Jews were among the founders of Antioch and contributed greatly to the social and material evolution of the city. How they adjusted to the imperial agendas of Late Antiquity, as well as their characterization in the textual record are the main objects of inquiry.

This chapter describes the topography and monuments of Antioch as known through the textual sources and archaeological investigations. The earthquakes that shattered the city on various occasions are also foregrounded.

Antioch’s circuses and theaters are well known; however, how they gradually became locus to faction rivalries and hotbeds for civic strife is brought into focus by this chapter.

The opulence of Antioch and Daphne’s houses is well known; how new theoretical and methodological approaches help us evaluate this complicated archaeological record is the focus of this chapter.

This chapter explores the establishemnt of the local mint and its activities from the days of the Seleucid monarchs to the late Roman Empire.

This chapter explores the role of Antioch as a military base for centuries, from the days of the Seleucid kings to the campaigns against the Persians.

Since the 1930s, archaeologists have excavated over 300 mosaics at Antioch and its environs. This essay explores the developments and historiography on Antioch’s mosaics as well as new methodological approaches.

This chapter explores the rise to prominence of Antioch from a nondescript colony to a royal capital.

The materiality of Hellenistic Antioch is confined to a few highly weathered monuments. Nevertheless, the early city plan and urban décor enable the understanding of the urban topography in the following centuries.

The fourth century AD historian Ammianus Marcellinus remarked that “no wild beasts are such enemies to mankind as are most of the Christians in their deadly hatred of one another.” More to the point, the discussion of the nature of Christ drove a wedge within Christian communities in Antioch as elsewhere and ignited conflicts on a unprecedented scale. This chapter describes how the playing out of these debates had repercussions at all the levels of Antiochene society.

This chapter explores the essential aspect of water harvesting practices in Antioch, whether designed to tap into the Daphne springs to feed the aqueducts and baths or to impound runoff against floods. More subtly, the analysis documents the efforts of the royal and imperial agencies in controlling the city’s water infrastructure.

A systematic review of the Classical, Late Antique, and Byzantine sources that underpin the study of Antioch.

This chapter explores intellectual responses to disasters and the creation and use of the disaster-divine wrath discourse as it spread from homilies to histories over time. It argues for centering human responses to disaster as the way forward using critical disaster theory.

Comparing the fourth-century writings of John Chrysostom and Libanius with the sixth-century writings of Severus of Antioch and John Malalas suggests that Jewish characters continued to play significant roles in Christian writings even as Jews themselves became less visible in the city of Antioch.