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KITION (Ancient city) CYPRUS
Citium (Kition, Ketion, Kution: Eth. Kitieis, Kittiaioi, Kittaioi,
Citieus, Citiensis), a town situated on the S. coast of Cyprus. In the Peutinger
Tables it is called Cito, and is placed 24 M. P to the E. of Amathus. Diodorus
(xx. 49) is in error when he states its distance from Salamis as 200 stadia, for
it is more remote. The ruins of ancient Citium are found between Larnika and the
port now called Salines: to the E. there was a large basin now almost filled up,
and defended by a fort the foundations of which remain; this is probably the kleistos
limen of Strabo (xiv. p. 682). The walls were strong, and in the foundations Phoenician
inscriptions upon them have been discovered. A number of ancient tombs are still
to be seen in and about Larnika, as well as the remains of an ancient theatre.
(Mariti, Viaggi, vol. i. p. 51 Pococke, Trav. vol. ii. p. 213; Muller, Archaol.
§ 255.) The salt lakes of which Pliny (xxxi. 7 s. 39; Antig. Caryst. Hist. Mirab.
c. 173) speaks, are still worked. The date of this, probably the most ancient
city in the island, is not known, but there can be no doubt that it was originally
Phoenician, and connected with the Chittim of the Scriptures. (Gen. x. 4; comp.
Joseph. Antiq. i. 6 § 1; Cic. de Fin. iv. 20; Diog. Laert. Zen. 8, Winer, Bibl.
Realworterbuch, s. v. Chittim.) From this and other places in the island the Greeks
partially embraced and diffused the cruel and voluptuous rites of the Phoenician
worship. It was besieged by Cimon at the close of the Persian war (Thuc. i. 12),
and surrendered to him (Diod. xii. 3); he was afterwards taken ill and died on
board his ship in the harbour (Plut. Cim. 18). It was a place of no great importance
(polichnion, Suid.), and we have no evidence that it coined money; though it could
boast of the philosophers Zeno, Persaeus, and Philolaus, and the physicians Apollodorus
and Apollonius. (Engel, Kypros, vol. i. pp. 12, 100.)
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
A town in Cyprus, 200 stadia from Salamis, near the mouth of the Tetius; here Cimon, the celebrated Athenian, died, and Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school, was born. It is now Larnaca.
The ruins cover a large area now occupied by the modern town. The
city site, on the S coast, is situated on a hill sloping gently S. The acropolis
is NE of the city, but unfortunately very little of it survives. The port lay
on the E side below the acropolis. At this end the sea penetrated inland and reached
the foot of the acropolis and then turned a little to the S. This inlet formed
a natural harbor, the enclosed harbor of Strabo. All this is now silted up and
the present coast line is ca. one-half km away. Traces of the city wall and of
the moat, which followed the edge of the plateau, are still visible, particularly
on the W side. A vast necropolis extends N, W, and S. The tombs date from the
Early Bronze Age to Graeco-Roman times.
The city was founded, according to archaeological evidence, in the
Late Bronze Age but the site was already occupied in the Early Bronze Age. Recent
excavations have shown that the founders were Mycenaeans coming from the Peloponnese.
The Phoenicians arrived at Kition at the end of the 9th c. B.C. at first as traders
during their expansion to the W, and later as settlers; yet the vast population
of the city must have remained Greek, as the archaeological evidence testifies.
Later, however, with the help of the Persians, the Phoenicians established a dynasty
which ruled the city in the 5th and 4th c. B.C.
There is no positive evidence as to the earlier kings of Kition but
a memorial stele of Sargon II, erected here in 709 B.C., mentions that the Cypriot
kings submitted to the Assyrian king and paid him tribute. The inscription mentions
seven kings of Ya, a district of Yatnana, which seems to be the cuneiform rendering
of "the isles of the Danai," i.e. the land of Greeks. Therefore the
king of Kition, where the stele was found, must have been at that time a Greek.
Unfortunately the names of the kings are not mentioned. The Greek rulers must
have remained in power down to the very end of the 6th c. B.C. for at the time
of the Ionian Revolt (499-498 B.C.) Kition joined the revolt against Persia.
