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AFRODISIAS (Ancient city) ICEL
Aphrodisias (Aphrodisias: Eth. Aphrodisieus, Aphrodisiensis). An ancient
town of Caria, situated at Ghera or Geyra, south of Antiocheia on the Maeander,
as is proved by inscriptions which have been copied by several travellers. Drawings
of the remains of Aphrodisias have been made by the order of the Dilettanti Society.
There are the remains of an Ionic temple of Aphrodite, the goddess from whom the
place took the name of Aphrodisias; fifteen of the white marble columns are still
standing. A Greek inscription on a tablet records the donation of one of the columns
to Aphrodite and the demus. Fellows (Lycia, p. 32) has described the remains of
Aphrodisias, and given a view of the temple. The route of Fellows was from Antiocheia
on the Maeander up the valley of the Mosynus, which appears to be the ancient
name of the stream that joins the Maeander at Antiocheia; and Aphrodisias lies
to the east of the head of the valley in which the Mosynus rises, and at a considerable
elevation.
Stephanus (s. v. Megalopolis), says that it was first a city of the
Leleges, and, on account of its magnitude, was called Megalopolis; and it was
also called Ninoe, from Ninus (see also s. v. Ninoe),--a confused bit of history,
and useful for nothing except to show that it was probably a city of old foundation.
Strabo assigns it to the division of Phrygia; but in Pliny (v. 29) it is a Carian
city, and a free city (Aphrodisienses liberi) in the Roman sense of that period.
In the time of Tiberius, when there was an inquiry about the right of asyla, which
was claimed and exercised by many Greek cities, the Aphrodisienses relied on a
decree of the dictator Caesar for their services to his party, and on a recent
decree of Augustus. (Tac. Ann. iii. 62.) Sherard, in 1705 or 1716, copied an inscription
at Aphrodisias, which he communicated to Chishull, who published it in his Antiquitates
Asiaticae. This Greek inscription is a Consultum of the Roman senate, which confirms
the privileges granted by the Dictator and the Triumviri to the Aphrodisienses.
The Consultum is also printed in Oberlin‘s Tacituss, and elsewhere. This Consultum
gives freedom to the demus of the Plaraseis and the Aphrodisieis. It also declares
the temenos of the goddess Aphrodite in the city of the Plaraseis and the Aphrodisieis
to have the same rights as the temple of the Ephesia at Ephesus; and the temenos
was declared to be an asylum. Plarasa then, also a city of Caria, and Aphrodisias
were in some kind of alliance and intimate relation. There are coins of Plarasa;
and coins with a legend of both names are also not very uncommon. (Leake)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ANEMOURIO (Ancient city) TURKEY
Anemurium (Anemourion: Cape Anamur), the most southern point of Asia
Minor, which terminates in a high bluff knob. Strabo places Anemurium at the nearest
point of Cilicia to Cyprus. He adds that the distance along the coast to Anemurium
from the borders of Pamphylia (that is, from Coracesium) is 820 stadia, and the
remainder of the coast distance to Soli is about 500 stadia. Beaufort (Karamania,
p. 201) suspects that the numbers in Strabo have been accidentally misplaced in
the Mss., for from Anemurium to Soli is nearly double the distance of the former
place from Coracesium. But the matter would not be set quite right merely by making
the numbers change places, as the true distances will show.
Strabo does not mention a city Anemurium, but it is mentioned by Pliny
(v. 27), by Ptolemy, and Scylax. Beaufort found there the indications of a considerable
ancient town. The modern castle, which is on one side of the high bluff knob,
is supplied with water by two aqueducts, which are channels cut in the rocks of
the hills, but where they cross ravines they are supported by arches. Within the
space enclosed by the fortified walls of the castle there are the remains of two
theatres. All the columns and the seats of the theatre have been carried away,
probably to Cyprus. There is also a large necropolis full of tombs, the walls
of which are still sound, though the tombs have been ransacked. It does not appear
to what period these remains belong, but the theatres and aqueduct are probably
of the Roman period. There are many medals of Anemurium of the time of the Roman
emperors.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CHARADROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Charadrus (Charadros), a place on the coast of Cilicia, between Platanus
and Cragus, according to the Stadiasmus. Strabo, who writes it Charadrous, describes
it as a fort with a port below it, and a mountain Andriclus above it. It is described
by Beaufort (Karamania, p. 194) as an opening through the mountains with a small
river. The natives call the place Karadran. The mountain is mentioned in the Stadiasmus
under the name Androcus. Beaufort observes that the great arm of Mount Taurus,
which proceeds in a direct line from Alaya (Coracesium) towards Cape Anamour,
suddenly breaks off abreast of Karadran, and was probably the Mount Andriclus,
which Strabo describes as overhanging Charadrus. The river at Karadran, which
was also named Charadrus, was mentioned by Hecataeus in his Asia. (Steph. B. s.
v. Charadros.)
DIOKESARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Diocaesareia (Diokaisareia: Eth. Diokaisarieus). A place in Cappadocia
near Nazianzus. According to Gregorius of Nazianzus, it was a small place. It
is mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 6); and by Pliny (vi. 3), who gives no information
about it. Ainsworth, on his road from Ak Serai to Kara Hissar, came to a place
called Kaisar Koi, and he observes that by its name and position it might be identified
with Diocaesarea. (London Geog. Journal, vol. x. p. 302.) Some geographers take
Nazianzus and Diocaesareia to be the same place.
KELENDERIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Celenderis (KeleWderis: Eth. KeleWderites: Chelendreh), a town of
Pamphylia, on the coast. The tradition was that it was a Phoenician settlement,
which was afterwards occupied by the Samians. (Mela, i. 13.) There was a temple
of Juno near the town, and a river Is, which flowed by them to the sea. (Scymnus,
quoted by Herodian.) It is described by Tacitus (Ann. ii. 80) as a very strong
place, on a high rock nearly surrounded by the sea. Piso attempted to take it.
Celenderis had a fort (Strab. p. 670); and Artemidorus, with other geographers,
considered this place, and not Coracesium, as the commencement of Cilicia.
Chelendreh has a snug but very small port, from whence the couriers
from Constantinople to Cyprus embark. (Beaufort, Karamania, p. 209.) The Turks
call it Gulnar. None of the remains of Celenderis appear to be older than the
early period of the Roman empire. The town gave name to a region called Celenderitis
(Plin. v. 27), and coined those silver tetradrachms, which supply some of the
earliest and finest specimens of the numismatic art. (Leake, Asia Minor,
&c. p. 116.) There are also coins of the Syrian kings, and of the later Roman
emperors, with the epigraph KeleWderitoW.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KLAVDIOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Claudiopolis (Klaudiopolis). Ammianus (xiv. 25) mentions Seleucia
and Claudiopolis as cities of Cilicia, or of the country drained by the Calycadnus;
and Claudiopolis was a colony of Claudius Caesar It is described by Theophanes
as situated min a plain between the two Tauri, a description which exactly, corresponds
to the position of the basin of the Calycadnus. Claudiopolis may therefore be
represented by Mout, which is higher up the valley than Seleucia, and near the
junction of the northern and western branches of the Calycadnus. It is also the
place to which the pass over the northern Taurus leads from Laranda. (Leake, Asia
Minor, pp. 117, 319.) Pliny (v. 24) mentions a Claudiopolis of Cappadocia, and
Ptolemy (v. 7) has a Claudiopolis in Cataonia. Both these passages and those of
Ammianus and Theophanes are cited by Forbiger to prove that there is a Claudiopolis
in Cataonia, though it is manifest that the passage in Ammianus at least can only
apply to a town in the valley of the Calycadnus in Cilicia Trachea. The two Tauri
of Theophanes might mean the Taurus and Antitaurus. But Hierocles places Claudiopolis
in Isauria, a description which cannot apply to the Claudiopolis of Pliny and
Ptolemy.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KOROPISSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Coropissus (koropissos: Eth. Koropisseus), as the name appears on
the coins. It is Coropassus in Strabo, who says that the boundary between the
Lycaonians and the Cappadocians is the tract between the village Coropassus in
Lycaonia and Gareathyra, a small town of the Cappadocians. The distance between
these two small places was about 120 stadia. In the second of these two passages
the name of the Cappadocian town is written Garsaura, which is the true name.
