1 Antioch was founded about 300 BC by Seleukos I Nikator, the founder of the Seleukid Dynasty, and it became the principal capital of the Seleukid Empire. The city was named after a family name Antiochos, passed from his father to his son (Antiochos I Soter). There were a number of other cities by the same name and this Antioch was known as Antioch on the Orontes (i.e. the Orontes River, along which it was located).

2 The omphalos (“navel” in Greek) was a sacred stone at Delphi. It was supposed to mark the center of the earth. Similar stones were erected in several areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

3 Alexandreia in Areia, the present-day city of Herat (the capital of Herat province in western Afghanistan), was founded by Alexander the Great in 330 BC during his campaign against Satibarzanes, satrap of Areia. The province of Areia included present-day eastern portion of Khorasan (a region in northeastern Iran) and present-day western Afghanistan. Alexandreia may have been a suburb of Artakoana, the capital of Areia, or at least these two cities were near each other. (Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography - entries “Aria Civitas” and “A’ria”; Houghton and Lorber, SC I, Vol. I, p. 213; Stillwell et al., The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites - Alexandrian foundations: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Central Asia, India)

Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography - Aria Civitas, notes that “according to a memorial verse still current among the people of Herát, that town is believed to unite the claims of the ancient capital built by Alexander,” and refers to an article by Mohun Lall in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, January 1834.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, 6.25: Ariana (Areia) is a region parched by the sun and surrounded by deserts; still, however, as the face of the country is every here and there diversified with well-shaded spots, it finds communities grouped together to cultivate it, and more especially around the two rivers, known as the Tonberos and the Arosapes. There is also the town of Artacoana (Artakoana), and the river Arius (present Harirud river), which flows past Alexandria (Alexandreia in Areia), a city founded by Alexander; this place is thirty stadia in extent. Much more beautiful than it, as well as of much greater antiquity, is Artacabane, fortified a second time by Antiochus, and fifty stadia in breadth.

Strabo, Geography, 11.8.9: Eratosthenes gives the distances as follows: From Mt. Caspius to the Cyrus River, about one thousand eight hundred stadia; thence to the Caspian Gates, five thousand six hundred; then to Alexandreia in the country of the Arians (Alexandreia in Areia), six thousand four hundred; then to the city Bactra, also called Zariaspa, three thousand eight hundred and seventy; then to the Iaxartes River, to which Alexander came, about five thousand; a distance all told of twenty-two thousand six hundred and seventy stadia. He gives also the distance from the Caspian Gates to India as follows: To Hecatompylus, one thousand nine hundred and sixty stadia; to Alexandreia in the country of the Arians, four thousand five hundred and thirty; then to Prophthasia in Drangge, one thousand six hundred (others say one thousand five hundred); then to the city Arachoti, four thousand one hundred and twenty; then to Ortospana, to the junction of the three roads leading from Bactra, two thousand; then to the borders of India, one thousand; a distance all told of fifteen thousand three hundred stadia.

Strabo, Geography, 11.10.1: Aria (Areia) and Margiana are the most powerful districts in this part of Asia, these districts in part being enclosed by the mountains and in part having their habitations in the plains. Now the mountains are occupied by Tent-dwellers, and the plains are intersected by rivers that irrigate them, partly by the Arius and partly by the Margus. Aria borders on Margiana and [...] (the text is corrupt) Bactriana; it is about six thousand stadia distant from Hyrcania. And Drangiana, as far as Carmania, was joined with Aria in the payment of tribute – Dragiana, for the most part, lying below the southern parts of the mountains, though some parts of it approach the northern region opposite Aria. But Arachosia, also, is not far away, this country too lying below the southern parts of the mountains and extending as far as the Indus River, being a part of Ariana. The length of Aria is about two thousand stadia, and the breadth of the plain about three hundred. Its cities are Artacaëna (Artakoana) and Alexandreia (Alexandreia in Areia) and Achaïa, all named after their founders. The land is exceedingly productive of wine, which keeps good for three generations in vessels not smeared with pitch.

Arrian, Anabasis, 3.25: While Alexander was on his way to Bactra, he was informed that Satibarzanes, viceroy of Areia, had killed Anaxippus and the horse-javelin-men who were with him, had armed the Areiani and collected them in the city of Artacoana (Artakoana), which was the capital of that nation. It was also said that he had resolved, as soon as he ascertained that Alexander had advanced, to leave that place and go with his forces to Bessus, with the intention of joining that prince in an attack upon the Macedonians, wherever a chance might occur. When he received this news, he stopped the march towards Bactra, and taking with him the Companion cavalry, the horse. javelin-men, the archers, the Agrianians and the regiment of Amyntas and Coenus, and leaving the rest of his forces there under the command of Craterus, he made a forced march against Satibarzanes and the Areians; and having travelled 6oo stades in two days came near Artacoana. Satibarzanes, however, no sooner perceived that Alexander was near, than being struck with terror at the quickness of his arrival, he took to flight with a few Areian horsemen.

Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.16.3: What is called the Omphalus by the Delphians is made of white marble, and is said by the Delphians to be the center of all the earth.

4 Chapter “Addenda to The Coinage of the Eastern Seleucid Mints”.

5 Hekatompylos, the capital of the Seleukid province of Parthia. Appian (Syriake, 57) mentions Hekatompylos in connection with cities founded by Seleukos I, but it already existed before Alexander the Great. It was taken by Arsakes I, the first Parthian king, approximately in the second half of the 240s BC and became one of the Parthian royal cities. It was retaken by Antiochos III in 210 BC, but lost to the Parthians again in the 2nd century BC. (Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography; Grainger, A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer, p. 724 - Hecatompylos, p. 761 - Parthia; Houghton and Lorber, Seleucid Coins, A Comprehensive Catalogue. Part I, Vol. I, p. 213)

The city’s name means “The Hundred-Gated” in Greek. According to Polybios (Histories, 10.28.7), it derived its name from its position in a locality where many roads met.

Appian, Syriake 57: He (Seleukos I) built cities throughout the entire length of his dominions ...; whence it comes to pass that in Syria and among the barbarous regions of upper Asia many of the towns bear Greek and Macedonian names, such as Berrhoea, Edessa, Perinthus, Maronea, Callipolis, Achaia, Pella, Orophus, Amphipolis, Arethusa, Astacus, Tegea, Chalcis, Larissa, Heraea, and Apollonia; in Parthia also Sotera, Calliope, Charis, Hecatompylos, Achaia; ...

Polybios, Histories (the Loeb edition), 10.28.7: The king (Antiochos III) having traversed the desert came to the city called Hecatompylus, which lies in the centre of Parthia. This city derives its name from the fact that it is the meeting-place of all the roads leading to the surrounding districts.

Polybios, Histories (the Macmillan edition), 10.28.7: The king (Antiochos III), having thus accomplished the journey across the desert, arrived before the city Hecatompylos, which is situated in the centre of Parthia, and derives its name from the fact that the roads which lead to all the surrounding districts converge there.

6 Ehling, Eine seleukidische Münzstätte in Areia, pp. 34-36, records 15 tetradrachms and 13 drachms with the portrait of Antiochos I. The tetradrachms are struck from three obverse dies and the drachms from one obverse die only. As for coins with the portrait of Seleukos II, Ehling (ibid, pp. 36-37) records 10 tetradrachms and 14 drachms struck from five and two obverse dies, respectively.

7 Houghton, CSE, p. 117; Ehling, Eine seleukidische Münzstätte in Areia, p. 38; Houghton and Lorber, SC I, Vol. I, p. 213.

8 The most important city of ancient Cilicia. Located near the Mediterranean Sea coast on the Tarsus river (ancient Kydnos), present-day Mersin Province, Turkey.

Strabo, Geography, 14.5.12-15: As for Tarsus, it lies in a plain; and it was founded by the Argives who wandered with Triptolemus in quest of Io; and it is intersected in the middle by the Cydnus River, which flows past the very gymnasium of the young men. Now inasmuch as the source of the river is not very far away and its stream passes through a deep ravine and then empties immediately into the city, its discharge is both cold and swift; and hence it is helpful both to men and to cattle that are suffering from swollen sinews, if they immerse themselves in its waters.

The people at Tarsus have devoted themselves so eagerly, not only to philosophy, but also to the whole round of education in general, that they have surpassed Athens, Alexandria, or any other place that can be named where there have been schools and lectures of philosophers. But it is so different from other cities that there the men who are fond of learning, are all natives, and foreigners are not inclined to sojourn there; neither do these natives stay there, but they complete their education abroad; and when they have completed it they are pleased to live abroad, and but few go back home. ... Further, the city of Tarsus has all kinds of schools of rhetoric; and in general it not only has a flourishing population but also is most powerful, thus keeping up the reputation of the mother-city.

The following men were natives of Tarsus: among the Stoics, Antipater and Archedemus and Nestor; and also the two Athenodoruses, one of whom, called Cordylion, lived with Marcus Cato and died at his house; and the other, the son of Sandon, called Cananites after some village, was Caesar’s teacher and was greatly honored by him; ...

Among the other philosophers from Tarsus, “whom I could well note and tell their names,” (Homer, Illiad iii.235) are Plutiades and Diogenes, who were among those philosophers that went round from city to city and conducted schools in an able manner. Diogenes also composed poems, as if by inspiration, when a subject was given him – for the most part tragic poems; and as for grammarians whose writings are extant, there are Artemidorus and Diodorus; and the best tragic poet among those enumerated in the “Pleias” was Dionysides. But it is Rome that is best able to tell us the number of learned men from this city; for it is full of Tarsians and Alexandrians. Such is Tarsus.

9 The capital of ancient Lydia (a historic region of western Asia Minor).