Antioch in Syria occupied a position near the abrupt angle formed by the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor, and in the opening where the Orontes passes between the ranges of Lebanon and Taurus. Seleucus introduced a numerous colony of Jews to his capital, and raised it to be equal in civil rights with the Greeks. There was every thing in the situation and circumstances of Antioch to make it a place of concourse for all classes and kinds of people.
Antioch, with its harbor of Seleucia, was in communication with all the trade of the Mediterranean, and, through the open country behind the Lebanon, it was conveniently approached by the caravans from Mesopotamia and Arabia. It united the inland advantages of Aleppo with the maritime opportunities of Smyrna. It was almost an oriental Rome, in which all the forms of the civilized life of the Empire found some representative.
Gate of the East
Through the first two centuries of the Christian era, Antioch was what Constantinople became afterwards, "the Gate of the East." And, indeed, the glory of the city of Ignatius was only gradually eclipsed by that of the city of Chrysostom. That great preacher and commentator himself, who knew them both by familiar residence, always speaks of Antioch with peculiar reverence, as the patriarchal city of the Christian name.
There is something curiously prophetic in the stories which are told of the first founding of Antioch. Like Romulus on the Palatine, Seleucus is said to have watched the flight of birds from the summit of Mount Casius. An eagle took a fragment of the flesh of his sacrifice, and carried it to a point on the seashore, a little to the north of the mouth of the Orontes. There he founded a city and called it Seleucia (Acts 13:4) after his own name. An eagle again decided that this was not to be his own metropolis, and carried the flesh to the hill Silpius, which is on the south side of the river. Five or six thousand Athenians and Macedonians were ordered to convey the stones and timber of Antigonia down the river, and Antioch was founded by Seleucus, and called after his father's name.
This fable of Antioch, invented perhaps to give a mythological sanction to what was really an act of sagacious prudence and princely ambition, is well worth remembering. Seleucus was not slow to recognize the wisdom of Antigonus in choosing a site for his capital, which should place it in ready communication both with the shores of Greece and with his eastern territories on the Tigris and Euphrates, and he followed the example promptly.
Few princes have ever lived with so great a passion for the building of cities, and this is a feature of his character which ought not to be unnoticed in this narrative. Seleucus is said to have built in all nine Seleucias, sixteen Antiochs, and six Laodicaeas. This love of commemorating the members of his family was conspicuous in his works by the Orontes. Besides Seleucia and Antioch, he built, in the immediate neighborhood, a Laodicea in honor of his mother.
Memorials
We find that Antioch had memorials of all the great Romans. When Pompey was defeated by Caesar, the conqueror's name was perpetuated in this Eastern city by an aqueduct and by baths, and by a basilica called Caesarium. In the reign of Augustus, Agrippa built in all cities of the Empire and Herod of Judea followed the example to the utmost of his power. Both found employment for their magnificience at Antioch. The reign of Tiberius was less remarkable for great architectural works, but the Syrians by the Orontes had to thank him for many improvements and restorations in their city. Even the four years of his successor left behind them the aqueduct and the baths of Caligula.
Thus, if any city, in the first century, was worthy to be called the Heathen Queen and Metropolis of the East, that city was Antioch. She was represented, in a famous allegorical statue, as a female figure, sented on a rock and crowned, with the river Orontes at her feet. With this image, which art has made perpetual, we conclude our description.