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Rh sultan. Emboldened by this success, Selim issued an order that in future picked men should be taken annually from the Janissaries to serve in their ranks. Hereupon the Janissaries and other enemies of progress rose at Adrianople, and in view of their number, exceeding 10,000, and the violence of their opposition, it was decided that the reforms must be given up for the present. Servia, Egypt and the principalities were successively the scene of hostilities in which Turkey gained no successes, and in 1807 a British fleet appeared at Constantinople, strange to say to insist on Turkey's yielding to Russia’s demands besides dismissing the ambassador of Napoleon I. Selim was, however, thoroughly under the influence of this ambassador, Sebastiani, and the fleet was compelled to retire without electing its purpose. But the anarchy, manifest or latent, existing throughout the provinces proved too great for Selim to cope with. The Janissaries rose once more in revolt, induced the Sheikhul-Islam to grant a fetva against the reforms, dethroned and imprisoned Selim (1807), and placed his nephew Mustafa on the throne. The pasha of Rustchuk, Mustafa Bairakdar, a strong partisan of the reforms, now collected an army of 40,000 men and marched on Constantinople with the purpose of reinstating Selim. But he came too late; the ill-fated reforming sultan had been strangled in the seraglio, and Bairakdar's only resource was to wreak his vengeance on Mustafa and to place on the throne Mahmud II., the sole surviving member of the house of Osman.

SELINUS, an ancient city on the S. coast of Sicily, 27 m. S.E. direct from Lilybaeum (the modern Marsala) and 7 m. S.E. of Castel Vetrano, which is 74 m. S.S.W. of Palermo by rail. It was founded, according to Thucydides, in 628 by colonists from Megara Hyblaea, and from the parent city of Megara (see : History). The name, which belonged both to the city and to the river on the W. of it, was derived from the wild celery which grows there abundantly, and which appears on some of its coins (see, Greek, § “Sicily”). We hear of boundary disputes with Segesta as early as 580 Selinus soon grew in importance, and extended its borders from the Mazarus to the Halycus. Its wealth is shown by the fact that several of its temples belong to the first half of the 6th century Its government was at first oligarchical, but about 510 a short-lived despotism was maintained by Peithagoras and, after him, Euryleon (Herod. v. 43, 46). In 480 Selinus took the Carthaginian side. After this it seems to have enjoyed prosperity: Thucydides (vi. 20) speaks of its wealth and of the treasures in its temples, and the city had a treasury of its own at Olympia.,

A dispute between Selinus and Segesta (probably the revival of a similar quarrel about 454, when an Athenian force appears to have taken part ) was one of the causes of the Athenian expedition of 415 At its close the former seemed to have the latter at its mercy, but an appeal to Carthage was responded to, and an overwhelming force (the Siceliot cities delaying too much in coming to the rescue) under Hannibal took and destroyed the city in 409 ; the walls were razed to the ground; 6000 inhabitants were killed, 5000 taken prisoners, and only 2600 escaped to Agrigentum (Acragas). In 408 Hermocrates, returning from exile, occupied Selinus and rebuilt the walls; and it is to him that the fine fort on the neck of the acropolis must be attributed. Hence he attacked Motya and Panormus and the rest of Punic Sicily. He fell, however, in 407 in an attempt to enter Syracuse, and, as a result of the treaty of 405 , Selinus became absolutely subject to Carthage, and remained so until its destruction at the close of the first Punic War, when its inhabitants were transferred to Lilybaeum. It was never afterwards rebuilt, and Strabo (vi. p. 272) mentions it as one of the extinct cities of Sicily.

The ancient city occupied a sand-hill running N. and S.; the S. portion, overlooking the sea, which was the acropolis, is surrounded by fine walls of masonry of rectangular blocks of stone, which show traces of the reconstruction of 408 It is traversed by two main streets, running N. and S. and E. and W., from which others diverged at right angles. There are, however, some traces of earlier buildings at a different orientation. Only the S.E. portion of the acropolis, which contains several temples, has been excavated: in the rest private houses seem to predominate. The deities to whom the temples were dedicated not being certainly known, they are as a rule indicated by letters. In all the large temples the cella is divided into two parts, the smaller and inner of which (the adytum) was intended for the cult image. The opisthodomus is sometimes omitted. All of them lie in a state of ruin, and, from the disposition of the drums of the columns, it is impossible to suppose that their fall was due to any other cause than an earthquake. Temple C is the earliest of those on the acropolis. It had six columns at each end (a double row in the front) and seventeen on each long, side. From it came the three archaic metopes now in the museum at Palermo, which are of great importance in the history of the development of art, showing Greek sculpture in its infancy. Portions of the coloured terra-cotta slabs which decorated the cornice and other architectural members have also been discovered. Next to it on the N. lies temple D, both having been included in one temenos, with other buildings of less importance: to the E. of D is a large altar. B is a small temple of comparatively late date; while A and O lie on the S. side of the main street from E. to W. in another peribolos.

At the N. end of the acropolis are extensive remains of the fortifications of Hermocrates across the narrow neck connecting it with the rest of the hill. In front of the wall lies a deep trench, into which several passages descend, as at the nearly contemporary fort of Euryelus above (q.v.). Outside this again lies a projecting semicircular bastion, which commands the entrance from the exterior of the city on the E., a winding trench approached by a pair of double gateways, which are not vaulted but covered by the gradual projection of the upper courses. Capitals and triglyphs