Antioch: the Forgotten Rome of the East

this video is brought to you by Squarespace the all-in-one platform for building a beautiful website and growing your online presence more on them later first shout thou take out the holy pin then shall thou count to three no more no less three shall be the number thou shall count and the number of the counting shall be three so reads the instruction manual for The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch use his feet to kill a rabbit in the film autopython The Holy Grail some people might have assumed that Antioch was a made-up place like many other locations in the movie but that just goes to show you how little people actually know about a city that was once among the largest and most influential in the world two thousand years ago Antioch was considered the Rome of the East a huge Metropolis that was the center for trade culture and military power some of the earliest converts Christianity lived in Antioch in fact it is believed to be the place where the term Christian was first invented it was the centerpiece of great kingdoms and fought over by people of different faiths until a combination of war and natural disasters left nothing but ruins in the wake of the once great City in 323 BC Alexander the Great died at the age of 33 throwing the great Empire he had conquered over the previous decade into turmoil his generals alone as the diadochi meaning successors tore the Empire apart each struggling to get the largest piece of the pie for themselves what are these generals that emerged from the wars of the diode was seleucus who arose from satrap a Babylon to form a great Kingdom the seleucid Empire like all of the rulers of the successor kingdoms that took power in regions conquered by Alexander from the Persians seleuces wanted to attract immigrants from Greece and Macedon to his Empire in the East knowing that it would strengthen trade as well as his old on power so he founded a number of new cities in strategic locations throughout his new kingdom one of these new cities was founded in the western part of Syria on the Arantes River it was named Antioch either after seleuces his father or his son both of whom were named Antiochus the original city was constructed on an island created when the orantas briefly split before joining back together a natural 40 vacation and source of fresh water it was later expanded to the Eastern Bank of the river on a narrow strip of land between the orantas and the newer mountains Antioch became the most important city in the seleucid Empire relatively quickly from 240 BC Antioch was the Kingdom's capital and the seleucid King spent lavishly on the city not all of it was by choice the frequent Earth Tremors in the area necessitated regular rebuilding and repairing of damage in fact the earliest surviving written record of the destruction wrought by an earthquake was recorded in 148 BC in Antioch the City's population was a mix of Greek Macedonian settlers as well as locals this included a large population of Jews who had their own quarter in the city Antioch was famous throughout the greek-speaking world the only city in the East that could match it was Alexandria the seat of power of the seleucid's great Rivals ptolemaic Egypt according to Cicero a popular city full of most erudide men and rich in the most liberal studies however not many records from the Hellenistic period have survived leaving most of the city's history during the seleucidera the subject of historical conjecture the seleucid Empire declined dramatically in the two centuries after it was founded thanks largely to a series of disastrous Wars and internal dynastic struggles over the crown by the time the Roman Republic annexed Antioch in 64 BC the kingdom was all but gone the Romans fell in love with Antioch almost from the start of their reign there particularly after the transition to the Empire the Caesars starting from Augustus decided to make it the capital of the eastern part of their territory it's not hard to see why it was centrally located and massive for an ancient city historical estimates are for the size of its population range from 250 000 to half a million inhabitants making it the third largest city in the Empire after Roman Alexandria the Emperors spent lavishly on construction projects in the city including new city walls meant to fend off incursions by the neighboring parthian Empire as well as a Roman Star forum bath houses and aqueducts in essence it was a smaller version of Rome itself one of the most popular of the new buildings was the racetrack Chariot rating was the favorite sport of the Romans even more popular than gladiatorial fights a huge Hippodrome the circus of Antioch was constructed in the city which became the place to be on Race days the racetrack modeled on the circus maximus in the imperial capital could hold 80 000 Spectators many of whom were accused of drunkenness and unruly Behavior fight to the stands and even rioting were not unheard of events a subtle reminder that though they may have lived 2 000 years ago they weren't really that different from us like the seleucids before them the Romans found themselves frequently rebuilding Antioch as a result of seismic activity the 37 A.D the emperor Caligula sent two senators to report on conditions in the city following an earthquake there indeed another earthquake hit during the reign of his success are Claudius one of the best documents though came in 115 A.D while trajan was wintering in Antioch during his war with the parthians estimated at an extreme 7.5 magnitude event the earthquake destroyed virtually the entire city with the death toll believed to be in the hundreds of thousands trajan barely escaped with his life taking shelter with his retinue in the open air Hippodrome for fear of aftershocks but one of his consoles Marcus pedo virgilanius was not as fortunate and he was killed by Falling debris it took years to rebuild the city and entire neighborhoods ended up abandoned because 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missionaries arrived following the death of Jesus Christ in the First Century A.D seeking to convert the city's Jews to the new religion early evangelizes included one of Christ's disciples Peter who was the first Bishop of Antioch before going on to become the first Bishop of Rome or Pope as well as Barnabas and Paul who were called Apostles Antioch was the first place that the followers of Christ were referred to as Christians and it was also the first place