The Great Colonnade of Apamea: Written Sources, Epigraphic Evidence and Archaeological Data. Chronological Landmarks for the Research of the Major Monument
Balty J.-Ch.
Combining various data, applying comparative method (in particular, comparison with Antioch) and taking into consideration the history of earthquakes in this region the author reconstructs earlier periods of the history of Apamea. The plan of the city did not change since the foundation in the late 4th c. BC and was orthogonal, being organized around the north-south oriented street surrounded with columns. A series of exploration shafts extra muros discovered remains of a colonnaded street dated to ca. 100 BC, which must have been the continuation of the colonnade inside the city, known only for the later period of the considerable urban renewal that followed the disastrous earthquake of 115 AD. Recent research near the North Gate has shown that three constructions discovered there beneath the level of the 2nd c. AD colonnade (the exedra in honour of C. Ummidius Durmius, governor of Syria in 51–60; the water tower with a fragmented inscription telling of the construction of aqueduct by Emperor Claudius in 46/47; the monumental Nymphaeum) belong to the same period of construction which followed the earthquake of 47, when the city began to be called Claudia Apamea.