Listed 100 (total found 161) sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AYDIN Province TURKEY" .
DIDYMA (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
AFRODISIAS (Ancient city) AYDIN
ARTEMISSIO (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
MAGNESIA ON MEANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
AFRODISIAS (Ancient city) AYDIN
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
ALAVANDA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Alabanda (he Alabanda, ta Alabanda: Eth. Alabandeus, Alabandeus,
Alabandensis, Alabandenus: Adj. Alabandicus), a city of Caria, was situated
160 stadia S. of Tralles, and was separated from the plain of Mylasa by a mountain
tract. Strabo describes it as lying at the foot of two hills (as some read the
passage), which are so close together as to present the appearance of an ass
with its panniers on. The modern site is doubtful; but Arab Hiss&,acute; on
a large branch of the Maeander, now called the Tshina, which joins that river
on the S. bank, is supposed by Leake to represent Alabanda; and the nature of
the ground corresponds well enough with Strabo's description. The Tshina may
probably be the Marsyas of Herodotus (v. 118). There are the remains of a theatre
and many other buildings on this site; but very few inscriptions. Alabanda was
noted for the luxurious habits of the citizens. Under the Roman empire it was
the seat of a Conventus Juridicus or court house, and one of the most flourishing
towns of the province of Asia. A stone called lapis Alabandicus, found in the
neighbourhood, was fusible (Plin. xxxvi. 8. s. 13), and used for making glass,
and for glazing vessels.
Stephanus mentions two cities of the name of Alabanda in Caria,
but it does not appear that any other writer mentions two. Herodotus, however
(vii. 195), speaks of Alabanda in Caria (ton en tei Kariei), which is the Alabanda
of Strabo. The words of description added by Herodotus seem to imply that there
was another city of the name; and in fact he speaks, in another passage (viii.
136), of Alabanda, a large city of Phrygia. This Alabanda of Phrygia cannot
be the town on the Tshina, for Phrygia never extended so far as there.
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
ALINDA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Alinda (Alinda: Eth. Alindeus), a city of Caria, which was surrendered
to Alexander by Ada, queen of Caria. It was one of the strongest places in Caria
(Arrian. Anab. i. 23; Strab. p. 657). Its position seems to be properly fixed
by Fellows (Discoveries in Lycia, p. 58) at Demmeergee-derasy, between Arab
Hissa and Karpuslee, on a steep rock. He found no inscriptions, but out of twenty
copper coins obtained here five had the epigraph Alinda.
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
AMYZON (Ancient city) TURKEY
Amyzon (Amuzon), an inconsiderable town of Caria. (Strab. p. 658.)
The ruins of the citadel and walls exist on the east side of Mount Latmus, on
the road from Bafi to Tchisme. The place is identified by an inscription. (Leake,
Asia Minor, p. 238.)
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
ANEA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Annaea or Anaea (Annaia, Anhaia: Eth. Anaios, Anaites), is placed
by Stephanus (s. v. Anaia) in Caria, and opposite to Samos. Ephorus says that
it was so called from an Amazon Anaea, who was buried there. If Anaea was opposite
Samos, it must have been in Lydia, which did not extend south of the Maeander.
From the expressions of Thucydides (iii. 19, 32, iv. 75, viii. 19), it may have
been on or near the coast, and in or near the valley of the Maeander. Some Samian
exiles posted themselves here in the Peloponnesian war. The passage of Thucydides
(iv. 75) seems to make it a naval station, and one near enough to annoy Samos.
The conclusion, then, is, that it was a short distance north of the Maeander,
and on the coast; or if not on the coast, that it was near enough to have a station
for vessels at its command.
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
ANTIOCHIA PROS MAIANDRO (Ancient city) TURKEY
Antiocheia ad Maeandrum (A. pros Maiandro), a small city on the Maeander,
in Caria, in the part adjacent to Phrygia. There was a bridge there. The city
had a large and fertile territory on both sides of the river, which was noted
for its figs. The tract was subject to earthquakes. (Strab. p. 630.) Pliny (v.
29) says that the town was surrounded by the Orsinus,--or Mosynus, as some read
the name,--by which he seems to mean that it is in the angle formed by the junction
of this small river with the Maeander. Hamilton (Researches, &c., vol. i. p. 529)
fixes the position between 4 and 5 miles SE. of Kuyuja, and near the mouth of
the rich valley of the Kara Su, which it commands, as well as the road to Ghera,
the ancient Aphrodisias. The remains are not considerable. They consist of the
massive walls of the Acropolis, and an inner castle in a rude and barbarous style,
without any traces of Hellenic character; but there is a stadium built in the
same style, and this seems to show the antiquity of both. East of the acropolis
there are many remains of arches, vaults, and substructions of buildings. There
is also the site of a small theatre. (Comp. Fellows, Discoveries in Lycia, p.
27.)
