Apamea is believed to be the Biblical city Shepham (Num. xxxiv. 11). It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus I Nicator, who renamed it from Pharmake to Apamea, after his Bactrian wife, Apama. The Seleukids' elephant breeding and training camp was at Apamea. The pretender, Diodotus Tryphon, made Apameia the basis of his operations. At a strategic crossroad on the road to Cappadocia, Apamea was an important trade center in Roman Asia and flourished to the extent that its population eventually numbered half a million. The city boasted one of the largest theaters in the Roman world, and a monumental colonnade. The ruins of Apamea, with an enormous and highly ornamental acropolis, are about 55 km (34 mi) to the northwest of Hama, Syria. |  |