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183-623: Although the site of the city has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium BC, the city was founded in the 4th century BC under the rule of the Seleucid Empire . Latakia was subsequently ruled by the Romans and Byzantines , followed by the Rashiduns , Ummayads and Abbasids during the 7th–10th centuries AD. Byzantine ruling groups frequently attacked the city, periodically recapturing it before losing it again to Arab powers, particularly

366-768: A Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants , a military asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes , to Chandragupta, and later Deimakos to his son Bindusara , at the Mauryan court at Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar state ). Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandragupta's reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus . Later Ptolemy II Philadelphus ,

549-598: A column topped by a bronze statue of Justinian on horseback and dressed in a military costume was erected in the Augustaeum in Constantinople in 543. Rivalry with other, more established patrons from the Constantinopolitan and exiled Roman aristocracy might have enforced Justinian's building activities in the capital as a means of strengthening his dynasty's prestige. Justinian also strengthened

732-883: A rump state in Syria after a civil war, until their conquest by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 83 BC, and ultimate overthrow by the Roman general Pompey in 63 BC. Contemporary sources, such as a loyalist decree honoring Antiochus I from Ilium , in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire ( ἀρχή , archḗ ) and as a kingdom ( βασιλεία , basileía ). Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia. The rulers did not describe themselves as being of any particular territory or people, but starting from

915-647: A brief control of the Genoese fleet in 1101, the city was taken in 1103 by forces under the command of Tancred of Hauteville , a veteran of the First Crusade and acting regent of the Principality of Antioch . Following the defeat of Antiochene forces at the Battle of Harran in 1104, the city was reoccupied by the Byzantines led by Admiral Cantacuzenus , however they would again lose the city. Despite

1098-702: A caliphate general, named 'Ubadah ibn al-Samit during the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 7th century. The city was renamed al-Lādhiqīyah (اللَّاذِقِيَّة) and switched rule from the Rashidun Caliphate , to the Umayyad Caliphate and finally to the Abbasid Caliphate in a span of 9 centuries, attached to the large province of Bilad Al-Sham (Greater Syria). Arab geographer, Al-Muqaddasi (d. 991), mentions al-Lādhiqīyah as belonging to

1281-409: A considerable distance from Lāŏdĭcḗa, sloping up gently and gradually from it, they tower above Apameia, extending up to a perpendicular height. Pompey the Great conquered the city along with most of Syria in the 1st century BC, and Julius Caesar declared the city a "free polis." The Roman emperor Septimius Severus rewarded the city with the title of "Metropolis" in the 2nd century AD, exempted it of

1464-509: A consul in Latakia, due to the trade of cotton and silk from Persia. The city which was in despair was rebuilt after a visit by Qaitbay in 1477. An Alawite community was first established in Latakia by the missionary Abu Sa'id al-Tabarani (d. 1034) in the early 11th century. From then on it spread northward and into the coastal mountain range. Latakia came under the Ottoman control after

1647-626: A force of approximately 35,000 men (2,000 men were detached and sent to invade southern Visigothic Hispania) under the command of Narses. The army reached Ravenna in June 552 and defeated the Ostrogoths decisively within a month at the battle of Busta Gallorum in the Apennines , where Totila was slain. After a second battle at Mons Lactarius in October that year, the resistance of the Ostrogoths

1830-643: A genuine interest in matters of theology, authored a small number of theological treatises. As in his secular administration, despotism appeared also in the Emperor's ecclesiastical policy. He regulated everything, both in religion and in law. At the very beginning of his reign, he deemed it proper to promulgate by law the Church's belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation , and to threaten all heretics with

2013-541: A marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Other territories ceded before Seleucus' death were Gedrosia in the south-east of the Iranian plateau, and, to the north of this, Arachosia on the west bank of the Indus River . Following his and Lysimachus ' decisive victory over Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia and northern Syria . In

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2196-804: A measure of prosperity. The recovery of Africa cost the empire about 100,000 pounds of gold. As in Africa, dynastic struggles in Ostrogothic Italy provided an opportunity for intervention. The young king Athalaric had died on 2 October 534, and a usurper, Theodahad , had imprisoned queen Amalasuintha , Theodoric's daughter and mother of Athalaric, on the island of Martana in Lake Bolsena , where he had her assassinated in 535. Thereupon Belisarius, with 7,500 men, invaded Sicily (535) and advanced into Italy, sacking Naples and capturing Rome on 9 December 536. By that time Theodahad had been deposed by

2379-518: A more violent crackdown was coming. Protests continued despite the increased security presence and arrests. Several civilians were allegedly killed in confrontations with security officers during this early period of the siege. On 13 August 2011, the Syrian Army and Syrian Navy launched an operation where more than 20 tanks and APCs rolled into the Alawi stronghold. The city was also attacked by

2562-602: A number of barbarian troops. They landed at Caput Vada (modern Ras Kaboudia) in modern Tunisia . They defeated the Vandals, who were caught completely off guard, at Ad Decimum on 14 September 533 and Tricamarum in December; Belisarius took Carthage . King Gelimer fled to Mount Pappua in Numidia , but surrendered the next spring. He was taken to Constantinople, where he was paraded in a triumph . Sardinia and Corsica ,

2745-626: A partial military withdrawal from Syria, but with continuing Russian presence, as the Khmeimim airbase and the Russian naval facility in Tartus would still be operated by Russian forces. On 7 December 2021, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike attack on Latakia's port, damaging the port's facilities and setting several containers on fire. On December 28, the port was attacked again after Israeli forces launched several precision missiles targeting

2928-570: A particularly dangerous invasion of Sklavinoi and Kutrigurs under their khan Zabergan threatened Constantinople, but they were repulsed by the aged general Belisarius. Justinian's ambition to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory was only partly realized, with the only noteworthy sustainable conquests in Africa . In the West, the brilliant early military successes of the 530s were followed by years of stagnation. The dragging war with

3111-550: A regular basis, with occasional intervention from Ptolemaic Egypt and other outside powers. The Seleucids existed solely because no other nation wished to absorb them—seeing as they constituted a useful buffer between their other neighbours. In the wars in Anatolia between Mithridates VI of Pontus and Sulla of Rome, the Seleucids were largely left alone by both major combatants. Mithridates' ambitious son-in-law, Tigranes

3294-466: A reply to lay before the senate." For a few moments he hesitated, astounded at such a peremptory order, and at last replied, "I will do what the senate thinks right." He then chose to withdraw rather than set the empire to war with Rome again. On his return journey, according to Josephus , he made an expedition to Judea , took Jerusalem by force, slew a great many who had favored Ptolemy , sent his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled

3477-671: A reward of 100,000 francs for information on his whereabouts. After the French gave up trying to capturing Shaykh Saleh, a pardon was issued by General Henri Gouraud . The state became part of the Syrian Federation in 1922, but it left the federation again in 1924. In 1930, the Alawite State was renamed as the Government of Latakia, the only concession by the French to Arab nationalists until 1936. On 3 December 1936, it

3660-456: A rump Seleucid kingdom was restored under Antiochus XIII . Even so, civil wars could not be prevented, as another Seleucid, Philip II , contested rule with Antiochus. After the Roman conquest of Pontus, the Romans became increasingly alarmed at the constant source of instability in Syria under the Seleucids. Once Mithridates was defeated by Pompey in 63 BC, Pompey set about the task of remaking

3843-463: A series of religious persecutions. This cumulated in a localized revolt in Jerusalem. Antiochus IV's violent retaking of the city and the banning of traditional Judean practices led to the eventual loss of control of Judea by the Seleucid government, paving the way for the rise of an independent Hasmonean kingdom . As with the other major Hellenistic armies , the Seleucid army fought primarily in

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4026-518: A significant minority. The city itself, however, contained significant numbers of Sunni and Christian inhabitants. The landlords in the countryside tended to be Sunni and Orthodox Christians, while the peasants were mostly Alawi. Like the Druzes , who also had a special status before the end of World War I, the Alawis had a strained relationship with the Ottoman overlords. In fact, they were not even given

4209-603: A sizable Antiochian Greek population exists in Latakia, and their diocese in the city has the largest congregation of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch . There is also an Armenian community of 3,500 in the city. The entire population speaks Arabic, mostly in the North Levantine dialect. Within the city boundaries is the "unofficial" Latakia camp , established in 1956, which has a population of 6,354 Palestinian refugees , mostly from Jaffa and

