Selinus or Selinous (; ; ) was a port-town on the west coast of Rough Cilicia and later of

Isauria Isauria ( or ; ), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya P ...

, at the mouth of a small river of the same name, now called Musa Çay. It is located west of the modern city of Gazipaşa in Turkey.

History

In 557 BC, the

Neo-Babylonian The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC ...

king Neriglissar captured Sallunê, that is Selinus, during his campaign against the kingdom of Pirindu. Before returning to

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, Neriglissar started fires from the pass of Sallunê to the border of Lydia.

Roman period

Selinus is memorable in history as the place in which Emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

is said by some authors to have died in 117 AD. After that event, the place for a time bore the name of Trajanopolis or Traianopolis (Τραϊανούπολις), but its bishops afterwards are called bishops of Selinus. Basil of Seleucia describes the place as reduced to a state of insignificance in his time though it had once been a great commercial town.

The site

Selinus was situated on a precipitous rock, surrounded 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. No longer a residential bishopric, it remains a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

.Catholic Hierarchy
/ref>

References

Sources

* * * Populated places in ancient Cilicia Populated places in ancient Isauria Former populated places in Turkey Roman towns and cities in Turkey Populated places of the Byzantine Empire History of Antalya Province Catholic titular sees in Asia Hellenistic colonies in Anatolia Archaeological sites in Turkey Gazipaşa District {{Antalya-geo-stub