Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: 395
Place: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey
Intensity: IX, violent shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 36.100° N, 36.100° E
Country: Turkey
Region: Middle East

The toll

Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

396, Antioch. Heavy destructive. Intensity IX (reference #1222)

395, Antioch. An earthquake damaged Antioch and other cities, probably severely, and may have caused loss of life. Aftershocks followed for at least three days. Earthquake shocks continued for many days, according to Marcellinus Comes, and the sky appeared to be on fire (Prosp. PL 588). a reference perhaps to the comet or supernova visible during August-December 396 (Schove and Fletcher 1984, 289) or possibly an aurora borealis. The earthquake happened during the fourth consulship of Arcadius and the third of Honorius (AD 396). Two 'earthquake sermons' of St John Chrysostom date from the mid 390s, and were clearly intended for the people of Antioch, since they were preached there […] Modern cataloguers say that the earthquake was felt in Constantinople (Guidoboni 1989, 682; Guidoboni et al. 1994, 280-281) or Antioch (Downey 1961 a, 437), but there is no literary evidence to support either suggestion.(reference #9116)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

#1222 Alsinawi, S.A., S.G. Baban, and A.S. Issa (1985). Historical seismicity of the Arab region. IASPEI/UNESCO Working Group on Historical Seismograms and Earthquakes, August 27-28, 1985, Tokyo; Preliminary Proceedings, p. 59-84.
#9116 Ambraseys, Nicolas (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East, A Multidisciplinary Study of Seismicity up to 1900. Cambridge University Press, 947 p.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 395 The 300s Recent earthquakes near here

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 102.