Selge History

Selge’s past is not well known to us. Strabo claims that Calchas, a legendary soothsayer from the Trojan War in the second millennium BC, is the foundation of the city. Later, Spartans, or Lacedaemonians, made this area their home. Later, after Rhodes was colonized, more people arrived here.

Alexander the Great, who besieged Termessos in the fourth century BC, had an alliance with Selge, an old opponent of Termessos. Due to the hostile nature of the people living in Pisidia, Selge was constantly at odds with their neighbors and maintained their independence.

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Selge only briefly lost its freedom after the Galatian Kingdom was established in 25 BC; after that, they enjoyed cordial relations with the Romans and kept their independence until the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Goths in Phrygia rebelled against the Byzantine Empire when Theodosius I arrived in the fourth century AD, attacking and destroying numerous cities in Anatolia. In 399 AD, the Goths launched an assault on Selge as well, but they were unable to take it.