ABSTRACT
Much is made of the Hellenistic and subsequent Roman urbanisation of the East, of how cities were both the cornerstone of Roman rule there and their main legacy, that the 'Roman government consciously encouraged the development of settlements into cities'. To some extent, the impression of Roman urbanisation is distorted by inscriptions and definitions, and the surviving inscriptions have been interpreted as a 'conscious disassociation' by the Roman cities from their Near Eastern past. The Romans neither defined nor founded cities in the East. The East had great cities long before and could always teach the Romans a thing or two about cities and urbanisation. Even Jerusalem retained its Roman name of Aelia, as Arabic Ilya, until the Middle Ages. Antioch was born out of the chaos following the division of the spoils after the death of Alexander of Macedon. Seleucia remained the capital until the accession of Antiochus I Soter, Seleucus' son, in 281 bc.
