Seleucia

“ Trajan occupied Seleucia in 116. In the war of Marcus Aurelius and L. Verus against the Parthians, Seleucia was taken by Avidius Cassius in 164, and then the. Romans did what the Parthians had not dared to do: they burnt down the great Greek town with 300,000 inhabitants (Dio Cass. lxxi. 2; Zonar, xii. 2; Capitol. Vit. Veri, 8; Eutrop. 8. 10; Ammian. Marc. xxiii. 6. 24; xxiv. 5. 3) . The great plague, which laid waste the Roman empire during the next years, is said to have sprung from the ruins of Seleucia. The destruction of Seleucia may be considered as the end of Hellenism in Babylonia. ”

“ The Lion of Janina CHAPTER I
THE CAVERNS OF SELEUCIA
A savage, barren, inhospitable region lies before us, the cavernous valley of Seleucia—a veritable home for an anchorite, for there is nothing therein to remind one of the living world; the whole district resembles a vast ruined tomb, with its base overgrown by green weeds. ”

“ To the south of this high road we have among the Seleucid foundations Antioch in Pisidia (colonized with Magnesians from the Meander) and Stratonicea in Caria; in the region to the north of it the most famous Seleucid colony was Thyatira. Along the southern coast, where the houses of Seleucus and Ptolemy strove for predominance, we find the names of Berenice, Arsinoë and Ptolemais confronting those of Antioch and Seleucia. ”

“ He himself had in mind to lead an expedition against Armenia, which had once belonged to Tigranes, in order that Artabazes, son of Tigranes, the king of the land at that time, should, through fear for his own domains, send no assistance to the Romans. Now Crassus said that he would tell him in Seleucia the causes of the war. (This is a city in Mesopotamia having even at the present day chiefly a Greek population.) And one of the Parthians, bringing down upon the palm of his left hand the fingers of the other, exclaimed: "More quickly will hair grow herein, than you will reach Seleucia." ”

“ Broadly (Canons I, VI, XVIII) , the council recognizes in, or confers on, the holder of the see of Seleucia a power over his suffragans that is singularly extensive and defined. He has a practical veto on their appointment; appeal from all their acts lies to him; and they are to report themselves to him personally twice a year. It may be doubted whether any patriarch in the Roman Empire (except possibly the Patriarch of Alexandria) had so unquestioned, and so clearly defined, a sway over his diocese as the "Catholicos of the East." ”

“ This district is rich and well cultivated: not far oft is Coche, which is also called Seleucia; where we fortified a camp with great celerity, and rested there two days to refresh the army with timely supplies of water and provisions. The emperor himself in the meanwhile proceeded with his advanced guard and reconnoitred a deserted city which had been formerly destroyed by the Emperor Verus, where an everlasting spring forms a large tube which communicates with the Tigris. ”

“ In 140 and 130 B.C. those of Iran were ready to rise in support of the Seleucid invader (Joseph. Arch. xiii. § 184; Justin xxxviii. 10.6-8) . Just so, Crassus in 53 B.C. found a welcome in the Greek cities of Mesopotamia. Seleucia on the Tigris is spoken of by Tacitus as being in A.D. 36 “proof against barbarian influences and mindful of its founder Seleucus” (Ann. vi. 42) . How important an element the Greek population of their realm seemed to the Parthian kings we can see by the fact that they claimed to be themselves champions of Hellenism. ”

“ Seleucia was a little north-west of Antioch, upon the Mediterranean sea, named from its founder, Seleucus.――Cyprus, so called from the flower of the Cypress-trees growing there.――Pliny, lib. xii. cap. 24.――Eustathius. In Dionysius p. 110. It was an island, having on the east the Syrian, on the west the Pamphylian, on the south the Phoenician, on the north the Cilician sea. It was celebrated among the heathens for its fertility as being sufficiently provided with all things within itself. Strabo, lib. xiv. 468, 469. It was very infamous for the worship of Venus, who had thence her name Κύπρις. ”

