Listed 31 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "DENIZLI Province TURKEY" .
DIONYSSOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dionysopolis (Dionusou polis: Eth. Dionusopoleites), a city of Phrygia.
The Ethnic name occurs on medals, and in a letter of M. Cicero to his brother
Quintus (ad Q. Fr. i. 2), in which he speaks of the people of Dionysopolis being
very hostile to Quintus, which must have been for something that Quintus did during
his praetorship of Asia. Pliny (v. 29) places the Dionysopolitae in the conventus
of Apamea, which is all that we know of their position. We may infer from the
coin that the place was on the Maeander, or near it. Stephanus (s. v.) says that
it was founded by Attalus and Eumenes. Stephanus mentions another Dionysopolis
in Pontus, originally called Cruni, and he quotes two verses of Scymnus about
it.
EVMENIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Eumeneia (Eumeneia: Eth. Eumeneus: Ishekle), a town of Phrygia, situated
on the river Glaucus, on the road from Dorylaeum to Apameia. (Plin. v. 29; Strab.
xii. 576; Hierocl. p. 667.) It is said to have received its name from Attalus
II., who named the town after his brother and predecessor, Eumenes II. (Steph.
B. s. v.) Ruins and curious sculptures still mark the place as the site of an
ancient town. (Hamilton, Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 165.) On some coins found
there we read Eumeneon Achaion, which seems to allude to the destruction of Corinth,
at which troops of Attalus were present. The district of the town bore the name
Eumenetica Regio, mentioned by Pliny. (Comp. Franz, Funf Inschriften u. funf Stadte
in Kleinasien, p. 10, foll.)
IERAPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Hierapolis (Ierapolis: Eth. Ierapolites). A considerable town in Phrygia,
situated upon a height between the rivers Lycus and Maeander, about five miles
north of Laodiceia, and on the road from Apameia to Sardis. It was probably founded
by the Greeks, though we have no record of the time or circumstances of its foundation.
It was celebrated for its warm springs and its Plutonium, to which two circumstances
it appears to have owed its sanctity. The warm springs formed stalactites and
incrustations. (Strab. xiii. p. 629; Vitruv. viii. 3.) The Plutonium was a deep
cave with a hollow opening, from which a mephitic vapour arose, which poisoned
any one who inhaled it, with the exception of the Galli, who are said to have
received no injury from it; but it appears to have lost its poisoning influence
in the time of Ammianus. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. ii. 93. s. 95; Dion Cass. lxviii.
27; Amm.Marc. xxiii. 6.) The waters of Hierapolis were much used for dyeing. (Strab.
xiii. p. 630.) Among the deities worshipped in Hierapolis the Great Mother of
the Gods is especially named. (Plin. ii. 93. s. 95.) There was a Christian church
in this town as early as the time of St. Paul. (Coloss. iv. 13.) At a later time
it claimed the title of metropolis of Phrygia. (Hierocles, p. 665, with Wesseling's
notes.) It was the birth place of the philosopher Epictetus. The ruins of Hierapolis
are situated at an uninhabited place called Pambuk-kalessi. They are of considerable
extent, and have been visited and described by several modern travellers,who have
also noticed the stalactites and incrustations mentioned by Strabo. Chandler speaks
of a cliff as one entire incrustation, and describes it as an immense frozen cascade,
the surface wavy, as of water at once fixed, or in its headlong course suddenly
petrified. (See the Travels of Pococke, Chandler, Arundell, Leake Hamilton, and
Fellowes.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LAODIKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Laodiceia, Ad Lycum (Laodikeia pros toi Lnko: Eski Hissar). A city
in the south-west of Phrygia1 , about a mile from the rapid river Lycus,
is situated on the long spur of a hill between the narrow valleys of the small
rivers Asopus and Caprus, which discharge their waters into the Lycus. The town
was originally called Diospolis, and afterwards Rhoas (Plin. v. 29), and Laodiceia,
the building of which is ascribed to Antiochus Theos, in honour of his wife Laodice,
was probably founded on the site of the older town. It was not far west from Colossae,
and only six miles to the west of Hierapolis. (It. Ant. p. 337; Tab. Peut.; Strab.
xiii. p; 629.) At first Laodiceia was not a place of much importance, but it soon
acquired a high degree of prosperity. It suffered greatly during the Mithridatic
War (Appian, Bell. Mithr. 20; Strab. xii. p. 578), but quickly recovered under
the dominion of Rome; and towards the end of the Republic and under the first
emperors, Laodiceia became one of the most important and flourishing commercial
cities of Asia Minor, in which large money transactions and an extensive trade
in wood were carried on. (Cic. ad Fam. ii. 1. 7, iii. 5; Strab. xii. p. 577; comp.
