Antioch

An ancient city in northern Syria at the site of modern Antakya, Turkey. Founded in 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator, a successor of Alexander the Great, on the Orontes River in the southwest Amuq plain, it became one of the most important cities of the ancient eastern Mediterranean. The fertile lowland supplied valuable resources, and the strategic site let the city dominate trade routes. Antioch was the capital of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire from 240 BC until 63 BC, when the Romans took control, and it was thereafter the capital of Roman Syria. It remained significant under the Roman and Byzantine empires and, during the Crusades, was the centre of the Principality of Antioch. At its peak it may have had over 500,000 inhabitants, making it the third largest city in the Roman Empire.