Two thousand years ago, Antioch on the Orontes River was the third most important city in the Roman Empire. Today, it is a small Turkish town of 200,000 inhabitants whose visitors may find it difficult to imagine this place at its peak. This book is a biography of Antioch — or Antakiyye of the Arabs, or Antakya of the Turks. It is a description of its youth under the Seleucid Dynasty, its adolescence under the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Norman Crusaders, and its long decline under the Marmelukes and the Ottomans. Antioch on the Orontes will also guide the reader through modern-day Antioch, highlighting significant historical sites. The book contains an introduction to theological developments in Antioch that have influenced Christendom and covers the many religions represented in the city today.

This study incorporates findings of the 1932-1939 excavations. Originally published in 1962. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"Koç University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC) hosts the exhibition Antioch on the Orontes, Early Explorations in the City of Mosaics. Curated by Murat Akar, the exhibition presents photographs from the first archaeological excavations carried out by Princeton University in Antioch between 1932 and 1939. These eight excavation seasons constitute the most comprehensive archaeological work in the region at the time, and the photographs on display document the discovery of the world-famous mosaics now in the Hatay Archaeological Museum and of other artifacts from Ancient Antioch. Moreover, Antioch on the Orontes, Early Explorations in the City of Mosaics provides clues about the excavation methods and archiving techniques of the 1930s"--Publisher's website.

From late fourth century BC Seleucid enclave to capital of the Roman east, Antioch on the Orontes was one of the greatest cities of antiquity and served as a hinge between east and west. This book draws on a century of archaeological fieldwork to offer a new narrative of Antioch's origins and growth, as well as its resilience, civic pride, and economic opportunism. Situating the urban nucleus in the context of the rural landscape, this book integrates hitherto divorced cultural basins, including the Amuq Valley and the Massif Calcaire. It also brings into focus the archaeological data, thus proposing a concrete interpretative framework that, grounded in the monuments of Antioch, enables the reader to move beyond text-based reconstructions of the city's history. Finally, it considers the interaction between the environment and the people of the city who shaped this region and forged a distinct identity within the broader Greco-Roman world.