“ In the meantime Seleucia and the other cities of Mesopotamia had become dissatisfied with the rule of Himerus, the viceregent appointed by Phraates II in the year 129 b.c. Among other crimes he is charged with selling numerous Babylonians into Media as slaves. [40] Besides these internal troubles Himerus was soon face to face with a new power to the south, a new state arising in the territory once occupied by the old Seleucid province of the Erythrean Sea created by Antiochus III before Molon's revolt. ”

“ Bambyce{22}—to give it the classicized form of its ancient local name [11] —must have been a shrine of some importance when the Seleucids rechristened it Hierapolis, but, as at Aleppo, the older word was never forgotten, and Strabo in the first century calls it by both names. His account is suggestive of the conditions that prevailed in the Seleucid empire. “The road for merchants,” says he, “going from Syria to Seleucia and Babylon, lies through the country of the Scenitæ and through the desert belonging to their territory. ”

“ In a military sense, signifies a halting day.
Selection. The act of choosing in preference to others; hence, selection of officers to act upon the staff, etc.; to select quarters, etc. See Quarters, Choice of.
Seleucia ad Tigrin (also called Seleucia Babylonia, Seleucia Assyriæ, and Seleucia Parthorum) . A great city on the confines of Assyria and Babylonia, and for a long time the capital of Western Asia. It commanded the navigation of the Tigris and Euphrates. It was burned by Trajan in his Parthian expedition, and again by L. Verus, the colleague of M. Aurelius Antoninus. ”

“ Mesopotamia, where were Ctesiphon, the Parthian's chief capital, and Seleucia, their greatest city,—the richest and most populated part of their empire, stretches northward from the very top of the gulf, a long way from Fars; and the main routes eastward from Mesopotamia run well to the north of the latter avoiding its mountains and desert beyond. So this province is remote, and well calculated to maintain appreciable independence of any empire not born in itself. ”

“ In the empire, if there was no provincial self-government, there was considerable municipal independence; and the tendency of the oriental to submit to authority—and of the greater sees to exalt themselves over the lesser—was counterbalanced, in a measure, by the fact that the bishop was a principal citizen of his own town as well as a subject of the Emperor, and a suffragan of Antioch or Constantinople.
One other tendency we see in the fathers of Seleucia which might well have spelt disaster for the Church had their circumstances allowed them to give way to it. ”

“ Here she in vain incited her nephew Seleucus II. to avenge the insult offered her by declaring war against the Macedonian king. According to another account, she was in hopes to induce Seleucus himself to marry her; but that monarch was wholly occupied with the recovery of Babylonia and the upper provinces of the empire. While he was thus engaged, Stratonice took advantage of his absence to raise a revolt against him at Antioch; but she was easily expelled from that city on the return of Seleucus, and took refuge in Seleucia, where she was besieged, taken prisoner, and put to death. ”

“ Following the example of the Churches of the Empire, he wanted to organize the Persian sees under himself. He was Bishop of the civil capital: the civil centres naturally became the metropolitan sees of the country round. [101] But his plan met with strong opposition. Apparently the bishops in Persia had too long been used to their independence and want of organization to welcome such a plan. A synod met, the first of many quarrelsome Persian councils, at Seleucia about the year 315. ”

“ The end of the fourth century sees Seleucus of Babylonia lording it over the most part of West Asia which was best worth having, except the southern half of Syria and the coasts of Asia Minor and certain isles in sight of them, which, if not subject to Ptolemy of Egypt, were free of both kings or dominated by a third, resident in Europe and soon to disappear. In the event those two, Seleucus and Ptolemy, alone of all the Macedonian successors, would found dynasties destined to endure long enough in kingdoms great enough to affect the general history of civilization in the Ancient East. ”

“ Era of the Seleucidae, or Macedonian Era.—The era of the Seleucidae dates from the time of the occupation of Babylon by Seleucus Nicator, 311 years before Christ, in the year of Rome 442, and twelve years after the death of Alexander the Great. It was adopted not only in the monarchy of the Seleucidae but in general in all the Greek countries bordering on the Levant, was followed by the Jews till the 15th century, and is said to be used by some Arabians even at the present day. ”

“ In Asia Minor neither Seleucus nor the Seleucids ever held anything effectively except the main lines of communication from East to West and the district in which these come down to the Aegean Sea. The south coast, as has been said, remained in Egyptian hands almost all through the Seleucid period. The southwest obeyed the island republic of Rhodes. Most of the Greek maritime cities of the northwest and north kept their freedom more or less inviolate; while inland a purely Greek monarchy, that of Pergamum, gradually extended its sway up to the central desert. ”

