"Antiochia la più bella”: spettacolarità e urbanistica di una fondazione seleucide nell’età di Libanio

The fourth century AD rhetorician Libanius dedicated his eleventh oration to his city, Antioch on the Orontes. The text is a panegyric written on the occasion of the Olympic Games held in Antioch in AD 356, and it offers a broad and enthusiastic presentation of the city, its history and urban planning, from the foundation (300 BC) to Libanius’ own age. Inspired by Libanius’ impressions, my study focuses on the urban planning of Antioch in both phases, under its Hellenistic rulers and during the Roman Empire. Through comparing the Hellenistic and Roman periods, it will emerge that the Romans only added those facilities typical of their architecture and society, without changing the urban texture. The peculiar physiognomy and visual effect of Antioch had, then, already been realized at the time of the Seleucids. In this respect, I will stress the importance of the ancient caravan route which, after its incorporation into the townscape in 170 BC, became the city’s physical and ideological focus and shaped its urban development in subsequent periods; in particular I will emphasize the view from it, which gave the urban structure of Antioch an immediate comprehensibility.