ANCIENT GLORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANCIENT GLORIES

MEMORIES OF ANTIOCH. HISTORY A CHEQUERED ONE. Modem Antioch, a drab city of 30,000 inhabitants, lying about 15 miles up the Orontes River from the Mediterranean, is a mere shadow of the gay city that once was the capital of the great empire of Seleucus Nicator, favourite of Alexander the Great, and later capital of the Roman Empire hi the Orient. Traditionally, Antioch owes its location to the flight of an eagle (says a writer in the Cape Argus). Antigonia, built in 307 8.C., a few miles north of Antioch, was planned to be the fountainhead of government, commerce and industry in the Near East. While Seleucus was offering sacrifices at . an altar in the ity. an eagle swooped down, caught a piece of meat from the altar, and flew to the banks of the Orontes River. Seleucus interpreted the eagle’s act as an omen that the gods wished him to found a capital on the river. Six years later Antigonia was destroyed, and Antioch rose to become; in time the Gate of the East and third city in the Roman Empire. Antioch was laid out in checKer-board fashion with its main street following the course of the river. Other streets ran parallel or at right angles. An eightyfoot wall, broad enough at the top for four horees to be driven abreast, surrounded it. The outstanding feature of the new city was the four-mile main street that connected the east and west gates. On each side rose double rows of lofty marble columns between which Ben Hur drove his chariot and Caesar paraded in triumph. , Flanking the street was a marblepaved cover’d promenade adorned with statues and carvings in marble and

bronze. Beyond the promenades rose, thei handsome facades of government .build* ings. . • ' . ' . At night the main street was <a. great! white way. The • rumble- .of ; chariot/ wheels and- clatter of horses' hoofs} mingled with the gay laughter of the promenaders and. merrymakers who] thronged the numerous baths near byj These were fed through large aqueducts from the surrounding hills. The main' street was intersected mid-town by anoilier gay marble-columned street. .'.BEAUTIFUL SUBURBS. Outside the eastern gate King Herodl of the. Jews built a continuation' of the] main street to resemblethe wall-en-J closed' thoroughfare. the west] gate was the suburb, Heraclea, its main! road flanked with gardens surroundin® magnificent villas of the Antioch -nobil»] ity. Six miles from the city, lay the! Valley of Daphne, with its rich, and ornate temples. \ A Despite its gaiety, however, Antioch’s path was often strewn with sorrow, itaf walls very frequently pounded by enemies. In 538 A.D. the Persians ed the city, massacred many of its in< habitants, set fire to its buildings and! left with statues, beautiful marbles ana treasures of gold and silver and many captive citizens. .■ ■ ; ' j From this sacking Antioch never covered its former glory. The SaraJ cens took the city in 635, the Crusaders captured it in 1038, and the Sultan of Egypt stormed it in 1238. Early in the sixteenth century.it passj ed into -urkish hands. Earthquakes alsq wrecked the city from time to time. Onq chronicler reports that during one severe shock more than 250,000 inhabitants weri| killed by falling walls. \ After each catastrophe Antioch was built. While the columned highway* walls, gates and handsome buildings art memories, a large part of the modern city is built of stones that once witnessed the processions and chariot races of "Antioch the Glorious.” ] Antioch also has been succeeded cqjnw mercially by Aleppo. To-day its largest industries are shoe and soap-making and hide tanning. Near by corn, cotton and, tobacco are grown, and licorice root is produced for export to the United where it is largely used in the manufaoture of plug tobacco;