Editing Damascus (section)

===Hellenistic period===
Damascus was conquered by [[Alexander the Great]]. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Damascus became the site of a struggle between the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] and [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemaic]] empires. The control of the city passed frequently from one empire to the other. [[Seleucus I Nicator]], one of Alexander's generals, made [[Antioch]] the capital of his vast empire, which led to the decline of Damascus' importance compared with new Seleucid cities such as [[Latakia|Syrian Laodicea]] in the north. Later, [[Demetrius III Eucaerus|Demetrius III]] Philopator rebuilt the city according to the Greek [[hippodamian]] system and renamed it "Demetrias".<ref>Cohen raises doubts about this claim in {{Citation | author1=Cohen, Getzel M | author2=EBSCOhost | title=The Hellenistic settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa | date=2006 | publisher=University of California Press | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32915052 | access-date=26 May 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140527214426/http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32915052 | archive-date=27 May 2014 | url-status=live }} page 137 note 4 – suggesting the ''received tradition'' of the renaming rests on a few writers following Mionnets writings in 1811</ref>