The place is therefore near the western border of Cappadocia, south of the salt
lake of Tatta. Adopissus in Ptolemy (v. 6) is probably the same place.
KORYKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Corycus (Korukos: Eth. Korukios, Korukiotes). The name of a promontory
on the coast of Cilicia Tracheia. (Strab. p. 670.) Cape Corycus is now Korghoz,
plainly a corruption of the ancient name. After mentioning the Calycadnus, Strabo
- whose description proceeds from west to east - mentions a rock called Poecile;
then Anemurium, a promontory of the same name as the other; then the island Crambusa,
and the promontory Corycus, 20 stadia above which - that is, 20 stadia inland
- is the Corycian cave. Beaufort found it difficult to select a point which should
correspond to this Anemurium. North of the mouth of the Calycadnus he found two
decayed and uninhabited fortresses, called Korghos Kalaler (castles); the one
standing on the mainland, and connected with the ruins of an ancient town; and
the other covering the whole of a small island close to the shore. He thinks that
the little fortified island may be Strabo's Crambusa, and that Cape Corycus is
perhaps a small point of land towards which the ruins of the city extend. (Karamania,
p. 240, &c.) Leake supposes the island to be what Strabo calls the promontory;
and the castle on the shore to stand on the site of Corycus, a town which Strabo
has not noticed. But a town Corycus is mentioned by Livy (xxxiii. 20), and by
Pliny (v. 27), and Mela (i. 13), and Stephanus (s. v. Korukos).
The walls of the castle on the mainland contain many pieces of columns;
and a mole of great unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress about
a hundred yards across the bay. (Beaufort.) The walls of the ancient city may
still be traced, and there appear to be sufficient remains to invite a careful
examination of the spot. There are coins of Corycus.
In the Corycian cave, says Strabo, the best crocus (saffron) grows.
He describes this cave as a great hollow, of a circular form, surrounded by a
margin of rock, on all sides of a considerable height; on descending into this
cavity, the ground is found to be uneven and generally rocky, and it is filled
with shrubs, both evergreen and cultivated; in some parts the saffron is cultivated:
there is also a cave here which contains a large source, which pours forth a river
of pure, pellucid water, but it immediately sinks into the earth, and flowing
underground enters the sea: they call it the Bitter Water. Mela has a long description
of the same place apparently from the description of the same place, apparently
from the same authority that Strabo followed, but more embellished. This place
is probably on the top of the mountain above Corycus, but it does not appear to
have been examined by any modern traveller. If Mela saw the place himself, he
has more imagination than most geographers.
This place is famed in mythical story. It is the Cilician cave of
Pindar (Pyth. i. 31), and of Aeschylus (Prom. Vinct. 350), and the bed of the
giant Typhon or Typhoeus. (Mela, i. 13.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
NAGIDOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Nagidus (Nagidos: Eth. Nagideus), a town of Cilicia on the coast,
said to have been colonised by the Samians. Stephanus B. mentions an island named
Nagidusa, which corresponds to a little rock about 200 feet long, close to the
castle of Anamour. (Strab. xiv. p. 670; Mela, i. 13. § 5; Scylax, p. 40; Steph.
B. s. v.; Beaufort, Karamania, p. 206; Cramer, Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 326.)
OLVIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A town in Cilicia Aspera. at the foot of Mount Taurus, on a tributary
of the Calycadnus. (Ptol. v. 8. § 6.) Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 320) identifies
the town of Olbasa with the Olbe mentioned by Strabo (xiv. p. 672); while in another
passage (p. 117) he conjectures that Olbasa may at a later period have changed
its name into Claudiupolis, with which accordingly he is inclined to identify
it. The former supposition is possible, but not the latter, for Strabo places
Olbe in the interior of Cilicia, between the rivers Lamus and Cydnus, that is,
in the mountainous districts of the Taurus. According to tradition, Olbe had been
built by Ajax, the son of Teucer; it contained a temple of Zeus, whose priest
once ruled over all Cilicia Aspera. (Strab. l. c.) In later times it was regarded
as belonging to Isauria, and was the seat of a bishop. (Hierocl. p. 709; Basil.
Vit. Theclae, ii. 8.) We still possess coins of two of those priestly princes,
Polemon and Ajax. (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. vol. iii. p. 26, &c.) It should be observed
that Stephanus Byz. (s. v. Olbia) calls Olbasa or Olbe Olbia.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SELEFKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Seleuceia or Seleucia, (Seleukeia). An important town of Cilicia,
in a fertile plain on the western bank of the Calycadnus, a few miles above its
mouth, was founded by Seleucus I., surnamed Nicator. A town or towns, however,
had previously existed on the spot under the names of Olbia and Hyria, and Seleucus
seems to have only extended and united them in one town under the name Seleucia.
The inhabitants of the neighbouring Holmi were at the same time transferred to
the new town, which was well built, and in a style very different from that of
other Cilician and Pamphylian cities. (Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. xiv. p. 670.) In
situation, climate, and the richness of its productions, it rivalled the neighbouring
Tarsus, and it was much frequented on account of the annual celebration of the
Olympia, and on account of the oracle of Apollo. (Zosim. i. 57; Basil. Vita S.
Theclae, i. p. 275, Orat. xxvii. p. 148.) Pliny (v. 27) states that it was surnamed
Tracheotis; and some ecclesiastical historians, speaking of a council held there,
call the town simply Trachea (Sozom. iv. 16; Socrat. ii. 39; comp. Ptol. v. 8.
§ 5; Amm. Marc. xiv. 25; Oros. vii. 12.) The town still exists under the name
of Selefkieh, and its ancient remains are scattered over a large extent of ground
on the west side of the Calycadnus. The chief remains are those of a theatre,
in the front of which there are considerable ruins, with porticoes and other large
buildings: farther on are the ruins of a temple, which had been converted into
a Christian church, and several large Corinthian columns. Ancient Seleuceia, which
appears to have remained a free city ever since the time of Augustus, remained
in the same condition even after a great portion of Cilicia was given to Archelaus
of Cappadocia, whence both imperial and autonomous coins of the place are found.
Seleuceia was the birthplace of several men of eminence, such as the peripatetics
Athenaeus and Xenarchus, who flourished in the reign of Augustus, and the sophist
Alexander, who taught at Antioch, and was private secretary to the emperor M.
Aurelius (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 5.) According to some authorities, lastly,
the emperor Trajan died at Seleuceia (Eutrop. viii. 2, 16; Oros. l. c.), though
others state that he died at Selinus.