“ And the king of the South [Ptolemy] shall be strong, and one of his Princes [Seleucus, one of Alexander's Princes] shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.
After Seleucus had reigned seven months over Macedon, Greece, Thrace, Asia, Syria, Babylonia, Media, and all the East as far as India; Ptolemy Ceraunus, the younger brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus king of Egypt, slew him treacherously, and seized his dominions in Europe: while Antiochus Soter, the son of Seleucus, succeeded his father in Asia, Syria, and most of the East ”

“ Built on the slope of a hill, the terraced houses of Selyvria were irregular, quaint, and queer, like those of all Turkish towns, and they rose above each other like the seats of an amphitheatre. The hill was green, and on its summit rose a fortress of the Greek Empire—old, say some, as the days of Selys, who founded the city. The lower, or Turkish town, is without enclosure, though an embattled wall connects the outer row of houses, above which rise the domes of its khan and several mosques. ”

“ As for the Seleucid kings themselves they leave on us, ill-known as their characters and actions are, a clear impression of approximation to the traditional type of the Greek of the Roman age and since. As a dynasty they seem to have been quickly spoilt by power, to have been ambitious but easily contented with the show and surface of success, to have been incapable and contemptuous of thorough organization, and to have had little in the way of policy, and less perseverance in the pursuit of it. ”

“ In 316, when Antigonus had made himself master of the eastern provinces, Seleucus felt himself threatened and fled to Egypt. In the war which followed between Antigonus and the other Macedonian chiefs, Seleucus actively co-operated with Ptolemy and commanded Egyptian squadrons in the Aegean. The victory won by Ptolemy at Gaza in 312 opened the way for Seleucus to return to the east. His return to Babylon in that year was afterwards officially regarded as the beginning of the Seleucid empire. ”

“ The Egyptian monarch invaded Seleucid territory and marched victoriously at least as far as Syria and perhaps to the Tigris, [49] though later writers extended his conquests to Bactria and even as far eastward as India. But a revolt in the Delta forced Ptolemy to return home before he could consolidate his position. Sometime in the course of the struggle between Ptolemy and Seleucus, the latter was forced to conclude a peace with his brother which left Antiochus Hierax an autonomous sovereign in Asia Minor. The war with Egypt once ended, Seleucus soon attempted to recover the lost territory ”

“ The queen of Andalusia is at hand, the Athens of Spain, the mother of Murillo, the city of poets and lovers, the storied Seville, whose name I have pronounced from a child with a sentiment of loving sympathy! What should I have given a few years since to have seen it? No, it is not a dream! Those are really102 the houses of Seville; those peasants yonder are Sevillians; that campanile which I see is the Giralda! I am at Seville! How strange! It makes me laugh! What is my mother doing at this moment? Would that she were here! Would that this friend and that were here! It is a sin to be alone! ”

“ The Emperor Trajan was a Sevilliano, so were Don Juan and Velasquez, so is Villegas. Figaro, brass basin, white{60} apron, and all, met us at the gate last night when we arrived, and ran beside the carriage, pointing out the black arrows at the corners showing the way.”
Was Rossini ever in Seville? Not that it signifies; he devined it all, if he did not see it. His creatures, Figaro, Rosina, Don Bartolo, are of the glorious company of its ghosts.
Seville is a siren city. The river Guadalquiver throws an arm about her; genius, when it may, follows suit and embraces the darling of Andalusia. ”

“ On this occasion Seleucus and Lysimachus met and fought in Phrygia; and Lysimachus being slain in the battel, lost his kingdom to Seleucus, An. Nabonass. 465. Thus the Empire of the Greeks, which at first brake into four kingdoms, became now reduced into two notable ones, henceforward called by Daniel the kings of the South and North. For Ptolemy now reigned over Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, Arabia, Phœnicia, Cœlosyria, and Cyprus; and Seleucus, having united three of the four kingdoms, had a dominion scarce inferior to that of the Persian Empire, conquered by Alexander the great. ”