Al-Rastan () is the third largest city in the Homs Governorate, located north of its administrative capital Homs and from Hama. Nearby localities include Talbiseh and al-Ghantu to the south, al-Zaafaraniyah and al-Mashrafah to the southeast, Murayj al-Durr to the northeast, Tumin to the north, Deir al-Fardis to the northwest and Kafr Nan and the Houla village cluster to the west. Ar-Rastan had a population of nearly 40,000 in 2004.
It occupies the site of the Hellenistic-era city of Arethusa () and still contains some of its ancient ruins. It continued to exist as a relatively small, but strategic town throughout the early Islamic and Ottoman eras. Ar-Rastan is situated adjacently south of the large bridge linking Homs and Hama. The total land area of the town is 350 hectares. It is the site of the al-Rastan Dam, a major dam on the Orontes River that has a retaining capacity of 225 million m³. The dam is principally used for irrigation. The city also contains one of Syria's principal marlstone quarries.
From the start of the Syrian Civil War until 2018, Ar-Rastan served as a major opposition stronghold and had been the site of much fighting between Syrian Armed Forces and rebels of various factions. The Syrian government retook control of the city on 15 May 2018 as part of an agreement which allowed rebels and their families safe passage to rebel-held parts of northern Syria in exchange for surrendering the territory along with their heavy weapons.
History
Classical era
Ar-Rastan was built on the site of ancient Arethusa. According to Roman historian Appian, Arethusa was established by Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid dynasty in the 3rd century BC. Most sources agree Seleucus named it after the city of Arethusa in Macedonia, but others claim it was named after a spring in Sicily with the same name. Arethusa in native Syriac was called Arastan, also mentioned in the Christian First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. To a lesser extent, the name "Arastan" continued to be used by the indigenous inhabitants, alongside "Arethusa".
It served as the first capital of the Emesani kingdom in central Syria, a vassal of the Roman Empire, in the mid-1st-century BC. Roman historian Strabo stated that it was well governed under the phylarch Sampsiceramus I from 64 to 63, when the Roman general Pompey captured it. Emesani control was restored by 46 BC when it was ruled by Iamblichus I. During the Roman civil war that followed the death of Julius Caesar, the city's inhabitants sided with Mark Antony against Octavian. Nonetheless, Arethusa became an independent city-state following Octavian's victory in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, but returned to Emesani control eleven years later. Thereafter, its status declined with the rise of nearby Emesa (modern-day Homs) as a religious and political center. In the 3rd century AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian stayed in the city during his campaign against Zenobia.
Byzantine era
Arethusa was a Christian bishopric by the beginning of the 4th century. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 counted among its participants a Bishop Eustathius of Arethusa.
In the time of Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361), Bishop Marcus (Mark) of Arethusa was authorized to replace a pagan temple in the city with a Christian church. Under Julian the Apostate (361–363), he was ordered to rebuild the temple. To avoid doing so he fled from the city, but returned to save the Christian people from paying the penalty in his stead, and in 362 underwent very cruel treatment at the hands of the pagan mob, as recounted by Theodoret and Sozomen. He is said to have been the author of the Creed of Sirmium (351) and was counted by Tillemont as an Arian. Research by the Bollandists restored his reputation for orthodoxy. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 29 March, with the description: "Saint Mark, Bishop of Arethusa in Syria, who in the time of the Arian controversy held firm to the orthodox faith and was severely maltreated under Julian the Apostate. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus lauds him as an outstanding and saintly old man." The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates him on 20 March.
By a subdivision of the Roman province of Coele-Syria after c. 415, Arethusa became part of the new province of Syria Secunda or Syria Salutaris, with capital at Apamea on the Orontes (modern-day Qalaat al-Madiq). The episcopal see of Arethusa thus became a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Apamea rather than of Antioch.