d by Diocletian. The beauty and the
lax morals of Daphne were celebrated all over the western world; and
indeed Antioch as a whole shared in both these titles to fame. Its
amenities awoke both the enthusiasm and the scorn of many writers of
antiquity.

Antioch became the capital and court-city of the western Seleucid empire
under Antiochus I., its counterpart in the east being Seleucia-on-Tigris;
but its paramount importance dates from the battle of Ancyra (240 B.C.),
which shifted the Seleucid centre of gravity from Asia Minor, and led
indirectly to the rise of Pergamum. Thenceforward the Seleucids resided
at Antioch and treated it as their capital _par excellence_. We know
little of it in the Greek period, apart from Syria (q.v.), all our
information coming from authors of the late Roman time. Among its great
Greek buildings we hear only of the theatre, of which substructures still
remain on the flank of Silpius, and of the royal palace, probably
situated on the island. It enjoyed a great reputation for letters and the
arts (Cicero _pro Archia_, 3); but the only names of distinction in these
pursuits during the Seleucid period, that have come down to us, are
Apollophanes, the Stoic, and one Phoebus, a writer on dreams. The mass of
the population seems to have been only superficially Hellenic, and to
have spoken Aramaic in non-official life. The nicknames which they gave
to their later kings were Aramaic; and, except Apollo and Daphne, the
great divinities of north Syria seem to have remained essentially native,
such as the "Persian Artemis" of Meroe and Atargatis of Hierapolis
Bambyce. We may infer, from its epithet, "Golden," that the external
appearance of Antioch was magnificent; but the city needed constant
restoration owing to the seismic disturbances to which the district has
always been peculiarly liable. The first great earthquake is said by the
native chronicler John Malalas, who tells us most that we know of the
city, to have occurred in 148 B.C., and to have done immense damage. The
inhabitants were turbulent, fickle and notoriously dissolute. In the many
dissensions of the Seleucid house they took violent part, and frequently
rose in rebellion, for example against Alexander Balas in 147 B.C., and
Demetrius II. in 129. The latter, enlisting a body of Jews, punished his
capital with fire and sword. In the last struggles of the Seleucid house,
Antioch turned definitely against its feeble rulers, invited Tigran