Talk:Seleucia ad Belum

Are Seleucia ad Belum and As-Suqailabiyya the same places?
The name of the village of Al-Suqaylabiyah, located just about 5km south of Apamea, goes back as well to "Seleucobelos". Could it be possible that the information in the article about Seleucia ad Belum beeing located 45 km north of Apamea is simply wrong? When I search for sites in a 50km-radius northwest of Apamea in Google Earth I do not find any settlement or site that could possibly have been Seleucia ad Belum. Also it does not seem to be the case that there is any other settlement in the area that had the name "Seleucobelos" or "Seleucopolis". Therefore the much more likely version is that both names refer to the same place. Any suggestions? Schumeru (talk) 20:13, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

I might add that Orontes river is nowadays more a straightend channel. The modern Al-Suqaylabiyah is located about 7 km east of the modern Orontes, still, it is very possible that the ancient Al-Suqaylabiyah/Seleucobelos AND the ancient river were both located in the west of Apamea about 10 km northwest of Al-Suqaylabiyah's modern location. I also found a german source speaking of Seleucia ad Belum as beeing located "a short distance west of Apamea". Schumeru (talk) 20:23, 18 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Given that your association of Seleucia and al-Suqaylabiyah is completely unsourced and unsupported by scholarly treatments as recently as 2006, it seems that we have no idea if they are the same place. Also note that you can't really your way to discovering an ancient settlement by poking around on Google Earth and looking for modern cities. Things change. —  Llywelyn II   08:06, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Sources for future article expansion
These weren't used at all for inline citations. Kindly restore them to the article once they are being used to verify specific points in the text:

— Llywelyn II   07:02, 14 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Richard Talbert (2000), Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 68.
 * Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Bischoff, Johann Heinrich Möller, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der alten, mittleren und neuen Geographie, Gotha 1829, p. 906
 * Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Seleucia"

Seleucopolis
Well, there's a for it in Hazlitt, but I'm not sure it's  about this. The internet knows nothing about Σελευκοπολις and its Latin existence seems to be entirely numismatic based on readings of coins that don't have anyone modern picking up on them. The only Google Scholar hit is this one (!) and just says that "Forni" conluded "Seleuco..." should be expanded "reluctantly" into Seleucopolis. But Seleucobelus actually existed and could have finished the expansion just as easily. I really think we're perpetuating an error here. — Llywelyn II   11:50, 14 September 2015 (UTC)