4392-534: A source of tension in the relationship with the bishops of Rome. Justin reversed this trend and confirmed the Chalcedonian doctrine, openly condemning the Monophysites. Justinian, who continued this policy, tried to impose religious unity on his subjects by forcing them to accept doctrinal compromises that might appeal to all parties, a policy that proved unsuccessful as he satisfied none of them. Near

4575-624: A successful war against the old enemy, Ptolemaic Egypt , which met with initial success as the Seleucids defeated and drove the Egyptian army back to Alexandria itself. As the king planned on how to conclude the war, he was informed that Roman commissioners, led by the Proconsul Gaius Popillius Laenas , were near and requesting a meeting with the Seleucid king. Antiochus agreed, but when they met and Antiochus held out his hand in friendship, Popilius placed in his hand

4758-468: A tiny minority of the overall population, these Greeks were the backbone of the empire: loyal and committed to a cause that gave them vast territory to rule, they overwhelmingly served in the military and government. Unlike Ptolemaic Egypt , Greeks in the Seleucid Empire seem to rarely have engaged in mixed marriages with non-Greeks; they kept to their own cities. The various non-Greek peoples of

4941-652: A treaty in 1108 with Bohemond promising to return Latakia to the Byzantine Empire by 1110 it was firmly under the control of the Principality of Antioch, as it was called "La Liche". In 1126, the cities of Latakia and Jabala were the dowry of Princess Alice , daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem , who later donated a house in Latakia to the Knights Hospitaller , which became their main base in

5124-574: A woman was widowed, her dowry should be returned; and a husband could not take on a major debt without his wife giving her consent twice. Family legislation also revealed a greater concern for the interests of children. This was particularly so with respect to children born out of wedlock. The law under Justinian also reveals a striking interest in child neglect issues. Justinian protected the rights of children whose parents remarried and produced more offspring, or who simply separated and abandoned their offspring, forcing them to beg. Justinian discontinued

5307-477: A workaholic who worked tirelessly to expand the Byzantine Empire. One of the most enduring aspects of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis , which was first applied throughout Continental Europe and is still the basis of civil law in many modern states. His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture , and his building program yielded works such as

5490-485: Is now Afghanistan and Pakistan , therefore including a diverse array of cultures and ethnic groups. Greeks , Assyrians , Armenians , Georgians , Persians , Medes , Mesopotamians, Jews , and more all lived within its bounds. The immense size of the empire gave the Seleucid rulers a difficult balancing act to maintain order, resulting in a mixture of concessions to local cultures to maintain their own practices while also firmly controlling and unifying local elites under

5673-603: The Codex Justinianeus , a codification of imperial constitutions from the 2nd century onward, was issued on 7 April 529. (The final version appeared in 534.) It was followed by the Digesta (or Pandectae ), a compilation of older legal texts, in 533, and by the Institutiones , a textbook explaining the principles of law. The Novellae , a collection of new laws issued during Justinian's reign, supplements

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5856-602: The Tzani , a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before. He engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I 's reign, and later again during Khosrow I 's reign; this second conflict was partially initiated due to his ambitions in the west. Justinian is regarded as one of the most prominent and influential Roman emperors, and historians have often characterized him as

6039-554: The Abbasid Caliphate from 750 to 968. The famous poet Al-Mutanabbi led a millenarian revolt at Latakia in 930. The Byzantine Empire recaptured the city in 970 by John I Tzimiskes , but it was lost to the Fatimids in 980. The Banu Munqidh managed to control the city until they were succeeded by the Seljuks during the reign of Malik-Shah I in 1086, despite a brief Byzantine control in 1074. Later on, Guynemer of Boulogne raided

6222-530: The Azm family of governors established several new foundations in the city. The British, French and Spanish established consulates in the city, so that by mid-century Latakia was serving as co-capital of the entire province ( eyalet ) of Tripoli, Lebanon . In 1824, the Ottomans named Muhammad Paşa ibn Alman, a native of the area who was suspected of being an Alawite and a French sympathizer, governor of Latakia. He

6405-466: The Balearic Islands , and the stronghold Septem Fratres near Mons Calpe (later named Gibraltar ) were recovered in the same campaign. In this war, the contemporary Procopius remarks that Africa was so entirely depopulated that a person might travel several days without meeting a human being, and he adds, "it is no exaggeration to say, that in the course of the war 5,000,000 perished by

6588-479: The Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516. It had a population of about 1400–1700 in the 16th century. From the late 17th century onward it was ruled by the Ibn al-Matarji family, some of whose members would go on to become governors of Damascus Eyalet . Under their leadership, and the development of the tobacco industry in the same period, the town developed rapidly in the 18th century. Several churches were rebuilt or restored and

6771-648: The Battle of Mount Labus and Battle of the Arius and besieged the Bactrian capital . He even emulated Seleucus with an expedition into India where he met with King Sophagasenus ( Sanskrit : Subhagasena ) receiving war elephants, perhaps in accordance of the existing treaty and alliance set after the Seleucid-Mauryan War. Actual translation of Polybius 11.34 (No other source except Polybius makes any reference to Sophagasenus): He [Antiochus] crossed

6954-640: The Corpus . As opposed to the rest of the corpus, the Novellae appeared in Greek , the common language of the Eastern Empire. The Corpus forms the basis of Latin jurisprudence (including ecclesiastical Canon Law ) and, for historians, provides a valuable insight into the concerns and activities of the later Roman Empire. As a collection it gathers together the many sources in which the leges (laws) and

7137-802: The Council of Chalcedon , which had condemned monophysitism , which had strongholds in Egypt and Syria, and by tolerating the appointment of Monophysites to church offices. The Popes reacted by severing ties with the Patriarch of Constantinople who supported these policies. Emperors Justin I (and later Justinian himself) rescinded these policies and reestablished the union between Constantinople and Rome. After this, Justinian also felt entitled to settle disputes in papal elections, as he did when he favored Vigilius and had his rival Silverius deported. This new-found unity between East and West did not, however, solve

7320-769: The Fatimids . Afterward, Latakia was ruled successively by the Seljuk Turks , Crusaders , Ayyubids , Mamluks , and the Ottomans . Following World War I , Latakia was assigned to the French mandate of Syria , in which it served as the capital of the autonomous territory of the Alawites . This autonomous territory became the Alawite State in 1922, proclaiming its independence a number of times until reintegrating into Syria in 1944. Like many Seleucid cities, Latakia

7503-619: The Fifth Syrian War , the Seleucids ousted Ptolemy V from control of Coele-Syria . The Battle of Panium (200 BC) definitively transferred these holdings from the Ptolemies to the Seleucids. Antiochus appeared, at the least, to have restored the Seleucid Kingdom to glory. Following the defeat of his erstwhile ally Philip by Rome in 197 BC, Antiochus saw the opportunity for expansion into Greece itself. Encouraged by

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7686-440: The Galilee . The Port of Latakia is the main seaport in Syria. It was established on 12 February 1950, and has boosted the city's importance ever since. The port's imported cargo includes clothing, construction materials, vehicles, furniture, minerals, tobacco, cotton, and food supplies such as lintels, onions, wheat, barley, dates, grains and figs, and in 2008, the port handled about 8 million tons of cargo. The largest area of

7869-460: The Hagia Sophia . Justinian was born in Tauresium , Dardania , probably in 482. A native speaker of Latin (possibly the last Roman emperor to be one), he came from a peasant family thought to have been of either of Illyro-Roman or Thraco-Roman origin. The name Iustinianus , which he took later, is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin . During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace. His mother

8052-428: The Latakia Sports City , a sports complex designed specifically to host the games. The Latakia Sports City Stadium served as the main venue for the games. In 1994, the city's population reached 303,000, with that number significantly rising to 383,786 by 2004. Although population assessment in recent years has become difficult due to the ongoing civil war, the city's population is estimated to have risen drastically in

8235-526: The Levant , Mesopotamia , and what are now modern Kuwait , Afghanistan , and parts of Turkmenistan . The Seleucid Empire was a major center of Hellenistic culture . Greek customs and language were privileged; the wide variety of local traditions had been generally tolerated, while an urban Greek elite had formed the dominant political class and was reinforced by steady immigration from Greece . The empire's western territories were repeatedly contested with Ptolemaic Egypt —a rival Hellenistic state. To

