I don't know about you, but very often when reading the bible, the place names are just words, and I forget to think about the places, the people in them, and why they might have been important to the spread of the gospel.
Take this passage as an example:
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. Acts 11:19-21
Antioch is mentioned, but not described - probably because the writer (Luke) assumed that anyone reading would know of it. We, however, don't have any reason to know, so a few words of explanation would probably help us get more from this passage and others in which the city is mentioned.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, his generals divided up the conquered territories. Seleucus I Nicator took Syria, and founded Antioch. He named the city in memory of his father, Antiochus, and it became the capital of his empire, remaining so until 64 BC, after which it was annexed by Rome and made the capital of the Roman province of Syria.
Antioch became one of the three greatest cities of the Roman Empire. The three were: Rome (obviously!), with a population estimated to have been as many as a million (no other city would be as large again, until London in the early 19th century); Alexandria (in Egypt), with a population perhaps as high as 700,000; Antioch, with a population of maybe half a million at its greatest.
Antioch was situated just inland from the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea at a sort of crossroads - a place where trade routes from East and West met. The city was known as 'Antioch on the Orontes' or 'Syrian Antioch' to distinguish it from at least a dozen other places called Antioch. It was the western terminus of the Silk Road. Camel caravans arrived bearing spices, silk and other exotic goods. Antioch's situation at the junction of north-south and east-west roads contributed greatly to its growth and prosperity.
Antioch’s patron deity, in common with many Eastern cities, was the goddess Tyche (meaning ‘luck’ in Greek, the Roman equivalent is Fortuna) who was believed to be responsible for its prosperity. It was also known as ‘Antioch the Beautiful’, possessing grand villas, temples, theatres, race-courses, aqueducts and baths. It saw further civic improvements under the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius and under King Herod the Great (the same Herod who features in the story of Jesus’ birth). It had a reputation as an immoral city. Romans took a fairly dim view of the peoples of the East, seeing them as decadent and the men as soft and effeminate - despite the Romans having suffered some of their worst defeats at the hands of, for example, the Parthians.
Many Jews of the Diaspora (i.e. those who lived outside Palestine and maintained their religious faith whilst dwelling among the Gentiles) lived there, some enjoying the privileges of Roman citizenship. They were very keen to make converts, and many Greeks came to follow Judaism. Jewish converts to ‘The Way’ fleeing the persecution in Jerusalem following the stoning of Stephen also came to Antioch, and they told the good news about Jesus, not only to the Jews, but to Gentiles too. As a result, a strong church was formed there. It was at Antioch that the followers of ‘The Way’ were first called Christians.
A cosmopolitan place, and a cultural melting pot, with excellent transport links to the rest of the known world, it was, in many ways, an excellent place from which to start to ‘Go into all the world and make disciples’. The idea of sending missionaries out to convert the nations was born in Antioch. In Acts, only Jerusalem is more closely related to the spread of early Christianity. It was the place from where Paul set out on his three missionary journeys.