LAODICEA  , the name of at least eight cities, founded or renovated in the later Hellenic

period . Most of them were founded by the, Seleucid kings of Syria . Seleucus, founder of the dynasty, is said by Appian to have named five cities after his mother Laodice . Thus in the immense realm of the Seleucidae from the Aegean Sea to the borders of India we find cities called Laodicea, as also Seleucia (q.v.) . So long as Greek civilization held its ground, these were the commercial and social centres . The chief are Laodicea ad Lycum (see below); Combusta on the borders of Phrygia, Lycaonia and Pisidia; a third in Pontus; a fourth, ad mare, on the coast of Syria; a fifth, ad Libanum, beside the Lebanon mountains; and three others in the far east—Media, Persia and the lower Tigris valley . In the latter countries Greek civilization was short-lived, and the last three cities disappeared; the other five continued great throughout the Greek and Roman period, and the second, third and fourth retain to the present day the ancient name under the pronunciation Ladik, Ladikiyeh or Latakia (q.v.) .