SELEUCIA

(Se·leuʹci·a).

A fortified Mediterranean port town serving Syrian Antioch and located about sixteen miles (26 kilometers) 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 few miles S of Seleucia. Accompanied by Barnabas, Paul sailed from Seleucia at the start of his first missionary journey, in 47 C.E. (Acts 13:4) Though thereafter unnamed in the Acts account, Seleucia likely figured in events narrated therein. (Acts 14:26; 15:30-41) To distinguish this city from other similarly named sites in the ancient Near East, it is sometimes called Seleucia Pieria. It was just N of modern-day Suveydiye or Samandag in Turkey. Silt from the Orontes has converted ancient Seleucia’s harbor into a marsh.