That time two identical cities existed simultaneously.

A poor map of the two cities made by yours truly.

If you have ever read about ancient history, the name Antioch might have come up a few times. Antioch was a great city that served as the capital of the Seleucid Empire before the Roman conquest of Asia Minor. At its peak, the city rivaled Alexandria in Egypt as the chief city in the Middle East.

Fast forward a couple of centuries to the year 540 AD. The Byzantine and Sassanid empires are at war. They are both lead by capable men, Justinian I the Great and Khosrow I Anushiruwan, the trolling Shah of Persia. Due to Justinian focusing on the recapture of Italy from the Ostrogothic hands, Khosrow’s army moved like lightning through the Byzantine territory. Until they reached Antioch. Lucky for Khosrow, the city’s walls were damaged by an earthquake a couple of years back, and he promptly proceeded to sack the city and imprison its inhabitants.

But he didn’t stop there. Oh no. Khosrow didn’t earn the name “the trolling Shah” by just sacking cities and winning pretty much every war.

No sir, he didn’t. See, before he sacked Antioch, he told his architects to make a detailed layout of the city. Every street, every house, and every tiny brick were to be included in the layout.

After annoying Justinian some more, he decided that he has had enough fun for some time, made peace, and returned home. There, next to the city of Ctesiphon, he built an exact copy of Antioch, down to every little detail, and populated it with the people he captured in Antioch.

And how did he name it? Weh Antiok Khusrau, or literally, “Better Antioch, Khosrau built this”. That’s just class.

Antioch was quickly rebuilt by the Byzantines, so these two identical cities existed simultaneously for quite some time.

The whole Byzantine-Sassanian war of 540–545 AD is just filled with Khosrow pulling petty shit like this to troll Justinian, and from the Persian perspective it was hilarious.

Khosrow would later become one of the greatest Shahs Persia has ever seen.

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Edit: Thanks Ashley Jolliffe for pointing out the buy-off part that I forgot to mention. Khosrow originally intended for captives to be sold back to Justinian. He didn’t mean to populate the city with Antiochians, but rather to build it just for the lulz. When Justinian refused, Khosrow saw the trolling potential, and populated the city with Antiochians to show Justinian that his people are better off in Khosrow’s empire.