8418-435: The Mesopotamian regions of Babylonia and Assyria in 321 BC, Seleucus I began expanding his dominions to include the Near Eastern territories that encompass modern-day Iraq , Iran , Afghanistan , Syria , and Lebanon , all of which had been under Macedonian control after the fall of the former Persian Achaemenid Empire . At the Seleucid Empire's height, it had consisted of territory that covered Anatolia , Persia ,

8601-483: The Nika riots , and a conspiracy against the emperor's life by dissatisfied entrepreneurs was discovered as late as 562. Justinian was struck by the plague in the early 540s but recovered. Theodora died in 548 at a relatively young age, possibly of cancer; Justinian outlived her by nearly twenty years. Justinian, who had always had a keen interest in theological matters and actively participated in debates on Christian doctrine, became even more devoted to religion during

8784-461: The Ostrogothic Kingdom , restoring Dalmatia , Sicily , Italy , and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths . The praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian Peninsula , establishing the province of Spania . These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi . During his reign, Justinian also subdued

8967-440: The Roman Empire to its ancient boundaries. Although he never personally took part in military campaigns, he boasted of his successes in the prefaces to his laws and had them commemorated in art. The re-conquests were in large part carried out by his general Belisarius. From his uncle, Justinian inherited ongoing hostilities with the Sassanid Empire . In 530 the Persian forces suffered a double defeat at Dara and Satala , but

9150-753: The Roman-Seleucid War , King Antiochus IV sponsored a new wave of immigration and settlements to replace them and maintain enough Greeks to staff the phalanxes seen at the military parade at Daphne in 166–165 BC. Antiochus IV built 15 new cities "and their association with the increased phalanx... at Daphne is too obvious to be ignored". Justinian I Justinian I ( / dʒ ʌ ˈ s t ɪ n i ə n / just- IN -ee-ən ; Latin : Iūstīniānus , Classical Latin pronunciation: [juːstiːniˈaːnʊs] ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἰουστινιανός , translit.   Ioustinianós , Byzantine Greek pronunciation: [i.ustini.aˈnos] ; 482 – 14 November 565), also known as Justinian

9333-512: The San Vitale in Ravenna, which features two famous mosaics representing Justinian and Theodora, was completed under the sponsorship of Julius Argentarius. Most notably, he had the Hagia Sophia , originally a basilica -style church that had been burnt down during the Nika riots , splendidly rebuilt according to a completely different ground plan, under the architectural supervision of Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles . On 26 December 537, according to Pseudo-Codinus, Justinian stated at

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9516-402: The Taurus Mountains in southern Anatolia , marking the gradual decline of their empire. Mithridates I of Parthia conquered much of the remaining eastern lands of the Seleucid Empire in the mid-second century BC including Assyria and what had been Babylonia , while the independent Greco-Bactrian Kingdom continued to flourish in the northeast. The Seleucid kings were thereafter reduced to

9699-435: The chariot racing factions in Constantinople, normally rivals, united against Justinian in a revolt that has become known as the Nika riots . They forced him to dismiss Tribonian and two of his other ministers, and then attempted to overthrow Justinian himself and replace him with the senator Hypatius , who was a nephew of the late emperor Anastasius . While the crowd was rioting in the streets, Justinian considered fleeing

9882-410: The temple , and interrupted the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation, for three years and six months. The latter part of his reign saw a further disintegration of the Empire despite his best efforts. Weakened economically, militarily and by loss of prestige, the Empire became vulnerable to rebels in the eastern areas of the empire, who began to further undermine the empire while

10065-553: The "Eternal Peace" and invaded Roman territory in the spring of 540. He first sacked Beroea and then Antioch (allowing the garrison of 6,000 men to leave the city), besieged Daras , and then went on to attack the Byzantine base in the small but strategically significant satellite kingdom of Lazica near the Black Sea as requested by its discontented king Gubazes , exacting tribute from the towns he passed along his way. He forced Justinian I to pay him 5,000 pounds of gold, plus 500 pounds of gold more each year. Belisarius arrived in

10248-520: The 2010s due to the influx of refugees from the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and other cities which have been affected by the ongoing war. During the Syrian Civil War, Latakia had been a site of protest activity since March 2011. The Syrian government claimed 12 were killed there in clashes in late March, leading to the deployment of the military to restrict movement into and out of the city. Hundreds of Syrians were reportedly arrested, and by late July, activists in Latakia were telling foreign media they feared

10431-423: The 20th century, Latakia had a population of roughly 7,000 inhabitants; however, the Journal of the Society of Arts recorded a population of 25,000 in 1905. In a 1992 estimate, Latakia had a population of 284,000, rising to 303,000 in the 1994 census. The city's population continued to rise, reaching an estimated 402,000 residents in 2002. In 2010, Latakia City was 50% Alawite, 40% Sunni and 10% Christian; however,

10614-417: The 2nd century BC, ancient writers referred to them as the Syrian kings, the kings of Syria or of the Syrians, the kings descended from Seleucus Nicator, the kings of Asia, and other designations. Alexander , who quickly conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III , died young in 323 BC, leaving an expansive empire of partly Hellenised culture without an adult heir. The empire

10797-489: The 30,000-strong Byzantine force was defeated by a small force at Anglon . The next year, Khosrau unsuccessfully besieged the major city of Edessa . Both parties made little headway, and in 545 a truce was agreed upon for the southern part of the Roman-Persian frontier. After that, the Lazic War in the North continued for several years: the Lazic king switched to the Byzantine side, and in 549 Justinian sent Dagisthaeus to recapture Petra , but he faced heavy resistance and

10980-448: The Alawite tribes, and the Alawite State was incorporated into Syria with little organised resistance. In 1942, the Latakia and Druze regions were returned to Syrian control, and by 1946, the French completely left Syria and a new independent government was created. All but a few classical buildings had been destroyed by the modern era, often by earthquakes; those remaining include a Roman triumphal arch and Corinthian columns known as

11163-453: The Caucasus Indicus (Paropamisus) ( Hindu Kush ) and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him. Having traversed Arachosia and crossed

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11346-426: The Chalcedonian faith. Such an approach was supported by the Empress Theodora, who favoured the Miaphysites unreservedly. In the condemnation of the Three Chapters , three theologians that had opposed Monophysitism before and after the Council of Chalcedon, Justinian tried to win over the opposition. At the Fifth Ecumenical Council , most of the Eastern church yielded to the Emperor's demands, and Pope Vigilius , who

11529-454: The Church contrary to the emperor's will and command, while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus , reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal proscription. Justinian protected the purity of the church by suppressing heretics. He neglected no opportunity to secure the rights of the Church and clergy, and to protect and extend monasticism . He granted the monks the right to inherit property from private citizens and

11712-422: The Colonnade of Bacchus . However, important remains from the city at Roman and Hellenistic periods including full body statues, Roman funerary art, and column capitals that once belonged to the ancient city, now found in its national museum. An extensive port project was proposed in 1948, and construction work began on the Port of Latakia in 1950, aided by a US$ 6 million loan from Saudi Arabia . By 1951,

11895-411: The East in 541, but after some success, was again recalled to Constantinople in 542. The reasons for his withdrawal are not known, but it may have been instigated by rumours of his disloyalty reaching the court. The outbreak of the plague coupled with a rebellion in Persia brought Khosrow I's offensives to a halt. Exploiting this, Justinian ordered all the forces in the East to invade Persian Armenia, but

12078-399: The Empire. Then, having been recalled by Justinian, Belisarius returned to Constantinople, taking the captured Vitigis and his wife Matasuntha with him. Belisarius had been recalled in the face of renewed hostilities by the Persians . Following a revolt against the Empire in Armenia in the late 530s and possibly motivated by the pleas of Ostrogothic ambassadors, King Khosrau I broke

12261-440: The French Mandate, has often been interpreted as a " divide and rule " strategy by the French, who sought to undermine anti-colonial nationalist movements. The French justified the creation of the Alawite state by citing the "backwardness" of the mountain-dwellers, religiously distinct from the surrounding Sunni population; they claimed that the division protected the Alawi people from more-powerful Sunni majorities. This division by

12444-499: The French administration in Syria did not stop Alawites such as Sheikh Saleh al-Ali , who led the Syrian Revolt of 1919 , in continuing to protest French rule. Saleh al-Ali coordinated with the leaders of other anti-French revolts in the country, including the revolt of Ibrahim Hananu in the Aleppo countryside and Subhi Barakat 's revolt in Antioch , but Saleh al-Ali's revolt was put down in 1921. A French court-martial in Latakia sentenced Shaykh Saleh to death in absentia and offered

