On December 13, 115 AD. could completely change the course of the history of the Roman Empire. That day there was an earthquake in the city of Antioch on the Orontes (today Antakya on the southeast coast of Turkey), whose maximum intensity on the Mercalli scale has been estimated as XI or extreme . That day, caught in the middle of the earthquake, the Emperor Trajan and his successor Hadrian were there.
On the magnitude scale of surface waves it reached 7.5 and the city was practically destroyed, and with it the largest colonnaded avenue of antiquity that was no less than 2 kilometers and 275 meters long flanking the cardo of the city.
The city, at that time, was full of Roman troops, but also many civilians, because Trajan was wintering there, preparing to culminate his war against the Parthians, fresh from a campaign in Armenia, and the imperial court was accompanying him . Hadrian had been in Antioch since January 114 AD, the city in which he had fixed his residence as an imperial legate.
Although both Trajan and Hadrian were able to escape with only minor injuries, Consul Marco Pedon Vergiliano was not so lucky and was killed.
It all started in the early hours of the morning, with a loud bang, while most of the inhabitants of Antioch were still sleeping, possibly including the emperor. Those outside could immediately feel a violent jolt, and saw trees suddenly uprooted and felled, as everything began to shake with great force.
Trajano, possibly woken up by the initial rumble, had just enough time to climb out of his bedroom window as the walls and ceiling were already collapsing under the onslaught of the earthquake, sustaining injuries in the fall.
Adriano, who was probably in his official residence, managed to get out in a similar way and also with minor injuries caused either by the collapse of the building or by having to jump from a high floor. In any case, they both headed in the direction of the circus, the only open place where there was no danger of collapse.
There, in the circus, a temporary camp was established, where everyone, including the emperor, remained during the time that the earthquake and its aftershocks lasted. Duration, which according to Cassius Dio was several days and nights.
Three-quarters of the city was destroyed, and virtually every structure sustained some sort of damage. Once the ground stopped shaking, it was time to search through the ruins and rubble for survivors.
The scenes of horror, described with great realism by the historian Dio Cassius, show the great desolation caused by the tremor.
The earthquake triggered a tsunami on the Levantine coast that seriously damaged the port of Caesarea Maritima, as recorded in the Talmud, and other coastal towns. The total number of victims of the earthquake is estimated at around 260,000, a number that some consider exaggerated or at least not very reliable. If correct, the Antioch earthquake would be one of the deadliest in history.
The area is the point of convergence of several tectonic plates (African, Arabian, Anatolian) and has therefore suffered several large earthquakes in the last 2,000 years. In fact, that earthquake of the year 115 A.D. It was already the third time that Antioch had been destroyed by an earthquake. And it would not be the last, because in 526 A.D. it suffered another earthquake that completely destroyed it.
Trajan immediately ordered the start of reconstruction work on the city, which would be implemented and continued by Hadrian.
According to the 6th century AD chronicler John Malalas, a native of Antioch, Trajan commemorated the rebuilding of the city by erecting a gilded copy of the Tyche of Eutychides in the theater. Tyche was the patron deity of Antioch, she presided over the city's prosperity, bringing hope and good fortune to its citizens. Tyche's original sculpture was a bronze statue by the Greek sculptor Eutychides, a student of Lysippus, created for the city of Antioch in the early 3rd century BC. which shows the goddess crowned with towers, sitting on a rock, symbol of Mount Silpius, with her feet resting on the Orontes River, represented as a young swimmer.
One year and eight months after Trajan's death earthquake, on August 11, 117 AD, Hadrian was proclaimed emperor by the army at Antioch. He remained in the city until September, when he left for Rome.