that began actively converting non-jews or Gentiles to the faith the role of Gentiles within the Christian religion sparked a major dispute between Peter and Paul known as the incident at Antioch this dispute over how much of the Jewish religion should be carried over to the Christian one has never really been resolved and is the subject of considerable debate even today another important early church figure is Ignatius Antioch who served as the city's Bishop before being arrested taken to Rome and martyred by being fed to Lions his writings especially his seven Epistles are considered a central Doctrine to the Christian faith Antioch was considered so important to the foundations of the religion that it became known as the Cradle of Christianity after Christianity was legalized and embraced by the Roman Empire the city became part of the pentoki the Five Holy Seas whose Patriarchs were to collectively run the Christian Church alongside Rome Constantinople Jerusalem and Alexandria the question of religion was to dominate the city's politics and future for the rest of its existence foreign from 270 to 273 A.D Antioch was briefly part of the palmyrine Empire a breakaway state in Syria and Egypt led by Queen Zenobia who hoped to take advantage of the turmoil of the rest of the Roman Empire to carve out her own kingdom she was defeated by Emperor aurelian in 273 and Antioch was reintegrated into the Roman system the city outlasted the collapse of Romans became part of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire based out of Constantinople but it was no match for the whims of plate tectonics in 526 Antioch was rocked by another massive earthquake this one even more destructive than the one in 115. much like the San Francisco Quake of 1906 the disaster started a fire which consumed almost every building that hadn't fallen down burning people alive who were trapped in the rubble of their homes only the buildings close to the mountain survived estimates of the number of dead are placed as high as 300 000 one of the worst natural disasters in the history of mankind in Constantinople Emperor Justin is said to have wept when he heard of the disaster and immediately pledged rebuild the city yet again he and his Heir Justinian spent vast sums on recovery efforts but in 540 the city was captured by the sasanian Persian Empire and its entire population was deported to a city in Mesopotamia whose name in Persian literally means better than Antioch Justinian and the byzantines recovered a city that was little more than a deserted pile of rubble after that the city was never the same again it was never allowed to achieve its great Roman Heights because every time it seemed on the verge of recovery War again came to visit bringing all its destructive Tendencies along with it the sasanians captured the city again in 613 holding it until 627 when the byzantines recovered Ten Years Later it changed hands again this time falling to the newly powerful Islamic State the Rashid and caliphate who called the city and to Kiara 350 years Antioch was on a hostile border between Muslims and Christians and as a result declined in importance both politically and economically the byzantines recaptured the city in 969 and lost it again in 1084 but the status quo was about to be shaken up completely in the region by one of the most climactic events in the history of the region in 1095 the Byzantine emperor alexios asked for help from Pope Urban II as his Empire was under threat from Islamic forces in Anatolia Urban seeing a chance to reunify the Latin Catholic church and the Greek Orthodox Church following the great schism 40 years earlier called for a crusade by the Western European states to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslims a huge Army commanded by some of Europe's leading noblemen crossed the boss for a straight from Constantinople and rampaged through modern day Turkey arriving before the walls of Antioch in 1097. it may not have been an important economic Center as it had been during Roman times but the city's strategic position was still Priceless it was a near impregnable Fortress that blocked the Crusader Army from their ultimate goal Jerusalem the Crusaders were in a difficult position they didn't have enough troops to either assault the city directly or to completely surround it to starve out the Defenders all through the winter and spring the Crusader Army besieged Antioch to no avail would reached them that a large army was marching to Antioch to relieve the city and the Crusaders now realize that if they didn't take the city immediately none of them would survive an Armenian Commander within the city named peruse changed everything when he agreed to let the Crusaders into the city in exchange for money in a title on the night of June the second peruse lowered a rope ladder Down the Walls that he was responsible for allowing a group of Crusaders inside to open a gate and let in the rest of the army a great Massacre of the city's inhabitants followed following the usual pattern of medieval Siege Warfare the Turkish Governor yagi Sian attempted to flee the city but he was caught and beheaded two days after capturing Antioch the relief Army commanded by a caboga the atabag of mosul arrived and turned the tables on the Crusaders besieging them inside of the city that they'd just captured unable to resupply the Crusaders began to starve resorting to eating most of their horses on June 28 facing certain death or Surrender the Crusaders came out of the city and formed up to fight kaboga was initially confident but he had underestimated the size of his enemy's Army and his own subordinate Commander's will to fight the emirs began to Desert him in the field more concerned with weakening kabobs ability to conquer their own land than defeat in the Crusaders the Turkish Army was routed a truly stunning victory for the Crusaders who believed that it had been the will of God justify the righteousness of their cause actually their Victory as well as their shocking conquest of Jerusalem a year later had been more attributable to rivalries in the Muslim World both between individual commanders and regions as well as the larger conflict between the sunnis aldricks of Persia and the Shiite fatimids of Egypt who hated each other almost as much as the Christians it caused them not to take the Crusade a threat seriously meaning none of them were able to unite a large enough Force to stop them until it was too late but of course there was no telling the