Maybe we need to take time out from the current agonizing over the threatened 2008 closedown of Antioch College in Ohio, and remember Antioch College's origins and namesake. I did some writing about this in the past I dust off , and offer here (below).

I wrote quite a bit submitted and published on this website about four years ago in 2003 and used the name Yazz Cudd...I'm a movie actor and have used several professional names...currently it's YAZZ ALLEN but my birth name is David Roger Allen. In 2003, it was Yazz Cudd.

Under that name, I wrote the following about the connection between the ancient city of Antioch in Ancient Syria and Antioch College (the entire city of Antioch was later given to Turkey which owns the city of Antioch presently....same city...the international boundry lines changed, were redrawn sort of gerrymander style, and Syria lost Antioch City, and Turkey gained it...relatively recently....the city didn't move...just the international boundry lines! Anitoch City sat on the NW border of Syria and Turkey, next to the Mediterannean Sea...actually about 16 miles from the Sea itself, slightly inland, but connected by a river which made the city a port city of importance.).

The question of "Why Antioch is called Antioch?" is answered glibbly and inadequately with the explanation that ancient Antioch was the first place "Christians" could openly proclaim their religion, and the religious founders of Antioch College were inspired by that.

There's a LOT more to why Antioch College was named after Antioch city in ancient Syria.

A recent post on this website mentioned my 2003 writing, and Yazz Atlas '97 lamented that the writer didn't cite the entire writing piece I did and its location. I dug it up and re-submit it here. It's a nice break from all the agonizing going on now, and the search for the end to the current Antioch College closedown crisis (July 2007 as I write this in Shrewsbury PA USA)...........

Let's think about the ancient city of Antioch, and its connection to Antioch College, Ohio...........
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Antioch In Ohio And Antioch In The Middle East
Mon, 2003-11-03 09:12 — yazz
"The ancient city of Antioch, in the pre-Christian era, was a place of astonishing, memorable, and worthy political, social, and cultural freedom and development. It was physically and culturally beautiful.

Ancient Antioch really was a shining star of civilization and civilized living in ancient Mediterranean history. It set standards admired and widely written about by its contemporaries, seldom equalled since. It was a good place to live. It was amazingly free from social and political oppression.

The founders of Antioch College in the pre-Civil War era of American history were highly educated people, well aware of the history of ancient Antioch. Antiochians as well as friends and admirers of Antioch College should know the basic facts of that history.

Ancient Antioch was a city located seven miles from the Mediterranean Sea on the Orontes River, formerly located in Syria until the close of World War II, when the French who had occupied it since the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, reassigned the ancient Antioch location to Turkey, very near the Turkish/Syrian border where those two countries meet at the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, the city Antioch College is named after is now located in Turkey, and called by the name of Antakya.

It is no longer a major center of politics and culture, as was the case in ancient times.

Ancient Antioch was named for the father of the city's founder, Seleucus I Nicator, one of the ablest generals of Alexander The Great. Seleucus was awarded the "satrapy" of Babylon, an area including present day Syria and Iraq. He established the ancient Syrian empire in 312 BC, and named his newly established capital city of the Syrian Empire in Northern Syria near the Mediterranean Sea for his father, Antiochcus I. Over the next 200 plus years, many kings also called "Antiochus" ruled over the Syrian Empire from the capital city of Antioch.

Ancient Antioch and the Syrian empire were centers of independent power and wealth for hundreds of years until Pompey, the great Roman general, overthrew its last king, Antiochcus XIII in 64 BC. Antioch and the Syrian Empire became part of the Roman Empire, and though the city of ancient Antioch remained important, its former glory and cultural independence and importance were never completely restored.

In the centuries following its founding in 312 BC, the city of Antioch became famous for its physical beauty, and its imaginative development of preclassical modes of artistic expression. Public architecture and buildings included basilicas, baths, and libraries of intricate and astonishing complexity and loveliness. Streets and public places were decorated with variagated stonework employing brightly colored patterns and mosaics.

Visitors to the city at the height of its greatness reported that simply walking along the main streets of Antioch was a breathtaking experience. It's beauty and charm were almost overwhelming, and duplicated nowhere else in the civilized world.

Everyone, regardless of background and identity, was welcomed to ancient Antioch. Differences among people and ideas were regarded as valuable, sources of new ideas and methods to be added to Antioch's constantly changing cultural and political life. The level of personal, political, and cultural freedom at Antioch reached astonishing heights reported widely throughout the civilized world, seldom duplicated in other places, or during subsequent periods of history anywhere in the world.

In 1923, an expedition of American archaeologists was dispatched to the site of the ancient city of Antioch, sponsored by museums in both Wooster, Massachusetts (near Boston) and Baltimore, Maryland. The entire region had just been conquered by Europeans who occupied the area following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, allies of the defeated Germans during World War I. It was easy for outsiders to march in and take precious ancient artifacts from the conquered territory. This the American archiologists did,and removed enormous quantities of mosaics and other ancient treasures for display in American museums.

The Baltimore, Maryland Museum Of Art received the lion's share of the huge mosaics taken from ancient Antioch. This was largely because the heir to the Baltimore And Ohio Railroad forture, John Work Garrett, a Baltimore resident, had bankrolled the expedition. To this day, the central display area of the Baltimore MD USA Museum of Art is dominated by the breathtaking examples of mosaic stonework, more than 2000 years old, taken from the site of ancient Antioch.

Last year, in 2002, the Art Museum Of Wooster, Massachusetts and the Baltimore Museum Of Art mounted a traveling exhibit titled "Treasures Of Antioch," which displayed a huge number of artifacts gotten from the 1923 "dig" at ancient Antioch, and also featured a video presentation which included scenes from present day Antioch ("Antakya, Turkey") as well as a large printed work which discussed in detail the cultural importance and uniqueness of the ancient city.
The exhibit was sent for four months each to Wooster, Massachussetts; Cleveland, Ohio; and Baltimore, Maryland.

The ancient city of Antioch was featured importantly in the silent movie version of BEN-HUR (1924) where the hero, Judah Ben-Hur is told to journey there, because "all roads lead to Antioch."

St. Paul traveled to ancient Antioch along with his fellow persecuted Christians, because Antioch was known as a city where open expression of all ideas and points of view were tolerated and welcomed. Ancient Antioch was the first place where Christians could proclaim themselves as being who they were, openly, and without fear of attack or intolerance.

Antioch College was named after this important city.

From the start, the traditions and goals of Antioch College in Ohio were linked to the examples of freedom, intelligence, beauty, and true civilization set by the ancient city of Antioch in Syria.

Antiochians and Antioch supporters should remember this, and spend time learning about and remembering the history and meaning of the ancient city of Antioch.

The founders of Antioch College set an important standard for us all by naming the school we are all part of after an example of true civilization. They hoped Antioch College and people associated with it would emulate and further the example of ancient Antioch.

We owe it to Antioch's founders to "keep the faith." We may be knocked down and find ourselves bleeding for awhile, but then it's time to get up and fight again. Antioch is worth fighting for.

Thank you for reading this.

Sincerely, Yazz Cudd"
(Note: "Yazz Cudd" is the same person as "Yazz Allen '66" and "David Roger Allen '66".....three different names for the same writer, same Antiochian!)