12627-405: The Goths was a disaster for Italy, even though its long-lasting effects may have been less severe than is sometimes thought. The heavy taxes that the administration imposed upon Italian population were deeply resented. The final victory in Italy and the conquest of Africa and the coast of southern Hispania significantly enlarged the area of Byzantine influence and eliminated all naval threats to

12810-433: The Great , was the Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii , or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire . His general, Belisarius , swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses , and other generals conquered

12993-447: The Great , king of Armenia , however, saw opportunity for expansion in the constant civil strife to the south. In 83 BC, at the invitation of one of the factions in the interminable civil wars, he invaded Syria and soon established himself as ruler of Syria, putting the Seleucid Empire virtually at an end. Seleucid rule was not entirely over, however. Following the Roman general Lucullus ' defeat of both Mithridates and Tigranes in 69 BC,

13176-591: The Greco-Macedonian style, with its main body being the phalanx . The phalanx was a large, dense formation of men armed with small shields and a long pike called the sarissa . This form of fighting had been developed by the Macedonian army in the reign of Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. Alongside the phalanx, the Seleucid armies used numerous native and mercenary troops to supplement their Greek forces, which were limited due to

13359-525: The Greek language, wrote in Greek, absorbed Greek philosophical ideas, and took on Greek names; some of these practices then slowly filtered down to the lower classes. Hellenic ideas began an almost 250-year expansion into the Near East, Middle East, and Central Asian cultures. Synthesizing Hellenic and indigenous cultural, religious, and philosophical ideas – an ethnic unity framework established by Alexander – met with varying degrees of success. The result

13542-541: The Hellenistic East , by creating new client kingdoms and establishing provinces. While client nations like Armenia and Judea were allowed to continue with some degree of autonomy under local kings, Pompey saw the Seleucids as too troublesome to continue; doing away with both rival Seleucid princes, he made Syria into a Roman province . The domain of the Seleucids stretched from the Aegean Sea to what

13725-574: The Holy Apostles , which had been in a very poor state near the end of the 5th century, was likewise rebuilt. The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, later renamed Little Hagia Sophia , was also built between 532 and 536 by the imperial couple. Works of embellishment were not confined to churches alone: excavations at the site of the Great Palace of Constantinople have yielded several high-quality mosaics dating from Justinian's reign, and

13908-648: The Indus was subject to Seleucus. Chandragupta Maurya ( Sandrokottos ) founded the Maurya Empire in 321 BC after the conquest of the Nanda Empire and their capital Pataliputra in Magadha . Chandragupta then redirected his attention to the Indus River region, and by 317 BC, he conquered the remaining Greek satraps left by Alexander. Expecting a confrontation, Seleucus gathered his army and marched to

14091-462: The Indus. It is said that Chandragupta could have fielded a conscript army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Chandragupta received, formalized through a treaty, territory west of the Indus, including the Hindu Kush , modern day Afghanistan , and the eastern part Balochistan province of Pakistan , bordering on the Indus. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as

14274-679: The Jews to use the Greek Septuagint in their synagogues in Constantinople. The Emperor faced significant opposition from the Samaritans , who resisted conversion to Christianity and were repeatedly in insurrection. He persecuted them with rigorous edicts, for example, in 529, he banned them from having wills, an intentional act of humiliation. However, he could not prevent reprisals towards Christians from taking place in Samaria toward

14457-490: The Ostrogothic army, who had elected Vitigis as their new king. He gathered a large army and besieged Rome from February 537 to March 538 without being able to retake the city. Justinian sent another general, Narses , to Italy, but tensions between Narses and Belisarius hampered the progress of the campaign. Milan was taken, but was soon recaptured and razed by the Ostrogoths. Justinian recalled Narses in 539. By then

14640-462: The Ottomans, it was known as Lazkiye. The location of Latakia, the Ras Ziyarah promontory , has a long history of occupation. The Phoenician city of Ramitha was located here. Stephanus of Byzantium writes that the city was named Ramitha ( Ancient Greek : Ῥάμιθα ), then Leukê Aktê ("white coast") ( Ancient Greek : Λευκὴ ἀκτή ) and later Laodicea ( Ancient Greek : Λαοδίκεια ). The city

14823-707: The Parthians moved into the power vacuum to take over the old Persian lands. Antiochus' aggressive Hellenizing (or de-Judaizing) activities provoked a full scale armed rebellion in Judea —the Maccabean Revolt . Efforts to deal with both the Parthians and the Jews as well as retain control of the provinces at the same time proved beyond the weakened empire's power. Antiochus orchestrated a military campaign, capturing Artaxias I , King of Armenia, and reoccupying Armenia. His offensive ventured as far as Persepolis, but he

15006-542: The Patrician , the diplomat and long-time head of the palace bureaucracy; Justinian's finance ministers John the Cappadocian and Peter Barsymes , who managed to collect taxes more efficiently than any before, thereby funding Justinian's wars; and finally, his prodigiously talented generals, Belisarius and Narses . Justinian's rule was not universally popular; early in his reign he nearly lost his throne during

15189-460: The Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. Several centuries later, in 410 AD, a Neoplatonic Academy was established that had no institutional continuity with Plato's Academy, and which served as a center for Neoplatonism and mysticism. It persisted until 529 AD when it was finally closed by Justinian I. Other schools in Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, which were the centers of Justinian's empire, continued. In Asia Minor alone, John of Ephesus

15372-502: The Romans. While military efforts were directed to the East, the situation in Italy took a turn for the worse. Under their respective kings Ildibad and Eraric (both murdered in 541) and especially Totila , the Ostrogoths made quick gains. After a victory at Faenza in 542, they reconquered the major cities of Southern Italy and soon held almost the entire Italian Peninsula. Belisarius

15555-404: The Seleucid banner. The government established Greek cities and settlements throughout the empire via a program of colonization that encouraged immigration from Greece; both city settlements as well as rural ones were created that were inhabited by ethnic Greeks. These Greeks were given good land and privileges, and in exchange were expected to serve in military service for the state. Despite being

15738-639: The Syrian army on 14 August 2011. Activists claimed that 25 people died during the attack. Latakia is the home of Russia's largest foreign SIGINT facility. Khmeimim Air Base is an airbase near Latakia converted to use by the Russian military in 2015. Russian president Vladimir Putin , accompanied by his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad visited the Khmeimim airbase , Russia's main military base in Syria, located just outside Latakia near Jableh on 11 December 2017. Declaring victory over ISIL, and announcing

15921-740: The West, where Germanic kingdoms had been established in the territories of the former Western Roman Empire . The first of the western kingdoms Justinian attacked was that of the Vandals in North Africa . King Hilderic , who had maintained good relations with Justinian and the North African Catholic clergy, had been overthrown by his cousin Gelimer in 530 AD. Imprisoned, the deposed king appealed to Justinian. Justinian protested Gelimer's actions, demanding that Gelimer return

16104-517: The administration of ecclesiastical property; election and rights of bishops, priests and abbots; monastic life, residential obligations of the clergy, conduct of divine service, episcopal jurisdiction, etc. Justinian also rebuilt the Church of Hagia Sophia (which cost 20,000 pounds of gold), the original site having been destroyed during the Nika riots. The new Hagia Sophia, with its numerous chapels and shrines, gilded octagonal dome, and mosaics , became

16287-519: The appropriate penalties, whereas he subsequently declared that he intended to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law. He made the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the Church and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils. The bishops in attendance at the Council of Constantinople (536) recognized that nothing could be done in

16470-472: The assassination of an Alawite religious leader in the city. The following day 2,000 paratroopers, commanded by Rifaat al-Assad , were sent to restore order. In the violence that followed around forty people were killed including ten pilots from the Latakia air base. In 1987, the city hosted the tenth round of the Mediterranean Games , with the opening ceremony hosted by Hafez al-Assad in

16653-514: The borders of the Empire from Africa to the East through the construction of fortifications and ensured Constantinople of its water supply through construction of underground cisterns (see Basilica Cistern ). To prevent floods from damaging the strategically important border town Dara , an advanced arch dam was built. During his reign the large Sangarius Bridge was built in Bithynia , securing

