GREEK - City of Apameia - about 50
miles south of Antiocheia, Apameia was named after Apame,
wife of Seleukos I -
Bronze 19mm (6.9 grams) Struck
circa 37-36 B.C. Reference: Sear 5868 -
Bust of Athena
right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet.
Nike
advancing left, holding wreath and palm; ΛΠΑΜΕΩΝ / ΤΗΣ
ΙΕΡΑΣ behind, ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΝΟΜΟΥ before; in field to left,
SΟΣ (= year 276).
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Apamea or Apameia (Greek:
Απάμεια;
Arabic أفاميا or آفاميا, Afamia) was a
treasure city and stud-depot of the
Seleucid kings, was capital of
Apamene, on the right bank of the
Orontes River. (Steph.
B. s. v.;
Strabo xvi. p. 752;
Ptolemy v. 15. § 19;
Festus Avienus, v. 1083;
Anton. Itin.;
Hierocles). Its site is found about 55 km to the
northwest of
Hama,
Syria, overlooking the
Ghab valley. Previously known as Pharmake, it was
fortified and enlarged by
Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC, who so named it after
his
Bactrian wife,
Apama not his mother, as Stephanus asserts;
compare Strabo, p. 578). In pursuance of his policy of
Hellenizing Syria, it bore the
Macedonian name of Pella. The fortress was placed
upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake
and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence its other
name of Cherronźsos. Seleucus had his commissariat
there, 500 elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300
stallions. The pretender,
Diodotus Tryphon, made Apamea the basis of his
operations. (Strab. l. c.) Located at a strategic
crossroads for Eastern commerce, the city flourished to
the extent that its population eventually numbered half
a million. It was one of the four cities of the
Syrian tetrapolis.
Josephus (Ant. xiv. 3. § 2) relates, that
Pompey marching south from his winter quarters,
probably at or near
Antioch, razed the fortress of Apamea in 64 BC
whence the city was annexed to the
Roman Republic. In the revolt of Syria under
Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out against
Julius Caesar for three years till the arrival of
Cassius, 46 BC. (Dion.
Cass. xlvii. 2628; Joseph. Bel. Jud. i. 10.
§ 10.) On the outbreak of the
Jewish War, the inhabitants of Apamea spared the
Jews who lived in their midst, and would not suffer them
to be murdered or led into captivity (Josephus,
Bell. Jud. ii. 18, § 5). Destroyed by
Chosroes I in the 7th century it was partially
rebuilt and known in
Arabic as Famia or Fāmieh; and destroyed by an
earthquake in 1152. In the
Crusades it was still a flourishing and important
place and was occupied by
Tancred. (Wilken, Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p.
474; Abulfeda, Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.)
The acropolis hill is now occupied by the ruins
called Kalat el-Mudik (Kŭlat el-Mudīk). The ruins of a
highly ornamental character, and of an enormous extent,
are still standing, the remains, probably, of the
temples of which Sozomen speaks (vii. 15); part of the
town is enclosed in an ancient castle situated on a
hill; the remainder is to be found in the plain. In the
adjacent lake are the celebrated black fish, the source
of much wealth.
Both the
Jerusalem
Targumim considered the city of Shepham (Num.
xxxiv. 11) to be identical with Apamea. Since Apamea
virtually belonged to Rabbinic Palestine, the
first-fruits brought by Ariston from that town were
accepted for sacrifice in Jerusalem (Mishnah Ḥal. iv.
11). Apamea remains a
titular see of the
Roman Catholic Church, Apamenus in Syria; the
seat has been vacant since the death of the last bishop
in 1974.
[1]
View of Apamea's ruins, Syria.
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