Seleucia
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(1 Macc. 11:8; Acts 13:4)—a Syrian seaport on the Mediterranean, west of Antioch and near the mouth of the Orontes. Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria about 300 BC, either founded or renewed it, enlarged it, and enriched it with canals. It served as Antioch’s harbor. Paul and Barnabas stopped there on their first missionary journey and sailed from it to Cyprus. In the early Christian centuries it was an episcopal see. By the source’s time it lay entirely deserted, but its ruins remained notable: travelers gave its circumference as about four English miles, described its vast harbor as an extraordinary work of engineering, and observed many tombs cut into the cliffs behind the city.
It must not be confused with Seleucia on the Tigris, between the Euphrates and Tigris, or with the Seleucia near Lake Merom in Gaulanitis mentioned by Josephus.