Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Seleucia

SELEUCIA, the name of several ancient cities of Asia, situated in Assyria, Margiana, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Caria, and other countries, of which the following are the most important. (1) Seleucia on the Tigris was founded by Seleucus I. of Syria, on the left bank of that river, near its junction with the royal canal of Babylonia, and opposite to the mouth of the Delas (now Diala) river, a little S. of the modern city of Bagdad. Commanding the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates and the principal caravan roads of Assyria and Babylonia, on the confines of which it was situated, and peopled by settlers from various countries of western Asia, it rapidly rose in wealth and splendor, and, eclipsing Babylon, became the capital of that part of Asia, till it was in its turn eclipsed by Ctesiphon, built by the Parthians on the opposite bank of the Tigris. The later wars of the Romans against that people proved destructive to Seleucia. A city of upward of 500,000 inhabitants in the 1st century, in the following it was burned by Trajan and Lucius Aurelius Verus, and captured by Septimius Severus, and in the expedition of Julian against the Persians, in the 4th century, was found deserted. (2) Seleucia Pieria, a strong fortress of northern Syria, also founded by Seleucus I., whose remains were preserved there in a mausoleum, was built at the foot of Mount Pieria, on a rock overhanging the Mediterranean a few miles N. of the mouth of the Orontes, and W. of Antioch, with which it was simultaneously founded, and of which it formed the seaport. It surrendered to Ptolemy III. of Egypt, was recovered by Antiochus the Great, and in the latter period of the Syrian kingdom became independent. Under the Romans it rapidly decayed. Considerable ruins of its harbor, fortifications, and necropolis are still to be seen.