Vitruv. viii. 3.) The place often suffered from earthquakes, especially from the
great shock in the reign of Tiberius, in which it was completely destroyed. But
the inhabitants restored it from their own means. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 27.) The wealth
of its inhabitants created among them a taste for the arts of the Greeks, as is
manifest from its ruins; and that it did not remain behind-hand in science and
literature is attested by the names of the sceptics Antiochus and Theiodas, the
successors of Aenesidemus (Diog. Laert. ix. 11. § 106, 12. § 116), and by the
existence of a great medical school. (Strab. xii. p. 580.) During the Roman period
Laodiceia was the chief city of a Roman conventus. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 7, ix. 25,
xiii. 54, 67, xv. 4, ad Att. v. 15, 16, 20, 21, vi. 1, 2, 3, 7, in Verr. i. 30.)
Many of its inhabitants were Jews, and it was probably owing to this circumstance,
that at a very early period it became one of the chief seats of Christianity,
and the see of a bishop. (St. Paul, Ep. ad Coloss. ii. 1, iv. 15, foil.; Apocal.
iii. 14, foll.; Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiv. 10, 20; Hierocl. p. 665.) The Byzantine
writers often mention it, especially in the time of the Comneni; and it was fortified
by the emperor Manuel. (Nicet. Chon. Ann. pp. 9, 81.) During the invasion of the
Turks and Mongols the city was much exposed to ravages, and fell into decay, but
the existing remains still attest its former greatness, The ruins near Denisli
are fully described in Pococke's, Chandler's, Cockerell's, Arundel's and Leake's
works. Nothing, says Hamilton (Researches, vol. i. p. 515), can exceed the desolation
and melancholy appearance of the site of Laodiceia; no picturesque features in
the nature of the ground on which it stands relieve the dull uniformity of its
undulating and barren hills; and with few exceptions, its grey and widely scattered
ruins possess no architectural merit to attract the attention of the traveller.
Yet it is impossible to view them without interest, when we consider what Laodiceia
once was, and how it is connected with the early history of Christianity. ...
Its stadium, gymnasium, and theatres (one of which is in a state of great preservation,
with its seats still perfectly horizontal, though merely laid upon the gravel),
are well deserving of notice. Other buildings, also, on the top of the hill, are
full of interest; and on the east the line of the ancient wall may be distinctly
traced, with the remains of a gateway; there is also a street within and without
the town, flanked by the ruins of a colonnade and numerous pedestals, leading
to a confused heap of fallen ruins on the brow of the hill, about 200 yards outside
the walls. North of the town, towards the Lycus, are many sarcophagi, with their
covers lying near them, partly imbedded in the ground, and all having been long
since rifled.
Amongst other interesting objects are the remains of an aqueduct,
commencing near the summit of a low hill to the south, whence it is carried on
arches of small square stones to the edge of the hill. The water must have been
much charged with calcareous matter, as several of the arches are covered with
a thick incrustation. From this hill the aqueduct crossed a valley before it reached
the town, but, instead of being carried over it on lofty arches, as was the usual
practice of the Romans, the water was conveyed down the hill in stone barrel-pipes;
some of these also are much incrusted, and some completely choked up. It traversed
the plain in pipes of the same kind; and I was enabled to trace them the whole
way, quite up to its former level in the town. ...The aqueduct appears to have
been overthrown by an earthquake, as the remaining arches lean bodily on one side,
without being much broken...
The stadium, which is in a good state of preservation, is near the
southern extremity of the city. The seats, almost perfect, are arranged along
two sides of a narrow valley, which appears to have been taken advantage of for
this purpose, and to have been closed up at both ends. Towards the west are considerable
remains of a subterranean passage, by which chariots and horses were admitted
into the arena, with a long inscription over the entrance. ...The whole area of
the ancient city is covered with ruined buildings, and I could distinguish the
sites of several temples, with the bases of the columns still in situ... The ruins
bear the stamp of Roman extravagance and luxury, rather than of the stern and
massive solidity of the Greeks. Strabo attributes the celebrity of the place to
the fertility of the soil and the wealth of some of its inhabitants: amongst whom
Hiero, having adorned the city with many beautiful buildings, bequeathed to it
more than 2000 talents at his death.
