AXTIOCH THE GLORIOUS 



101 



Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams 



GREAT, CREAKING WOODEN WHEELS LlET THE WATERS OE THE ORONTES TO THE 

 IRRIGATION DITCHES, MAKING FERTILE THE ADJACENT PLAINS 



Alany luxuriant gardens still surround the city of Antioch, but the beauty of its once unrivaled 



suburban villas is gone forever. 



said to have been Typhon. The struggles 

 and twistings of this monster under the 

 mountains were held to be the cause of 

 numerous earthquakes along the Orontes 

 Valley. 



However fanciful this explanation may 

 be, the fact remains that time and again 

 the whole region has been devastated by 

 fearful earthquakes. One ancient writer 

 says the foundations of the earth were 

 twisted, and that great cracks were opened 

 in the earth and people were swallowed 

 up alive. 



Ten earthquakes have been enumerated 

 which occurred between 150 B. C. and 

 the sixth century A. D. Since that date 

 there have been many more, and even 

 at the present time frequent tremors are 

 felt along the Orontes Valley. 



The two most destructive earthquakes 

 occurred in the reigns of Trajan and 

 Justinian. In the former it is said that 

 even the people on Mount Casius trem- 

 bled and the fountains and rivers under- 

 went great changes. In the latter there 

 was great loss of life. Large crowds of 



people had gathered in the city to cele- 

 brate the Feast of the Transfiguration. 

 At this time it is said that the very earth 

 seemed to bubble and rise and fires broke 

 out all over the city. 



ONE EARTHQUAKE COST ANTIOCH 250.OOO 

 LIVES 



The loss of life from falling walls and 

 flames is reported at 250,000. This num- 

 ber would seem almost incredible were it 

 not for a similar appalling loss of life at 

 Messina in recent years. 



Besides the earthquakes, other misfor- 

 tunes befell the city. The graphic ac- 

 count given by Gibbon of the earth- 

 quakes, fires, and plagues that from time 

 to time devastated the Roman Empire 

 might well be localized in Antioch. Be- 

 sides these, there were the vicissitudes 

 of war, plunder, and massacre that fre- 

 quently visited the city. 



After each calamity Antioch was re- 

 built, but after the great destruction by 

 the earthquake in Justinian's reign it 



