LAODICEA (AaoSiKeta). There were several places of this name, four of which it may be well to distinguish, in order to prevent them from being confounded with one another. Tbe first was in the western part of Phrygia, on the borders of Lydia ; the second, in the eastern part of the same country, denominated Laodicea Combusta ; the third, on the coast of Syria, called Laodicea ad Mare, and serving as the port of Aleppo ; and tbe fourth, in the same country, called Laodicea ad Libanum, from its proximity to that mountain. The third of these, that on the coast of Syria, was destroyed by the great earthquake of Aleppo in August 1822, and at the time of that event was supposed by many to be the Laodicea of Scripture, although in fact not less than four hundred miles from it. But the first named, lying on the confines of Phrygia and Lydia, about forty miles east of Ephesus, is the only Laodicea mentioned in Scrip ture, and is that one of tbe 'seven churches in Asia,' to which St. John was commissioned to deliver the awful warning contained in Rev. iii.
14-19. The fulfilment of this warning is to be sought, as we take it, in the history of the Chris tian church which existed in that city, and not in tbe stone and mortar of the city itself ; for it is not the city, but the church of the Laodiceans,' which is denounced. It is true that the city is utterly ruined ; but this is the case with innumer able other towns in Asia Minor. It is the pre cise reference to the seven churches as such, without any other reference to the cities than as giving them a name, which imparts a marked distinction to the Apocalyptic prophecies. But this has been little heeded by writers on the subject, who some what unaccountably seek, in the actual and mate rial condition of these cities, the accomplishment of spiritual warnings and denunciations. At the present day, would an authorised denunciation of the church in London,' as in danger of being cast forth for its lukewarmness, be understood to imply that London itself was destined to become a heap of ruins, with its bridges broken down, and its palaces and temples overthrown ? Laodicea was the capital of Greater Phrygia, and a very considerable city at the time it was named in Scripture (Strabo, p. 578) ; but the fre quency of earthquakes, to which this district has always been liable, demolished, some ages after, great part of the city, destroyed many of the in habitants, and eventually obliged the remainder to abandon the spot altogether. Smith, in his your
ney to the Seven Churches (1671), was the first to describe the site of Laodicea. He was followed by Chandler and Pococke ; and the locality has, within the present century, been visited by Mr. Hartley, Mr. Arundell, and Col. Leake.
Laodicea is now a deserted place, called by the Turks Eski-hissar (Old Castle), a Turkish word equivalent to Paleo-kastro, which the Greeks so frequently apply to ancient sites. From its ruins, Laodicea seems to have been situated upon six or seven hills, taking up a large extent of ground. To the north and north-east runs the river Lycus, about a mile and a half distant ; but nearer it is watered by two small streams, the Asopus and Caprus, the one to the west, and the other to the south-cast, both passing into the Lycus, which last flows into the Mxander (Smith, p. 85).
Laodicea preserves great remains of its import ance as the residence of the Roman governors of Asia under the emperors ; namely, a stadium, in uncommon preservation, three theatres, one of which is 45o feet in diameter, and the ruins of several other buildings (Antiq. of Ionia, pt. ii., p. 32 ; Chandler's Asia Minor, c. 67). Col. Leake say-s There are few ancient sites more likely than Laodicea to preserve many curious remains of antiquity beneath the surface of the soil ; its opulence, and thc earthquakes to which it was subject, rendering it probable that valuable works of art were often there buried beneath the ruins of the public and private edifices (Cicero, Epist. ad ii. 17 ; 5 ; v. 20 ; Tacit. Annul. xiv. 27). And a similar remark, though in a lesser degree, perhaps, will apply to the other cities of the vale of the Mxander, as well as to some of those situated to the north of Mount Tmolus ; for Strabo (pp. 579, 628, 630) informs us that Phila delphia, Sardis, and Magnesia of Sipylus, were, not less than Laodicea and the cities of the Mman der as far as Apameia at the sources of that river, subject to the same dreadful calamity' (Geography of Asia Minor, p. 253).