees fled south and augmented the population of Madīnat al-Askat. The city was taken over by an extreme Shī‘ah sect of the Bedouin Qarāmita in 968. In 970

10735-484: The village was destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, leaving only the mosque, church and shrines. The Israelis have renamed several of the locations at Banias, removing their Roman, Arab and Syrian connection. In 1977, the Banias was declared a nature reserve by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority , named Hermon Stream (Banias) Nature Reserve . It consists of two areas – the springs and the archaeological site, and

10848-694: The walls; but its glory was past. Another earthquake in 588 destroyed the Domus Aureus of Constantine, whereafter the church of Cassian became the most important church of Antioch. During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , the Emperor Heraclius confronted the invading Persian army of Khosrow II outside Antioch in 613. The Byzantines were defeated by forces under the generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin Vahmanzadegan at

10961-472: The waterfall with a hanging trail. Battle of Panium 46,500–53,000 men The Battle of Panium / p ə ˈ n aɪ . ə m / (also known as Paneion, Ancient Greek : Πάνειον , or Paneas, Πανειάς) was fought in 200 BC near Paneas ( Caesarea Philippi ) between Seleucid and Ptolemaic forces as part of the Fifth Syrian War . The Seleucids were led by Antiochus III the Great , while

11074-480: Was Simeon Stylites , who lived an extremely ascetic life atop a pillar for 40 years some 65 kilometres (40 miles) east of Antioch . His body was brought to the city and buried in a building erected under the emperor Leo . During the Byzantine era, great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such as Constantinople and Antioch. In 637, during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius , Antioch

11187-521: Was turned over to the Franks following the purge of the sect from Damascus by Buri . Later on, Shams al-Mulk Isma'il attacked Banias and captured it on 11 December 1132. In 1137, Banias became under the rule of Imad al-Din Zengi . In late spring 1140, Mu'in ad-Din Unur handed Banias to the Crusaders during the reign of King Fulk , due to their assistance against Zengi's aggression towards Damascus. With

11300-461: Was a product of the post-World War I Anglo-French partition of Ottoman Syria. British forces had advanced to a position at Tel Hazor against Turkish troops in 1918 and wished to incorporate all the sources of the Jordan River within the British controlled Palestine. Due to the French inability to establish administrative control, the frontier between Syria and Palestine was fluid. Following

11413-476: Was about this size in Strabo's time. Agrippa and Tiberius enlarged the theatre, and Trajan finished their work. Antoninus Pius paved the great east to west artery with granite. A circus , other colonnades and great numbers of baths were built, and new aqueducts to supply them bore the names of Caesars, the finest being the work of Hadrian . The Roman client, King Herod (most likely the great builder Herod

11526-601: Was already fighting a losing battle against continual silting, never recovered. A second earthquake affected Antioch in 528. Justinian I renamed Antioch Theopolis ("City of God") and restored many of its public buildings, but the destructive work was completed in 540 by the Persian king, Khosrau I , who deported the population to a newly built city in Persian Mesopotamia, Weh Antiok Khosrow . Antioch lost as many as 300,000 people. Justinian I made an effort to revive it, and Procopius describes his repairing of

11639-416: Was captured by Nūr ad-Din on 18 November 1164. The Franks had built a castle at Hunin (Château Neuf) in 1107 to protect the trade route from Damascus to Tyre . After Nūr ad-Din's ousting of Humphrey of Toron from Banias, Hunin was at the front line securing the border defences against the Muslim garrison at Banias. Ibn Jubayr , the geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus , described Banias: After

11752-665: Was conquered by Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah of the Rashidun Caliphate during the Battle of the Iron Bridge , marking the beginning of Islamic influence in the region. The city became known in Arabic as أنطاكية Anṭākiyah . Under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 AD), Antioch served as a significant military and administrative center. The Umayyads fortified the city, utilizing it as a base for operations in

11865-542: Was deposed. The international boundary between Palestine and Syria was agreed by Great Britain and France in 1923 in conjunction with the Treaty of Lausanne , after Britain had been given a League of Nations mandate for Palestine in 1922. Banyas (on the Quneitra /Tyre road) was within the French Mandate of Syria. The border was set 750 metres south of the spring. In 1941, Australian forces occupied Banias in

11978-462: Was distasteful to the Antiochenes, even to those who kept the old religion. Julian's brand of paganism was very much unique to himself, with little support outside the most educated Neoplatonist circles. The irony of Julian's enthusiasm for large scale animal sacrifice could not have escaped the hungry Antiochenes. Julian gained no admiration for his personal involvement in the sacrifices, only

12091-662: Was first settled in the Hellenistic period following Alexander the Great's conquest of the east. The Ptolemaic kings built a cult centre there in the 3rd century BCE. In extant sections of the Greek historian Polybius 's history of 'The Rise of the Roman Empire', a Battle of Panium is mentioned. This battle was fought in ca. 200–198 BCE between the armies of Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucids of Coele-Syria , led by Antiochus III . Antiochus's victory cemented Seleucid control over Phoenicia , Galilee , Samaria , and Judea until

12204-550: Was forced to accede to a peace accord, the Treaty of Devol which stipulated that Bohemond was to hold Antioch for the remainder of his life as the emperor's subject and the Greek patriarch was to be restored to power in the city. However, Tancred refused to honor the Treaty of Deabolis in which Bohemond swore an oath, and it is not until 1156 that it truly became a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire . Six months after

12317-542: Was held by the Aetolian mercenary general Scopas of Aetolia , who brought with him 6,500 Aetolian mercenaries, including 6,000 infantry and 500 cavalry . Antiochus probably had around 70,000 soldiers, more than the 68,000 with him at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC. Having re-conquered the Upper Satrapies in the previous years, he could draw upon a larger resource base than before. Polybius identifies

12430-774: Was rejected by the Arab League . Instead, at the 2nd Arab summit conference in Cairo of January 1964 the League decided that Syria , Lebanon and Jordan would begin a water diversion project. Syria started the construction of canal to divert the flow of the Banias river away from Israel and along the slopes of the Golan toward the Yarmouk River . Lebanon was to construct a canal from the Hasbani River to Banias and complete

12543-654: Was taken prisoner for three years (1100–03) by Gazi Gümüshtigin of the Danishmends at the Battle of Melitene . Tancred expanded the territory of Antioch by conquering Byzantine Cilicia , Tarsus , and Adana in 1101. In 1107 Bohemond enraged by an earlier defeat, renamed Tancred as the regent of Antioch so he could sail for Europe with the intent of gaining support for an attack against the Greeks. Bohemond laid siege to Dyrrachium but capitulated in September 1108 and

12656-442: Was the architect who built the walls of Antioch during Seleucus I reign. The original city of Seleucus was laid out in imitation of the grid plan of Alexandria by the architect Xenarius . Libanius describes the first building and arrangement of this city (i. p. 300. 17). The citadel was on Mount Silpius and the city lay mainly on the low ground to the north, fringing the river. Two great colonnaded streets intersected in

12769-539: Was to survive in Banias under the tutelage of Arab scholars such as Abú Ishaq (Ibrahim b. Hatim) and al-Balluti. The Crusaders' arrival in 1099 quickly split the mosaic of semi-independent cities of the Seljuk sultanate of Damascus. The Crusaders held the town twice, between 1129–1132 and 1140–1164. It was called by the Franks Belinas or Caesarea Philippi. From 1126–1129, the town was held by Assassins , and

#554445