Laodicea suffered severely at the hands of Mithradates, but, with the reign of Augustus, its real fame and prosperity arose and long continued. About A.D. 1097 it was seized by the Turks, and subsequently was, alternately, in their hands or in those of the Byzantine emperors. In 1190 the Emperor Barbarossa was welcomed by the then inhabitants with much kindness, but, shortly afterwards, it was wholly desolated by the Turks. The zeal of St. Paul for the Church of Laodicea suggests that there must early have been abundant converts to the new faith in its neighbourhood. It is, however, also clear that their allegiance was not very trustworthy, and that they were much inclined to accept a modified form of Christianity. St. Paul’s words in his Epistle to the Colossians (ii. 1) show this plainly enough—“For I would,” says he, “that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” Again, “When this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans” (iv. 16). The Book of Revelation contains, also, strong strictures on the lukewarmness of the Laodiceans. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. iii. 15, 16). Laodicea, though sometimes called Ladik, is more usually known as Eski-Hissar, the Turkish form of the common Levantine title of Palæo-Castro—“Old Castle.” COLOSSÆ, the last of the three towns, has been much confused with the other two, from the haste and want of accurate observation of different travellers. Much time is, indeed, requisite for the comparison of the brief notes of ancient authors with the existing facts. It is not certain when Colossæ was founded, or to what circumstances it owes its name, but it existed some centuries before the Christian era, as it is mentioned by Herodotus as a large and flourishing town of Phrygia when Xerxes passed through it in B.C. 481, on his way from Cappadocia to Sardes (vii. 30); nor had it, apparently, at all decayed when visited by Cyrus the Younger, about eighty years subsequently, (Xen. Anab. i. 2). Like the people of the adjacent Laodicea, the Colossians were great growers of wool. It was nearly destroyed in the days of Nero, but it survived, at all events, as the name of a Christian bishopric, till the time of Hierocles’s _Synecdemus_. Somewhat later, a new town named Chonas was built there, the certain identification of its ruins being mainly due to the fact that Nicetas the Annalist was born there. St. Paul, as we know, wrote an epistle to the Colossians, but his words, “Since we _heard_ of your faith in Christ Jesus,” seem to imply that he was never there himself. On the other hand, Epaphras, who was a native of Colossæ, and Onesimus, are specially noted as having preached there.