Antioch on the Orontes

city · earth

Founded around 300 BCE by Seleucus I Nicator and later a principal city of the Roman East, Antioch was where the overland routes from Iran met Mediterranean shipping at its port of Seleucia Pieria. Goods that had crossed Asia by land were transferred to sea here for Rome, Alexandria and the western Mediterranean. Repeatedly wrecked by earthquakes, sacked by the Sasanians in 540, and reduced over centuries to a provincial town. The modern city, Antakya in Hatay province, was very heavily damaged in the earthquakes of 6 February 2023.