LATAKIA (anc. Laodicea)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 239 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LAP-LEO

LATAKIA (anc. Laodicea) , the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

town of a sanjak in the Beirut vilayet of Syria, situated on the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

, opposite the

island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

of Cyprus. The oldest name of the town, according to

Philo

PHILO
PHILO, HERENNIUS

Herennius, was Paa8a or Aeviil aKTi]; it received that of Laodicea (ad mare) from Seleucus Nicator, who re-founded it in honour of his mother as one of the four "

sister

SISTER

" cities of the Syrian Tetrapolis (Antioch, Seleucia, Apamea, Laodicea). In the Roman period it was favoured by Caesar, and took the name of Julia; and, though it suffered severely when the fugitive Dolabella stood his last siege within its walls (43 B.C.), Strabo describes it as a flourishing port, which supplied, from the vineyards on the mountains, the greater part of the wine imported to Alexandria. The town received the privileges of an Italian colony from Severus, for taking his part against Antioch in the struggle with Niger. Laodicea was the seat of an ancient bishopric, and even had some claim to

metropolitan

METROPOLITAN (Lat. metropolitanus, Gr. ľnrpoiroXtrns)

rights. At the time of the crusades, " Liche," as Jacques de Vitry says it was popularly called, was a wealthy city. It fell to Tancred with Antioch in 1102, and was recovered by Saladin in 1188. A Christian

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

was afterwards permitted to establish itself in the town, and to protect itself by fortifications; but it was expelled by Sultan Kala`tin and the defences destroyed. By the 16th century Laodicea had sunk very low; the revival in the beginning of the 17th was due to the new trade in tobacco. The town has several times been almost destroyed by earthquakesin 1170, 1287 and 1822.
The people are chiefly employed in tobacco cultivation, silk and oil culture, poultry rearing and the sponge fishery. There is a large export of eggs to Alexandria; but the wealth of the place depends most on the famous " Latakia " tobacco, grown in the plain behind the town and on the Ansarieh hills. There are three main varieties, of which the worst is dark in colour and strong in flavour; the best, grown in the districts of Diryus and Amamareh, is light and aromatic, and is exported mainly to Alexandria; but much goes also to

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

, Cyprus and direct to Europe. After the construction of a road through Jebel Ansarieh to Hamah, Latakia drew a good deal of traffic from upper Syria; but the Hamah-Homs railway has now diverted much of this again. The products of the surrounding

district

DISTRICT

, however, cause the town to increase steadily, and it is a regular port of

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

for the main Levantine lines of steamers. The only notable object of antiquity is a triumphal arch, probably of the early 3rd century, in the S.E. quarter of the modern town. Latakia and its neighbourhood formerly produced a very beautiful type of rug, examples of which are highly prized. (D. G. H.)

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