Apamea, Syria

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Apamea on the Orontes
)
For the post-Roman/Byzantine history of Apamea and the modern town, see Qalaat al-Madiq.
Apamea
Hellenistic, Roman, Medieval Greek, Arab
Site notes
Conditionruins
OwnershipPublic
Public accessYes

Apamea (

Apamene under the Macedonians,[1] became the capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric of late Roman province Syria Secunda
, again in the crusader period.

Amongst the impressive ancient remains, the site includes the Great Colonnade which ran for nearly 2 km (1.2 mi) making it among the longest in the Roman world and the Roman Theatre, one of the largest surviving theatres of the Roman Empire with an estimated seating capacity in excess of 20,000.

The site is about 55 km (34 mi) to the northwest of

Ghab valley
.

History

Contoured map of Apamea
Houses and shops along the Colonnade street, Apamea in 2002
Colonnade street, detail, Apamea

Hellenistic era

After the conquest of the region by

Syrian tetrapolis
. Seleucus also made it a military base with 500 elephants, and an equestrian stud with 30,000 mares and 300 stallions.

After 142 BC, the pretender Diodotus Tryphon made Apamea the base of his operations.[4]

Q. Aemilius Secundus[5] did a population survey of the city and its territory which belonged to it in AD 6, in which he counted "117,000 hom(ines) civ(ium)" – 117,000 citizen human beings, a figure that has been interpreted as giving a total population of either 130,000 or 500,000, depending on methods used.[6]

In 64 BC,

Jewish War, the inhabitants of Apamea spared the Jews who lived in their midst and would not suffer them to be murdered or led into captivity.[9] Apamea was briefly captured in 40 BC
by the Pompeian-Parthian forces.

Much of Apamea was destroyed in the 115 AD earthquake, but was subsequently rebuilt.

Roman era

From 218 until 234 AD, the legion

Chosroes I in the 6th century.[11][12]

During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the city fell in 613 to Shahrbaraz and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.[13]

Byzantine era

The Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan (Num. xxxiv. 11) has Apamea (אפמיאה)[14] for the city name Shepham as occurring in the Targumim Jerusalem and Neofiti.[15] Since Apamea virtually belonged to Rabbinic Palestine, the first-fruits brought by Ariston from that town were accepted for sacrifice in Jerusalem.[16]

Islamic era

Following the

Muslim conquest of Syria, Apamea was partially rebuilt and known in Arabic as Afāmiya or Fāmiya.[11][12] The city was conquered by the Rashidun along with Al-Suqaylabiyah city after the battle of the Yarmuk.[17] Apamea was then used as an observation post to warn against enemy attack.[17]

It was settled by the Arab tribes of Bahra and Udhra. However, it only regained its importance under the rule of Aleppo-based Hamdanid dynasty.[12] Ruled by Khalaf ibn Mula'ib from 1095–1106, the city was taken by Tancred after Khalaf's murder by Assassins.[18] It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1152.[11]

Remains

Facade (portico).
An example of the ornamental ruins.

Many remains of the ancient acropolis are still standing, consisting probably of the remains of highly decorated temples of which Sozomen speaks;[19] it is now enclosed in ancient castle walls called Kalat el-Mudik (Kŭlat el-Mudîk); the remainder of the ancient city is to be found in the plain.

Museum, view of the courtyard, Apamea in 2002

The most significant collection of objects from the site, including many significant architectural and artistic objects, that can be seen outside of Syria are in Brussels at the

Cinquantenaire Museum
.

As a result of the civil war in Syria, the ancient city has been damaged and looted by treasure hunters.[20][21] In April 2017, Al-Masdar News published satellite photographs revealing the site was covered in hundreds of holes dug by treasure hunters seeking ancient artifacts.[22]

Great Colonnade

Main article: Great Colonnade at Apamea
A view of road lined with columns, some of which are still topped with a decorative frieze
The Great Colonnade at Apamea

The Great Colonnade was situated along the main avenue of Apamea and ran for nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), making it among the longest in the

cardo maximus". Starting at the city's north gate, the colonnade ran in an uninterrupted straight line to the south gate. The northern third of the colonnade's stretch is marked by a monumental votive column that stood opposite the baths.[24] The colonnade passed through the centre of the city and several important buildings were clustered around it, including the baths, the agora, the Temple of Tyche, the nymphaeum, the rotunda, the atrium church and the basilica.[25] On either side of the street a 6.15 metres (20.2 ft)-wide colonnade ran its full length. The columns were 9 metres (30 ft) high and 0.9 metres (2 ft 11 in) in diameter. They stood on square bases of 1.24 m on a side and 0.47 m high. The columns display two main designs: plain and distinctive spiral flutes. Archaeologist Jean Lassus argues that the former dates back to the Trajanic period, and the latter to that of Antoninus Pius.[26] The colonnade's porticoes were paved with extensive mosaics along the full stretch of the colonnade.[24]

Under the

Sasanians under Adarmahan.[28]

A reconstructed section of the colonnade can be seen in the Brussels

Cinquantenaire Museum
.

