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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams 



TIIK WATERS OF DAI' I INK 



High banks of moss and ferns, with the streams of water spread 

 out in lace-like falls, give to the place a deliciously cool and re- 

 freshing aspect. It was within sound of these waters that the 

 ancients were accustomed to celebrate the Feast of Fertility, which 

 eventually degenerated into such immoral revels that Rome herself 

 was scandalized. 



It was quite the fashion in ancient 

 days for a conqueror to commemorate 

 his victories by the building of cities. In 

 this particular Seleucus seems to have 

 excelled. He is said to have founded, in 

 all. nine cities named for himself. Se- 

 leucia ; sixteen named for his father's 

 family, Antioch; six for his mother. 

 Laodicea; and three named Apamea for 

 his Persian princess, given him as bride 

 by Alexander. 



Four of these cities were in northern 

 Syria and became the center of the great 



Seleucid Empire. An- 

 tioch of Syria, beside 

 the Orontes River, 

 twenty miles from the 

 sea, was the capital ; 

 Seleucia, at the foot 

 of a rocky headland, a 

 short distance north 

 of the Orontes, was 

 Antioch's seaport; 

 Laodicea, south of 

 Mount Casius, a flour- 

 ishing coast city, and 

 for a time replacing 

 Antioch itself as the 

 seat of the Roman Gov- 

 ernment ; and Apamea, 

 on the Orontes near 

 Hama, was the great 

 military training camp. 

 At Apamea, Seleu- 

 cus placed the 500 ele- 

 phants he had brought 

 from India, and here, 

 at one time, he as- 

 sembled 30.000 mares 

 and 300 blooded stal- 

 lions. 



But by far the most 

 famous of all these 

 cities was Syrian An- 

 tioch, the capital, which 

 came to be spoken of 

 as "Antioch the Glori- 

 ous." 'The Eve of the 

 Orient," "The Gate 

 of the East." And 

 through this gate there 

 flowed eastward the 

 great tide of Greek 

 art and civilization 

 and Roman law. 

 According to the 

 Roman reformer and satirist. Juvenal, 

 from Antioch also "the waters of the 

 Orontes overflowed into the Tiber." and 

 thence came superstitions and indul- 

 gences and excesses that caused the cor- 

 ruption of Rome. This may be true, but 

 also it was "in Antioch that the disciples 

 were first called Christians." 



AN EAGLE DIRECTED SELEUCUS TO THE 

 SITE OF ANTIOCH 



While engaged in offering sacrifices in 

 the city of Antigonia. the capital of 