16836-526: The capital by sea, but eventually decided to stay, apparently on the prompting of his wife Theodora, who refused to leave. In the next two days, he ordered the brutal suppression of the riots by his generals Belisarius and Mundus . Procopius relates that 30,000 unarmed civilians were killed in the Hippodrome. On Theodora's insistence, and apparently against his own judgment, Justinian had Anastasius' nephews executed. The destruction that took place during

17019-506: The centre and most visible monument of Eastern Orthodoxy in Constantinople. From the middle of the 5th century onward, increasingly arduous tasks confronted the emperors of the East in ecclesiastical matters. Justinian entered the arena of ecclesiastical statecraft shortly after his uncle's accession in 518, and put an end to the Acacian schism . Previous Emperors had tried to alleviate theological conflicts by declarations that deemphasized

17202-463: The city of Pergamum in the west was asserting its independence under the Attalid dynasty . The Seleucid economy started to show the first signs of weakness, as Galatians gained independence and Pergamum took control of coastal cities in Anatolia. Consequently, they managed to partially block contact with the West. A revival would begin when Seleucus II's younger son, Antiochus III the Great , took

17385-534: The city on 19 August 1097, with 28 ships coming from Cyprus during the First Crusade . In 1098, Raymond of Saint-Gilles captured the city, with the Byzantine fleet presence; hence, the city became contested between the crusaders and the Byzantines who controlled Latakia and Baniyas in the meantime. After failed efforts by Bohemond I of Antioch to capture Latakia from the Byzantine Empire in 1099, and

17568-514: The city range from around 16 °C (61 °F) in January to around 30 °C (86 °F) in August. Latakia on average receives around 760 millimetres (30 in) of rainfall annually. One of the first censuses was in 1825, which recorded that there were 6,000–8,000 Muslims, 1,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, 30 Armenian Christians , 30 Maronite Catholics , and 30 Jews . At the beginning of

17751-513: The city, until they were defeated by the Mamluks of Qalawun , on 20 April 1287. In circa 1300, Arab geographer al-Dimashqi noted that Latakia had no running water and that trees were scarce, but the city's port was "a wonderful harbor... full of large ships". In 1332, the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta visited Latakia in his journeys. During the late 14th and 15th century, Venetians had

17934-759: The city. Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire ( / s ɪ ˈ lj uː s ɪ d / ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period . It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator , following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great , and ruled by the Seleucid dynasty until its annexation by the Roman Republic under Pompey in 63 BC. After receiving

18117-466: The city. The Cote d'Azur Beach of Latakia is Syria's premier coastal resort, and offers water skiing, jet skiing, and windsurfing. The city contains eight hotels, two of which have five-star ratings; both the Cote d'Azur de Cham Hotel and Lé Meridien Lattiquie Hotel are located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of the city, at Cote d'Azur. The latter hotel has 274 rooms and is the only international hotel in

18300-470: The close of his reign. The consistency of Justinian's policy meant that the Manicheans too suffered persecution, experiencing both exile and threat of capital punishment. In Constantinople, c.450, a number of Manicheans, after strict inquisition, were executed by burning. Justinian was a prolific builder; the historian Procopius bears witness to his activities in this area. Under Justinian's reign,

18483-406: The commerce through the port of Laodicea. The heretic Apollinarius was bishop of Lāŏdĭcḗa in the 4th century. The city minted coins from an early date, but decreasing in importance after the cities of Alexandria and Antioch flourished in coin minting and overshadowed other cities. The city was also famed for its wine produced around the port's hills which were exported to all the empire. During

18666-519: The complete revision of all Roman law , something that had not previously been attempted. The total of Justinian's legislation is known today as the Corpus juris civilis . It consists of the Codex Justinianeus , the Digesta or Pandectae , the Institutiones , and the Novellae . Early in his reign, Justinian had appointed the quaestor Tribonian to oversee this task. The first draft of

18849-598: The completion of a railway line to Homs . The port became even more important after 1975 due to the troubled situation in Lebanon and the loss of Beirut and Tripoli as functioning ports. In 1973, during the October War (Yom Kippur War), the naval Battle of Latakia between Israel and Syria was fought just offshore from the city. The battle was the first to be fought using missiles and ECM (electronic countermeasures). On 2 September 1979 clashes broke out following

19032-507: The completion of this edifice: "Solomon, I have outdone thee" (in reference to the first Jewish temple). The church had a second inauguration on 24 December 562, after several reworks made by Isidore the Younger . This new cathedral, with its magnificent dome filled with mosaics, remained the centre of eastern Christianity for centuries. Another prominent church in the capital, the Church of

19215-684: The conviction that the unity of the Empire presupposed unity of faith, and it appeared to him obvious that this faith could only be the orthodoxy (Chalcedonian) . Those of a different belief were subjected to persecution, which imperial legislation had effected from the time of Constantius II and which would now vigorously continue. The Codex contained two statutes that decreed the total destruction of paganism , even in private life; these provisions were zealously enforced. Contemporary sources (John Malalas, Theophanes , and John of Ephesus ) tell of severe persecutions, including men in high positions. The original Academy of Plato had been destroyed by

19398-455: The distance from the Seleucid rulers' Macedonian homeland. The size of the Seleucid army usually varied between 70,000 and 200,000 in manpower. The distance from Greece put a strain on the Seleucid military system, as it was primarily based around the recruitment of Greeks as the key segment of the army. In order to increase the population of Greeks in their kingdom, the Seleucid rulers created military settlements. There were two main periods in

19581-592: The district of Hims ( Homs ). The Mardaites controlled the region from Jebel Aqra to northern Palestine , including Latakia in 705. However, they later withdrew from the city after an agreement with the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I . Afterwards, the Mardaites sacked it in 719, but it was rebuilt by Umar II . The city lost its importance due to its location on the border between the Byzantine Empire and

19764-612: The east in the Coastal Mountain Range , and Jableh and Baniyas to the south. Latakia is the capital of the Latakia Governorate, in western Syria, bordering Turkey to the north. The governorate has a reported area of either 2,297 square kilometres (887 sq mi) or 2,437 square kilometres (941 sq mi). Latakia is the administrative centre of the Latakia District that occupies

19947-552: The east, conflict with the Indian ruler Chandragupta of the Maurya Empire in 305 BC led to the cession of vast territory west of the Indus and a political alliance. In the early second century BC, Antiochus III the Great attempted to project Seleucid power and authority into Hellenistic Greece , but his attempts were thwarted by the Roman Republic and its Greek allies. The Seleucids were forced to pay costly war reparations and had to relinquish territorial claims west of

20130-403: The east, where he sought to extract money to pay the indemnity. The reign of his son and successor Seleucus IV Philopator (187–175 BC) was largely spent in attempts to pay the large indemnity, and Seleucus was ultimately assassinated by his minister Heliodorus . Seleucus' younger brother, Antiochus IV Epiphanes , now seized the throne. He attempted to restore Seleucid power and prestige with

20313-399: The emperor's personal bodyguard. The chronicler John Malalas , who lived during the reign of Justinian, describes his appearance as short, fair-skinned, curly-haired, round-faced, and handsome. Another contemporary historian, Procopius , compares Justinian's appearance to that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian , although this is probably slander. When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin

20496-399: The empire were still influenced by the spread of Greek thought and culture, a phenomenon referred to as Hellenization . Historically significant towns and cities, such as Antioch , were created or renamed with Greek names, and hundreds of new cities were established for trade purposes and built in Greek style from the start. Local educated elites who needed to work with the government learned

20679-400: The empire's taxation, fortified the city, made it for a few years the capital of Roman Syria and also built the city's famed Tetraporticus around the same time. Some Roman merchants moved to live in the city under Augustus , but the city was always culturally "Greek" influenced. Subsequently, a Roman road was built from southern Anatolia toward Berytus and Damascus, that greatly improved

20862-566: The empire, which in 555 reached its territorial zenith. Despite losing much of Italy soon after Justinian's death, the empire retained several important cities, including Rome, Naples, and Ravenna, leaving the Lombards as a regional threat. The newly founded province of Spania kept the Visigoths as a threat to Hispania alone and not to the western Mediterranean and Africa. Events of the later years of his reign showed that Constantinople itself

21045-480: The end of his life, Justinian became ever more inclined towards the Monophysite doctrine, especially in the form of Aphthartodocetism , but he died before being able to issue any legislation. The empress Theodora sympathized with the Monophysites and is said to have been a constant source of pro-Monophysite intrigues at the court in Constantinople in the earlier years. In the course of his reign, Justinian, who had