The failure of the revolt and the support which the Persians gave
the Phoenicians, especially after the battles of Marathon and Salamis, soon brought
them to power. In the year 479 a Phoenician dynasty had been established, which
ruled Kition until it fell to Ptolemy I Soter in 312 B.C. The Phoenician dynasty,
however, was broken for a short period in 388-387 B.C. by the installation at
Kition of King Demonikos at the time when most of Cyprus was liberated by King
Euagoras I of Salamis with the help of the Athenian general Chabrias.
Kition was the birthplace of Zeno, the Stoic philosopher and of the
physician Artemidoros. From a metrical epitaph of the 2d c. A.D. we learn that
Kilikas, a native of Kition, was a teacher of the Homeric poems. According to
other epigraphical evidence quinquennial games were held at Kition in Graeco-Roman
times.
Systematic excavations were conducted in 1894, when a number of tombs
and a sanctuary were investigated. Later, in 1913, the Bamboula hill, i.e., the
acropolis, was explored. In 1930, on the same acropolis, the Temple of Herakles-Melkart
was excavated. And since 1959 excavations in the N extremity of the town have
been carried out. Most of the ruins, however, remain unexcavated and the task
of exploring them is a very difficult one because the modern town is built over
them.
The principal monuments uncovered to the present time include, in
addition to those mentioned above, part of the fortifications of the Mycenaean
city and a large Phoenician temple in the N part of the city. The city wall of
the Classical period can be traced for most of its course, particularly on the
W side, and the site is known of the ancient harbor, now silted up. The site of
the Hellenistic gymnasium and that of the Temple of Artemis Paralia is also known,
while the site of a theater may be conjectured. A Temple of Aphrodite-Astarte
may have stood on the acropolis side by side with that of Herakles-Melkart. And
from inscriptions we know of the worship of Zeus-Keraunios, Asklepios and Hygeia,
Aphrodite, Esmun-Adonis, Baal Senator, and Esmun Melkart, the last by the Salt
Lake.
Substantial remains of the city wall of Mycenaean Kition, later of
Classical Kition as well, can be seen on the N extremity of the ancient town.
Houses of the Geometric period were built in this part of the city above the Mycenaean
remains and follow the architecture of the previous period, for in most cases
the older foundations were reused. The Temple to Astarte was built towards the
end of the 9th c. on the foundations of an earlier Mycenaean temple which had
fallen into disuse ca. 1000 B.C. when this part of the Mycenaean town was abandoned.
It is an imposing rectangular building measuring 35 x 22 m. The walls were constructed
of large ashlar blocks, some of them measuring as much as 3.50 m in width and
1.50 m in height. Two parallel rows of columns, six in each row, supported the
roof of the temple. The adyton stood at the W side and in front there is a large
courtyard with two entrances. Four rows of wooden columns, of which only the stone
bases survive, supported the roof of the porticos on each side of the courtyard.
The temple suffered many changes--four successive floors were recognized--during
the five centuries of its life until its final destruction in the year 312 B.C.,
when Ptolemy I Soter put to death Pumiathon, the last Phoenician king of Kition,
and burned the Phoenician temples of the town.
A bath establishment of the Hellenistic period was recently uncovered
at Chrysopolitissa. It consisted of two tholoi within which were a series of cemented
basins around the hall. One of the rooms was circular with a column in its center;
the other was rectangular. Nearby was found a mosaic floor of the Graeco-Roman
period, composed of geometric and floral patterns in black and white.
Four built tombs (archaic) can be seen in the W necropolis of Kition.
The tomb of Haghia Phaneromeni contains two chambers, one behind the other. The
outer chamber is rectangular in shape; the interior, square with one corner rounded.
The roofs of both the chambers are vaulted, and are formed by huge blocks hollowed
out and covering the whole width of the chambers. The so-called Cobham's tomb
contained three chambers entered by a dromos leading down to them. The first chamber
had a very fine coffered ceiling, the second and third were provided with barrel
roofs with real vaults. The third room was quite small, more or less a recessed
space to contain the sarcophagus. The walls between the chambers were provided
with moldings in the shape of pilaster capitals on both sides of the doorways.
Close by is the Evangelis Tomb, which was damaged in late times. It may originally
have had a similar plan to the Phaneromeni Tomb, with a dromos leading down to
a large rectangular chamber with a second one behind. Both chambers had corbel
vaults and were constructed of large, well-dressed blocks.
The finds are in the Nicosia and Larnaca Museums.
K. Nicolaou, 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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