Apamea (Syria)

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Apamea (Syria)

Apamea or Apameia (; Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
?????? or ??????, Afamia) was a treasure city and stud-depot of the Seleucid kings, was capital of Apamene, on the right bank of the Orontes River. (Steph. B.

Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephanus of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus was the author of an important Gazetteer entitled Ethnica . Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome compiled by one Hermolaus....
s. v.; Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
xvi. p. 752; Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
v. 15.

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Apamea or Apameia (; Arabic

Arabic language

Stephanus of Byzantium

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
xvi. p. 752; Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Antonine Itinerary

The Antonine Itinerary is a register of the stations and distances along the various roads of the Roman empire, containing directions how to get from one Roman settlement to another....
; Hierocles

Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)

Hierocles or Hierokles was a Byzantine Empire geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the Synecdemus or Synekdemos, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each....
). Its site is found about 55 km to the northwest of Hama

Hama

Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes river in central Syria north of Damascus. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. It is the location of the historical city Hamath....
, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, overlooking the Ghab valley. Previously known as Pharmake, it was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus I Nicator

Seleucus I Nicator

Seleucus I , was a Ancient Macedonians officer of Alexander the Great. In the Wars of the Diadochi that took place after Alexander's death, Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty and the Seleucid Empire....
in 300 BC, who so named it after his Bactria

Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
n wife, Apama

Apama

Apama was the wife of the first ruler of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucus Nicator. They married at Susa in 324 BC.According to ancient sources, Apama was the daughter of the Sogdian baron Spitamenes ....
– not his mother, as Stephanus asserts; compare Strabo, p. 578). In pursuance of his policy of Hellenizing Syria, it bore the Macedon

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ian name of Pella. The fortress was placed upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence its other name of Cherronêsos. Seleucus had his commissariat there, 500 elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300 stallions. The pretender, Diodotus Tryphon

Diodotus Tryphon

Diodotus Tryphon was king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. As a general of the army, he promoted the claims of Antiochus VI Dionysus, the infant son of Alexander Balas, in Antioch after Alexander's death, but then in 142 deposed the child and himself seized power in Coele-Syria where Demetrius II Nicator was unpopular for his oppressive tr...
, made Apamea the basis of his operations. (Strab. l. c.) Located at a strategic crossroads for Eastern commerce, the city flourished to the extent that its population eventually numbered half a million. It was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis

Syrian tetrapolis

The Syria n Tetrapolis consisted of the cities Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea , and Latakia....
.

Josephus

Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
(Ant. xiv. 3. § 2) relates, that Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, commonly known as Pompey /'p?mpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a distinguished military and political leader of the late Roman Republic....
marching south from his winter quarters, probably at or near Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is 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 eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and was a cradle of gentile hi...
, razed the fortress of Apamea in 64 BC whence the city was annexed to the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
. In the revolt of Syria under Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out against Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
for three years till the arrival of Cassius

Gaius Cassius Longinus

For other individuals with a similar name, see Cassius Longinus.Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman Republic Roman Senate, the prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....
, 46 BC. (Dion. Cass.

Dio Cassius

Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English language as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a noted Roman Empire historian and public servant....
xlvii. 26–28; Joseph. Bel. Jud. i. 10. § 10.) On the outbreak of the Jewish War

First Jewish-Roman War

The first Jewish-Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three Jewish-Roman wars by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire ....
, the inhabitants of Apamea spared the Jews who lived in their midst, and would not suffer them to be murdered or led into captivity (Josephus, Bell. Jud.
The Wars of the Jews

The Wars of the Jews is a book written by the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus.It is a description of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by the Seleucid Empire ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in the First Jewish-Roman War in AD 70....
ii. 18, § 5). Destroyed by Chosroes I in the 7th century it was partially rebuilt and known in Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
as Famia or Fâmieh; and destroyed by an earthquake in 1152. In the Crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious war waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents. Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims, though campaigns were also directed against Paganism Slavic peoples, Jews, Eastern Orthodox Church, Mongols, Catharism, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemi...
it was still a flourishing and important place and was occupied by Tancred

Tancred

Tancred or Tankred is a masculine given name of French people origin. It is itself of germanic languages origin Tankrad, coming from thank- and -rad , meaning "well-thought advice"....
. (Wilken, Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p. 474; Abulfeda, Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.)

The acropolis hill is now occupied by the ruins called Kalat el-Mudik (Kulat el-Mudîk). The ruins of a highly ornamental character, and of an enormous extent, are still standing, the remains, probably, of the temples of which Sozomen speaks (vii. 15); part of the town is enclosed in an ancient castle situated on a hill; the remainder is to be found in the plain. In the adjacent lake are the celebrated black fish, the source of much wealth.

Both the Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
Targum

Targum

A targum is an Aramaic language translation of the Hebrew Bible written or compiled from the Second Temple period until the early Middle Ages ....
im considered the city of Shepham (Num.

Book of Numbers

The Book of Numbers, , is the fourth book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. In the Greek language Septuagint it is called Arithmoi, or Numbers....
xxxiv. 11) to be identical with Apamea. Since Apamea virtually belonged to Rabbinic Palestine, the first-fruits brought by Ariston from that town were accepted for sacrifice in Jerusalem (Mishnah Ḥal. iv. 11). Apamea remains a titular see

Titular see

A titular see in the Roman Catholic Church is a Diocese or Archdiocese that now exists in title only. Until 1882, such titular sees, were distinguished by the Latin phrase in partibus infidelium or more often simply in partibus....
of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
, Apamenus in Syria; the seat has been vacant since the death of the last bishop in 1974.

Notable residents

Archigenes
Archigenes

Archigenes , an eminent an?cient Greek physician, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries.He was the most celebrated of the sect of the Eclectic school, and was a native of Apamea in Syria; he practised at Rome in the time of Trajan, 98-117, where he enjoy?ed a very high reputation for his professional skill....
(Greek physician)
Posidonius
Posidonius

Posidonius "of Apamea " or "of Rhodes" , was a Greeks Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, History of Syria....
(Greek philosopher and author)
Aristarchus
Aristarchus of Thessalonica

Aristarchus or Aristarch, "a Greek Macedonia of Thessaloniki" , was an Early Christianity mentioned in a few passages of the New Testament....
(bishop, one of the Seventy Apostles
Seventy Disciples

The Seventy Disciples or Seventy-two Disciples were early Disciple of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Luke . According to Luke, the only gospel in which they appear, Jesus appointed them and sent them out in pairs to spread his message....
)
Numenius of Apamea
Numenius of Apamea

Numenius of Apamea was a Greek philosopher, who lived in Apamea in Syria and flourished during the latter half of the 2nd century AD. He was a Neopythagorean and forerunner of the Neoplatonists....
(second century philosopher)
Iamblichus of Chalcis
Iamblichus of Chalcis

Iamblichus, also known as Iamblichus Chalcidensis, was a Assyrian Neoplatonism philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps Roman mythology Paganism itself....
(Neo-Platonist philosopher)
Polychronius (bishop, and brother of Theodore of Mopsuestia
Theodore of Mopsuestia

Theodore the Interpreter , was bishop of Mopsuestia from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate....
)
Theodoret
Theodoret

Saint Theodoret, known as Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus, was an influential author, theologian, and Christianity bishop of Cyrrhus%2C_Syria ....
(fifth century bishop)
Evagrius Scholasticus
Evagrius Scholasticus

Evagrius Scholasticus was an ecclesiastical historian, who wrote six books, covering a period of 163 years, from the Second Council of Ephesus in 431 to the 12th year of the emperor Maurice ....
(sixth century historian)
Junias (first century bishop)

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