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SOLI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Soli (Soloi: Eth. Soleus or Solios), an important town on the coast
of Cilicia, between the mouths of the rivers Lamus and Pyramus, from each of which
its distance was about 500 stadia. (Strab. xiv. p. 675; Stadiasm. Mar. May. §
170, &c.) The town was founded by Argives joined by Lindians from Rhodes. (Strab.
xiv. p. 671; Pomp. Mela, i. 13; Liv. xxxvii. 56.) It is first mentioned in history
by Xenophon (Anab. i. 2. § 24) as a maritime town of Cilicia; it rose to such
opulence that Alexander the Great could fine its citizens for their attachment
to Persia with 200 talents. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 5. § 5; Curt. iii. 17.) During
the Mithridatic War the town of Soli was taken and destroyed by Tigranes, king
of Armenia, who probably transplanted most of its inhabitants to Tigranocerta.
(Dion Cass. xxxvi. 20; Plut. Pomp. 28; Strab. xi. p. 532.) But the place was revived
by Pompey, who peopled it with some of those pirates who had fallen into his hands,
and changed its name into Pompeiupolis. (Pompeioupolis, Plut. l. c.; Strab. xiv.
p. 671; Appian, Mithr. 105; Ptol. v. 8. § 4; Plin. v. 22; Steph. B. s. v.; Tac.
Ann. ii. 58; Hierocl. p. 704.) Soli was the birthplace of Chrysippus the philosopher,
and of two distinguished poets, Philemon and Aratus, the latter of whom was believed
to be buried on a hill near the town. The Greek inhabitants of Soli are reported
to have spoken a very corrupt Greek in consequence of their intercourse with the
natives of Cilicia, and hence to have given rise to the term solecism (soloikismos),
which has found its way into all the languages of Europe; other traditions, however,
connect the origin of this term with the town of Soli, in Cyprus. (Diog. Laert.
i. 2. § 4; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 875; Suid. s. v. Soloi) The locality and the
remains of this ancient city have been described by Beaufort (Karamania, p. 261,
foil.). The first object that presented itself to us on landing, says he, was
a beautiful harbour or basin, with parallel sides and circular ends; it is entirely
artificial, being formed with surrounding walls or moles, which are 50 feet in
thickness and 7 in height. Opposite to the entrance of the harbour a portico rises
from the surrounding quay, and opens to a double row of 200 columns, which, crossing
the town, communicates with the principal gate towards the country. Of the 200
columns no more than 42 are now standing; the remainder lie on the spot where
they fell, intermixed with a vast assemblage of other ruined buildings which were
connected with the colonnade. The theatre is almost entirely destroyed. The city
walls, strengthened by numerous towers, entirely surrounded the town. Detached
ruins, tombs, and sarcophagi were found scattered to some distance from the walls,
on the outside of the town, and it is evident that the whole country was once
occupied by a numerous and industrious people. The natives now call the place
Mezetlu. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 213, foll.) The little river which passed
through Soli was called Liparis, from the oily nature of its waters. (Vitruv.
viii. 3; Antig. Caryst. 150; Plin. l. c.) Pliny (xxxi. 2) mentions bituminous.
springs in the vicinity, which are reported by Beaufort to exist at Bikhardy,
about six hours' walk to the north-east of Mezetlu.
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
TARSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Tarsos: Eth. Tarsenos or Tarseus. Sometimes also called Tarsi (Tarsoi),
Tersus Tersos), Tharsus (Tharsos), or Tarsos pros toi Kudnoi, to distinguish it
from other places of the same name was the chief city of Cilicia, and one of the
most important places in all Asia Minor. It was situated in a most fertile and
productive plain, on both sides of the river Cydnus, which, at a distance of 70
stadia from the city, flowed into a lagoon called Rhegma or Rhegmi. This lagoon
formed the port of Tarsus, and was connected with the sea. The situation of the
city was most favourable, for the river was navigable up to Tarsus, and several
of the most important roads of Cilicia met there. Its foundation is ascribed to
Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king, and the very name of the city seems to indicate
its Semitic origin. But the Greeks claimed the honour of having colonised the
place at a very early period; and, among the many stories related by them about
the colonisation of Tarsus, the one adopted by Strabo (xiv. p. 673; comp. Steph.
B. s. v.) ascribes the foundation to Argives who with Triptolemus arrived there
in search of Io. The first really historical mention of Tarsus occurs in the Anabasis
of Xenophon, who describes it as a great and wealthy city, situated in an extensive
and fertile plain at the foot of the passes of Mount Taurus leading into Cappadocia
and Lycaonia. (Anab. i. 2. § 23, &c.) The city then contained the palace of Syennesis,
king of Cilicia, but virtually a satrap of Persia, and an equivocal ally of Cyrus
when he marched against his brother Artaxerxes. When Cyrus arrived at Tarsus,
the city was for a time given up to plunder, the troops of Cyrus being exasperated
at the loss sustained by a detachment of Cilicians in crossing the mountains.
Cyrus then concluded a treaty with Syennesis, and remained at Tarsus for 20 days.
In the time of Alexander we no longer hear of kings; but a Persian satrap resided
at Tarsus, who fled before the young conqueror and left the city, which surrendered
to the Macedonians without resistance. Alexander himself was detained there in
consequence of a dangerous fever brought on by bathing in the Cydnus. (Arrian,
Anab. ii. 4; Curt. iii. 5.) After the time of Alexander, Tarsus with the rest
of Cilicia belonged to the empire of the Seleucidae, except during the short period
when it was connected with Egypt under the second and third Ptolemy. Pompey delivered
Tarsus and Cilicia from the dominion of the eastern despots, by making the country
a Roman province. Notwithstanding this, Tarsus in the war between Caesar and Pompey
sided with the former, who on this account honoured it with a personal visit,
in consequence of which the Tarsians changed the name of their city into Juliopolis.
(Caes. B. Alex. 66; Dion Cass. xlvii. 24; Flor. iv. 2.) Cassius afterwards punished
the city for this attachment to Caesar by ordering it to be plundered, but M.
Antony rewarded it with municipal freedom and exemption from taxes. It is well
known how Antony received Cleopatra at Tarsus when that queen sailed up the Cydnus
in a magnificent vessel in the disguise of Aphrodite. Augustus subsequently increased
the favours previously bestowed upon Tarsus, which on coins is called a libera
civitas. During the first centuries of the empire Tarsus was a place of great
importance to the Romans in their campaigns against the Parthians and Persians.
The emperor Tacitus, his brother Florian, and Maximinus and Julian died at Tarsus,
and Julian was buried in one of its suburbs. It continued to be an opulent town
until it fell into the hands of the Saracens. It was, however, taken from them
in the second half of the 10th century by the emperor Nicephorus, but was soon
after again restored to them, and has remained in their hands ever since. The
town still exists under the name of Tersoos, and though greatly reduced, it is
still the chief town of that part of Karamania. Few important remains of antiquity
are now to be seen there, but the country around it is as delightful and as productive
as ever.
Tarsus was not only a great commercial city, but at the same time
a great seat of learning and philosophy, and Strabo (xiv. p. 673, &c.) gives a
long list of eminent men in philosophy and literature who added to its lustre;
but none of them is more illustrious than the Apostle Paul, who belonged to one
of the many Jewish families settled at Tarsus. (Acts, x. 30, xi. 30, xv, 22, 41,
xxi. 39; comp. Ptol. v. 8. § 7; Diod. xiv. 20; Hierocl. p. 704.)
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KELENDERIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city on the coast of Cilicia Trachea, to the northeast of the Anemurian promontory. It was founded by the Phoenicians, and afterwards received a Samian colony.
KLAVDIOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Cilicia Trachea, but assigned by Ammianus and Hierocles to Isauria. It was founded by Claudius, the Roman emperor, and was situated in a plain between two summits of Mount Taurus.
KORYKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A small town of Cilicia Trachea, near the confines of Cilicia
Campestris, on the sea-coast, and to the east of Seleucia Trachea. It appears
to have been a fortress of great strength, and a mole of vast unhewn rocks is
carried across the bay for about a hundred yards. It served at one time as the
harbour of Seleucia, and was then a place of considerable importance. About twenty
stadia inland was the Corycian cave (Korukion antron), celebrated in mythology
as the fabled abode of the giant Typhoeus. In fact, many writers, as Strabo reports,
placed Arima or Arimi, the scene of Typhoeus's torments, alluded to by Homer,
in Cilicia, while others sought it in Lydia, and others in Campania.
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KYDNOS RIVER (River) TURKEY
A river of Cilicia Campestris, rising in the Taurus and flowing through the midst of the city of Tarsus. It was celebrated for the coldness of its waters, in bathing in which Alexander the Great nearly lost his life
OLVIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
or Olbe (Olbe). A city of Cilicia said to be founded by Aiax, son of Teucer. In later times it was called Oropi.
SELEFKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Seleucia Tracheotis (Selefkeh), an important city of Cilicia
Aspera, built by Seleucus I. on the western bank of the river Calycadnus, about
four miles from its mouth, and peopled with the inhabitants of several neighbouring
cities. It had an oracle of Apollo, and annual games in honour of Zeus Olympius.
It vied with Tarsus in power and splendour, and was a free city under the Romans.
It has remarkable claims to renown both in political and literary history--in
the former as the place where Trajan and Frederick Barbarossa died; in the latter
as the birthplace of the philosophers Athenaeus and Xenarchus, of the sophist
Alexander, the secretary of M. Aurelius Antoninus, and of other learned men. On
its site are still seen the ruins of temples, porticoes, aqueducts, and tombs.
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TARSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Now Terso; the chief city of Cilicia, standing near the centre
of Cilicia Campestris, on the river Cydnus, about twelve miles above its mouth.
All that can be determined with certainty as to its origin seems to be that it
was a very ancient city of the Syrians, who were the earliest known inhabitants
of this part of Asia Minor, and that it received Greek settlers at an early period.
At the time of the Macedonian invasion it was held by the Persian troops, who
were about to burn it, when they were prevented by Alexander's arrival. After
playing an important part as a military post in the wars of the successors of
Alexander, and under the Syrian kings, it became, by the peace between the Romans
and Antiochus the Great, the frontier city of the Syrian kingdom on the northwest,
and still flourishes, having a population estimated at 100,000. As the power of
the Seleucidae declined it suffered much from the oppression of its governors,
and from the wars between the members of the royal family. At the time of the
Mithridatic War, it suffered, on the one hand, from Tigranes, who overran Cilicia,
and, on the other, from the pirates, who had their strongholds in the mountains
of Cilicia Aspera, and made frequent incursions into the level country. From both
these enemies it was rescued by Pompey, who made it the capital of the new Roman
province of Cilicia, B.C. 66. Under Augustus, the city obtained immunity from
taxes, through the influence of the emperor's tutor, the Stoic Athenodorus, who
was a native of the place. It enjoyed the favour and was called by the names of
several of the later emperors. It was the scene of important events in the wars
with the Persians, the Arabs, and the Turks, and also in the Crusades. Tarsus
was the birthplace of many distinguished men, among them the Apostle Paul.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KELENDERIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Total results on 9/5/2001: 10 for Kelenderis, 12 for Celenderis.
CHARADROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
KELENDERIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
KLAVDIOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
SELEFKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
ANEMOURIO (Ancient city) TURKEY
On the E flank of Cape Anamur, southernmost point of Asia Minor, a
mere 64 km from Cyprus. Historical references are few but its existence in Hellenistic
times is certain (Livy 33.20). Tacitus mentions an abortive siege in A.D. 52 by
the native Cietae (Ann. 12.55.2), and a similar threat from inland Isaurians probably
accounts for the restoration of the seawall by Matronianus, Comes Isauriae in
A.D. 382, mentioned in an inscription. A significant road station and port of
call, Anemurium appears constantly in topographic works from Skylax to mediaeval
portolans, which refer to it as Stallimur. The coin series extends from Antiochos
IV of Commagene to Valerian, but the city's prosperity continued till the mid
7th c. when it was largely, if not wholly, abandoned, probably as a result of
the Arab occupation of Cyprus. Sometime in the 12th c. the site was in part reoccupied
and the citadel rebuilt as a stronghold of little Armenia, but evidence of a subsequent
Seljuk or Ottoman presence is lacking.
The city is divided into an upper citadel and a lower town. The former
occupies the actual cape, protected on three sides by steep cliffs and on the
landward side by a wall with towers and zigzag reentrants. Both the fortifications
and the structures within are of mediaeval date, but masonry of Hellenistic character
is visible in places. Covering an area at least 1500 m long from N to S and 400
m wide, the lower town is bounded on the S by the fortification wall of the citadel,
on the E by a seawall, still standing in places, and on the W by the higher of
two aqueducts constructed on the slopes of the promontory. Only to the N, where
the ruins lie buried in sand dunes, are the limits uncertain.
The most striking feature is the necropolis rising up the hillside
in the NW quarter of the site. It consists of some 350 individual numbered tombs,
dating from the 1st c. A.D. to the early 4th c. They were built in fairly coarse
manner of local gray limestone; the interiors were decorated with painted plaster
and mosaic. The simplest examples consist of barrel-vaulted chambers on stone
platforms with arcosolia along three walls, but other types have developed well
beyond this nucleus to incorporate anterooms, side-halls for funerary banquets,
second stories, and small courtyards.
In the city proper the principal monuments still recognizable above
ground are mainly at the S end of the city and include a large theater, an odeon-bouleuterion,
an apsed exedra, perhaps belonging to a basilica, three large baths, and traces
of a colonnaded street traversing the city from N to S. Since 1965 two of the
baths and the odeon have been cleared and restored. Fine mosaic floors have appeared
in both buildings and, most recently, in a palaestra attached to the largest baths.
This consists of an open piazza almost 1000 sq m in extent, floored entirely with
mosaic of geometric design. None of the structures so far studied in the city
appears earlier than the late 2d c. A.D. Buildings of later date include several
churches and a small, but well-preserved, bath with mosaic floor of complex design.
Finds, for the most part Late Roman or Early Byzantine, are deposited in the Alanya
Museum.
J. Russell, 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.
CHARADROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Site in Cilicia Aspera, 25 km W of Anamur. Recorded as a city with
harbor by Pseudo-Skylax in the 4th c. B.C., later a station under a Ptolemaic
hegemon. It is mentioned in the Stadiasmus as a chorion, and about A.D. 200 as
a harbor of Lamos--probably the region rather than the city (IGR III, 838). Virtually
nothing remains of the city apart from some scattered blocks among the houses
and a milestone of A.D. 137.
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.
DIOKESARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Originally the hieron of Olba, the town around the temple was incorporated
as a separate city, whose first known coins were minted under Domitian but whose
foundation may have dated from ca. A.D. 72 when Vespasian made one province of
Cilicia. The city's history, subsequent to its separation, is virtually unknown.
It may also have been known by the native name of Prakana.
