y for nearly
two centuries. It fell at last to the Egyptian, Bibars, in 1268, after a
great destruction and slaughter, from which it never revived. Little
remains now of the ancient city, except colossal ruins of aqueducts and
part of the Roman walls, which are used as quarries for modern Antakia;
but no scientific examination of the site has been made. A statue in the
Vatican and a silver statuette in the British Museum perpetuate the type
of its great effigy of the civic Fortune of Antioch--a majestic seated
figure, with Orontes as a youth issuing from under her feet.

ANTAKIA, the modern town, is still of considerable importance. Pop.
about 25,000, including Ansarieh, Jews, and a large body of Christians
of several denominations about 8000 strong. Though superseded by Aleppo
(q.v.) as capital of N. Syria, it is still the centre of a large
district, growing in wealth and productiveness with the draining of its
central lake, undertaken by a French company. The principal cultures are
tobacco, maize and cotton, and the mulberry for silk production.
Liquorice also is collected and exported. In 1822 (as in 1872) Antakia
suffered by earthquake, and when Ibrahim Pasha made it his headquarters
in 1835, it had only some 5000 inhabitants. Its hopes, based on a
Euphrates valley railway, which was to have started from its port of
Suedia (Seleucia), were doomed to disappointment, and it has suffered
repeatedly from visitations of cholera; but it has nevertheless grown
rapidly and will resume much of its old importance when a railway is
made down the lower Orontes valley. It is a centre of American mission
enterprise, and has a British vice-consul.

See C.O. Miiller, _Antiquitates Antiochenae_ (1839); A. Freund,
_Beitrage zur antiochenischen ... Stadtchronik_ (1882); R. Forster, in
_Jahrbuch_ of Berlin Arch. Institute, xii. (1897). Also authorities
for SYRIA. (D. G. H.)

SYNODS OF ANTIOCH. Beginning with three synods convened between 264 and
269 in the matter of Paul of Samosata, more than thirty councils were
held in Antioch in ancient times. Most of these dealt with phases of the
Arian and of the Christological controversies. The most celebrated took
place in the summer of 341 at the dedication of the golden Basilica, and
is therefore called _in encaeniis_ ([Greek: en egkainiois]), _in
dedicatione_. Nearly a hundred bishops were present, all from the
Orient, but the bishop of Rome was not represented. The emperor
C