1 Ptolemy (v. 2. § 18) and Philostratus (Vit. Soph. i. 25) call it a town
of Caria, while Stephanus B. (s. v.) describes it as belonging to Lydia; which
arises from the uncertain frontiers of these countries.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TRAPEZOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Trapezopolis (Trapezopolis or Trapezoupolis: Eth. Trapezopolitae),
a town situated, according to Ptolemy (ii. 2. § 18), in Caria, but according to
Socrates (Hist. Eccles. vii. 36) and Hierocles (p. 665), in Phrygia. The former
is the more correct statement, for the town stood on the southern slope of Mount
Cadmus, to the south-east of Antiochia, and, according to the Notitia Imperil,
afterwards belonged to the province of Pacatiana. It is possible that the ruins
which Arundell (Discoveries, ii. p. 147) found at Kesiljah-bouluk may be those
of Trapezopolis.
TRIPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Tripolis (Tripolis: Eth. Tripolites). A town of Phrygia, on the
northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander, and on the road leading from
Sardes by Philadelphia to Laodiceia. (It. Ant. p. 336; Tab. Peut.) It was situated
12 miles to the north-west of Hierapolis, and is not mentioned by any writer before
the time of Pliny (v. 30), who treats it as a Lydian town, and says that it was
washed by the Maeander. Ptolemy (v. 2. § 18) and Stephanus B. describe it as a
Carian town, and the latter (s. v.) adds that in-his time it was called Neapolis.
Hierocles (p. 669) likewise calls it a Lydian town. Ruins of it still exist near
Yeniji or Kash Yeniji. (Arundell, Seven Churches, p. 245; Hamilton, Researches,
i. p. 525; Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 287.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EVMENIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Eumeneia). A city of Phrygia, north of Peltae, which probably derived its name from Eumenes, king of Pergamus.
KOLOSSE (Ancient city) TURKEY
Once an important city of Great Phrygia, on the river Lycus, but so reduced subsequently that it might have been forgotten but for the epistle written to its inhabitants by the Apostle Paul.
TRIPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Properly the name of a confederacy composed of three cities,
or a district containing three cities; but it is also applied to single cities
which had some such relation to others as to make the name appropriate.
Now Kash Yeniji; a city on the Maeander, twelve miles west
of Hierapolis, on the borders of Phrygia, Caria, and Lydia, to each of which
it is assigned by different authorities.
This extract is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KOLOSSE (Ancient city) TURKEY
City of Phrygia
in Asia Minor. Colossae was
an important city of Phrygia,
mentionned by Herodotus in his Histories. It is also, according to Xenophon, the
place where Meno and the Thessalians sent by Aristippus fom Larissa to help Cyrus
the Younger try and unseat his brother Artaxerxes met with Cyrus' army in the
spring of 401 B. C.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 2001), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
HERACKEA HIERON (Ancient city) TURKEY
HERACLEA SALBACE (Ancient city) TURKEY
IERAPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
DIONYSSOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dionysopolis city, which is near Ortakoy Town that is 8 km northwestern of Cal District of Denizli Province, has been established in "Seleukos" period of Syrian kingdom and then gone under the sovereignty of Bergama Kingdom. The ruins seen on the surface today are not so much.
TRAPEZOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Trapezopolis is located in Boluduzu location of Bekirler Village of Babadag District of Denizli Province. The archaic city is understood to be established in accordance with the geographical condition of the land on the plain lying from north towards south. The ruins are completely under soil. The ruins on the surface show the characteristics of Roman and Byzantine periods.
IERAPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Hierapolis. A titular see of Phrygia Salutaris, suffragan of Synnada. It is usually called by its inhabitants Hieropolis, no doubt because of its hieron (which was an important religious centre), is mentioned by Ptolemy (v, 2, 27), and by Hierocles (Synecd., 676, 9). It appears as a see in the "Notiti? Episcopatuum" from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries. It has been identified as the modern village of Kotchhissar in the vilayet of Smyrna, near which are the ruins of a temple and the hot springs of Ilidja. Hierapolis once had the privilege of striking its own coins. We know three of its bishops: Flaccus, present at the Council of Nic?a in 325 and at that of Philippopolis in 347; Avircius, who took part in the Council of Chalcedon, 451; Michael, who assisted at the second Council of Nic?a in 787. St. Abercius, whose feast is kept by the Greek Church on 22 October, is celebrated in tradition as the first Bishop of Hierapolis. He was probably only a priest, and may be identical with Abercius Marcellus, author of a treatise against the Montanists (Eusebius, H.E., V, xvi) about the end of the second century. On the epitaph of Abercius and its imitation by Alexander, another citizen of Hierapolis, see ABERCIUS, INSCRIPTION OF. The town in question must not be confounded with another Hierapolis or Hieropolis, more important still, a see of Phrygia Pacatiana. Lequien in his "Oriens Christianus" makes this error (I, 831 sqq.). There is also another Hierapolis, a see of Isauria, suffragan of Seleucia (Lequien, II, 1025).