The temple town is located 23 km inland at a height of 1000 m on an
ancient road, paved in Roman times, which led N from Seleucia ad Calycadnum, and
from the temple NW to modern Magara (Kirobasi), thence probably W to Claudiopolis
(Mut) and over the Tauros to Laranda (Karaman). There are heroa along the road,
those around Imbriogon Kome perhaps belonging to Seleucia, one grave tower at
Ovacik, ca. 9 km S-SE of Uzuncaburc, probably to Olba or Diocaesarea. Guarding
the road about halfway up to the temple are watch towers and behind them a fort
(Meydan Kalesi), probably built in the Hellenistic period to defend the territory
of Olba. Diocaesarea and Olba are connected by a road marked by Roman milestones,
the earliest dating from A.D. 75-76, others from 197 and ca. 308. How the two
cities were separated and what area each controlled is not known. On imperial
coinage both claimed to be metropolis of the Kennateis, apparently the name of
the local tribe. Both also claimed to be metropolis of Cetis, probably Rough Cilicia,
referring to the time when Olba was capital of the country, then called Pirindu.
The city lies in a flat area among low hills. It was walled, its area
roughly oval in shape, ca. 700 m E-W, 500 m N-S. Houses of the modern town are
scattered around the site. The most conspicuous remains are those of the temple
and a great tower. The priests of the Temple of Zeus at Olba claimed that the
temple was founded by Ajax, the son of Teucer, the hero of the Trojan war, who
founded Salamis in Cyprus. At present there is no evidence to confirm or deny
early settlement of any sort in this upland area, or an early shrine on this spot.
The temple, the earliest datable monument in the city, is peripteral, Corinthian
in style, the stylobate 33.70 x 21.20 m, 6 x 12 columns, all of which save three
are standing at least in part, four with capitals in position. The columns are
faceted to about one-quarter of their height, fluted above. Nothing remains of
the interior walls, although in 1958 the krepis of the temple was cleared and
apparently revealed something of the interior arrangement. In Christian times
the temple was converted to a church, the columns tied with a wall, and the two
central columns of the E end removed to give space for an apse. A high peribolos
wall of regular ashlar masonry surrounds the temple except on the E. Cuttings
for the roof beams of a porch can be seen along the inner face of the W peribolos
wall. Here an inscription records the repair by a later priest of the roof (or
dwelling) of Zeus Olbios, first built by Seleucus Nicator. What building is referred
to is not clear. A date of the early 3d c. B.C. has generally been agreed on for
the temple but the mid 2d c. has been suggested on stylistic grounds. The temple
was dedicated to Zeus, the Greek version of the native weather god, to whom the
sanctuary was no doubt originally dedicated. A coin of Septimius Severus minted
at Diocaesarea (Hill, BMCCat, Lycaonia . . . , 72, pl. 12, 14) shows a bucranium
in the pediment, Nikai (?) as acroteria.
At the N edge of the city wall is a great tower of regular ashlar
masonry, not quite preserved to the top, ca. 22.5 m high, about 12 x 16 m at the
base, of S or 6 stories, divided into various rooms. There is a door on the S
side, and on the E a window with balcony on the third floor. An inscription of
the late 3d or early 2d c. B.C. records its building by the priest Teucer, son
of Tarkyaris. Conspicuous inscriptions record a repair, possibly of the 3d c.
A.D. Nothing more of the Hellenistic city remains in place.
In the 1st c. A.D. the main streets were colonnaded. One runs E-W
along the N wall of the temple peribolos, with many of the columns still standing.
Across the street just E of the temple are the remains of an ornamental gateway
consisting of two parallel rows, each of six columns, supporting an entablature.
Five at the S end are still standing. The central intercolumniation was spanned
by an arch continuing the line of the entablature. The columns are unfluted, with
Corinthian capitals, and have consoles to support statues protruding from them.
At the W end of the street, near the city wall, are the remains of a tychaion.
A row of six unfluted, monolithic, granite columns with Corinthian capitals, of
which five still remain, stands at the E end of a long, narrow platform, at the
W end of which is a square cella, open to the E, nearly 34 m away from the row
of columns, which has an architrave. The inscription on it, dating to the second
half of the 1st c. A.D., records the donation of the tychaion to the city. East
of the tychaion a colonnaded street (no columns standing) leads N to a well preserved
triple arched gate in the city wall. On this is an inscription recording a complete
repair (of the wall as well as the gate?) under Arcadius and Honorius (A.D. 398-405).
The gate is probably of the 2d c. A.D.
The remains of the theater are to the E of the temple, just S of the
E-W street. The cavea is dug into the hill; a considerable number of seats, a
diazoma, and vomitorium are preserved. No remains of the scene building are visible
in place, but an architrave block probably from the proscenium has an inscription
to Lucius and Marcus Verus, dated A.D. 164-65, perhaps the date of the theater.
The most noteworthy of the other remains in the city is a long rectangular building
of the Roman period, perhaps a gymnasium, S of the temple. Outside the city, crowning
a round hill ca. 1 km to the S is a grave tower, square in plan with shallow pilasters
at the corners, Doric capitals and entablature, and a stepped pyramid above. This
is generally considered to be the tomb of one of the priests of the Hellenistic
period.
Outside the city wall along the ancient road leading to Magara, and
along a road leading NE from the city are extensive cemeteries with rock-cut tombs
and sarcophagi of the Roman and Christian periods. Besides the temple church there
are the remains of two other churches, one of the 4th or 5th c.
T. S. Mackay, 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.
ELEOUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Now a village on the coast between Korykos and Lamus. The city may
have been founded about the 2d or 1st c. B.C. Under the Romans it was given perhaps
to Tarcondimotos some time before 31 B.C., and in 20 B.C. with Korykos and other
areas of Rough Cilicia to Archelaos I of Cappadocia, who changed the name to Sebaste
in honor of Augustus. A son of Archelaos by the same name may have succeeded,
and in A.D. 38 Antiochos IV of Commagene took over. He died in A.D. 72, at which
time or soon after both Cilicias were formed into one province under a legatus
pro praetore. Elaeussa flourished during the Roman period in spite of various
setbacks; it was apparently prosperous in the 6th and 5th c. A.D., although its
harbor had silted up by the 6th. It seems not to have recovered from the period
of Arab invasions, and has been more or less deserted since.
Elaeussa is situated on the sandy shore of a shallow bay with an island
in the center, now a peninsula, which in antiquity sheltered the harbor. On the
island Archelaos built a palace in which he spent much of his time. There are
numerous ruins on the island including the remains of a church, but all are apparently
later than the palace. An aqueduct led to the island, and the remains of two more
span the ravine to the W of the city (Cambazli or Cukurbag Deresi). A well-preserved
water course and arched aqueduct runs along the coast from the Lamus river to
Elaeussa and Korykos; a building inscription on it dates not earlier than A.D.
400.
The theater cavea is cut in the rock slope a little inland opposite
the island, facing S. The seats have been robbed, but the bedding for them can
be seen. Some remains of the stage building are preserved, and just S of them
parts of another building (stoa?) with some column bases preserved along its S
side; in 1818 there were said to be 16 of them. On a high tongue of land at the
W end of the bay are the conspicuous remains of a Roman peripteral temple, oriented
NW-SE, the entrance at the NW. The columns, 6 x 12, are fluted, five are left
standing higher than their bases, but none is complete. The stylobate measures
17.60 x 32.94 m and is set on a podium where the ground falls away on all sides
but the NW. The capitals are described as a cross between the Composite and Corinthian
orders. The architrave has three fasciae, the one remaining frieze block is decorated
with a dolphin rider and hippocampus. No trace of the original cella remains.
In the Early Christian period a church was built on the temple stylobate, at right
angles to it, the apse at the NE side of the stylobate, with an adjoining enclosure
filling the NW end of the temple. The columns of the S half of the SW side of
the temple and all the columns of the SE side were removed, leaving an open platform.
