Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "ZEVGMA Ancient city TURKEY" .
Zeugma (Seugma, Ptol. v. 15. § 14). A town founded by Seleucus Nicator, in the province of Cyrrhestica, in Syria. It derived its name from a bridge of boats which was here laid across the Euphrates, and which in the course of time became the sole passage over the river, when the older one at Thapsacus, 2000 stadia to the S., had become impracticable, or at all events very dangerous, owing to the spreading of the Arabian hordes. (Plin. v. 24. s. 21; Strab. xvi. p. 746; Steph. B. s. v.) Zeugma lay on the right bank of the Euphrates, opposite to Apamea, 72 miles SW. of Samosata, 175 miles NE. of the maritime Seleucia, and 36 miles N. of Hierapolis. (Plin l. c., and v. 12. s. 13; Strab. xvi. p. 749; Tab. Peut.) It was therefore opposite to the modern Bir or Biredsjik, which occupies the site of the ancient Apamea. (Cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, x. p. 944, seq.) In the time of Justinian, Zeugma had fallen into decay, but was restored by that emperor. (Procop. de Aed. ii. 9, p. 237, ed. Bonn.) (Cf. Polyb. v. 43; Dion Cass. xl. 17, xlix. 19; Lucan viii.236; Itin. Ant. pp. 184, 185, &c.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Probably Rumkaleh; a city of Syria, on the borders of Commagene and Cyrrhestice, built by Seleucus Nicator on the western bank of the Euphrates, at a point where the river was crossed by a bridge of boats, which had been constructed by Alexander the Great.
Rem. The ancient Zeugma is located in Turkey and not according Encyclopadia) in Syria.
Seleucus I Nicator (301-281 B.C.) founded the town on the W bank of
the Euphrates NE of Aleppo. It owes its name to the ancient bridge of boats, replaced
under Trajan by a stone bridge, which joined Commagene and Mesopotamia. An inscription
gives its official name: Seleucia on the Euphrates. On the frontier between the
Roman Empire and the Parthian, then Sasanian Empire, the position had great strategic
and commercial importance. Justinian enclosed Zeugma in high, wide walls. The
Moslems took it in A.D. 637.
The ancient city occupied the terrace of the modern village and extended
over the hills to the W. The acropolis was a conical hill, on which there is no
trace of the temple depicted on a coin or of the castle where Tigranes had Queen
Cleopatra Selene killed. Several necropoleis have been found in the vicinity,
also fine mosaic pavements. One depicts the Labors of Hercules, another an emperor
surrounded by personifications of the provinces of the Empire (the medallions
are now dispersed among several museums, especially those in Berlin and Leningrad).
A rocky spur N of the village is cut by a Roman road, which then follows the Euphrates
on a narrow ledge. Farther upstream, a double wall, the remains of an access road,
probably marks the location of the bridge.
J. P. Rey-Coquais, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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