S. Petrides, ed.
Transcribed by: Douglas J. Potter
This text is cited Jan 2006 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
LAODIKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
IERAPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Town in Phrygia, 18 km N-NE of Denizli. Founded during the Hellenistic
period, probably by the Pergamene kings, and most likely by Eumenes II; the earliest
inscription found there is a decree in honor of his mother Apollonis. The earliest
coins, down to the time of Augustus, give the city's name as Hieropolis, which
suggests that the site was previously occupied by a temple village. Stephanos
Byzantios, although he quotes the name as Hierapolis, explains it by the many
temples in the city. A derivation from Hiera or Hiero, wife of Telephos, has been
suggested, but this idea was evidently not current in antiquity.
Hierapolis has virtually no history, apart from a series of earthquakes
and visits from the emperors. The worst earthquake occurred under Nero in A.D.
60, and seems to have necessitated extensive rebuilding. Christianity was introduced
early, and the apostle Philip ended his life at Hierapolis, where his martyrium
has recently been rediscovered. Coinage extends from the 2d c. B.C. to the emperor
Philip, though alliance coins continue a little later.
The white cliffs of Pamukkale (Cotton castle), like petrified cascades,
have long been famous. They were and are being formed by heavily lime-charged
streamlets issuing from a hot pool fed from the hill above. The city lies on the
plateau above the cliffs, and stood in large part not on soil but on the calcareous
mass deposited by the streams. Its cardinal feature is a straight street over
a mile long, running N-S through the center. At either end stood a monumental
three-arched gateway flanked by round towers; that on the N is still well preserved,
and is dated by its dedication to Domitian in A.D. 84-85. These gates stood some
150 m outside the city wall, in which was a second, simpler gate. The wall itself
surrounds the city except on the side of the cliffs; it is low and of indifferent
masonry, no earlier than the Christian era. The original city was apparently protected
only by its sanctity.
The great baths, close to the edge of the cliffs, stand almost to
their original height. In front is an open courtyard flanked on each side by a
chamber entered through a row of six pilasters; behind this is a complex of a
dozen rooms, with arches up to 16 m in span, and an even larger central arch.
Identification of the individual rooms is hindered by the stonelike floor deposited
since antiquity. In many places the walls show the holes for fixing the marble
veneer, and traces of stucco are visible on the arches. The hot pool, commonly
called the sacred pool, has a temperature somewhat under blood heat. In it lie
numerous ancient blocks and column drums. The streamlets issuing from it deposit
their lime as they go, forming self-built channels 0.3 m or more wide which change
their position from time to time. Along the N part of the main street they have
formed walls up to 2 m high.
Up the slope E of the pool is the Temple of Apollo, newly excavated.
In its present form it is no earlier than the 3d c. A.D., but it appears to have
replaced an earlier building. The SW front, approached by a flight of steps, stands
on a podium about 2 m high; the back part rests on a shelf of rock. It contains
a pronaos and cella, and had a row of columns, probably six, on the front only.
Adjoining the temple on the SE is the Plutoneion, which constituted
the city's chief claim to fame. It was described by Strabo (629-30) as an orifice
in a ridge of the hillside, in front of which was a fenced enclosure filled with
thick mist immediately fatal to any who entered except the eunuchs of Kybele.
The Plutoneion was mentioned and described later by numerous ancient writers,
in particular Dio Cassius (68.27), who observed that an auditorium had been erected
around it, and Damascius ap. Photius (Bibl. 344f), who recorded a visit by a certain
doctor Asclepiodotus about A.D. 500; he mentioned the hot stream inside the cavern
and located it under the Temple of Apollo. There is, in fact, immediately below
the sidewall of the temple in a shelf of the hillside, a roofed chamber 3 m square,
at the back of which is a deep cleft in the rock filled with a fast-flowing stream
of hot water heavily charged with a sharp-smelling gas. In front is a paved court,
from which the gas emerges in several places through cracks in the floor. The
mist mentioned by Strabo is not observable now. The gas was kept out of the temple
itself by allowing it to escape through gaps left between the blocks of the sidewalls.
