SELY´MBRIA
SELY´MBRIA (
Σηλυβρίη,
Hdt. 6.33;
Σηλυβρία, Xen.
Anab. 7.2.15, &c.;
Strab. vii. p.319;
Ptol. 3.11.6;
Σηλυμβρία, Dem.
de Rhod. lib. p. 198, Reiske), a Thracian town on the Propontis, 22 miles east from Perinthus, and 44 miles west from Constantinople (
Itin. Hier. p. 570, where it is called Salamembria), near the southern end of the wall, built by Anastasius Dicorus for the protection of his capital. (Procop.
de Aed. 4.9; see
SCYLLAE).
According to Strabo (
l.c.), its name signifies “the town of Selys;” from which it has been inferred that Selya was the name of its founder, or of the leader of the colony from Megara, which founded it at an earlier period than the establishment of Byzantium, another colony of the same Grecian state. (
Scymn. 714.)
In honour of Eudoxia, the wife of the emperor Arcadius, its name was changed to Eudoxiupolis (Hierocl. p. 632), which it bore for a considerable time; but its modern name,
Silivri, shows that it subsequently resumed its original designation.
Respecting the history of Selymbria, only detached and fragmentary notices occur in the Greek writers. In Latin authors, it is merely named (Mela, 2.2.6;
Plin. Nat. 4.11. s. 18,
29.1. s. 1; in the latter passage it is said to have been the birthplace of Prodicus, a disciple of Hippocrates).
It was here that Xenophon met Medosades, the envoy of Seuthes (
Anab. 7.2.28), whose forces afterwards encamped in its neighbourhood (
Ib. 5.15). When Alcibiades was commanding for the Athenians in the Propontis (B.C. 410), the people of Selymbria refused to admit his army into the town, but gave him money, probably in order to induce him to abstain from forcing an entrance. (
Xen. Hell. 1.1. 21) Some time after this, however, he gained possession of the place through the treachery of some of the townspeople, and, having levied a contribution upon its inhabitants, left a garrison in it. (
Ib. 3.10;
Plut. Alc. 30.) Selymbria is mentioned by Demosthenes (
l.c.) in B.C. 351, as in alliance with the Athenians; and it was no doubt at that time a member of the Byzantine confederacy.
According to a letter of Philip, quoted in the oration
de Corona (p. 251, R.), it was blockaded by him about B.C. 343; but Professor Newman considers that this mention of Selymbria is one of the numberous proofs that the documents inserted in that speech are not authentic. (
Class. Mus. vol. i. pp. 153, 154.)
[
J.R]