Part of the E end of the church and the apse is paved with a fairly well-preserved
garden and animal mosaic, very similar to some at Antioch dated to the 5th c.
A.D. West of the temple and near the two aqueducts across the stream are the remains
of a large building of opus reticulatum with four barrel-vaulted rooms, perhaps
a bath.
The inhabitants of Elaeussa eventually lived by a forest of tombs,
which fill almost every available space along the ancient shore road, the majority
dating from the 2d c. A.D. into the Christian period. There are sarcophagi, freestanding
and rock-cut, some decorated with garlands and inscriptions. There are rock-cut
and masonry chamber tombs and mausolea. From the 2d or 3d c. A.D. there are eight
or more heroa of the Corinthian order, faced with ashlar masonry. Some of these
are rectangular with pilasters at the corners and vaulted interiors; others are
tetrastyle prostyle podium temples with narrow doorless porches. In the necropolis
along the road NE of the city is a sarcophagus under an elaborate baldachino.
From near the theater an ancient paved road leads NW to a site called
Cati Oren (skeleton ruins) in a plain where are a (Hellenistic?) fortress of polygonal
masonry, a Temple of Hermes and an early basilica, and nearby a cave temple to
Hermes. To the NE about 1.5 km is another (Hellenistic?) fort on the edge of a
ravine, with club symbols carved on it. Both these sites might have belonged to
Olba in the Hellenistic period and later. At Cati Oren an inscription of ca. the
Augustan period mentions a dynast, possibly Archelaos of Elaeussa or Polemo, dynast
of Olba in the 1st c. A.D. Northeast of Elaeussa, ca. 3 km inland, is the town
of the Kanytelleis or Kanytelideis, which was a deme of Elaeussa in the Roman
period, but was in Olban territory in the late 3d c. B.C. On the roads leading
from this site to the coast and inland are necropoleis, including heroa; on the
road to Elaeussa are numerous rock-cut tombs and reliefs. The main area of the
site is around a large rectangular depression, a natural limestone cave whose
roof has collapsed. At the edge of this is a large rectangular tower of polygonal
masonry, with an inscription dedicating it to Zeus Olbios, by the priest Teucer
son of Tarkyaris, presumably the same man who built the great tower at Uzuncaburc
There are house remains here and there and five churches, some well preserved.
T. S. Mackay, 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.
KELENDERIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
On the coast 46 km W of the modern Anamur and the center of a region
known to Pliny (HN 5.92) as Kelenderitis. Said by Apollodoros to be a foundation
of Sandokos of Syria and therefore presumably of native origin, Kelenderis was
colonized, doubtless in the 8th c. B.C., by Samians. Included in the Delian League
between 460 and 454 as a way station on the route to Egypt, with an assessment
probably of one talent, it thereafter has no recorded history. Its coinage began
in the mid 5th c. and continued until the time of Decius. Survival into the 5th
c. of our era is attested by Hierocles and the Notitia. Of the recorded inscriptions,
nearly all funerary and datable to the 2d and 3d c., not one is now to be seen.
The ruins today are overlaid by the expanding modern village. Fortifications
may still be detected, nevertheless, around the modern lighthouse on the small
promontory which forms and commands the harbor; but the chief harbor was undoubtedly
the fine, landlocked bay with its famous spring 1.6 km to the W at Soguk Su. Here
there are ancient ruins, notably a bath at the head of the bay and archaeological
debris on the peninsula at its mouth. The most notable monument is the great built
tomb among olive trees to the E of the modern town. There are handsome but much
destroyed rock-cut tombs at Duruhan 9.6 km to the N.
T. B. Mitford, 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.
KLAVDIOPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
In a well-watered plain 80 km N-NW of Seleucea on the Kalykadnos.
Named for the emperor, who gave it colonial status, Claudiopolis was first a city
and later a bishopric. It was tentatively identified in 1800 with modern Mut by
Leake, who noted that "its chief streets and temples and other public buildings
may be easily distinguished, and long colonnades and porticos, with the lower
parts of the columns in their original places. Pillars of verd-antique, breccia
and other marbles, lie half buried in different parts. . . ." The city's
identity was confirmed from epigraphic evidence at the end of the 19th c.
Little remains of Claudiopolis, apart from reused building material
and inscriptions in Mut and in the walls of the 14th c. (Karamanoglu) castle at
the town's N limit. The theater, with fragments of seating and of the sculpture
and column drums of its scaena, may still be recognized to the W, and S of the
ancient ramparts (still visible in places as a low mound) is the necropolis with
numerous sculptured sarcophagi. Of the latter, one recording the city's name has
been removed for safekeeping to the precincts of Lal Pasha's mosque.
M. Gough, 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.
KOROPISSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Ca. 34 km N of Mut (Claudiopolis) and ca. 48 km SE of Karaman, this
large and impressive site at ca. 1400 m above sea level is protected on three
sides by steep descents towards the swift-flowing stream of the Kavak Gozu; to
the N, the natural strength of its elevation above the main road was reinforced
by a wall. Occupied at least from the 5th c. B.C., the place had civic status
by the time of Septimius Severus and was a bishopric by the 5th c.
Circled by ramparts (1.2 m thick by 5 m high) with 9 m square towers
at intervals, the highest point was defended by a redoubt. An aqueduct brought
water to the city from the S, and there was a hippodrome on flat ground to the
N. A columnar heroon stands S of the river, and weathered, apparently uninscribed
sarcophagi flank the Mut-Karaman road. As a bishopric, Dag Pazari almost certainly
boasted a monastery (now destroyed), a cathedral with an adjoining baptistery,
a funerary church extra muros, and an ambulatory church with certain similarities
to foundations at Meryemlik (Seleucea on the Kalykadnos) and Alahan, ca. 21 km
NW of Mut, the last three sometimes attributed to Zeno, the Isaurian emperor.
The identification of the site with Koropissos (Coriopio in the Peutinger
Table), on the route between Iconium and Seleucea, is supported by an inscription
mentioning Koropissos which was found and copied near Mut in 1961.
M. Gough, 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.
KORYKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city 3.5 km W of Elaeussa. First mentioned as taken by Antiochos
III from Ptolemaic control in 197 B.C., it minted autonomous coinage in the 1st
c. B.C. and shared the fate of Elaeussa under the Romans until ca. A.D. 72. It
was noted as a port in Roman times, and was extremely important in the Byzantine
and mediaeval periods. Taken by the Turks in 1448, it slowly declined in importance
as a port until the 19th c. when it was practically deserted. Its ancient name
was never lost.
The scanty remains are apparently confined to two small peninsulas
ca. 425 m apart and a narrow gentle slope inland from them. On the E peninsula
and inland are some undescribed remains of buildings. The W peninsula is filled
by a large Armenian castle and has a mole extending from it, protecting a small
harbor to the W. Incorporated in the SE wall of the castle is a well-preserved
single-arched Roman gateway, which led from the quay probably to a market, which
may lie under the castle. East of the castle about 100 m are the foundations of
two buildings, perhaps temples, with column fragments and wall blocks lying around.
A line of bases, perhaps from a colonnaded street or stoa, is oriented NW-SE,
about 100 m NE of the temples (?).
Inland from the city, along the ancient road from Elaeussa, and along
the steep slope a little way inland is the ancient necropolis, clusters of sarcophagi
and rockcut chambers, numerous inscriptions, and one conspicuous relief of a warrior
with sword and spear. One grave chamber constructed of polygonal masonry may be
Hellenistic or Roman; the rest of the necropolis is of the Roman and Christian
periods.
