d, and the third linked the port to a monumental four-way arch, or tetrapyle, which was erected at the point of intersection with the north-south colonnaded avenue.Septimius also built baths, a theatre, a hippodrome, numerous sanctuaries and other public buildings in the city. Rome regarded Laodicea as a key strategic seaport in the prized province of Syria.
Throughout the third and fourth centuries, Laodicea remained dependent on Antioch. In 272, the city was seized by Zenobia, the queen of the Palmyrene Empire, following her abortive attempt to take Antioch from Emperor Aurelian. After the revolt of Antioch in 378, Laodicea returned to imperial favor and enjoyed prosperity into the Byzantine period. In 494, the town was damaged by the first of a long series of earthquakes. In 528, Emperor Justinian I created the new province of Theodorias out of the coastal belt around Laodicea, which was rebuilt and fortified against the increasing Persian threat.In 555, another earthquake devastated Latakia.
A sizable Jewish population lived in Laodicea during the first century.The heretic Apollinarius was bishop of Laodicea in the 4th century. The city minted coins from an early date.
Early Islamic era
Laodicea fell to the Rashidun army in 638, under general Abu Ubaida, who reportedly had trenches dug around the town so that even horsemen could advance unobserved; they then pretended to retreat to Homs, only to return at night and surprise the inhabitants. Christians who had left the city were allowed to return and retain their church. Laodicea was known to the Muslims as "al-Ladhiqiyah" or "Latakia",and Umar ibn al-Khattab, the reigning caliph during its capture, assigned it to the administration of Jund Hims.
During its rule by the Umayyads, the town was devastated by a Byzantine raid in 705 and again in 719, when a Byzantine force supported by a fleet burnt the town and took many of its inhabitants into captivity. Restorations
