On a day like today in 250 A.D...
Muffled staccato of an imminent thunderstorm speeds the pace of wharf side activities at Seleucia Pieria, the port of ancient Antioch, today's Antakya. Longshoremen, right, lug wine amphorae from a Roman vessel. A servant girl, center, queries the price of clams for her Greek master’s table. A vendor, left, hurries with his unplucked wares to the marketplace. Beyond, workmen unload a Corinthian capital; column base and yet-to-be-fluted central section rest on the stone-paved dock. Temple and warehouses flank the harbor, guarded by a watchtower and lighthouse at its entrance. Today, a plain of silt, tilled by Turkish farmers, covers the site of both port and harbor.
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