Seleucid Empire capital in modern Iraq
Seleucia
|
Archeological map of Seleucia and
Ctesiphon
sites
|
|
Alternative name
| Seleukeia, Sal?q, Seleucia-on-Tigris, Seleucia on the Tigris
|
---|
Location
| Baghdad Governorate
,
Iraq
|
---|
Region
| Mesopotamia
|
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Coordinates
| 33°5′40″N
44°31′20″E
/
33.09444°N 44.52222°E
/
33.09444; 44.52222
|
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Type
| Settlement
|
---|
Area
| 5.5 km
2
(2.1 sq mi)
|
---|
|
Builder
| Seleucus I Nicator
|
---|
Founded
| c.
305 BC
|
---|
Abandoned
| 165 AD
|
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Periods
| Hellenistic
to
Roman Imperial
|
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Cultures
| Greek
,
Parthian
,
Sasanian
|
---|
|
Excavation dates
| 1927?1932, 1936?1937, 1964?1968, 1985?1989
|
---|
Archaeologists
| Leroy Waterman, Clark Hopkins, Antonio Invernizzi, Giorgio Gullini
|
---|
Seleucia
(
;
Greek
:
Σελε?κεια
), also known as
Seleucia-on-Tigris
or
Seleucia on the Tigris
or
Seleucia ad Tigrim
, was a major
Mesopotamian
city, located on the west bank of the
Tigris River
within the present-day
Baghdad Governorate
in
Iraq
. It was founded around 305 BC by
Seleucus I Nicator
as the first capital of the
Seleucid Empire
, and remained an important center of trade and
Hellenistic
culture after the imperial capital relocated to
Antioch
. The city continued to flourish under
Parthian
rule beginning in 141 BC; ancient texts claim that it reached a population of 600,000. Seleucia was destroyed in 165 AD by
Roman
general
Avidius Cassius
and gradually faded into obscurity in the subsequent centuries. The site was rediscovered in the 1920s by archaeologists.
Names
[
edit
]
Seleucia (
Greek
:
Σελε?κεια
,
Seleukeia
) is named for
Seleucus I Nicator
, who enlarged an earlier settlement and made it the capital of
his empire
around 305 BC. It was the largest and most important of the
many cities to bear its name
but is sometimes distinguished as
Seleucia-on-Tigris
or
Seleucia on the Tigris
(
Latin
:
Seleucia ad Tigridem
) from the name of
its river
.
Texts from the
Church of the East
's synods referred to the city as
Sal?q
(
Syriac
:
????
)
[1]
or some times
M??oz?
(
Syriac
:
??????
) when referring to the metropolis of
Seleucia-Ctesiphon
.
The
Sassanids
named the eastern city as
Veh-Ardashir
(
Persian
:
??????????
),
Arabs
called it Bahuras?r.
History
[
edit
]
Seleucid Empire
[
edit
]
Seleucia, as such, was founded as the first capital of the
Seleucid Empire
by
Seleucus I Nicator
. A foundation date of 300 BC was proposed by Auguste Bouch-Leclerq in 1914.
[2]
Other scholars proposed 306 BC and 312 BC.
[3]
[4]
Seleucus was one of the
Diadochi
successors of
Alexander the Great
who, after Alexander's death, divided his empire among themselves. Although Seleucus soon moved his main capital to
Antioch
, in northern
Syria
, Seleucia became an important center of trade, Hellenistic culture, and regional government under the Seleucids.
To make his capital into a metropolis, Seleucus forced almost all inhabitants of Babylon, except the local temple priests/supporting workers, to leave and resettle in Seleucia. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace and a temple (Esagila) were built. 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 centuries BC, it was one of the great
Hellenistic
cities, comparable to
Alexandria
in
Egypt
, and greater than Syrian
Antioch
. Excavations indicate that the walls of the city enclosed an area of at least 550 hectares (1,400 acres), equivalent to a square roughly 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) on a side. Based on this size, the population has been estimated to number over 100,000 initially and probably more later. Its surrounding region might have supported half a million people.
