Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/973

 SELEUCEIA. It was situated on the sea between Cilicia and Phoenice, over against a large mountain called Cory- phaeum, the base of which was washed on its W. side by the sea, towards the E. it dominated the districts of Antioch and Seleucis. Seleucia lay on the S. of this mountain, separated from it by a deep and rugged valley. The city extended to the sea through broken ground, but was surrounded for the most part by precipitous and abrupt rocks. On the side towards the sea lay the factory (jd ip.Trope7a) and suburb, on the level ground, strongly fortified. The whole hollow (kitos) of the city was likewise strongly fortified with fine walls, and temples, and buildings. It had one approach on the sea side, by an artificial road in steps {KAi/j.aKaiTT]v), distributed into frequent and continuous slopes (cuttings? — eyKAt/xaat) and curves (tunnels ? — ffKaiw/j.acri'). The embouchure of the Oron- tes was not far distant — 40 stadia, according to Strabo (xvi. p. 750). It was built by Seleucus Kicator (died B. c. 280), and was of great importance, in a military view, during the wars between the Seleucidae and the Ptolemies. It was taken by Ptolemy Euergetes on his expedition into Syria, and held by an Egyptian garrison until the time of Antiochus the Great, who, at the instigation of Apollophanes, a Seleucian, resolved to recover it from Ptclemy Philopator (cir. b. c. 220), in order to remove the disgrace of an Egyptian garrison in the heart of Syria, and to obviate the danger which it threatened to his operations in Coele- Syria, being, as it was, a principal city, and well nigh, so to speak, the proper home of the Syrian power. Having sent the fleet against it, under the admiral Diognetus, he himself marched with his army from Apameia, and encamped near the Hippodrome, 5 stadia from the city. Having in vain attempted to win it by bribery, he divided his forces into three parts, of which one under Zeuxis made the assault near the gate of Antioch, a second under Hennogenes near the temple of the Dioscuri, the third under Ardys and Diognetus by the arsenal and suburb, which was first carried, where- upon the garrison capitulated (Polyb. v. 58 — 60). It was afterwards a place of arms in the further prose- cution of the war against Ptolemy (66). The Muunt Coryphaeum of Polybius is the Pieria of Ptolemy and Strabo, from which the town derived its distin- guishing appellation. Strabo mentions, from Posi- donius, that a kind of asphaltic soil was quarried in this jilace, which, when spread over the roots of the vine, acted as a preservative against blight (vii. p. 316.) He calls it the first city of the Syrians, from Cilicia, and states its distance from Soli, in a straight course, a little less than 1000 stadia (xiv. p. 676). It was one of the four cities of the Tetrapolis, which was a synonym for the district of Seleucis, the others being Antioch, Apameia, and Laodiceia, which were called sister cities, being all founded by Seleucus Nicator, and called by the names respectively of him- self, his father, his wife, and his mother-in-law; that bearing his father's name being the largest, that bearing his own, the strongest. (Strab. xvi. p. 749.) The auguries attending its foundation are mentioned by John Malalas {Clironograpkia, lib. viii. p. 254). It became the port of Antioch, and there it was that St. Paul and Barnabas embarked for Cyprus, on their first mission to Asia Minor (Acts, xiii. 4), the Orontes never having been navigable even as far as Antioch for any but vessels of light draught. Pliny calls it " Seleucia libera Pieria," and describes it as situated on a promontory (v. 21) clsxv. M. P. distant from Zeugma on the Euphrates <^2). He de- SELEUCEIA. 953 signates the Coryphaeum of Polybius, the Pieria of Strabo, Mount Casius, a name also extended by Strabo to the mountains about Seleucia, where he speaks of the Antiocheans celebrating a feast to Triptolemus as a demigod, in Mount Cassius around Seleucia (xvi. p. 750). The ruins of the site have been fully ex- plored and described in modern times, first by Pococke {Observations on Syria, chap. xxii. p. 182, &c.), who identified many points noticed by Polybius, and subsequently by Col. Chesney (Journal of the R. Geog. Society, vol. viii. p. 228, &c.). The mountain range noticed by Polybius is now called Jtbel Musa ; and the hill on which the city stood appears to be the " low mountain, called Bin-Kiliseh," or the 1000 churches. Part of the site of the town was occupied, according to Pococke, by the village of Kepse, situated about a mile from the sea. The masonry of the once magnificent port of Seleueia is still in so good a state that it merely requires trifling repairs in some places, and to be cleaned out; a pro- ject contemplated, but not executed, by one Ali Pasha, when governor of Aleppo. The plan of the port, with its walls and basins, its piers, floodgates, and defences, can be distinctly traced. The walls of the suburb, with its agora, the double line of defence of the inner city, comprehending in their circunjfe- rence about 4 miles, which is filled with ruins of houses ; its castellated citadel on the summit of the hill, the gate of Antioch on the SE. of the site, with its pilasters and towers, near which is a double row of marble columns; large remains of two temples, one of which was of the Corinthian order; the amphitheatre, near which Antiochus encamped, before his assault upon the city, with twenty-four tiers of benches still to be traced ; the numerous rocky excavations of the necropolis, with the sarcophagi, always of good workmanship, now broken and scattered about in all directions, all attest the ancient importance of the city, and the fidelity of the his- torian who has described it. Most remarkable of all in this view is the important engineering work, to which Polybius alludes as the only communica- tion between the city and sea, fully described by Col. Chesney, as the most striking of the interesting remains of Seleucia. It is a very extensive excava- tion, cut through the solid rock from the NE. extremity of the town almost to the sea, part of which is a deep hollow way, and the remainder regular tunnels, between 20 and 30 feet wide, and as many high, executed with great skill and con- siderable labour. From its eastern to its western extremity is a total length of 1088 yards, the greater part of which is traversed by an aqueduct carried along the face of the rock, considerably above the level of the road. Its termination is rough and very imperfect, about 30 feet above the level of the sea ; and while the bottom of the rest of the excava- tion is tolerably regular, in this portion it is impeded by large masses of rock lying across it at intervals: which would imply either that it was never com- pleted, or that it was finished in this part with masonry, which may have been carried ofl" for building purposes. It is, j)erhaps, in this part that the stairs mentioned by Polybius may have been situated, in order to form a communication with the sea. There can be no doubt whatever that this ex- cavation is the passage mentioned by him as the solo cornnuuiicalion between the city and the sea ; and it is strange that any question should have arisen concerning its design. A rougli plan of the site is given by Pococke (p. 183); but a much mora