The Byzantine (?) city wall can be traced in an arc from the shore
1.25 km E of the castle to the slope 375 m NW of the castle. Just S of the modern
road to the E of the wall can be seen the ancient water course leading from Elaeussa
and Lamus. Inside the wall and out are a number of churches, some very well preserved,
of the 5th and 6th c., and one of the Armenian period. About 0.75 km S of the
mainland castle and close to shore is a small island (ancient Krambusa?) with
a wellpreserved Armenian castle of the 13th c., built perhaps over a Byzantine
predecessor.
About 3 km from the site on an ancient road to Kambazli are two watchtowers
and behind them a cluster of buildings within a wall of polygonal masonry, just
above the sheer wall of the Seytan Deresi (Verev D. or Karyagdi D.) gorge. The
towers and fort (?) may be part of a Hellenistic Olban defense system, or a retreat
for Korykians. Below the fort (?) are several rock-cut memorial reliefs of the
Roman period and an inscription probably of the 3d c. B.C.
Five km W of Korykos, 1 km inland, is the Korykian Cave, a natural
limestone pit, opening out as a cave. Above it is a Temple of Zeus, perhaps ainphiprostyle,
with a peribolos wall of elegant polygonal masonry. An inscription on the temple
gives a list of priests (?), the first name apparently of the late 3d or early
2d c. B.C. A myth concerning Zeus and Typhon was localized at the cave; the original
Hittite or Luvian myth and cult may have been placed here as early as the 2d millennium
B.C. In the mouth of the cave at the bottom is a wellpreserved chapel to the Virgin,
perhaps of the 4th c. Less than a kilometer N of the cave another Temple of Zeus
was reported.
T. S. Mackay, 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.
NAGIDOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
On the coast of Cilicia Aspera, 18 km E of Anamur. Colonized by the
Samians according to Mela (1.77), but the eponymous founder Nagis (Steph. Byz.
s.v.) is likely to be mythical. The city flourished in the 5th and 4th c., when
it issued silver coinage, and is recorded by Hekataios (ap. Steph. Byz.) and Pseudo-Skylax,
together with an island called Nagidussa. In later times little is heard of it,
but it is mentioned by Strabo (670) as the first city E of Anemurion, and sherds
and an inscription show that the site was occupied down to the 2d or 3d c. A.D.
The ruins are on a low hill just E of the village. An early circuit
wall of mixed polygonal and ashlar masonry, with large blocks, still stands to
a man's height for much of its extent. There are some pieces of similar wall in
the interior, but no buildings are recognizable. An ancient road has been identified
on the neighboring plain, and a small island close offshore evidently corresponds
to the ancient Nagidussa; it is covered with ruins of late date.
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.
OLVIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Now a village located 22 km inland NE of Seleucia ad Calycadnum at
an elevation of ca. 1000 m. It was probably capital of Pirindu (Rough Cilicia)
in the 6th c. B.C. The priests of the Temple of Zeus at Uzuncaburc ruled a state
of unknown extent in the Hellenistic period, possibly under nominal Seleucid control.
There was an Olban polis organized by the 1st c. B.C. at the latest, and in the
Olban territory the provincial natives known as Kennateis or Kannatai. The priestly
family was confirmed in power by Antony, then by Augustus, under whom the High
Priest Ajax son of Teucer was toparch of the Kennateis and Lalasseis, the last
perhaps located somewhere in the Calycadnus valley. In the 1st c. A.D. M. Antonius
Polemo appeared as dynast of Olba, the Kennateis and Lalasseis. The state and
city lost their independence when all Cilicia was made into a province ca. A.D.
72, and by the time of Domitian the temple town was separated from Olba and incorporated
as a city, Diocaesarea.
The city site lies on and around a hill at the edge of a fertile,
well-watered plain, some 3 km to the E of the temple. The hill is fortified by
a ring wall of polygonal masonry, perhaps of Hellenistic date. The great towers
at Uzuncaburc and the town of the Kanytelleis were dedicated by the priest Teucer
son of Tarkyaris around the late 3d or early 2d c. B.C. Other towers and forts
possibly Hellenistic, few well described, some with carved symbols that appear
on coins of Olba, guard all the approaches to Olba, between Seleucia and the Lamus
river, near the coast and farther inland. All these towers and forts perhaps were
used or built by Teucer as a defense system for his territories.
The remains of the city of Olba are few and unimpressive and, except
possibly for the defense wall, all are of the Roman and Christian periods. The
ravines that form the E and W sides of the fortified hill and join the ravine
of the Karyagdi Deresi are riddled with rock-cut graves. A well-preserved section
of an arched aqueduct, dated by an inscription to A.D. 199-211, which brought
water from the upper Lamus, spans the ravine at the NE end of the hill. Around
the sides of the hill are numerous house remains, some well preserved. The center
city was at the W side on the plain, facing across to Diocaesarea. Here are the
remains of a theater hollowed out of the hill with some remains of its scene building
preserved, and a fairly well preserved nympheum consisting of a wall with returns
flanking a basin, approached by three steps and a platform. Both theater and nymphaeum
are probably of the 2d c. A.D. In the plain S of these is a grave temple or heroon,
a small prostyle tetrastyle Corinthian building with a square cella about 8.5
m a side, only the walls are preserved. At the site are the remains of two churches;
and on a ledge in the Karyagdi Deresi ravine just S of the citadel, a monastery
(?).
T. S. Mackay, 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.
PITYOUSSA (Island) TURKEY
Probably Kargincik or Dana, the rocky island (3 x 1.5 km) ca. 3 km
offshore and ca. 14 km SE of Incekum Burun (ancient Sarpedon) (Stadiasmus Mans
Magni 187; Acrae St. Barnabae: Actae SS. Jun. II, 432). It was probably the Pitusu
island taken by Neriglissar in 557-556 B.C. in the course of his campaign against
the king of Pirindu (Rough Cilicia). There are a number of ruins of houses, gravehouses,
and sarcophagi along the NW (inshore) side of the island, nowhere fully described.
T. S. Mackay, 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.
SELEFKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city founded by Seleucus Nicator, probably between 296 and 280 B.C.
after his seizure of Cilicia, and for which he brought inhabitants from Holmi,
a nearby port. It is said to have been known as Hyria or Olbia before Seleucus'
foundation. Situated on the right bank of the Calycadnus (Gok Su), which was navigable
up to the city in Strabo's time, Seleucia lies at the seaward end of a route to
the interior of Asia Minor which either followed the modern car road up the Calycadnus
to Claudiopolis (Mut) or led inland to Uzuncaburc and then NW and W over the mountains
to Claudiopolis and thence to Laranda. The extent of its territory is unknown
but must have included the rich delta of the Calycadnus. How it weathered the
3d c. Ptolemaic-Seleucid fighting is not known, or the infighting among the Seleucids
in the 2d and 1st c. B.C. The city seems to have remained independent while most
of the rest of Rough Cilicia was divided among Rome's proteges and client kings,
before the formation of one province of Cilicia in ca. A.D. 72. In the 4th c.
it was metropolis of Isauria. It dwindled from the 15th c. to the 1880s when it
revived as a port and market center.
Above the city to the W is a steep conical hill crowned by a well-preserved
Armenian castle built largely of ancient blocks. The few visible remains of the
ancient city are scattered among the houses of the modern town, on a natural terrace
which extends E from the castle hill, and below that E along the river into the
plain. All the remains in situ seem to be of the Roman and Christian periods.
