Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/979

SELINUS. ■which is consecrated to Aesculapius, as indicated by the cock which stands below it. The subject of this type evidently refers to a story related by Diogenes Laertius (viii. 2. § 11) that the Selinun- tines were afflicted with a pestilence from the marshy character of the lands adjoining the neigh- bouring river, but that this was cured by works of drainage, suggested by Empedocles. The figure standing on the coin is the river-god Selinus, which was thus made conducive to the salubrity of the city. [E- H. B.] SELLASIA. g.^o COIN OF SELINUS SELI'NUS (SeAiroDs: Eth. 'XeAivovurios or Se- Xtvovcnos: Sdent'i), a port- town on the west coast of Cilicia, at the mouth of a small river of the same name, which is now called Selenti. (Scylax, p. 40 ; Liv. x.xsiii.20; Strab. xiv. p. 682; Ptol. v. 8. § 2, viii. 17. § 42; Plin. v. 22.) This town is memorable in history as the place where, in A. d. 117, the em- peror Trajan is said by some authors to have died (Dion Cass. Ixviii. 33). After this event the place for a time bore the name of Trajanopolis ; but its bishops afterwards are called bishops of Selinus. (Hierocl. p. 709.) Basil of Seleucia ( I'lto S. Theclae, ii. 17) describes the place as reduced to a state of insig- nificance in his time, though it had once been a great commercial town. (Conip. Stadiasm. Mar. 3far/. §§ 203,204; Lucan, viii. 260; Chron. Pasckale,Y>.'253.) Selinus was situated on a precipitous rock, sur- rounded on almost every side by the sea, by which position it was rendered almost impregnable. The whole of the rock, however, was not included in the ancient line of fortifications; inside the walls there still are many traces of houses, but on the outside, and between the foot of the hill and the river, the remains of some large buildings are yet standing, which appear to be a mausoleum, an agora, a theatre, an aqueduct, and some tombs (Beaufort, Karamania, p. 186, full.) Respecting the small river Selinus, flowing by Pergamum, see Pra^GAMUM, p. 57.5. [L. S.] SELLA'SIA (SeAAao-m, Xen. Polyb. Diod.; 2f- Xaaia, Steph. B., Hesych. s. v.; the latter is perhaps the correct form, and may come from cre'Aas; the name is connected by Hesychius with Artemis Sidasia: Eth. SeAAatriei's, SeAacieus), a town of Laconia, situated in the valley of the Oenus, on the road leading from Tegea and Argos, and one of the bulwarks of Sparta against an invading army. Its distance from Sparta is nowhere men- tioned; but from the description which Polybius gives of the celebrated battle fought in its neigh- bourhood between Antigonus and Cleomenes, it is probable that the plain of Krevatd was the site of the battle. We learn from Polybius that this battle took place in a narrow opening of the vale of the Oenus, between two hills named Evas and Olympus, and that the river Gorgylus flowed across the plain into the Evenus. South of the Khan of Krevatd is a small plain, the only one in the valley of the Oenus, about ten minutes in width and a quarter of an hour in length, at the end of which the rocks again approach so close as barely to leave room for the passage of the river. The mountain, which bounds this plain on the east, is Olympus, a continuation of the mountain of Vresthtna: it rises very steep on the left bank of the Oenus. The mountain on the western side is Evas, now Turlaes, which, though not so steep, is still inaccessible to cavalry. Towards the north the plain is shut in by a mountain, over which the road leads to Tegea, and towards the south by a still higher mountain. The Oenus, which flows near the eastern edge of the plain, can be crossed at any point without difli- culty. It receives on its right side a small brook, the Gorgylus, which descends from a ravine on the northern side of Mt. Evas. On the summit of the liill, more than 2800 feet above the sea, which shuts in the plain on the south, and over which the road leads to Sparta, are the ruins of Sellasia, described below. The battle of Sellasia, of which Polybius gives a detailed account, requires a few words of explanation. In n. c. 221, Cleomenes, the Spartan king, ex- pecting that Antigonus, the Macedonian king, and the Achaeans, would invade Laconia, fortified the other passes which led into the country, and took up his own position with tlie main body of his forces in the plain of Sellasia, since the roads to Sparta from Argos and Tegea united at this point. His army amounted to 20,000 men, and consisted of Lacedaemonians, Perioeci, allies, and mercenaries. His left wing, containing the Perioeci and allies, was stationed on Mt. Evas under the command of his brother Eucleidas; his right wing, consisting of the Lacedaemonians and mercenaries, encamped upon Mt. Olympus under his own command; while his cavalry and a part of the mercenaries occupied the small plain between the hills. The whole line w.as protected by a ditch and a palisade. Antigonus marched into Laconia from Argos with an army of 30,000 men, but found Cleomenes so strongly in- trenched in this position, that he did not venture to attack him, but encamped behind tlie small stream Gorgylus. At length, after several days' hesitation, both sides determined to join battle. Antigonus placed 5000 Macedonian peltasts, with the greater part of his auxiliary troops, on his right wing to oppose Eucleidas; his cavalry with 1000 Achaeans and the same number of Megalopolitans in the small plain; while he himself with the Macedonian pha- lanx and 3000 mercenaries occupied the left wing, in order to attack Cleomenes and the Lacedaemonians on Mt. Olympus. The battle began on the side of Mt. Evas. Eucleidas committed the error of awaiting the attack of the enemy upon the brow of tiie hill, instead of availing himself of his superior position to charge down upon them; but while they wore climbing the hill they were attacked upon the rear by souic light troops of Cleomenes, who were sta- tioned in the centre with the Lacedaemonian cavalry. At this critical moment, Philopoemen, who was in the centre with the Megalopolitan horse, diverted the attack of the light infantry by charging without orders the Laced.aemonian centre. The right wing of the Macedonians then renewed their attack, de- feated the left wing of the Lacedaemonians, and drove them over the steep precipices on the opposilo side of Mt. Evas. Cleomenes, perceiving that the only hope of retrieving the day was by the defeat