Antioch’s Silent Guardians

When a massive earthquake struck Antakya, Turkey, in 2023 (see Going, Going, Gone: Devastation in Antakya), this was, sadly, far from the first time. A long history of devastating earthquakes—along with thick alluvial deposits from the Orontes River—explains why so little of the ancient Greco-Roman city, Antioch-on-the-Orontes, survives and why neither the imperial residence nor the Great Church, begun under Constantine the Great, has been found.a Antioch’s architectural glories are nevertheless preserved in the writings of some illustrious local figures, such as John Chrysostom (c. 349–407 CE)—a popular preacher and, later, a short-lived bishop of Constantinople. Unlike his teacher Libanius, […]