21228-410: The establishment of settlements, firstly under Seleucus I Nicator and Antiochus I Soter and then under Antiochus IV Epiphanes . The military settlers were given land, "varying in size according to rank and arm of service'. They were settled in 'colonies of an urban character, which at some point could acquire the status of a polis". The settler-soldiers were called katoikoi ; they would maintain

21411-691: The exiled Carthaginian general Hannibal , and making an alliance with the disgruntled Aetolian League , Antiochus launched an invasion across the Hellespont . With his huge army he aimed to establish the Seleucid empire as the foremost power in the Hellenic world, but these plans put the empire on a collision course with the new rising power of the Mediterranean, the Roman Republic . At the battles of Thermopylae (191 BC) and Magnesia (190 BC), Antiochus's forces suffered resounding defeats, and he

21594-704: The famed Nisean horse herd); and Roman intervention was an ever-present threat. Sidetes managed to bring the Maccabees to heel and frighten the Anatolian dynasts into a temporary submission; then, in 133, he turned east with the full might of the Royal Army (supported by a body of Jews under the Hasmonean prince, John Hyrcanus ) to drive back the Parthians. Sidetes' campaign initially met with spectacular success, recapturing Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Media. In

21777-628: The first cataract of the Nile . The Presbyter Julian and the Bishop Longinus conducted a mission among the Nabataeans , and Justinian attempted to strengthen Christianity in Yemen by dispatching a bishop from Egypt . The civil rights of Jews were restricted and their religious privileges threatened. Justinian also interfered in the internal affairs of the synagogue and encouraged

21960-484: The first stage of its construction was completed, and the port handled an increasing amount of Syria's overseas trade. In August 1957, 4,000 Egyptian troops landed in Latakia under orders from Gamal Abdel Nasser after Turkish troops massed along the border with Syria, accusing it of harboring Turkish Communists . A major highway linked Latakia with Aleppo and the Euphrates valley starting in 1968, supplemented by

22143-526: The historian Appian : Always lying in wait for the neighboring nations, strong in arms and persuasive in council, he [Seleucus] acquired Mesopotamia, Armenia, 'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania, and other adjacent peoples that had been subdued by Alexander, as far as the river Indus, so that the boundaries of his empire were the most extensive in Asia after that of Alexander. The whole region from Phrygia to

22326-533: The inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka , are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. According to Appian: He [Seleucus] crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. It is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucus's daughter, or

22509-471: The kingdom to Hilderic. Gelimer replied, in effect, that Justinian had no authority to make these demands. Angered at this response, Justinian quickly concluded his ongoing war with the Sassanian Empire and prepared an expedition against the Vandals in 533. In 533, Belisarius sailed to Africa with a fleet of 92 dromons , escorting 500 transports carrying an army of about 15,000 men, as well as

22692-499: The kingdom's guards' regiments. The rest of the Seleucid army would consist of native and mercenary troops, who would serve as light auxiliary troops. While the Seleucids were happy to recruit from less populated and outlying parts of the Empire such as the Arabs and Jews, Iranian peoples in the east, and inhabitants of Asia Minor to the north, they generally eschewed recruiting native Syrians and native Mesopotamians ( Babylonians ). This

22875-513: The land as their own and in return, they would serve in the Seleucid army when called. The majority of settlements were concentrated in Lydia , northern Syria , the upper Euphrates and Media . Antiochus III brought Greeks from Euboea , Crete and Aetolia and settled them in Antioch . These Greek settlers would be used to form the Seleucid phalanx and cavalry units, with picked men put into

23058-652: The last was defeated and killed by the invading Parni of Arsaces —the region would then become the core of the Parthian Empire . Diodotus , the Seleucid governor for the Bactrian territory, asserted independence in around 245 BC, although the exact date is far from certain, to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . This kingdom was characterized by a rich Hellenistic culture and was to continue its domination of Bactria until around 125 BC when it

23241-620: The later years of his life. He died on 14 November 565, childless. He was succeeded by Justin II , who was the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles until it was desecrated and robbed during the pillage of the city in 1204 by the Latin States of the Fourth Crusade . Justinian achieved lasting fame through his judicial reforms, particularly through

23424-672: The latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes , a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris , north of Babylon. Seleucus's empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachus's lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, but

23607-596: The military situation had turned in favour of the Romans, and in 540 Belisarius reached the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna . There he was offered the title of Western Roman Emperor by the Ostrogoths at the same time that envoys of Justinian were arriving to negotiate a peace that would leave the region north of the Po River in Gothic hands. Belisarius feigned acceptance of the offer, entered the city in May 540, and reclaimed it for

23790-572: The new province of Spania before being checked by their former ally Athanagild, who had by now become king. This campaign marked the apogee of Byzantine expansion. During Justinian's reign, the Balkans suffered from several incursions by the Turkic and Slavic peoples who lived north of the Danube . Here, Justinian resorted mainly to a combination of diplomacy and a system of defensive works. In 559

23973-601: The new system, which eventually led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemy's revolt created a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC. Seleucus , who had been "Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry " ( hetairoi ) and appointed first or court chiliarch (which made him the senior officer in the Royal Army after the regent and commander-in-chief Perdiccas since 323 BC, though he helped to assassinate him later) received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC,

24156-416: The newly formed Parthian Empire . The Seleucid satrap of Parthia, named Andragoras , first claimed independence, in a parallel to the secession of his Bactrian neighbour. Soon after, however, a Parthian tribal chief called Arsaces invaded the Parthian territory around 238 BC to form the Arsacid dynasty , from which the Parthian Empire originated. Antiochus II's son Seleucus II Callinicus came to

24339-469: The next year saw the defeat of Roman forces under Belisarius near Callinicum . Justinian then tried to make alliance with the Axumites of Ethiopia and the Himyarites of Yemen against the Persians, but this failed. When king Kavadh I of Persia died (September 531), Justinian concluded an " Eternal Peace " (which cost him 11,000 pounds of gold) with his successor Khosrau I (532). Having thus secured his eastern frontier, Justinian turned his attention to

24522-531: The northern portion of the Latakia Governorate. Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali flows into the Mediterranean Sea south of Latakia. Under Köppen's climate classification , Latakia has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) with warm, humid summers and cool, wet winters. Latakia's wettest months are December and January, where average precipitation is around 160 mm. The city's driest month, July, only has on average about 1 millimetre (0.04 in) of rain, despite being rather humid. Average high temperatures in

24705-401: The ongoing disputes in the east. Justinian's policies switched between attempts to force Monophysites and Miaphysites (who were mistaken to be adherers of Monophysitism) to accept the Chalcedonian creed by persecuting their bishops and monks – thereby embittering their sympathizers in Egypt and other provinces – and attempts at a compromise that would win over the Monophysites without surrendering

24888-456: The orthodoxy of his empire threatened by diverging religious currents, especially monophysitism , which had many adherents in the eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt. Monophysite doctrine, which maintains that Jesus Christ had one divine nature rather than a synthesis of divine and human nature, had been condemned as a heresy by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and the tolerant policies towards Monophysitism of Zeno and Anastasius I had been

25071-402: The other conquests, the Empire established a presence in Visigothic Hispania , when the usurper Athanagild requested assistance in his rebellion against King Agila I . In 552, Justinian dispatched a force of 2,000 men; according to the historian Jordanes , this army was led by the octogenarian Liberius . The Byzantines took Cartagena and other cities on the southeastern coast and founded

25254-415: The other rules were expressed or published: proper laws, senatorial consults ( senatusconsulta ), imperial decrees, case law , and jurists' opinions and interpretations ( responsa prudentium ). Tribonian's code ensured the survival of Roman law. It formed the basis of later Byzantine law, as expressed in the Basilika of Basil I and Leo VI the Wise . The only western province where the Justinianic code

25437-746: The port, with 43 hectares, occupies the container terminal. The storage capacity is up to 17,000 containers. Latakia was connected to six ferry lines to Alexandria (Egypt), İzmir (Turkey) and Beirut (Lebanon). It is not known whether the lines still exist in the Syrian civil war , which has been going on since 2011. The marina Latakia has 150 berths for ships up to a maximum length of 25 meters and 4 meters draught. The Syrian Navy has one of four bases in Latakia. Latakia has an extensive agricultural hinterland. Exports include bitumen ( asphalt ), cereals, cotton , fruits, eggs, vegetable oil, pottery, and tobacco . Cotton ginning, vegetable-oil processing, tanning, and sponge fishing serve as local industries for

