Laodicea
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(people's judgment) (Col 2:1; 4:13; Rev 1:11; 3:14) - a city of Asia Minor in Phrygia, near the border of Lydia, upon the Lycus River a little above its confluence with the Maeander, not far west of Colossae and about forty English miles east of Ephesus. It was formerly called Diospolis and Rhoas, but Antiochus II renamed it Laodicea. It was a large and wealthy commercial city with splendid buildings. Not long after Paul's references to it in Colossians, it suffered a severe earthquake but soon recovered.