Seleucia

Seleucia (səlo͞oˈshə), ancient city of Mesopotamia, on the Tigris below modern Baghdad. Founded (c.312 B.C.) by Seleucus I, it soon replaced Babylon as the main center for east-west commerce through the valley. The city was the eastern capital of the Seleucids until the Parthians conquered it. The Seleucids then moved their capital across the river to Ctesiphon, and Seleucia was thus superseded. In a Parthian campaign Trajan burned the city, and in A.D. 164 it was destroyed by Romans. Another Seleucia was founded by Seleucus I in Syria as the seaport for Antioch on the Orontes.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Seleucia

in antiquity, a number of cities founded by Seleu-cus I Nicator or named after him.

Seleucia-on-Tigris, founded in 312 B.C., was the capital of the Seleucid state and a major trading center, crossed by trade routes between east and west. In the first century A.D. it had about 600,000 inhabitants. From about A.D 150 it was under Parthian rule. Seleucia-on-Tigris was destroyed in A.D. 164 or 165 by the Roman general Avidius Cassius.

Seleucia Pieria was founded about 300 B.C. From 245 to 219 B.C. it was under the rule of the Ptolemies. It was the harbor of Antioch. In the first century A.D. it was annexed by Rome, which used it as a major anchorage for its fleets. In the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. the city fell into decline. Seleucia Pieria was devastated by an earthquake in A.D. 526 and finally destroyed in the Persian and Arab conquests of the sixth and seventh centuries, respectively.

Seleucia

1. an ancient city in Mesopotamia, on the River Tigris: founded by Seleucus Nicator in 312 bc; became the chief city of the Seleucid empire; sacked by the Romans around 162 ad

2. an ancient city in SE Asia Minor, on the River Calycadnus (modern Goksu Nehri): captured by the Turks in the 13th century; site of present-day Silifke (Turkey)

3. an ancient port in Syria, on the River Orontes: the port of Antioch, of military importance during the wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids; largely destroyed by earthquake in 526; site of present-day Samandag (Turkey)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

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