25620-444: The port. The attack killed 2 Syrian Army soldiers, destroyed several containers and set the port on fire for several hours. Latakia is located 348 kilometres (216 mi) north-west of Damascus, 186 kilometres (116 mi) south-west from Aleppo, 186 kilometres (116 mi) north-west of Homs, and 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Tartus. Nearby towns and villages include Kasab to the north, Al-Haffah , Slinfah and Qardaha to

25803-440: The recovered eastern territories were recaptured by the Parthians. The Maccabees again rebelled, civil war soon tore the empire to pieces, and the Armenians began to encroach on Syria from the north. By 100 BC, the once-formidable Seleucid Empire encompassed little more than Antioch and some Syrian cities. Despite the clear collapse of their power, and the decline of their kingdom around them, nobles continued to play kingmakers on

25986-415: The region. In April 1136, the city was sacked by Emir Sawar ibn Aytakin, governor of Aleppo , then it was struck by the 1157 Hama earthquake and the 1170 Syria earthquake . This situation remained the same with the city serving as the primary port for the Principality until it was captured following a siege by the Ayyubids , under the rule of Saladin on 23 July 1188. By 1260, the crusaders recaptured

26169-533: The regular appointment of Consuls in 541. In Constantinople, under Justinian, hospitals were built and free medical care provided to the many poor residents of the city. In addition, public baths were free for all residents and 20 state bakeries provided free bread to those who needed it. According to one study, “The empire’s social welfare programs ensured that no one went hungry.” Justinian's habit of choosing efficient but unpopular advisers nearly cost him his throne early in his reign. In January 532, partisans of

26352-462: The revolt provided Justinian with an opportunity to tie his name to a series of splendid new buildings, most notably the architectural innovation of the domed Hagia Sophia . One of the most spectacular features of Justinian's reign was the recovery of large stretches of land around the Western Mediterranean basin that had slipped out of Imperial control in the 5th century. As a Christian Roman emperor, Justinian considered it his divine duty to restore

26535-400: The right to receive solemnia , or annual gifts, from the Imperial treasury or from the taxes of certain provinces and he prohibited lay confiscation of monastic estates. Although the despotic character of his measures is contrary to modern sensibilities, he was a "nursing father" of the Church. Both the Codex and the Novellae contain many enactments regarding donations, foundations, and

26718-403: The river Enymanthus, he came through Drangene to Carmania; and as it was now winter, he put his men into winter quarters there. When he returned to the west in 205 BC, Antiochus found that with the death of Ptolemy IV , the situation now looked propitious for another western campaign. Antiochus and Philip V of Macedon then made a pact to divide the Ptolemaic possessions outside of Egypt, and in

26901-429: The rule of Antiochus IV introduced significant changes. Antiochus IV instigated a bidding process for the High Priest position—this led to Menelaus , a radical Hellenist, outbidding Jason , a moderate Hellenist who upheld many traditional Judean practices. The shift from Jason to Menelaus unsettled the Jewish populace due to Menelaus's more extreme Hellenistic leanings. Aggravating the situation, Antiochus IV initiated

27084-476: The ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and contemporary of Ashoka the Great , is also recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court. The Indians occupy [in part] some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. But Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta Maurya) in consequence of

27267-410: The rural hinterland has an Alawite majority of roughly 70%, with Sunni Muslims making up 14%, Christians making up 12%, and Ismailis representing the remaining 2%. The city serves as the capital of the Alawite population and is a major cultural center for the religion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, large numbers of Alawites from the area emigrated to the country's capital Damascus. Of the Christians,

27450-455: The siege was relieved by Sasanian reinforcements. Justinian replaced him with Bessas , who was under a cloud after the loss of Rome in 546, but he managed to capture and dismantle Petra in 551. The war continued for several years until a second truce in 557, followed by a fifty years' peace in 562. Under its terms, the Persians agreed to abandon Lazica in exchange for an annual tribute of 400 or 500 pounds of gold (30,000 solidi ) to be paid by

27633-415: The split of the Roman Empire , it belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire . An earthquake damaged the city in 494, but the city was later reconstructed by Justinian I and made the capital of the Eastern Roman province of Theodorias from 528 AD until Muslim conquest around 637 AD. All of Syria, including the Roman province of Theodorias and its capital, Laodicea fell into Muslim rule after its attacked by

27816-424: The status of millet , although they enjoyed relative autonomy. In 1920, Latakia fell under the French mandate, under which the Alawite State was established. The state was named after the locally-dominant Alawites and became a French mandate territory after World War I. The French Mandate from the League of Nations began in 1920. The creation of the Alawite State, as well as the other states of Syria under

27999-472: The sword, and famine, and pestilence." An African prefecture , centred in Carthage, was established in April 534, but it would teeter on the brink of collapse during the next 15 years, amidst warfare with the Moors and military mutinies. By the mid-540s, under a succession of Byzantine generals, the region was disrupted under civil war, plague and military campaigning. The area was not completely pacified until 548, but remained peaceful thereafter and enjoyed

28182-436: The tablets on which was written the decree of the senate and told him to read it. The decree demanded that he should abort his attack on Alexandria and immediately stop waging the war on Ptolemy. When the king said that he would call his friends into council and consider what he ought to do, Popilius drew a circle in the sand around the king's feet with the stick he was carrying and said, "Before you step out of that circle give me

28365-438: The throne after his brother's capture. He faced the enormous task of restoring a rapidly crumbling empire, one facing threats on multiple fronts. Hard-won control of Coele-Syria was threatened by the Jewish Maccabee rebels. Once-vassal dynasties in Armenia, Cappadocia, and Pontus were threatening Syria and northern Mesopotamia ; the nomadic Parthians, brilliantly led by Mithridates I of Parthia , had overrun upland Media (home of

28548-515: The throne around 246 BC. Seleucus II was soon dramatically defeated in the Third Syrian War against Ptolemy III of Egypt and then had to fight a civil war against his own brother Antiochus Hierax . Taking advantage of this distraction, Bactria and Parthia seceded from the empire. In Asia Minor too, the Seleucid dynasty seemed to be losing control: the Gauls had fully established themselves in Galatia , semi-independent semi-Hellenized kingdoms had sprung up in Bithynia , Pontus , and Cappadocia , and

28731-477: The throne in 223 BC. Although initially unsuccessful in the Fourth Syrian War against Egypt, which led to a defeat at the Battle of Raphia (217 BC), Antiochus would prove himself to be the greatest of the Seleucid rulers after Seleucus I himself. He spent the next ten years on his anabasis (journey) through the eastern parts of his domain and restoring rebellious vassals like Parthia and Greco-Bactria to at least nominal obedience. He gained many victories such as

28914-494: The usurping general Diodotus Tryphon —held out in Antioch . Meanwhile, the decay of the Empire's territorial possessions continued apace. By 143 BC, the Jews in the form of the Maccabees had fully established their independence. Parthian expansion continued as well. In 139 BC, Demetrius II was defeated in battle by the Parthians and was captured. By this time, the entire Iranian Plateau had been lost to Parthian control. Demetrius Nicator's brother, Antiochus VII Sidetes , took

29097-415: The west, including repeated wars with Ptolemy II and a Celtic invasion of Asia Minor —distracting attention from holding the eastern portions of the Empire together. Towards the end of Antiochus II's reign, various provinces simultaneously asserted their independence, such as Bactria and Sogdiana under Diodotus , Cappadocia under Ariarathes III , and Parthia under Andragoras . A few years later,

29280-419: The winter of 130/129 BC, his army was scattered in winter quarters throughout Media and Persis when the Parthian king, Phraates II , counter-attacked. Moving to intercept the Parthians with only the troops at his immediate disposal, he was ambushed and killed at the Battle of Ecbatana in 129 BC. Antiochus Sidetes is sometimes called the last great Seleucid king. After the death of Antiochus VII Sidetes, all of

29463-468: The year later used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The rise of Seleucus in Babylon threatened the eastern extent of the territory of Antigonus I Monophthalmus in Asia. Antigonus, along with his son Demetrius I Poliorcetes , unsuccessfully led a campaign to annex Babylon. The victory of Seleucus ensured his claim of Babylon and legitimacy. He ruled not only Babylonia, but the entire enormous eastern part of Alexander's empire, as described by

