Database: Seleucia-on-the-Tigris
On the Western Bank of the Tigris, about 35 kilometers south of Baghdad, rises a small mound known as Tell Umar. Today beaten by winds and separated from the tumultuous course of the river by swamps, this hill once dominated one of the largest cities of Antiquity: Seleucia-on-the-Tigris.
Seleucia was founded at the end of the fourth century BCE by Seleucos I, one of Alexander the Great's successors. Its position at the start of the main road leading from Iraq into Iran and at the confluence of the Tigris and a canal linking it to the Euphrates enabled the city to control the movement of caravans and armies during the five centuries of its history. This control let it flourish into a commercial hub and royal residence known throughout the ancient world for its Stoic philosophers and Olympic athletes.
In time, the Seleucids' power waned. In 129 BCE, Seleucia was conquered by the Parthian Arsacids, a rival dynasty. The city's development nonetheless continued uninterrupted, until multiple attacks by Roman armies and a catastrophic change in the Tigris riverbed led to Seleucia's decline and disappearance around 200. In time, other imperial centers, Ctesiphon and then Baghdad, took advantage of the position that had made it so important for so long and became world hubs themselves.