Contrary to popular beliefs, the Seleucid settlement on the island of Failaka cannot be considered a typical Seleucid Katoikia (and, perhaps, it was not at all), since there is not enough fertile land for allotment of soldiers on the island. The Seleucid fortress was located in the most livable part of the island, where there is most fresh water and where the sea is suitable for navigation. Key words: Failaka, Katoikia, Seleucids. Despite its peripheral position on the outskirts of the Hellenistic world, the Seleucid settlement on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka (ancient Ikaros) is mentioned in all generalizing works on the history of Hellenism. This interest of researchers is due to the unique combination of various types of archaeological materials with data from the ancient tradition for monuments of the Hellenistic East, which together not only allows us to get a fairly complete picture of the life of this small settlement, but also provides valuable data for studying a number of important problems of Hellenistic history and culture [Gaibov, Koshelenko, Novikov, 1988, p. 183, 201]. During the period from 1958 to 2014, expeditions from different countries worked on Failak, exploring monuments of different eras, from the Bronze Age to the Islamic period inclusive. A special place is occupied by monuments of the Hellenistic period, including architectural remains (including four sanctuaries of the Hellenistic period), significant material (including a collection of terracotta), numismatic material (including three treasures and a number of scattered coin finds), and six Greek inscriptions. However, all these data are rather fragmentary, which leads to serious discrepancies in their interpretation, even if we actively involve comparative materials from other monuments of the Hellenistic East (equally incomplete). This state of the sources makes it necessary to repeatedly discuss various issues of the history of Failaka in the Hellenistic period: consideration of argum ... Read more