29646-425: Was Vigilantia, the sister of Justin. Justin, who was commander of one of the imperial guard units (the Excubitors ) before he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople , and ensured the boy's education. As a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence , theology , and Roman history. Justinian served as a candidatus , one of 40 men selected from the scholae palatinae to serve as

29829-555: Was appointed consul and commander of the army of the east. Justinian remained Justin's close confidant, and in 525 was granted the titles of nobilissimus and caesar (heir-apparent). He was crowned co-emperor on 1 April 527, and became sole ruler after Justin's death on 1 August 527. As a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as "the emperor who never sleeps" for his work habits. Nevertheless, he seems to have been amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married his mistress, Theodora , in Constantinople. She

30012-543: Was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus on landing in Europe. His son and successor, Antiochus I Soter , was left with an enormous realm consisting of nearly all of the Asian portions of the Empire, but faced with Antigonus II Gonatas in Macedonia and Ptolemy II Philadelphus in Egypt, he proved unable to pick up where his father had left off in conquering the European portions of Alexander's empire. Antiochus I (reigned 281–261 BC) and his son and successor Antiochus II Theos (reigned 261–246 BC) were faced with challenges in

30195-426: Was by profession an actress and some twenty years his junior. In earlier times, Justinian could not have married her owing to her class, but his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law lifting restrictions on marriages with ex-actresses. Though the marriage caused a scandal, Theodora would become very influential in the politics of the Empire. Other talented individuals included Tribonian , his legal adviser; Peter

30378-437: Was compelled to make peace and sign the Treaty of Apamea (188 BC), the main clause of which saw the Seleucids agree to pay a large indemnity, to retreat from Anatolia and to never again attempt to expand Seleucid territory west of the Taurus Mountains . The Kingdom of Pergamum and the Republic of Rhodes , Rome's allies in the war, gained the former Seleucid lands in Anatolia. Antiochus died in 187 BC on another expedition to

30561-432: Was decided that the Alawite state would be re-incorporated into Syria as a concession by the French to the Nationalist Bloc , which was the ruling party of the semi-autonomous Syrian government; the decision went into effect in 1937. There was a great deal of Alawite separatist sentiment in the region, but their political views could not be coordinated into a unified voice. There was also a great deal of factionalism amongst

30744-404: Was described in Strabo 's Geographica : It is a city most beautifully built, has a good harbour, and has territory which, besides its other good crops, abounds in wine. Now this city furnishes the most of the wine to the Alexandreians, since the whole of the mountain that lies above the city and is possessed by it is covered with vines almost as far as the summits. And while the summits are at

30927-417: Was finally broken. In 554, a large-scale Frankish invasion was defeated at Casilinum , and Italy was secured for the Empire, though it would take Narses several years to reduce the remaining Gothic strongholds. At the end of the war, Italy was garrisoned with an army of 16,000 men. The recovery of Italy cost the empire about 300,000 pounds of gold. Procopius estimated 15,000,000 Goths died. In addition to

31110-455: Was forced from the city by the populace. On his return home, Antiochus died in Isfahan in 164 BC. After the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes , the Seleucid Empire became increasingly unstable. Frequent civil wars made central authority tenuous at best. Epiphanes' young son, Antiochus V Eupator , was first overthrown by Seleucus IV's son, Demetrius I Soter in 161 BC. Demetrius I attempted to restore Seleucid power in Judea particularly, but

31293-447: Was forcibly brought to Constantinople and besieged at a chapel, finally also gave his assent. However, the condemnation was received unfavourably in the west, where it led to new (albeit temporal) schism, and failed to reach its goal in the east, as the Monophysites remained unsatisfied – all the more bitter for him because during his last years he took an even greater interest in theological matters. Justinian's religious policy reflected

31476-730: Was introduced was Italy (after the conquest by the so-called Pragmatic Sanction of 554 ), from where it was to pass to Western Europe in the 12th century and become the basis of much Continental European law code, which was eventually spread by European empires to the Americas and beyond in the Age of Discovery . It eventually passed to Eastern Europe where it appeared in Slavic editions, and it also passed on to Russia . It remains influential to this day. He passed laws to protect prostitutes from exploitation and women from being forced into prostitution . Rapists were treated severely. Further, by his policies: women charged with major crimes should be guarded by other women to prevent sexual abuse; if

31659-457: Was killed in an urban revolt later that year that was inspired by the fundamentalist shaykh Muhammad al-Moghrabi. During the Egyptian occupation of Syria (1831–1841) there was a major Alawite revolt (1834-1835) in both the town and the surrounding countryside. In 1888, when Wilayat Beirut was established, Latakia became its northernmost town. In the Ottoman period, the region of Latakia became predominantly Alawi . The Turkmen also consisted

31842-411: Was named after a member of the ruling dynasty. It was first called Laodikeia on the Coast ( Greek : Λαοδίκεια ἡ Πάραλος ) by Seleucus I Nicator in honor of his mother, Laodice . In Latin , its name became Laodicea ad Mare . The original name survives in its Arabic form as al-Ladhiqiyyah ( Arabic : اللاذقية ), from which the French Lattaquié and English Latakia (or Lattakia) derive. To

32025-422: Was not safe from barbarian incursions from the north, and even the relatively benevolent historian Menander Protector felt the need to attribute the Emperor's failure to protect the capital to the weakness of his body in his old age. In his efforts to renew the Roman Empire, Justinian dangerously stretched its resources while failing to take into account the changed realities of 6th-century Europe. Justinian saw

32208-447: Was overrun by the invasion of northern nomads. One of the Greco-Bactrian kings, Demetrius I of Bactria , invaded India around 180 BC to form the Indo-Greek Kingdoms . The rulers of Persis , called Fratarakas , also seem to have established some level of independence from the Seleucids during the 3rd century BC, especially from the time of Vahbarz . They would later overtly take the title of Kings of Persis , before becoming vassals to

32391-447: Was overthrown in 150 BC by Alexander Balas —an impostor who (with Egyptian backing) claimed to be the son of Epiphanes. Alexander Balas reigned until 145 BC when he was overthrown by Demetrius I's son, Demetrius II Nicator . Demetrius II proved unable to control the whole of the kingdom, however. While he ruled Babylonia and eastern Syria from Damascus , the remnants of Balas' supporters—first supporting Balas' son Antiochus VI , then

32574-417: Was presumably mostly from a desire not to train and arm the people who were an overwhelming majority in the trade and governmental centers of the Empire in Antioch and Babylon, risking revolt. While a revolt in a remote place could be put down by resolute action from the center, an uprising in Syria-Coele would have undermined the kingdom's very existence. Following losses of territory in Asia Minor during

32757-471: Was proclaimed the new emperor with significant help from Justinian. Justinian showed a lot of ambition, and several sources claim that he was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor, although there is no conclusive evidence of this. As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. Following the general Vitalian 's assassination in 520 (orchestrated by Justinian and Justin), Justinian

32940-419: Was put under the authority of a regent, Perdiccas , and the vast territories were divided among Alexander's generals, who thereby became satraps at the Partition of Babylon , all in that same year. Alexander's generals, known as diadochi , jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire following his death. Ptolemy I Soter , a former general and then current satrap of Egypt , was the first to challenge

33123-402: Was reported to have converted 70,000 pagans, which was probably an exaggerated number. Other peoples also accepted Christianity: the Heruli , the Huns dwelling near the Don , the Abasgi , and the Tzanni in Caucasia . The worship of Amun at the oasis of Awjila in the Libyan desert was abolished, and so were the remnants of the worship of Isis on the island of Philae , at

33306-514: Was sent back to Italy late in 544 but lacked sufficient troops and supplies. Making no headway, he was relieved of his command in 548. Belisarius succeeded in defeating a Gothic fleet of 200 ships. During this period the city of Rome changed hands three more times, first taken and depopulated by the Ostrogoths in December 546, then reconquered by the Byzantines in 547, and then again by the Goths in January 550. Totila also plundered Sicily and attacked Greek coastlines. Finally, Justinian dispatched

33489-444: Was times of simultaneous peace and rebellion in various parts of the empire. In general, the Seleucids allowed local religions to operate undisturbed, such as incorporating Babylonian religious tenets , to gain support. Tensions around the integration of Judaism were present during the reign of the Seleucid governments. Though previous governments had managed a relatively seamless integration of Judean religious and cultural practices,

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