[5]
Polybius (5,52ff) uses the Macedonian
peliganes
for the council of Seleucia, which implies a Macedonian colony, consistent with its rise to prominence under Seleucus I; 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 claim that the city had 600,000 inhabitants, and was ruled by a senate of 300 people. It was clearly one of the largest cities in the Western world; only Rome,
Alexandria
, and possibly
Antioch
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 re-establish himself as king. In 41 BC, Seleucia was the scene of a massacre of around 5,000 Babylonian Jewish refugees (
Josephus
,
Ant.
xviii. 9, § 9).
[3]
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 completely destroyed by the
Roman
general
Avidius Cassius
in 165.
[6]
Sasanian rule
[
edit
]
Over sixty years later a new city,
Veh-Ardashir
, was built across the river by
Persian
emperor
Ardashir I
. This new city was long believed to be located at Seleucia but was shown by Italian excavations to be a fresh construction separate from Seleucia and Ctesiphon. There were active
Christian
churches in Mesopotamia from the 1st century onwards and in the 3rd or 4th century Seleucia became an important centre.
Following the edict of toleration by the Persian Sassanian King
Yazdegerd I
, which for the time being brought an end to the
persecution of Christians
, which had lasted for 70 years, the remaining Christians set about reorganizing and strengthening the church.
The
Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon
(The Synod of Mar Isaac) met in 410 AD under the presidency of
Mar Isaac
, the
bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon
. The most important decision of the
Synod
which had a very far reaching effect on the life of the church, was to declare the
bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon
as the
primate
of the
Church of the East
; and in recognition of this pre-eminence he was given the title '
Catholicos
'. The Synod confirmed Mar Isaac as Catholicos and Archbishop of all the Orient. The Synod also declared its adherence to the decision of the
Council of Nicaea
and subscribed to the
Nicene Creed
. The Canons of the Synod leave no doubt as to the authority of the great Metropolitan, the Catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. Without his approval, no election of bishop would be valid.
Towards the end of the reign of Yazdegerd I, the
Christians
were again persecuted in 420. Dadyeshu was elected Catholicos in 421 and himself suffered during the persecution and was imprisoned. When he was released he resigned and left Seleucia, but the church refused to accept the resignation and there followed the
Synod of Dadyeshu
, which met in 424 in Markabata of the Arabs under the presidency of Mar Dadyeshu. It proved to be one of the most significant of all Persian synods. The first synod of Isaac in 410 had decided that the Catholicos of Seleucia
Ctesiphon
be supreme among the bishops of the East. The Synod of Dadyeshu decided that the Catholicos should be the sole head of the Church of the East and that no ecclesiastical authority should be acknowledged above him. For the first time, this synod referred to the Catholicos as Patriarch and that their Catholicos was answerable to God alone. This had some effect in reassuring the Sasanian monarchy that the Persian Christians were not influenced by the Roman enemy.
The city eventually faded into obscurity and was swallowed by the desert sands, probably abandoned after the Tigris shifted its course.
Archaeology
[
edit
]
The site of Seleucia was rediscovered in the 1920s by archaeologists looking for
Opis
.
[7]
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
.
[8]
[9]
[10]
Finds included many coins, mostly bronze, salt receipts with the name of Seleucia, a blue glazed incense burner, now in the Baghdad museum, a stele inscribed in Greek, numerous beads, metal objects including weights and surgeons instruments, and one pre-Sargonic brick.
[11]
From 1964 to 1968 and then between 1985 and 1989, an Italian mission from the
University of Turin
directed by Antonio Invernizzi and Giorgio Gullini excavated at the site. They found a Seleucid archive building with about 30,000 seal impressions, all in a fully Greek style.
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
In an outer wall of the Parthian period, a reused
brick
dated by stamp to 821 BC, during the
Neo-Assyrian
period.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Seleucia-Ctesiphon ? ???? ???????? ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified May 25, 2016,
http://syriaca.org/place/2615
.
- ^
Auguste Bouch-Leclerq, "Histoire des Se'leucides II", Paris, 1914
- ^
Karl Julius Beloch, "Griechische Geschichte IV i", Berlin, 1923
- ^
Hadley, Robert A., "The Foundation Date of Seleucia-on-the-Tigris", Historia: Zeitschrift Fur Alte Geschichte, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 228?30, 1978
- ^
Aperghis, G. G. (2004).
