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Wellsprings

Antioch

Syria

Antioch, on the Orontes at the site of modern Antakya in southern Turkey, was founded around 300 BCE by Seleucus I, was a Seleucid capital and then capital of Roman Syria. It was a centre of Hellenistic Judaism and of Greek rhetoric, where Libanius taught. According to the New Testament, followers of Jesus were first called Christians there; Ignatius was an early bishop, John Chrysostom was born there, and the city became the seat of one of the great patriarchates. Arab forces took it in 637 for the caliphate; the Byzantines recaptured it in 969, and after Seljuk rule it was a Crusader principality from 1098 until the Mamluk sultan Baybars razed it in 1268.

12 most-discussed ideas

Teachers who lived here

Works composed here

Ideas shaped here

Concepts most frequently discussed in the works composed at Antioch. Click any to trace the idea across time and place.