Just N of the temple is a large nymphaion, of familiar form, with
a back wall and two wings enclosing a water basin, and a flight of steps in front.
Five semicircular recesses in the walls are surmounted by rectangular niches;
in the central niche is a pipe-hole. The walls were decorated with moldings, statues,
and reliefs.
Higher up the slope to the E is the theater. This is large for the
size of the city, reflecting the large numbers of visitors to the warm baths and
the Plutoneion. The cavea, ca. 100 m wide, is well preserved, with some 50 rows
of seats, one diazoma, a semicircular Royal Box, and a vomitorium on either side.
The stage building is also standing in large part; it had three rows of columns
one above another, and was adomed with statues and a Dionysiac frieze, but most
of the decoration has fallen. The stage itself was rather less than 4 m high.
The orchestra, some 20 m in diameter and surrounded by a wall ca. 2 m high, is
being cleared of the mass of fallen masonry. The building as a whole is of Graeco-Roman
type, dating from the Roman period; some vestiges of an earlier Hellenistic theater
may be observed in a hollow of the hill N of the city.
Farther up the hill to the NE is a rectangular walled reservoir, and
beyond this again is the newly excavated and elaborate martyrium of St. Philip.
This is a square building, approached from the SE by a broad flight of steps;
it has an octagonal central chamber containing the semicircular synthronos; from
this six other chambers open off, and round the exterior are rows of smaller chambers
entered from the outside. The apostle's tomb has not been discovered. The building
is supposed to have been used for commemorative services on the saint's feast
day; it dates from the early 5th c. A.D.
The necropolis, containing well over 1000 tombs, has two main groups,
one on the hillside beyond the city wall on the E, the other lining the street
outside the city on the N. The earliest are of tumulus type, with a circular wall
at the base, a cone of earth above surmounted by a phallos stone, and the burial
chamber in the interior with its own door; some also have a door in the semicircular
wall. There are some house tombs, but most of the tombs are simply sarcophagi,
set in many cases on a solid substructure; there are also a few large built tombs.
The tomb of Flavius Zeuxis stands W of the N monumental gate; the inscription
records that Zeuxis had made 72 voyages round Cape Malea to Italy.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
LAODIKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
City in Phrygia, 6 km N of Denizli, founded by Antiochos II of Syria
in honor of his wife Laodice between 261 and 253 B.C. An alternative tradition,
recorded by Stephanos Byzantios, that the foundation was made by Antiochos I in
response to a dream, and the city named after his sister Laodice, is generally
discredited, no sister of that name being known. According to Pliny (HN 5.105)
the site was previously occupied by a place called Diospolis; this may be correct,
as Zeus was the chief deity of Laodicea.
The city has little history. Achaios was crowned there in 220 B.C.
(Polyb. 5.57). In the first Mithridatic war Laodicea opposed the king and was
besieged by his forces; the defense was conducted by Quintus Oppius (App.Mithr.
20). Chosen as the capital of the conventus of Kibyra, the city resisted the Parthians
under Labienus in 40 B.C. at the instigation of a citizen named Zeno (Strab. 660).
It was damaged by an earthquake in A.D. 60, but recovered without help from the
emperor. The title of neocorus was granted by Commodus, taken away after his death
and damnatio, then restored by Caracalla. Christianity was introduced by Epaphras,
the companion of St. Paul, though in Revelations the Laodiceans are rebuked as
lukewarm. Later the city was the seat of the metropolitan of Phrygia Pacatiana.
A disastrous earthquake in 494 ended all prosperity, though the city continued
to exist until the Turkish conquest.
The site occupies a low flat-topped hill 10 km S of Hierapolis, on
the other side of the river Lykos. The whole city was contained within the circuit
wall, of which only a few traces remain on the E side. The three gates were called
the Ephesian Gate, the Hierapolis Gate and the Syrian Gate, though only the last
of these names has ancient authority; it is also the best preserved. Two small
but perennial streams, called in antiquity the Kapros and Asopos, run close below
the hill, one on each side.