The theater is dug into the terrace below the citadel and faces E.
Virtually all its stonework is gone, save for one entrance arch. On the terrace
are a number of ancient blocks, cuttings, etc., and a large cistern, the roof
originally supported on arches, probably Byzantine or Armenian. A little E of
the schoolyard, in the center of the modern town, is a temple, of which one fluted
column and Corinthian capital remains standing, and some of the other column bases
are in place. The temple was peripteral, 8 x 14, and had a flight of stairs at
its E end. Two frieze blocks carved with Nikes carrying a garland remain from
it. The date appears to be the 2d c. A.D. at the earliest. On the river bank E
of the temple is some of the foundation for the two sides of a stadium. In a house
in the town is a late mosaic of a checkerboard pattern with animals and various
objects in the squares.
The present bridge across the river was built in the 1870s to replace
an earlier six-arched bridge, at least in part Roman. An inscription recording
the building of the Roman bridge in A.D. 77-78 was found.
On the slopes to each side of the road leading to Mut, SE of the castle
hill, is an extensive Roman necropolis of rock-cut chambers and sarcophagi, some
cut in the rock and some freestanding. A large number of inscriptions has been
recorded. The Christian necropolis is S of the town on the ancient paved road
with steps cut in the rock which leads from the center of Silifke S to the monastery
and churches of Meriamlik, a site where Thekla, a saint of the 1st c., is supposed
to have lived. It was famous by the 4th c. as a pilgrimage site; the main buildings
are apparently of the 5th and 6th c.
The ancient road from Seleucia to Diocaesarea (Olba), largely followed
by the modern road, led across the Calycadnus and up steeply to a rocky upland
slope seamed with deep ravines. Along the road and east of it from about 8 to
10 km from Seleucia are some ancient sites which may have belonged to the territory
of Seleucia. On the road in the area now known as Tas evler or Kuleier are various
house remains and numerous well-preserved heroa of the 2d and 3d c. A.D. These
are in the form of a small temple distyle in antis, or prostyle tetrastyle, some
of the latter with a basement also fronted with columns. All are Corinthian in
style with Ionic for the lower story columns. All have a door from porch to cella.
Ten km from Seleucia is a grave tower, square in plan, pilasters at the corners,
Corinthian capitals and epistyle, and a pyramidal roof, and off the road to the
W another similar tower lacking the roof, the blocks separated by earthquake.
South of it is a low hill covered with the ruins of a town, ancient Imbriogon
Kome, probably an outlying possession of Seleucia, or possibly of Diocaesarea.
There is no indication of what place the deceased of the heroa were citizens,
although Seleucia as the closer is more likely. Well to the E of the road at a
place known as Bey Oren are the remains of a basilica, and at Topalaryn Tsheshme
house remains, a memorial column and two heroa. Remains of four different sites
lie along or near the ravine leading SE from the Seleucia Diocaesaria road to
Persenti, at the E edge of the Calycadnus delta; these may have belonged to Seleucia
or Diocaesarea/Olba.
In the school and schoolyard, where several columns, perhaps from
a stoa, have been re-erected, are collected various blocks with inscriptions,
some statuary, capitals and other antiquities collected from Silifke and the surrounding
district. At least one portrait head is in the Adana Museum.
T. S. Mackay, 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.
TARSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A very ancient city founded on the earlier course of the Tarsus Cay
(Kydnos) only 40 km from Adana in the center of the alluvial plain. Known from
excavation as a settlement from Neolithic times, Tarsus was long a Semitic city
with important Oriental connections through its landlocked port of Rhegma. Indeed,
apart from a brief period under the Satrap, it had local autonomy under the Persian
Empire with rulers known as syennesis. Such it was when Xenophon and his Ten Thousand
passed through Cilicia at the beginning of the 5th c. B.C. After Alexander's conquests,
however, Tarsus was in dispute between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic factions, and
was known for a while as Antioch on the Kydnos for Antiochos Epiphanes, and in
order to prove a respectable pedigree chose to claim Perseus and Herakles as founders.
In 67 B.C., after two centuries of turbulent misrule, Tarsus was occupied by Pompey
during his Cilician campaign against the pirates, and it is at least possible
that the father of St. Paul (a Tarsiot and Roman citizen by birth) had been honored
for his services as a tent contractor to the Roman army at this time. If Paul
was Tarsus' most illustrious son, among spectacular events in the city's history,
Cleopatra's regal progress up the Kydnos for her rendezvous with Antony ranks
high.
N of Tarsus, Septimius Severus' passage through the Cilician Gates
in pursuit of Pescennius Niger in 193 is marked by an inscription on the rock
face. Tarsus was designated "first, greatest and most beautiful; the metropolis
of the three provinces of Cilicia, Isauria and Lycaonia" and was the seat
of a great university. Under Diocletian, Tarsus became metropolis of Cilicia Prima,
the W part of the plain, while Anazarbos administered the E half. The retreat
of the sea, due to silt carried downstream by the Kydnos, and the resulting abandonment
of Rhegma, led Justinian in the 6th c. to divert the river into the channel E
of the modern city, and through which it still flows. With the Arab occupation
of Cilicia, Tarsus was laid in ruins, but was rebuilt by Harun-ar-Rashid to become
the military base for the annual Moslem campaign against Byzantine territories
N of the Taurus. It was reconquered by Nikephoros Phokas in the 10th c., only
to fall again, first to the Christian kingdom of Little Armenia, then to the Egyptian
Mamelukes, and finally to the Ottoman Turks.
Classical Tarsus lies deep beneath the modern city, and the port of
Rhegma is surely to be found in the eucalyptus forest that drains the swamps that
marked the course of the Kydnos when it became choked with silt. A battered brick-faced
arch on the road W of the city, and sometimes known as St. Paul's Gate, is of
Arab date, and the only certain Roman monument is a massive concrete foundation
known locally as Donuk Tas (The Frozen Stone), which was probably the podium of
an important public building, since fragments of marble veneer are scattered nearby.
In the Museum of Adana is the material discovered during excavations at Gozlu
Kule, the original settlement, which shows evidence of a continuous occupation
from the Neolithic to the Arab period. Also in the Adana Museum are the chance
finds of pottery, figurines, statuary, mosaic, and other objects encountered by
workmen on civic projects. Among them is a fine marble sarcophagus decorated with
the scene of Priam begging Achilles for the return of the corpse of Hector.
M. Gough, 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.
ZEFYRION (Ancient city) TURKEY
About 48 km W of Adana towards the end of the alluvial plain where
the mountains of the Taurus range begin closely to approach the Mediterranean.
The city's history is elusive, though archaeology suggests a very ancient settlement
including, in its pre-Islamic phase, an unbroken pottery sequence from Mycenaean
to archaic Greek times. Literary evidence is scanty, though Zephyrion seems to
have changed hands frequently in the Hellenistic period, from Seleucid to Ptolemaic,
and then back to Seleucid control. A short period of semi-autonomy ended with
Pompey's Cilician settlement, and like Mopsuestia and Alexandria ad Issum the
city chose 67 B.C. as the opening of a new era. It was apparently a relatively
small and unimportant city, but was nevertheless a bishopric under the Metropolitan
of Tarsus in the Christian period. Its modern successor is capital of the Mersin
vilayet, and except at Soguksu Tepe, N of the town, no excavation has been undertaken.
Some ancient building material found in reuse was probably taken from the ruins
of Soli-Pompeiopolis some 11 km to the W. Until recently these were housed in
Mersin, but are now in the Museum of Adana.
M. Gough, 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.
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