Seleucia in Pieria

Coin of Seleucia. Museum of Antakya (Turkey). Photo Marco Prins.

Coin from Seleucia

Seleucia in Pieria or Seleucia by the Sea: port in Syria, one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis. The modern name is Çevlik, a village near Samandağ. The city is not to be confused with Seleucia on the Tigris.

History

Seleucia was founded in 300 BCE by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the successors of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great and the founder of the Seleucid empire. Appian of Alexandria says that when Seleucus was about to build the city "a portent of thunder preceded the foundation, for which reason he consecrated thunder as a divinity of the place. Accordingly the inhabitants worship thunder and sing its praises to this day" (Syrian Wars, 58). Diodorus says that the inhabitants were brought in from another Hellenistic town, Antigonia (Histories, 20.47.5).

Seleucia was part of the "Syrian tetrapolis" (four Syrian cities); the other three towns were Antioch, Apamea, and Laodicea. Seleucia was to be the capital of his realm and the equal of Alexandria. However, the Seleucids temporarily lost Seleucia to the Ptolemies after the Laodicean War (also known as the Third Syrian War; 246-241).

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Statuette of Athena from Seleucia. Neues Museum, Berlin (Germany). Photo Jona Lendering.

Statuette of Athena (Neues Museum, Berlin)

The city was recovered by king Antiochus III the Great during the Fourth Syrian War (219-217) and eclipsed Alexandria near Issus as main port of Syria, but by now, Antioch had become the most important city in the Seleucid empire. The city was usually ruled from Antioch, but in 109, when control of the city was contested between Antiochus VIII Grypus and Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, it gained some independence.

When the Seleucid Empire was subdued by the Armenian conqueror Tigranes II, Seleucia resisted the attacks, and when the Roman general Pompey the Great restored the Seleucids to power, he rewarded Seleucia by allowing it de facto independence: he gave the city to Antiochus I Theos of Commagene, whose kingdom was at some distance, which gave the city substantial autonomy (Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 114). Probably, the Roman was not above plundering the town, because we know that a statue of Apollo, once in Seleucia, was later to be seen in a temple in Rome (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 13.53).

Pompey's contemporary Posidonius mentions an asphaltic vine-earth that was mined near Seleucia, and could be used as an insecticide (quoted by Strabo, Geography, 7.5.8).

Statue of Lucius Verus in the Archaeological Museum of Antakya (Turkey). Photo Marco Prins.

Lucius Verus (Archaeological Museum, Antioch).

The city was built, a bit north of the estuary of the Orontes, between small rivers on the western slopes of the Coryphaeus, one of the southern summits of the Amanus Mountains. The Macedonians called this landscape Pieria, after a district in their homeland that was also between the sea and a mountain range (the Olympus). It had at least two ports (the "inner harbor" and "outer harbor"), which were sometimes used by the Roman navy. However, the harbors continued to be silted up. Several emperors ordered canals and tunnels to be dug to prevent this process, but in the end, this was in vain.

One of these canals was, according to Flavius Josephus, dug by Jewish slaves, working under orders of the Roman commander Titus, who had captured Jerusalem in 70 (other POWs were sent to Rome, where they had to build the Colosseum). It is almost 1400 meters long and a part of it runs through a tunnel that was designed by engineers of the Tenth legion Fretensis. According to an inscription, it was not finished until the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161). The last workers were legionaries of IIII Scythica and XVI Flavia Firma. Theirs was not the last attempt to improve the harbors, however: according to the fourth-century Descriptio Totius Orbis, the ports were renewed again by the emperor Constantius II (337-361).

Bridge across the canal dug by Titus

This proves that the city was important. another indication is that one of the Seleucians, a man named Firmus, could usurp the imperial purple during the reign of Aurelian (Historia Augusta, Firmus, 3.1). By then, the city had already become Christian. A bishop of Seleucia was present at the Council of Nicaea (325).

In the fifth century, the fight against the silting was finally given up. It is possible that manpower was short after the city had been looted by Isauran brigands in 403. The city suffered from heavy earthquakes in 526 and 528 (Procopius, Secret History, 18.41), and never recovered. Twelve year laters, the Sasanians could capture the city, which was no longer defended.

Monuments

Somewhere in Seleucia must have been the mausoleum of Seleucus, who was assassinated in 281 by Ptolemy Keraunos. According to Appian of Alexandria

Sarcophagus from Seleucia. Archaeological Museum of Antakya (Turkey). Photo Marco Prins.

Roman sarcophagus from Seleucia; second half third century (Museum of Antioch)

Philetaerus, the prince of Pergamon, bought the body from Keraunos for a large sum of money, burned it, and sent the ashes to his son Antiochus I Soter. The latter deposited them at Seleucia-by-the-Sea, where he erected a temple to his father on consecrated ground, to which ground he gave the name of Nicatoreum.

[Syrian War, 63]

Although many tombs have been found near Seleucia, this one has so far escaped discovery.

The city walls of Seleucia

Among the other monuments are the tunnel and canal of Titus, a street with several rock tombs, and the tombs of the Beșikli Cave, which can be dated from the first to the fifth centuries CE. It is probably the final resting place of one, influential family, which had the means to expand the original tomb at least three times; there must have been dozens of inhumations. Photos can be found below.


A canal at Seleucia	Bridge across Titus' canal	Titus' tunnel	Titus' tunnel

Titus' tunnel	Titus' tunnel	Titus' tunnel	Titus' tunnel

Inscription in the canal, mentioning Antoninus Pius	Inscription near the tunnel, mentioning Vespasian and Titus	Rock tombs	Beșikli Cave rock tombs

Beșikli Cave rock tombs	Beșikli Cave rock tombs	Beșikli Cave rock tombs	Beșikli Cave rock tombs

Beșikli Cave rock tombs	Beșikli Cave rock tombs	Beșikli Cave rock tombs	Rock tombs

A satellite photo of Seleucia in Pieria can be seen here.