Crusade as that rather than returning the captured territories to the Byzantine Empire as originally promised the noble leadership of the First Crusade instead divided up amongst themselves creating four Crusader States the kingdom of Jerusalem the country of Tripoli the country of Odessa and the principality of Antioch the new Prince of Antioch was burmond of Toronto a Norman Italian Lord who used his new position to attack his former Ally the byzantines until he was finally defeated by alexios and forced to sign a peace treaty that made Antioch a vassal State a Constantinople after he died his successes renounced the treaty and the principality would have fraught relations with the byzantines for the entirety of his existence under the prince were the grand officers the most important of which were the Constable the head of the Army and the Marshal his second in command to owe a given elevated status considering the almost constant state of warfare that Crusader Antioch was in there was also a sonest child who managed the Kingdom's finances and other domestic affairs and a Chamberlain who managed the Royal household these were essentially the same officers that governed Nations back in Europe where the Crusaders originated although As Time passed and native-born princess replaced those from Europe the roles taken on by various officials changed and were in general much more fluid than those in Europe the Crusader states were in a precarious position surrounded by enemies subject to court Intrigue and backstabbing by their own ability if the Muslim territories that surrounded them ever United under one ruler they would be in serious danger and this is exactly what happened in the 1180s as a new power Rose in the region Saladin had become Sultan of Egypt overthrowing the fatimids then oh went on to conquer both Damascus and Aleppo to become Sultan of Syria as well he now controlled all the territory to the south and east of the Crusade Estates and promised his people a Jihad a holy war to reclaim the holy land of Jerusalem from the Franks as the Crusaders were known in 1187 saladin's Army destroyed the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of the tin and soon after captured the holy city itself saladin's troops swept over most of the Crusade Estates and it looked like total defeat for the Franks but Antioch was saved Just In Time by the arrival of the Third Crusade led by the Kings of England and France the principality was now nothing but a shadow of what it had once been alongside a greatly reduced kingdom of Jerusalem based out of acre and the country of Tripoli the desertman captured in 1146. after the death of Saladin in 1193 his successors tore his lands apart in a vicious Civil War while what was left of the Crusade Estates were viewed as little more than an annoyance the arrival of the Mongols in the Middle East shifted the balance of power as the Muslims came under attack by the successes of Genghis Khan the principality of Antioch agreed to become a vassal state of the Mongol Empire in order to protect themselves but this angered the head of the mamluk sultanate that always growing in power in Egypt and Syria Bibles who became Sultan in 1260 after assassinating his predecessor set out to systematically wipe out every remaining Crusader Garrison in the region his army surrounded Antioch in 1268. the Defenders fought bravely to defend their city but they were undercut by poor leadership the prince Beaumont VI never even left Tripoli which he also ruled to attempt to relieve The Siege the fall of Antioch is described as one of the most vicious massacres in the whole history of the Crusades the mamluks engaged in an orgy of violence that consumed the entire city seventeen thousand people were put to the sword while the rest of the city's inhabitants and 100 000 were sold into slavery then barbas ordered every building set Ablaze all that was left was a smoking ruin devoid of people what was left of the Crusader states did not long survive the city of Antioch the last outpost was taken in 1291 ending an almost 200-year long struggle between Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land Antioch never recovered as a large city and it would be captured One More Time by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. today a large Turkish City and taka stand on the ruins of the Hellenistic Antioch and most historians consider it a successor city rather than a continuation of the original settlement founded in 300 BC today few traces of Antioch remain standing except for sections of the mighty City wall up on the Mountainside to the East and the church Saint Peter one of the oldest churches in Christianity the church is one of the final resting places but the remains of Frederick Barbarossa the Holy Roman Emperor who drowned while traveling to the Holy Land to participate in the Third Crusade archaeological digs have Unearthed some traces of the old city including a Greek Mosaic from the 3rd Century BC found in 2016 depicting a drunk skeleton under the message be cheerful enjoy your life the historians are worried that as antakia expands modern construction will destroy the remains of Antioch still buried underneath it is amazing to think that a city that was once so important to so many people for so long could simply vanish from the face of the Earth in the end it seems Antioch was conquered one too many times consigned to the pages of History and the occasional Monty Python reference

Channel: Geographics

Views: 173,853

Keywords: why did rome become christian, how rome became christian, how rome looked like, the middle ages, why did rome fall, how did rome fall, western roman empire, roman generals, history of rome, fall of the roman empire, late roman empire, ancient rome, roman emperors, roman military, fall of rome, roman empire, roman kingdom, roman emperor, roman city, roman army, roman legion, roman history, roman republic

Id: JMPrxUdMpRE

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 25 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/4blockhead]

• Antioch at wikipedia

The city has been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed and semi-abandoned in recorded history due to damage from earthquakes, fights over religious domination—Christianity vs. Islam.

The map shows the new city, Antakya, at the southern end of the seismic reports from today.

• screenshot of map of February 6, 2023 earthquakes

A scary scenario and tragic events unfolding due to natural forces on this planet.