Laodicea in Syria
Laodicea in Syria, also called Laodicea-by-the-Sea, was an ancient port city near today’s Latakia. It was founded in the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator in honor of his mother Laodice and later became part of the Roman Empire. In AD 193, Emperor Septimius Severus made it the capital of Roman Syria, and from 528 to 636 it was the capital of the Byzantine province of Theodorias until it was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate.
The city prospered from wine production in nearby hills and from textiles. The harbor, known to the Greeks as Leukê Aktê (White Coast), and a network of roads boosted trade. Laodicea minted coins from early Roman times, with famous issues during Severus’s era.
Today the site is in ruins, but some traces remain in the modern town. Laodicea had a wide north-south street with porticoes, three east-west colonnaded streets, and a central road crossing with a tetrapylon. A monumental arch stood near the port area, and there was a theater (now largely gone). The whole site and port covered about 220 hectares.
The city also hosted a sizable Jewish population in the first century AD. Legio VI Ferrata used Laodicea as winter quarters during the Jewish-Roman War. Under Septimius Severus the city grew strong enough to be the capital of Roman Syria for a time, with about 40,000 inhabitants and an amphitheater and hippodrome.
Christianity became prominent after Constantine the Great, and Laodicea had several bishops who attended ecumenical councils. An important bishop in the 4th century was Apollinarius. An earthquake struck the city in 494, and Justinian I later made Laodicea the capital of the Byzantine province of Theodorias in the early 6th century, a status it held for more than a century until the Arab conquest. Saint Paul is said to have visited Laodicea and helped establish the Christian community there, with bishops under the Patriarch of Antioch.
Today the site is ruins but accessible to visitors.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:34 (CET).