Pliny says that Antiocheia is where the towns Seminethos (if the reading
is right) and Cranaos were. Cranaos is an appropriate name for the site of Antiocheia.
Stephanus (s. v. Antiocheia) says that the original name of the place was Pythopolis,
and that Antiochus son of Seleucus built a town here, which he named Antiocheia,
after his mother Antiochis. The consul Cn. Manlius encamped at Antiocheia (B.C.
189) on his march against the Galatae (Liv. xxxviii. 13). This city was the birthplace
of Diotrephes, a distinguished sophist, whose pupil Hybreas was the greatest rhetorician
of Strabo's time. There are numerous medals of this town of the imperial period.
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
ARPASSA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Harpasa (Harpasa: Eth. Harpaseus), a town in Caria, on the eastern
bank of the river Harpasus, a tributary of the Maeander. (Ptol. v. 2. § 19; Steph.
B. s. v.; Plin. v. 29; Hierocl. p. 688.) The ruins found opposite to Nasli, at
a place called Arpas Kalessi, undoubtedly belong to Harpasa. (Fellowes, Discov.
in Lyc. p. 51; Leake, Asia Minor, p. 249; Richter, Wallfahrten, p. 540.) Pliny
mentions a wonderful rock in its neighbourhood, which moved on being pressed with
a finger, but did not yield to the pressure of the whole body.
ARTEMISSIO (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
Artemisium (Artemision). The name of the northern coast and of a promontory
of Euboea, immediately opposite the Thessalian Magnesia, so called from the temple
of Artemis Proseoa, belonging to the town of Histiaea. It was off this coast that
the Grecian fleet fought with the fleet of Xerxes, B.C. 480. (Herod. vii. 175,
viii. 8; Plut. Them. 7; Diod. xi. 12.)
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
DIDYMA (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
Branchidae (Branchidai). After Poseideion, the promontory in the territory
of the Milesians, is the oracle of Apollo Didymeus at Branchidae, about 18 stadia
the ascent (from the sea). (Strab. p. 634.) The remains of the temple are visible
to one who sails along the coast. (Hamilton, Researches, &c., vol. ii. p. 29.)
Pliny (v. 29) places it 180 stadia from Miletus, and 20 from the sea. It was in
the Milesian territory, and above the harbour Panormus. (Herod. i. 157.) The name
of the site of the temple was Didyma or Didymi (Diduma, Steph. s. v.; Herod. vi.
19), as we might also infer from the name of Apollo Didymeus; but the place was
also called Branchidae, which was the name of a body of priests who had the care
of the temple. Croesus, king of Lydia (Herod. i. 46, 92), consulted the oracle,
and made rich presents to the temple. The god of Branchidae was consulted by all
the Ionians and Aeolians; and Necos, king of Egypt, after he had taken Cadytis
(Herod. ii. 159), sent to the god the armour in which he had been victorious.
We may infer that the fame of this god had been carried to Egypt by the Milesians,
at least as early as the time of Necos. After the revolt of Miletus and its capture
by the Persians (B.C. 494) in the time of the first Darius, the sacred place at
Didyma, that is the sacred place of Apollo Didymeus, both the temple and the oracular
shrine were robbed and burnt by the Persians. If this is true, there was hardly
time for the temple to be rebuilt and burnt again by Xerxes, the son of Darius,
as Strabo says (p. 634); who also has a story that the priests (the Branchidae)
gave up the treasures to Xerxes when he was flying back from Greece, and accompanied
him. to escape the punishment of their treachery and sacrilege. (Comp. Strab.
p. 517.)
The temple was subsequently rebuilt by the Milesians on an enormous
scale; but it was so large, says Strabo, that it remained without a roof. A village
grew up within the sacred precincts, which contained several temples and chapels.
Pausanias (vii. 2) says that the temple of Apollo at Didymi was older than the
Ionian settlements in Asia. The tomb of Neleus was shown on the way from Miletus
to Didymi, as Pausanias writes it. It was adorned with many most costly and ancient
ornaments. (Strabo.)
A road called the Sacred Way led from the sea up to the temple; it
was bordered on either side with statues on chairs, of a single block of stone,
with the feet close together and the hands on the knees, an exact imitation of
the avenues of the temples of Egypt. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 239.) Sir W. Gell
copied from the chair of a sitting statue on this way, a Boustrophedon inscription,
which contains topolloni, that is toi Apolloni. The temple at Branchidae was of
white marble, in some parts bluish. There remain only two columns with the architrave
still standing; the rest is a heap of ruins. The height of the columns is 63 feet,
with a diameter of 6 1/2 feet at the base of the shaft. It has 21 columns on the
flanks, and 4 between the antae of the pronaos, 112 in all; for it was decastyle
dipteral. Chandler describes the position and appearance of the ruins of Apollo's
temple at Didyma (c. 43, French Tr. with the notes of Servois and Barbie Du Bocage;
see also the Ionian Antiquities, published by the Dilettanti Society).
