SELEUCIA, the name of several Hellenistic cities named after the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, Seleucus Nicator. The most important are : I. Seleucia on the Tigris.—This city lay on the right bank at the mouth of the Nahr-al-Malik (the royal canal). The city was founded by Seleucus Nicator in 312 B.C., and marks the definite shift of the centre of power in Mesopotamia from the Euphrates to the Tigris. Throughout the period of Sumerian times the principal city of the region had been on the Euphrates, first Kish (q.v.), and when the Euphrates shifted its course, Babylon. Alexander followed the ancient precedent. Seleucia however marks the defi nite end of Babylon and is closely associated with Hellenistic culture in Mesopotamia. During the Persian domination Ctesiphon on the opposite bank succeeded Seleucia.
Seleucia is said to have been founded with the definite object of destroying Babylon. It was peopled with Macedonians and Greeks, and admitted Jews and Syrians to citizenship, i.e., it was definitely a cosmopolitan city, characteristic of the Hellenistic age. Pliny gives the population at 600,000. During the Parthian domination the city continued to be the foremost city of the east in position and trade. It was always in sympathy with the west rather than the east, and was definitely opposed to and at times in open rebellion against the Parthians. The Arsacids founded the rival city of Ctesiphon. Seleucia, however, continued to survive, and eventually was burnt by Avidius Cassius in A.D. 164, at which time it is said to have had 300,00o inhabitants. The destruction of the city marks the end of Hellenism in Mesopotamia.
2. Seleucia Pieria, in Syria, a port and frontier fortress on the Cilician border. The city lay four miles north of the mouth of the Orontes in 36° N. and 36° E. and was the port of Antioch, with which city and Apamea and Laodicea it formed the Syrian tetrapolis. The town appears to have been of considerable size and the great road to the sea, a deep cutting through the rock still survives. Walls, temples and amphitheatre can also be traced. The city was of considerable military importance during the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids and was recognized as an independent city later by the Romans (in A.D. 70). It had prac
tically disappeared by the fifth century.
3. Seleucia Tracheotis (modern Selefke), also called a city in Cilicia in 36° N. 34° E. It lay on the Calycad nus (modern Gok Su), a few miles from the mouth of the river, doubtless as a protection against attacks from the sea. There are the ruins of a castle on the Acropolis and other considerable remains. The city was at one time a port with a large trade. It was built near an old site (Oldia) in 30o s.c. by Seleucus Nicator. During the third Crusade Frederick Barbarossa was drowned in crossing the river (A.D. I I90). The city was captured by the Turks in the thirteenth century. It still remains the capital of a district.
Several other towns also bore the name of Seleucia, as (4) Seleucia in Mesopotamia, modern Birijik (q.v.), (5) in the Persian Margiana, which received its name from Antiochus I. of Syria, having been previously called Alexandria, after its original founder ; (6) in Pisidia ; (7) in Pamphylia ; (8) on the Belus in Syria; and (9) Tralles (q.v.). (L. H. D. B.) SELEUCID DYNASTY, a line of kings who reigned in Nearer Asia from 312 to 65 s.c.