I. Antiquity

Modern Antakya, Turkey, was initially founded in 307 bce as Antigoneia on the Orontes (c. 7km upstream). It was refounded on May 22, 300 by Seleucus I. Nicator (Seleucids) on the present site and renamed in honor of his father, Antiochus. It was well situated at a commercial junction of road networks from Asia Minor and the Orient, with a harbor in Seleukeia Piereia located to the southwest 25km down…