SELEUCIA

(Se·leuʹcia).

A fortified Mediterranean port town serving Syrian Antioch and located about 20 km (12 mi) SW of that city. The two sites were connected by road; and the navigable Orontes River, which flowed past Antioch, emptied into the Mediterranean Sea a short distance S of Seleucia. Accompanied by Barnabas, Paul sailed from Seleucia at the start of his first missionary journey, in about 47 C.E. (Ac 13:4) Though thereafter unnamed in the Acts account, Seleucia likely figured in events narrated therein. (Ac 14:26; 15:30-41) To distinguish this city from other similarly named sites in the ancient Middle East, it is sometimes called Seleucia Pieria. It was just N of modern-day Süveydiye, or Samandag, in Turkey. Silt from the Orontes has converted ancient Seleucia’s harbor into a marsh.