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Syria, The Great Colonnade at Apamea
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Apamea, on the right bank of the Orontes River, was a treasure city and stud-depot of the Seleucid kings, and was the capital of Apamene. Its site is found about 55 km (34 mi) 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 B.C., who so named it after his Bactrian wife, Apama. The fortress was placed upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form. 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.
Josephus relates, that Pompey marching south from his winter quarters, probably at or near Antioch, razed the fortress of Apamea in 64 B.C. and 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 B.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. The city boasted one of the largest theaters in the Roman world, and a monumental colonnade.
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.
Destroyed by Chosroes I in the 6th century, it was partially rebuilt and known in Arabic as Famia, and destroyed by an earthquake in 1152. In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place and was occupied by Tancred.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apamea,_Syria
The ancient city has been damaged as a result of the ongoing civil war in Syria.
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