v49_0283 - SYRIA - SELEUCIA and PIERIA - ANTIOCHIA Unité, (PB, Æ 20)

SYRIA - SELEUCIA and PIERIA - ANTIOCHIA

(1st century BC - 2nd century AD)

Autonomous civic coinage

Antioch was founded in 300 BC by Seleucus I. It was the capital of the Seleucid kingdom before becoming that of the Roman province of Syria. Syria was annexed by Pompey in 64 BC. Under the Empire, Antioch was one of the most populated cities in the Empire with 200,000 to 300,000 inhabitants. A major metropolis of the Roman East, it was also a city threatened by invasions. Parthians then Sassanids threatened or seized the city. It was very early Christianized like Alexandria. The city, cosmopolitan, was the end point of all the caravans from the East.