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THE ANTIOCH HISTORY
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient
city on the eastern side of the Orontes
River. Its ruins lie near the modern city of
Antakya, Turkey.
Founded near the end of the 4th century
BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of
Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch's
geographic, military and economic
location, particularly the spice trade, the
Silk Road, the Persian Royal Road,
benefited its occupants, and eventually it
rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the
Near East and as the main center of
Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the
Second Temple period.
As a result of its longevity and the pivotal
role it played in the emergence of both
Hellenistic Judaism and Early
Christianity, Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity." It was one of the four
cities of the Syrian tetrapolis. Its residents are known as Antiochenes. Once a great
metropolis of half a million people, it declined to insignificance during the Middle
Ages because of repeated earthquakes, the Crusaders' invasions, and a change in
trade routes following the Mongol conquests, which then no longer passed through
Antioch from the far east.
Antioch was a chief center of early Christianity. The city had a large population of
Jewish origin in a quarter called the Kerateion, and so attracted the earliest
missionaries. Evangelized, among others, by Peter himself, according to the
tradition upon which the Antiochene patriarchate still rests its claim for primacy
and certainly later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul's first missionary journey. Its
converts were the first to be called Christians. This is not to be confused with
Antioch in Pisidia, to which the early missionaries later travelled.
The Christian population was estimated by Chrysostom at about 100,000 people at
the time of Theodosius I. Between 252 and 300, ten assemblies of the church were
held at Antioch and it became the seat of one of the five original patriarchates,
along with Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome. Today Antioch
remains the seat of a patriarchate of the Oriental Orthodox churches.
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