ALPHA: Friends of Antiquity continues its series of lectures at 7:30 p.m. today in room 102 of the Jack Arends Visual Arts Building on the Northern Illinois University campus. Founded in 1971, ALPHA is dedicated to the study of the archaeology, literature, philosophy, history and art of the ancient world.

Professor Jennifer Tobin of the University of Illinois at Chicago will present the results of rescue excavations undertaken in 2000 at Zeugma, Turkey, in the lecture titled “A Tale of Two Cities: The Excavations at Zeugma on the Euphrates.”

Around 300 B.C., Seleucus the First founded the twin cities of Seleucia and Apamea, each on opposite sides of the Euphrates River. The bridge that united them became so important that the two cities became known as Zeugma, or “Bridgetown.”