SELEUCIA
689
SELEUCIA
left His body in the sun. They did not practise
baptism, basing their refusal to do so on the words
of John the Baptist (Matt., iii, 11) : "He shall
baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire". By hell
they understood this present world, while Resurrec-
tion they explained as being merely the procreation
of children which went on daily, not the triumph
over death with the expectation of a glorious im-
mortality. The doctrines of Seleucus and his ad-
herents were the source of another series of errors
taught by some of their disciples who called them-
selves Proclinianites or Hermeonites. These latter
rejected the Scriptures with the exception of the Book
of Wisdom. They denied that Christ appeared in
the flesh and that he was born of a virgin. They
also rejected the dogmas of the Resurrection and
Judgment. According to Philastrius they perverted
large numbers. It must be said that a great deal of
uncertainty exists regarding the history and real
character of this heresy. Some recent authors, be-
cause of the fact that the doctrines of the Seleucians
so closely resembled those of Hcrmogenes, and because
Hermogenes is not mentioned by Philastrius, conclude
that these two were one and the same heresy. This
assumption is plausible but there are vital differences
between the teaching of Hermogenes and that of
the Seleucians as, for example, on the subject of
Christ as Creator which, together with the virgin
birth, was admitted by Hermogenes. If any weight
is to be attached to a method of chronology which
seems rather arbitrary, the date assigned by Philas-
trius to the Seleucians, viz. after the reign of Decius,
would exclude the suppo.sition that he confounded
them with the followers of Hermogenes.
Ketzbii-Walch, Historic (Leipzig, 1767), 1, 584 seq.; Hil- GENFELD, Die Ketzersjeschichte des Urchrislentums (Leipzig, 1884).
Patrick J. Healy
Seleucia Pieria, titular metropolis of Syria Prima. The city was foundcni near the mouth of the Orontes, not far from Mount Casius, by Seleucus Nicator about 300 B. c. According to Pausanias, Damascene, and Malalas, there appears to have been previously another city here, named Paheopolis. Seleucia was a commercial port of Antioch, Syria, with which it com- municated by the Orontes; it was at the same time a naval port. The first colonists were the Greeks of Antigonia in Greece, also some Jews. It was taken and retaken by the Lagidic and the Seleucides until 219, when it again fell into the power of the kings of Syria. Then it obtained its freedom and kept it even to the end of the Roman occupation; it had long enjoyed the right of coinage. Of its famous men, ApoUophanes, a physician of Antiochus (third century b. c), is known, also Firmus who aroused Palmyra and Egypt against Rome in 272 a. d. The harbour was enlarged several times, e. g., under Diocletian and Constantius. Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas stopped at Seleucia (Acts, xiii, 4) but nothing indicates that they made any converts. In the Apocryphal Acts of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, this city is also mentioned. The oldest bishop known is Zenobius, present at Nicaea in 325. There is mention of Eusebius, the Arian, and Bizus in the fourth centurj^ with twelve others found in Le Quien (Oriens Christianus, II, 777-780). In the sixth century the "Notitia episcopatuum" of An- tioch, gives Seleucia Pieria as an autocephalous arch- bishopric, suffragan of Antioch (Echos d 'Orient, X, 144) ; the diocese existed until the tenth century, and its boundaries are known (Echos d'Orient, X, 97). For some Latin titularies see Eubel, "Hierarchia cathoUca medii sevi", I, 468. During the Byzantine occupation from 970, followed soon after by the Frankish occupation, Seleucia regained its importance ; during the Crusades its port was known by the name of Saint Symeon. The Greek- Arabic schismatic XIII.— 44
patriarchate of Antioch had since the sixteenth cen-
tury united the title of Seleucia Pieria to that of
Zahleh in Lebanon.
The upper city, about eight miles in circumference, is still distinguishable. The site is now occupied by the two villages of Souhdieh and Kaboucie, inhabited by 800 Armenians. The lower city, smaller than the preceding one, was more thickly populated; there arose the village of Meghragagik, inhabited by 150 Ansariehs. Among the curiosities of the village are a necropolis of little interest, some irrigation works, and some fortifications very much damaged.
Allen, Journal of the Geographical Society, XXIII (1855); Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geog. (1857), s. v.; Ainsworth, A Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition, II (London, 1888), 400-404; Waddington, Inscriptions de Grkce et d'Asie- Mineure, n. 2714-2719; Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, VIII, 2-3, 1238-1271; Chesney, La baie d'Antioche et les ruines de Seleucie de Pierie in Nouvelles annales des voyages et des sciences geograph- iques d'Eyrits (1839), II; Bottrquenoud, Memoires sur les ruines de SSleucie de Pierie in Etudes religieuses (1860), 40; Chapot in Bulletin de correspondance helUnique, XXVI, 164-175; Chapot, Seleucie de Pierie (Paris, 1907).
S. Vailhe.
Seleucia Trachsea, metropolitan see of Isauria in the Patriarchate of Antioch. The city was built by Seleucus I, Nicator, King of Syria, about 300 B. c. It is probable that on its site existed one or two towns called Olbia and Hyria, and that Seleucia merely united them, giving them his name. At the same time the inhabitants of Holmi were transported thither (Stephanus Byzantius, s. v.; Strabo, XIV, 670). Under the Romans it was autonomous, eventually becoming the capital of Isauria. A council was held there in 359 which assembled about 160 bishops who declared in favour of the bix.oiov<rio% and condemned the chief errors of the Anomoeans. St. Hilary of Poitiers assisted at it. Seleucia was famous for the tomb of St. Thecla, a virgin of Iconium, converted by St. Paul, and who died at Seleucia, according to the "Acta Pauli et Thecla;", an apocryphal work of the second century. In any case the sanctuary built over this tomb and restored several times, among others by the Emperor Zcno in the fifth century, was one of the most (•elcl)r:it(>(l in the Christian world. Its ruins are called M(>ri:iinlik (" Denkschriften der k. Akadem. der Wissenschaft. philos.-histor. Klasse", Vienna, XLIV, 6, 105-08). In the fifth century the imperial governor {comes Isauria) in residence at Seleucia had two legions at his disposal, the Secunda Isnura and the Tertia Isaura. From this period, and perhaps from the fourth century, dates the Christian necropolis, lying west of the town and containing many tombs of Christian soldiers with inscriptions. According to the "Notitia episcopatuum" of Antioch, in the sixth century Seleucia had twenty-four suffragan sees (Echoes d'Orient, X, 145). About 732 nearly all ecclesiastical Isauria was incorporated with the Patriarchate of Constantinople; henceforth the province figures in the "Notitia;" of Byzantium, but under the name of Pamphylia.
In the "Notitia;" of Leo the Wise (c. 900) Seleucia has 22 suffragan bishoprics (Gelzer, "Ungedruckte . . . Te.xte der Notitise episcopatuum", 557); in that of Constantine Porphyrogenitus (c. 940) it has 23 ("Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani", ed. Gelzer, 76). In 968 Antioch again fell into the pow^r of the Greeks, and with the Province of Isauria Seleucia was restored to the Patriarchate of Antioch (Gelzer, op. cit., 573). At pre.sent the title of Seleucia is borne by the Metropolitan of Tarsus-Adana, dependent on the Patriarch of Antioch. Le Quien (Oriens christ., II, 1012-16) mentions 10 metropolitans of this see, the first of whom, Agapetus, attended the Council of Nicsea in 325; Neonas was at Seleucia in 359; Symposius at Constantinople in 381; Dexianus at Ephesus in 431 ; Basil, a celebrated orator and writer, whose conduct was rather ambiguous at the Robber Council of Ephesus and at the beginning of the Coun-