The two theaters, both above average size, are in the NE slope of
the hill. The larger one faces NE, with most of its seats preserved; the lower
parts of the stage building also survive, though only the front wall is at present
visible, with a large shallow niche in the middle. The smaller one faces NW, but
only the upper parts of the seating remain. The stadium, at the S end of the plateau,
is hardly better preserved; it is exceptionally long, about 370 m, and rounded
at both ends. A few of the rows of seats survive. Inscriptions call it the amphitheatral
stadium, and it was dedicated to Vespasian in A.D. 79 by a wealthy citizen. At
its SE end is a large ruined building, in solid masonry, which has been variously
identified as a gymnasium or, with greater probability, as a bath building; it
was dedicated to Hadrian and Sabina. Just outside this building are the remains
of a water tower still some 5 m high; the pipes are visible running up in the
mass of the masonry.
An aqueduct coming from the S connected with this tower; its course
may be traced for several km towards Denizli. Immediately S of the water tower
the channel consists of a double row of blocks pierced through the middle. Some
blocks also have a funnel-shaped hole from the upper surface to the central pipe;
these were normally plugged with round stones. The purpose was evidently to enable
a stoppage to be located. The pipes tended to become choked with a lime deposit;
when this occurred the plug would be removed to see whether the channel was dry
at that point. On the next hill to the S was a clearing basin, where the water
coming from the S ceased to flow by the force of gravity and began to cross the
intervening hollow to the city under pressure. Farther S the water was carried
partly in aqueducts built of masonry, partly in a rock-cut channel. The source
was the spring now called Baspinar, in the town of Denizli; the fall from there
to Laodicea is ca. 105 m.
Near the center of the plateau is a recently excavated nymphaeum,
the only excavation yet conducted on the site. In its original form, dating apparently
to the 3d c. A.D., it consisted of a square water basin with a colonnade on two
sides adjoined by semicircular fountains; these were fed from chambers above by
water brought from the tower near the stadium. Later the basin was converted into
a closed room approached by steps on one side and used for Christian purposes.
The fountains were walled off and troughs placed in front of them. Among the finds
was a life-size statue of Isis.
Little remains of other public buildings on the hill. About 100 m
N of the stadium is a small odeum or council chamber, in which five or six rows
of seats are visible. The city's tombs were placed in the usual fashion beside
the roads leading to the city gates; most of them are sarcophagi.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
VOUVONA (Ancient city) LYKIA
Some 22 km S of Kibyra, in the region called. Kabalis by Strabo, Kabalia
by Pliny and Ptolemy. The earliest mention of the city is in an inscription found
at Araxa, recording a war between that city and "Moagetes and the Bubonians"
(JHS 68 [1948] 46ff; SEG 18.570); the date is uncertain, but may have been in
the early part of the 2d c. B.C. By the early 1st c. B.C. Bubon was incorporated
in a tetrapolis headed by Kibyra and including Balbura and Oinoanda. Later Kibyra
was annexed to the province of Asia, the other three to the Lycian League (Strab.
631), of which Bubon thereafter continued to be a member.
Under the emperor Antoninus Pius handsome gifts of money were made
to most of the Lycian cities by the millionaire Opramoas of Rhodiapolis (TAM II
905); Bubon was among the beneficiaries, though the sum allotted to her, 2000
denarii, is in fact the lowest of those recorded.
An inscription found recently in the theater at Bubon, at the time
of writing still unpublished, contains a letter from the emperor Commodus praising
the Bubonians for their zeal and courage in suppressing banditry, and confirming
a decree of the Lycian League to raise Bubon to the rank of a city possessing
three votes in the League assembly, that is to the highest rank.
The site was identified in 1842. The main part of the city stood on
a hill of moderate height now known as Dikmen, ca. 1.6 km S of the village. Although
several terraces with the prostrate remnants of public buildings, a small theater
with 20 rows of seats remaining, and a fortification on the summit was reported
in the mid 19th c., virtually nothing is now to be seen but isolated blocks and
the hollow of the theater.
Just outside the village on the N, close above the road, is a rock-cut
temple tomb, which appears to be of early date. The porch has two rather rough
Ionic columns; the door jambs and the pediment are indicated in relief. The grave
chamber is roughly arched and has a stone ledge round three sides. There is no
inscription.
About one hour on foot to the E of Ibecik, the road to Dirmil and
Balbura crosses a pass some 1200 m above sea level. Here is a fort built of dry
rubble, at the foot of which, in the pass itself, is a good-sized building; in
this is lying a large base carrying a dedication to the "very great god Ares"
by four men of Bubon; the date is 3d c. A.D. A similar base lying close by has
a similar inscription now largely destroyed. The pass evidently marks the territorial
boundary between Bubon and Balbura.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
