APAMEA (APAMEIA), the name of several towns in western Asia.
1. A treasure city and stud-depot of the Seleucid kings in the valley of the Orontes, so named by Seleucus Nicator, after Apama, his wife. Destroyed by Chosroes in the 7th century A.D., it was partially rebuilt and known as Famia by the Arabs ; and over thrown by an earthquake in '152.
See R. F. Burton and T. Drake, Unexplored Syria; E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien (1883) .
2. A city in Phrygia, founded by Antiochus Soter and named after his mother ; near, but on lower ground than, Celaenae. Here the Marsyas leaves the hills to join the Maeander, and it became a seat of Seleucid power, and a centre of Graeco-Roman and Graeco-Hebrew commerce. There Antiochus the Great collected the army with which he met the Romans at Magnesia, and there two years later the treaty between Rome and the Seleucid realm was signed. After Antiochus' departure for the East, Apamea lapsed to the Pergamenian kingdom and thence to Rome in but it was resold to Mithridates V., who held it till 120. After the Mithridatic wars it became a great centre for trade carried on by Italians and by Jews. In 84 Sulla made it the seat of a conventus of the Asian province, and it long claimed primacy among Phrygian cities. Disorganization in the 3rd century A.D. led to decline, and though the city was the seat of a bishop it did not revive because trade routes were diverted to Constantinople. The Turks took it first in 1070, and from the 13th century on wards it was always in Muslim hands. An earthquake completed its ruin. The site is now partly occupied by Dineir (q.v.), also called Geikler, which is connected with Smyrna by railway; there are considerable remains, including a great number of im portant Graeco-Roman inscriptions.
See W. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. ii.; G. Weber, (1892) ; D. G. Hogarth in Journ. Hell. Studies (i888) ; 0. Hirschfeld in Trans. Berlin Academy 3. A town on the left bank of the Euphrates, at the end of a bridge of boats (zeugma) ; the Til-Barsip of the Assyrian inscrip tions, now Birijik (q.v.).
4. The earlier Myrlea of Bithynia, now Mudania (q.v.), the port of Brusa. The name was given it by Prusias I., who rebuilt it.
5. A city mentioned by Stephanus and Pliny as situated near the Tigris, the identification of which is still uncertain.
6. A Greek city in Parthia, near Rhagae.