ANTIOCH THE GLORIOUS 83 



on the island in the Orontes, or watch the ancients, Jebal Akra of the Arabs, 



with breathless interest as the hero guides Bald Mountain as it would be in simple 



the four fleet Arab steeds through the English. From whatever side it is viewed, 



mazes of the chariot race, Antioch seems it is a regular cone, 6,000 feet in height, 



a fabled city of ancient times, living in so steep that it can be ascended only from 



story only. the eastern side, and then with difficulty. 



It is hard to come to reality and think From its summit to the sea on the west 



of American Fords and Italian Fiats and the Orontes River on the north, the 



rushing along the roads where Ben Hur sides are so unbroken by foothills and 



guided his matchless Arab steeds, or of valleys that it seems as if a boulder 



great motor lorries trundling across the started at the top would roll without 



plain where the long trains of camels hindrance to the sea. 



brought their caravans of riches from To the mariner steering for the harbor 



the East. The hippodrome where Ben of Seleucia, and from the plains to the 



Hur, the Jew, contested with Messala, east, even from the city of Aleppo, 70 



the Roman, is in ruins, but the East and miles away, the splendid conical peak is 



the West are just as surely in conflict a guiding landmark, 



today. It is no wonder, then, that this moun- 



The purpose of this story is to place tain was looked upon as the home of the 



again before the reader a city that has gods. Often gossamer white clouds veil 



been the capital of the Nearer East, and its summit with the mystery befitting an 



that in the near future may again become abode of those divine. Again, the dark 



a controlling factor in the trade of the storm-clouds -gather, the thunders roll, 



Levant. It is the story of Antioch the and Jupiter launches his thunderbolts of 



Glorious. anger from his throne on high. When 



SEEEucus visits a shrine on mount the H g hts and shadows play over the rug- 



casius & ed s l°P es and the sun glows warm On 



the mountain side, the gods are at peace 



Fleeing for his life across the Syrian and all the w6rld is gay 



Desert, with scarcely fifty horsemen at 



his back, was not an auspicious opening a flight of birds determined the 



for a young man ambitious to found location of seleucia 



a kingdom of his own. But such is the ^ . , . ... , 



■ , fe r o 1 at- 4. 4- ^^,v^ „t hollowing- his religious devotions on 



picture of Seleucus Nicator, favorite of n & *>. . _ , 



M j 4.u n 4. ~,'„„a^ „t +u~ Mount Casius, the flight of a flock of 



Alexander the Great, commander of the > s . 



Macedonian Horse, Governor of Baby- ^ ^ ded * e victorious Seleucus to 



Ion, and finally head of the House of <- he founding of a Mediterranean seaport 



Seleucus, which for nearly three hundred £* hl . s new kingdom. This city of 



years ruled an empire stretching at times Seleucia became large and flourishing, 



from India to the ^gean Sea. with a harbor protected by artificial 



The break up of Alexander's empire breakwaters and a large inclosed basin, 



brought two decades of strife, resulting where the Greek and Roman galleys 



in the emergence of four great divi- could load and unload directly at the 



sions — Egypt at the south, Macedonia wharves. 



and Greece to the west, Asia Minor in From this harbor, in later years, the 



the north, and Syria, with Mesopotamia, Apostles Barnabas and Saul sailed away 



in the center and east. Victory at the to bear their gospel message to the Ro- 



Battle of Ipsus, in 301 B. C, gave Seleu- man world, 



cus control over this Syrian kingdom. The ancient breakwaters, the rock cita- 



Almost the first act of Seleucus after del guarding the harbor entrance, and the 



his victory was to proceed to a sacred outlines of the inner basin can still be 



shrine on the summit of Mount Casius, traced. This same site was surveyed 



and there offer sacrifices of thanksgiving recently by an American syndicate as a 



to Zeus. possible location for a port and the 



Of all the splendid mountains in Syria, terminus of a railway from Asia Minor 



none is more beautiful, more dignified, to the Mediterranean, tapping the rich 



more mysterious, than Mount Casius of mineral regions of the interior. 



