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For the Syrian seaport of the same name that figures in the travels of Saint Paul, see Seleucia Pieria.

Seleucia

Location of the city of Seleucia, modern Iraq

Seleucia (Greek: Σελεύκεια) was one of the great cities of the world during Hellenistic and Roman times. It stood in Mesopotamia, on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the smaller town of Opis (later Ctesiphon).^[1]

Seleucia, as such, was founded in about 305 BC, when an earlier city was enlarged and dedicated as the first capital of the Seleucid Empire by Seleucus I Nicator. Seleucus was one of the generals of Alexander the Great who, after Alexander's death, divided his empire between them.[1] Although Seleucus soon moved his main capital Antioch, in northern Syria, Seleucia became an important center of trade, Hellenistic culture, and regional government under the Seleucids. Standing at the confluence of the Tigris River with a major canal from the Euphrates, Seleucia was placed to receive traffic from both great waterways. During the 3rd and 2nd century BC, it was one of the great Hellenistic cities, comparable to Alexandria, in Egypt, and greater than Syrian Antioch.

Polybius (5,52ff) uses the Macedonian peliganes for the council of Seleucia, which implies a Macedonian colony, consistently with its rise to prominence under Nicator; Pausanias (1,16) records that Seleucus also settled Babylonians there. Archaeological finds support the presence of a large population not of Greek culture.

In 141 BC, the Parthians under Mithridates I conquered the city, and Seleucia became the western capital of the Parthian Empire. Tacitus described its walls, and mentioned that it was, even under Parthian rule, a fully Hellenistic city. Ancient texts say that the city had 600,000 people, and was ruled by a senate of 300 people. It was one of the largest cities in the Western world; only Rome and Alexandria were more populous.

In 55 BC, a battle fought near Seleucia was crucial in establishing dynastic succession of the Arsacid kings. In this battle between the reigning Mithridates III (supported by a Roman army of Aulus Gabinius, governor of Syria) and the previously deposed Orodes II, the reigning monarch was defeated, allowing Orodes to reestablish himself as king.

In about 41 BC, Seleucia was the scene of a massacre of around 5,000 Babylonian Jewish refugees (Josephus, Ant. xviii. 9, § 9).[2]

In 117 AD Seleucia was burned down by the Roman Emperor Trajan during his conquest of Mesopotamia, but the following year it was ceded back to the Parthians by Trajan's successor, Hadrian, then rebuilt in the Parthian style. It was finally destroyed by the Roman Empire in 164.

Over sixty years later a new city, Veh-Ardashir, was built on the site by Ardashir I (ruled 226–241), founder of the Sassanid dynasty. This city eventually faded into obscurity and was swallowed by the desert sands, perhaps abandoned after the Tigris shifted its course.

The site of Seleucia was rediscovered in the 1920s by archaeologists looking for Opis[3]. It is now under a suburb of Baghdad, about 18 miles south of the city proper, located at 33°08′N, 44°31′E.

Beginning in 1927, University of Michigan professors Leroy Waterman (1927-1932) and Clark Hopkins (1936-1937) oversaw excavations for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology on behalf of the American School of Oriental Research of Baghdad with funds supplied by the Toledo Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. From 1964 till 1989 an Italian mission from the University of Turin excavated at the site. They found a Seleucid archive building with about 15 000 seal impressions, all in a fully Greek style.

In an outer wall of the Parthian period, a reused brick dated by stamp to 821 BC, during the Neo-Babylonian period.

It appears to have incorporated both Greek and Mesopotamian architecture for the public buildings. Finds have indicated an extensive non-Greek population.

1. ^ To distinguish it from the many lesser places named Seleucia, it is sometimes called Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, in reference to its site. Among its other names are, in the Talmud, Selik, Selika, and Selikos; in the Aramaic Targum, Salwaḳia or Salwaḳya; in other languages, Zochasia, Coche, and Mahoza.

• Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 91.
• Oxford Classical Dictionary s. v.

• Seleucia on the Tigris, Iraq
• Hazlitt's Classical Gazetteer "Seleucia"
• Jewish Encyclopedia "Seleucia"