Map of the Roman Empire - Apamea

Apamea
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Apamea (in Phrygia): Large Graeco-oriental city in Syria, also called Celaenae.

Apamea (Aπάμεια). The name of several cities. Apamea ad Orontem, a city of Syria built by Seleucus Nicator on the site of the older city Pella on the river Orontes, and named in honour of his wife Apama. - Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers.

Apamea  APAMEIA
APAMEIA -EA, or--IA (Aπάμεια: Eth. Aπαμεύς, Apameensis,Apamensis,Apamenus, Apamēus)

（Kŭlat el-Mud�k), a large city of Syria, situated in the valley of the Orontes, and capital of the province of Apamene. (Steph. B. sub voce Strab. xvi. p.752; Ptol. 5.15.19; Festus Avienus, 5.1083; Anton. Itin.; Hierocles.) It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicator, who gave it its name after his wife Apama (not his mother, as Steph. B. sub voce asserts; comp. Strab. p. 578). In pursuance of his policy of �Hellenizing� Syria, it bore the Macedonian name of Pella. The fortress (see Groskurd's note on Strabo, p. 752) was placed upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence its other name of Χερρόνησος. Seleucus had his commissariat there, 500 elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300 stallions. The pretender, Tryphon Diodotus, made Apamea the basis of his operations. (Strab. l.c.) Josephus (J. AJ 14.3.2) relates, that Pompeius marching south from his winter quarters, probably at or near Antioch, razed the fortress of Apamea. In the revolt of Syria under Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out for three years till the arrival of Cassius, B.C. 46. (Dion. Cass. 47.26--28; Joseph. B. J. 1.10.10.)

In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place under the Arabic name of F�mieh, and was occupied by Tancred. (Wilken, Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p. 474; Abulfeda, Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.) This name and site have been long forgotten in the country. Niebuhr heard that F�mieh was now called Kŭlat el-Mud�k. (Reise, vol. iii. p. 97.) And Burckhardt (Travels, p. 138) found the castle of this name not far from the lake El Takah; and fixes upon it as the site of Apamea.

Ruins of a highly ornamental character, and of an enormous extent, are still standing, the remains, probably, of the temples of which Sozomen speaks (7.15); part of the town is enclosed in an ancient castle situated on a hill; the remainder is to be found in the plain. In the adjacent lake are the celebrated black fish, the source of much wealth. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, LLD, Ed.