The Seleukid Royal Economy: The Finances and Financial Administration of the Seleukid Empire
. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 37?38.
ISBN
9781139456135
.
- ^
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
, by Edward Gibbon
- ^
"University of Michigan.edu"
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-01-04
. Retrieved
2005-12-10
.
- ^
L. Watermann, "Preliminary Report upon the Excavations at Tel Umar Iraq", University of Michigan Press, 1931 (available for borrow at archive.org
[1]
)
- ^
L. Watermann, "Second Preliminary Report upon the Excavations at Tel Umar Iraq", University of Michigan Press, 1933 (available for borrow at archive.org
[2]
)
- ^
Howard C. Hollis, Material from Seleucia, The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 129-131, 1933
- ^
L. Waterman, "Professor Waterman’s Work at Seleucia", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 35, pp. 25?27, 1929
- ^
G. Gullini, First Report of the Results of the First Excavation Campaign at Seleucia and Ctesiphon: 1st oct. ? 17th dec. 1964, Sumer, vol. 20, pp. 63-65, 1964
- ^
G. Gullini and A. Invernizzi, First Preliminary Report of Excavations at Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Season 1964, Mesopotamia, vol. I, pp. 1-88, 1966
- ^
G. Gullini and A. Invernizzi, Second Preliminary Report of Excavations at Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Season 1965, Mesopotamia, vol. 2, pp. 1-133, 1967
- ^
G. Gullini and A. Invernizzi, Third Preliminary Report of Excavations at Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Season 1966, Mesopotamia, vol. 3-4, 1968?69
- ^
G. Gullini and A. Invernizzi, Fifth Preliminary Report of Excavations at Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Season 1969, Mesopotamia, vol. 5-6, 1960?71
- ^
G. Gullini and A. Invernizzi, Sixth Preliminary Report of Excavations at Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Seasons 1972/74, Mesopotamia, vol. 5-6, 1973?74
- ^
G. Gullini and A. Invernizzi, Seventh Preliminary Report of Excavations at Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Seasons 1975/76, Mesopotamia, vol. 7, 1977
- ^
A. Invernizzi, The Excavations at the Archives Building, Mesopotamia, vol. VII, pp. 13-16, 1972
- ^
A. Invernizzi, The Excavations at the Archives Building, Mesopotamia, vol. VIII, pp. 9-14, 1973?74
Sources
[
edit
]
- G. R. F. Assar., "Parthian Calendars at Babylon and Seleucia on the Tigris", Iran, vol. 41, pp. 171?91, 2003
- Messina, Vito, "FURTHER BULLAE FROM SELEUCIA ON THE TIGRIS", Iraq, vol. 76, pp. 123?40, 2014
- INVERNIZZI, ANTONIO, "Portraits of Seleucid Kings on the Sealings from Seleucia-on-the-Tigris: A Reassessment", Bulletin of the Asia Institute, vol. 12, pp. 105?12, 1998
- L.T. Doty, A Cuneiform Tablet from Tell Umar, Mesopotamia, vol. XIII-XIV, pp. 13?14 and 91-98, 1978?79
- MØRKHOLM, OTTO, "The Parthian Coinage of Seleucia on the Tigris, c. 90-55 B.C", The Numismatic Chronicle (1966-), vol. 20 (140), pp. 33?47, 1980
- G. Pettinato, Cuneiform Inscriptions Discovered at Seleucia on the Tigris≫, Mesopotamia, vol. V-VI, pp. 49?66, 1970?71
- A. Invernizzi, Ten Years Research in the al-Mada'in Area. Seleucia and Ctesiphon, Sumer, vol. 32, pp. 167?175, 1976
- Waggoner, Nancy M., "THE EARLY ALEXANDER COINAGE AT SELEUCIA ON THE TIGRIS", Museum Notes (American Numismatic Society), vol. 15, pp. 21?30, 1969
External links
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International
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National
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Geographic
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Other
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