kingdom or what shred was left of it. Pompey refused and made
Syria a Roman province. Antiochus Grypus had given his daughter
in marriage to Mithradates (q.v.), a king of Commagene, and the
subsequent kings of Commagene (see under Antiochus) claimed in
consequence still to represent the Seleucid house after it had become
extinct in the male line, and adopted Antiochus as the dynastic
name. The kingdom was extinguished by Rome in 72. The son
of the last king, Gaius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus,
was Roman consul for A.D. 100.
Authorities.—E. R. Bevan, House of Seleucus (1902), and the earlier literature of the subject there cited. In addition may be mentioned Dssa. Adalgisa Corvatta, Divisione amministrativa dell’ impero dei Seleucidi (1901); Haussoullier, Histoire de Milet et du Didymeion (1902); B. Niese, Gesch. d. griech. u. maked. Staaten, Teil 3 (1903); J. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte, vol. iii.; G. Macdonald, “Early Seleucid Portraits,” Journ. of Hell. Stud. xxiii. (1903), p. 92 f.; A. J. B. Wace, “Hellenistic Royal Portraits,” Journ. of Hell. Stud. xxv. (1905), p. 86 f. For the chronology of the end of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabaean revolt, see a paper by J. Wellhausen, “Über den geschichtlichen Wert des 2ten Makkabäierbuchs,” Nachrichten d. k. Gesellschaft d. Wissensch. zu Göttingen. Philol.-hist. Klasse, 1905, Heft 2; and Maccabees, History. (E. R. B.)
SELF (O.Eng. seolf, silf, &c., cf. Dutch zelf, Ger. selbe, selbst), as a pronoun, an element attached to a personal pronoun or pronominal adjective to give emphasis, or to indicate a reflexive use; as an adjective a word properly meaning same, identical, also very (seen in the expression “self-same”), hence single, plain, not mixed with another colour. It is also a florist's term for a flower which has uniformity of tint, without markings or other tints. As a noun “self” means one's own person; for the psychological use of the term see Psychology, &c., and for its ethical aspect Egoism.
SELIGMAN, EDWIN ROBERT ANDERSON (1861– ), American economist, was born at New York on the 25th of April 1861. He was educated at Columbia University, and, after studying for three years in Germany and France, became prize lecturer at Columbia University in 1885, being made adjunct professor of political economy in 1888. He became McVickar professor of political economy in the same university in 1904. His principal works are Railway Tariffs (1887), The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation (1899; 3rd ed., 1910), Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice (1894; 2nd ed. 1908), Economic Interpretation of History (1902; 2nd ed. 1907), and Principles of Economics (1907).
SELIM, the name of three sultans of Turkey.
Selim I. (1465-1521) succeeded in 1512 his father Bayezid II., whom he dethroned, and whose death, following immediately afterwards, gave rise to suspicions which Selim's character certainly justified. He signalized his accession by putting to death his brothers and nephews; and gave early proof of resolution by boldly cutting down before their troops two officers who showed signs of insubordination. A bigoted Sunni, he resolved on putting down the Shi'ite heresy, which had gained many adherents in Turkey: the number of these was estimated as high as 40,000. Selim determined on war with Persia, where the heresy was the prevalent religion, and in order that the Shi'ites in Turkey should give no trouble during the war, “measures were taken,” as the Turkish historian states, which may be explained as the reader desires, and which proved fully efficacious. The campaign which followed was a triumph for Selim, whose firmness and courage overcame the pusillanimity and insubordination of the Janissaries. Syria and Egypt next fell before him; he became master of the holy cities of Islam; and, most important of all, he induced the last Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty formally to surrender the title of caliph (q.v.), as well as its outward emblems, viz. the holy standard, the sword and the mantle of the prophet. The dignity with which the Ottoman sultans have thereby become invested lends them that prestige throughout the Mussulman world which is of such importance to the present day, and which has thrown into oblivion the condition that the caliph ought to be an Arab of the tribe of Koreish. After his return from his Egyptian campaign, he was preparing an expedition against Rhodes when he was overtaken by sickness and died, on the 22nd of September 1521, in the ninth year of his reign, near the very spot where he had attacked his father's troops, not far from Adrianople. He was about fifty-five years of age. He was bigoted, bloodthirsty and relentless, though one Turkish historian praises his humanity for having forbidden the cutting up alive of condemned persons, or the roasting of them before a slow fire; and at one time he was with difficulty dissuaded from ordering the complete extirpation of all the Christians in Turkey. His ambition was insatiable; he is said to have exclaimed when looking at a map that the whole world did not form a sovereignty vast enough for one monarch. His four months' victorious campaign against Persia was undertaken and successfully carried through contrary to the advice of his ministers, several of whom he executed for their opposition to his plans; and he achieved an enterprise which neither Jenghiz Khan nor Timur was able to carry out. It is said that he contemplated the conquest of India and that he was the first to conceive the idea of the Suez Canal.
Selim II. (1524-1574) was a son of Suleiman I. and his favourite Roxelana, and succeeded his father in 1566. He was the first sultan entirely devoid of military virtues and willing to abandon all power to his ministers, provided he were left free to pursue his orgies and debauches. Fortunately for the country, an able grand vizier, Mahommed Sokolli, was at the head of affairs, and two years after Selim's accession succeeded in concluding at Constantinople an honourable treaty with the emperor Maximilian II., whereby the emperor agreed to pay to Turkey an annual “present” of 30,000 ducats (Feb. 17, 1568). Against Russia he was less fortunate, and the first encounter between Turkey and her future northern rival gave presage of disaster to come. A plan had been elaborated at Constantinople for uniting the Volga and Don by a canal, and in the summer of 1569 a large force of Janissaries and cavalry were sent to lay siege to Astrakhan and begin the canal works, while an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; 15,000 Russians, under Knes Serebianov, attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection; and, finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. Early in 1570 the ambassadors of Ivan the Terrible concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the sultan and the tsar. Expeditions in the Hejaz and Yemen were more successful, and the conquest of Cyprus in 1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous naval defeat of Lepanto in the same year, the moral importance of which has often been under-estimated, and which at least freed the Mediterranean from the corsairs by whom it was infested. Turkey's shattered fleets were soon restored, and Sokolli was preparing for a fresh attack on Venice, when the sultan's death on the 12th of December 1574 cut short his plans. Little can be said of this degenerate son of Suleiman, who during the eight years of his reign never girded on the sword of Osman, and preferred the clashing of wine-goblets to the shock of arms, save that with the dissolute tastes of his mother he had not inherited her ferocity.
Selim III. (1762-1808) was a son of Sultan Mustafa III. and succeeded his uncle Abd-ul-Hamid I. in 1789. The talents and energy with which he was endowed had endeared him to the people, and great hopes were founded on his accession. He had associated much with foreigners, and was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state. But Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defence, and it was not until the peace of Jassy (1792) that a breathing space was allowed him in Europe, while Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt and Syria soon called for Turkey's strongest efforts and for the time shattered the old-standing French alliance. Selim profited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought by well-considered plans to extend the spread of education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called nizam-i-jedid were collected and drilled. So well were these troops organized that they were able to hold their own against rebellious Janissaries in the European provinces, where disaffected governors made no scruple of attempting to make use of them against the reforming
