Zeugma

• a town in Syria, on the Euphrates, now Rumkaleh, Plin. 5, 12, 13, § 67; 5, 24, 21, § 86; 34, 15, 43, § 150; Tac. A. 12, 12; Luc. 8, 237; Stat. S. 3, 2, 137.

ZEUGMA

(Σεῦγμα,Ptol. 5.15.14), 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. Nat. 5.24. s. 21; Strab. 16. 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 5.12. s. 13; Strab. 16. 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, 10. p. 944, seq.) In the time of Justinian, Zeugma had fallen into decay, but was restored by that emperor. Procop. de Aed. 2.9, p. 237, ed. Bonn.) (Cf. COIN OF ZEUGMA.

Plb. 5.43; Dio Cass., 49.19; Lucan (Luc. 8.236; Itin. Ant. pp. 184, 185, &c.)

A place in Dacia. (Ptol. 3.8.10). Mannert (4. p. 210) identifies it with the Pons Augusti of the Geogr. Rav. (4.14) and Tab. Peut.; concerning which see above, p. 656.) [T.H.D]

(Ζεῦγμα). Probably Rumkaleh; a city of Syria, on the borders of Commagené and Cyrrhesticé, 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 (Polyb. v. 43).

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.

F. Cumont, Etudes syriennes (1917).

• Paus. 10.29.4