Antioch — Wikipedia

Antioch was a city located in northern Syria at the site of modern Antakya, Turkey. Founded in 300 BC, Antioch became one of the most important cities of the ancient eastern Mediterranean. The capital of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, it remained significant under the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and during the Crusades was the centre of the Principality of Antioch. Seleucus I Nicator, a successor of Alexander the Great, founded Antioch alongside three other cities to secure the surrounding region, which he had recently conquered. He chose a site on the Orontes River in the southwest...