In the winter of 113/114 CE, Roman Emperor Trajan established his headquarters at Antioch for his campaign against the Parthian Empire. About two years later, the city was struck by a devastating earthquake that nearly cost him his life. Accounts describe widespread destruction throughout Antioch, with nearby Daphne also severely damaged.
Based on the detailed chronology of the sixth-century Antiochene historian Johannes Malalas, Guidoboni et al. (1994) and Ambraseys (2009) assign the date of 13 December 115 CE to the earthquake. Other late writers, such as Orosius and Michael the Syrian, suggested earlier years (around 110 CE)1, but these are less reliable. Because the disaster struck while Trajan was residing in Antioch, the event must fall between 113 and 116 CE.
The most credible early writer, Dio Cassius, offered a vivid account describing the emperor’s narrow escape, the collapse of houses, temples, and colonnades, and the immense loss of life. Dio also notes that “many cities suffered,” implying damage beyond Antioch and Daphne. Among the possible casualties was Apamea, where large imperial reconstruction projects followed—suggesting the possibility of earthquake damage even if not explicitly mentioned in the texts.
Although seismites in the Dead Sea and tsunami deposits in Caesarea have occasionally been linked to this earthquake, such an association is improbable given the distance from Antioch. These deposits are more plausibly attributed to the early-second-century CE Incense Road Earthquake.