SELI´NUS
SELI´NUS (
Σελινοῦς: Eth.
Σελινούντιος or Eth.
Σελινούσιος:
Selenti), 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. 33.20;
Strab. xiv. p.682;
Ptol. 5.8.2,
8.17.42;
Plin. Nat. 5.22.)
This town is memorable in history as the place where, in A.D. 117, the emperor Trajan is said by some authors to have died (
D. C. 68.33).
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 (
Vita S. Theclae, 2.17) describes the place as reduced to a state of insignificance in his time, though it had once been a great commercial town. (Comp.
Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. § § 203, 204;
Lucan 8.260;
Chron. Paschale, p. 253.) 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 (Beaufort,
Karamania, p. 186, fell.)
Respecting the small river Selinus, flowing by Pergamum, see
PERGAMUM p. 575.
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