SELEUCEIA SIDERA
later CLAUDIOSELEUCEIA
(Selef) Turkey.
Town in Pisidia 15 km N of
Isparta. Founded by Seleukos I or Antiochos I as a colony
to protect the military road across N Pisidia. In the 1st c.
A.D. the name was officially changed to Claudioseleuceia;
this name is retained on the coins down to the time of
Claudius II, though in Ptolemy, Hierokles, and the
Notitiae the prefix is dropped.
The site is now much denuded. The city wall is best
preserved at the SE angle, where it is formed of huge
squared blocks. Some traces of a theater remain, and
sherds of Roman date are abundant. The necropolis covers the NW slope of the hill; it includes underground
rock-cut chambers with rectangular doors, tombs of
Carian type with rock-cut grave and covering slab, and
a single built tomb still standing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Hirschfeld,
MonatsbBerl (1879)
312-14; H. Rott,
Kleinasiatische Denkmäler (1908) 351,
354; L. Robert,
Hellenica X (1955) 239, 243-44.
G. E. BEAN