Antioch (or Pisidian Antioch, to distinguish it from the city with the same name in Syria) is an ancient city in Phrygia. It is near the Pisidian border in west-central Turkey. The city was controlled by Seleucus I Nicator (one of Alexander the Great's generals and the founder of the Seleucid Dynasty of rule) sometime after 323 B.C. The Romans took over total control of the city in 25 B.C. Roman Emperor Augustus made Antioch a colony with the name Caesarea Antiochia. It became the center of civil and military administration in southern Galatia. The Apostle Paul visited the city during his first, second and third missionary journeys. During his second journey he took with him to Antioch a new traveling companion named Timothy. Having met Paul in Lystra, Timothy would become a valuable aid in spreading the gospel and eventually be Paul's most trusted friend. He would be with Paul until the very end of his life, when the apostle was martyred by the Romans. Pisidian Antioch, in Paul's day, was notorious for its many robbers. This may have been one of the places Paul alludes to when he lists in the book of 2Corinthians some of the trials and troubles he had experienced while preaching the gospel: "in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, IN PERILS OF ROBBERS, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren . . " (2Corinthians 11:23-26, NKJV)
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