Roman theatre

Great Hunting Mosaic from the Governor's residence, 414–420 AD
Main article: Roman Theatre at Apamea

Originally built as a

Hellenistic style theatre in the early Seleucid Empire, the theatre was expanded and remodelled in the early Roman period,[29] when the main stage and entrances were reorganized in a more typical Roman fashion. The 115 Antioch earthquake caused severe damage to the structure. It was rebuilt soon afterwards, under the patronage of both Trajan and Hadrian. The theatre was further expanded in the first half of the third century CE.[30] Under the Byzantine Empire the theatre's drainage basin was restructured and a qanat was built through the middle of the lower stage. By the late Byzantine period the theatre had stopped serving as a centre for theatrical performances. However, the theatre and its qanat continued to be an important water source during the Byzantine and Islamic periods.[31] The theatre was built into a steep hill overlooking the Orontes River valley.[32]

The theatre, along with the one at Ephesus, is one of the largest surviving theatres of the Roman Empire with an estimated seating capacity in excess of 20,000. The only other known theatre that is considerably larger was the Theatre of Pompey in Rome.[33] Much of its structure is in ruins due to architectural collapses and extensive quarrying in later epochs,[34] and only one-eighth of the site has been exposed so far.[33] One of the main features at the theatre is its water basin and the elaborate Roman piping system used in it. The recently excavated terracotta system is located along the eastern ground entrance and is well preserved.[35]

Great hunting mosaic

This mosaic, now in the

Syria Secunda
. Its area is 120 m².

The great mosaic dates from 415–420 AD and is amongst the most prestigious of this type of composition. It is comparable technically and thematically with mosaics in the Palace of the

Byzantine emperors
in Constantinople, of the same period.

An inscription at the entrance states: "During the most beautiful Apellion, the triclinium was rebuilt in the month Gorpiaios, third indict, in the year 851" (September, 539 AD).

Bishopric

Christianity came to the area within the first century. Bishops included:

Today a number of Christian denominations maintain titular sees for the town. These include

People

See also

References

  1. Festus Avienius, v. 1083; Anton. Itin.; Hierocles
    )
  2. ISBN 978-88-9392-053-7
    )
  3. ^ not his mother, as Stephanus asserts; compare Strabo, p. 578
  4. ^ Strab. l. c.
  5. ^ Tombstone of Q. Aemilius Secundus, Livius.org Archived 2019-08-27 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ISBN 9781472537737
    .
  7. ^ Josephus 'Ant. xiv. 3. § 2
  8. Dion. Cass.
    xlvii. 26–28; Joseph. Bel. Jud. i. 10. § 10.
  9. Bell. Jud.
    ii. 18, § 5
  10. ^ Apamea in Syria in the Second and Third Centuries A.D. Jean Ch. Balty The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 78 (1988), pp. 91–104 Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies DOI: 10.2307/301452 Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/301452
  11. ^ a b c Hogarth, David George (1911). "Apamea s.v. 1" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). p. 159.
  12. ^ a b c Gibb, p. 215
  13. ISBN 9781473828650
    .
  14. ^ Moses Ginsburger, Pseudo-Jonathan (Thargum Jonathan ben Usiel zum Pentateuch) (Berlin, 1903), p. 296
  15. ^ Neofiti https://mg.alhatorah.org/Tanakh/Bemidbar/34.1#m7e0n6
  16. ^ Mishnah Ḥal. iv. 11
  17. ^ a b Qunduraq, Adib (2001). السقيلبية، سلوقوبيلوس (in Arabic). عكرمة للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع. pp. 17, 18, 40. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  18. ^ Wilken, Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p. 474; Abulfeda, Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.
  19. ^ vii. 15
  20. ^ Rebecca Ananda (26 May 2015). "The History and Culture I Saw in Syria Is Now Scarred by War". Huffington Post.
  21. ^ Andrew Lawler, "Satellites track heritage loss across Syria and Iraq", Science, Year 2014, Volume 346, n° 6214, pp. 1162–1163, DOI:10.1126/science.346.6214.1162
  22. ^ Shocking satellite images show illicit archeological excavation in Syria [1] Archived 2017-10-19 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ Balty, 1988, p. 91.
  24. ^ a b Foss, 1997, p. 207.
  25. ^ Foss, 1997, p. 209.
  26. ^ Crawford; Goodway, 1990, p. 119.
  27. ^ Foss, 1997, p. 208.
  28. ISBN 0-415-14687-9
    .
  29. ^ Finlayson, 2012, p. 308.
  30. ^ Finlayson, 2012, p. 309.
  31. ^ Finlayson, 2012, p. 310.
  32. ^ Finlayson, 2012, p. 292.
  33. ^ a b Finlayson, 2012, p. 278.
  34. ^ Finlayson, 2012, p. 285.
  35. ^ Finlayson, Cynthia (31 May 2012). "Uncovering the Great Theater of Apamea". Popular Archaeology. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  36. ^ Michael Peppard, Mosaics from a Church in the Diocese of Apamea, Syria (463 CE) Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik Bd. 190 (2014), pp. 168-172
  37. ^ a b c Volker L. Menze, Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 82.
  38. ^ Peter, Bishop of Apamea.
  39. ISBN 978-0-88206-003-3
    . Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  40. ^ Wahbah A. Sayegh (1996). The Tawhid Faith: Pioneers and their shrines. The Society. Retrieved 12 September 2012.

Sources and external links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Apamea.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Apamea.

Bibliography

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