Seleucia (, ''Seleukeia''), distinguished as Seleucia-near-Belus (, ''Seleúkeia pròs Bḗlōi'',
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
, ''
Geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
'', Bk. 5, Ch. 14, §12. or , ''pròs tôi Bḗlōi''; Pliny, '' Nat. Hist.'', Bk. 5, §82. or ') and later known as Seleucobelus (, ''Seleukóbēlos'') or Seleucopolis, was an
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
Orontes River
The Orontes (; from Ancient Greek , ) or Nahr al-ʿĀṣī, or simply Asi (, ; ) is a long river in Western Asia that begins in Lebanon, flowing northwards through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea near Samandağ in Hatay Province, Turk ...
. Its location remains uncertain.
Name
The name of the settlement honored
Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I Nicator (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Σέλευκος Νικάτωρ, ''Séleukos Nikátōr'', "Seleucus the Victorious"; ) was a Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general, officer and successor of Alexander the Great who went on to fo ...
, one of the
Diadochi
The Diadochi were the rival generals, families, and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for control over his empire after his death in 323 BC. The Wars of the Diadochi mark the beginning of the Hellenistic period from the Mediterran ...
successors to the
empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
, although it may have been a foundation by his son and successor Antiochus. It was distinguished from other cities named Seleucia by reference to "Belus" or "the Belus", a toponym which was variously applied to Syria's Limestone Massif, which lies to the city's north, and to various rivers in Syria. In this case, it appears that the name Belus was a title of the Orontes.
History
The city was a
Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
foundation of the
Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great ...
. It sat on the Orontes's west bank near its headwaters, positioning it to function as a depot for overland trade in the area. During the heyday of the Seleucid Empire, it formed a suburb of the nearby and larger settlement Apamea (originally Pella), which
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
placed ½° to its east. The entire area held over half a million people.
After the 2nd century, it typically appeared under the name Seleucobelus.
The precise location of the settlement remains uncertain, with various scholars placing it near
Al-Suqaylabiyah
Al-Suqaylabiyah () is a city in western Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate. It is located about from Hama and overlooks the Ghab Valley. According to the 2004 official census, the town had a population of 13,920.Jisr al-Shughur or Bara.