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
EFESSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Ephesus (Ephesos: Eth. Ephesios, Ephesites, Epheseus), a city in Lydia, one of
the twelve Ionian cities (Herod. i. 142), on the south side of the Caystrus, and
near its mouth. The port was called Panormus. The country around Ephesus was an
alluvial plain, as Herodotus observes (ii. 10). The name of Ephesus does not occur
in the Homeric poems, and there is no proof, says Strabo, that it was so old as
the Trojan War. According to a myth (Steph. B. s. v. Ephesos), the place was originally
called Smyrna, from Smyrna the Amazon: it was also called Samorna, and Trecheia,
and Ortygia, and Ptelea. The name Ephesus was said to be from one of the Amazons.
The name Ptelea appears in an inscription of the Roman period which was copied
by Chishull at Ephesus. Pliny (v. 29) has also preserved this legend of the Amazonian
origin of Ephesus, and a name Alope, which the place had at the time of the Trojan
War; a story found in Hyginus also. Pliny also. mentions the name Morges. The
legend of the Amazons is connected with the goddess Artemis, the deity of Ephesus.
Pausanias (vii. 2. § 6) has a legend about the temple of Ephesus being founded
by Ephesus, the son of the river Caystrus, and Cresus an autochthon.
Strabo, who had been at Ephesus, gives a pretty good description of
it (p. 639). As a man sailed northward through the channel that separates Samos
from Mycale, he came to the sea-coast of the Ephesia, part of which belongs to
the Samii. North of the Panionium. was Neapolis, which once belonged to Ephesus,
but in Strabo's time to the Samii, who had received it in exchange for Marathesium.
Next was Pygela, a small place with a temple of Artemis Munychia, a settlement
of Agamemnon,. according to a legend; and next the port called Panormus, which
contained a temple of Artemis Ephesia; and then the city. On this same coast,
a little above the sea, there was also Ortygia, a fine grove of various kinds
of trees, and particularly cypress. The stream Cenchrius flowed through it. The
stream and the place were connected with a legend of Lato and the birth of Apollo
and Artemis. Ortygia was the nurse who assisted Lato in her labour. Above the
grove was a mountain Solmissus, where the Curetes placed themselves, and with
the clashing of their arms prevented the jealous Hera, who was on the watch, from
hearing the cries of Lato. There were several temples in this place, old and new:
in the old temples there were ancient wooden statues; but in the later temples
others (skolia erga1 There, was Lato holding a staff, and Ortygia standing by
her with a child on each arm. The Cares and Leleges were the settlers of Ephesus,
according to one story (Strabo), and these two peoples or two names are often
mentioned together. But Pherecydes (Strab. p. 632) says that the Paralia of Ionia
was originally occupied by Carians from Miletus to the parts about Mycale and
Ephesus, and the remainder as far as Phocaea by Leleges. The natives were driven
out of Ephesus by Androclus and his Ionians, who settled about the Athenaeum and
the Hypelaeus, and they also occupied a part of the higher country (tes Paroreias)
about the Coressus. Pausanias preserves a tradition that Androclus drove out of
the country the Leleges, whom he takes to be a branch of the Carians, and the
Lydians who occupied the upper city; but those who dwelt about the temple were
not molested, and. they came to terms with the Ionians. This tradition shows that
the old temple was not in the city. The tomb of Androclus was still shown in the
time of Pausanias, on the road from the temple past the Olympieium, and to the
Pylae Magnetides; the figure on the tomb was an armed man (vii. 2.. § 6, &c.).
This place on the hill was the site of the city until Croesus' time, as Strabo
says. Croesus warred against the lonians of Ephesus (Herod. i, 26), and besieged
their city, at which time during the siege (so says the text) the Ephesii dedicated
their city to Artemis by fastening the city to the temple by a rope. It was seven
stadia between the old city, the city that was then besieged, and the temple.
This old city was the city on the Paroreia. After the time of Croesus the people
came down into the plain, and lived about the present temple (Strabo) to the time
of Alexander.
King Lysimachus built the walls of the city that existed in Strabo's
time; and as the people were not willing to remove to the new city, he waited
for a violent rain, which he assisted by stopping up the channels that carried
off the water, and so drowned the city, and made the people glad to leave it.
Lysimachus called his new city Arsinoe after his wife, but the name did not last
long. The story of the destruction of the old city, which was on very low ground,
is told by Stephanus (s. v. Ephesos) somewhat differently from Strabo. He attributes
the destruction to a violent storm of rain, which swelled the river. The town
was situated too low; and, as the Caystrus is subject to sudden risings, it was
damaged or destroyed, as modern towns sometimes have been which were planted too
near a river. Thousands were drowned, and valuable property was lost. Stephanus
quotes a small poem of Duris of Elaea made on the occasion, which attributes that
calamity to the rain and the sudden rising of the river. Nothing is known of Duris,
and we must suppose that he lived about the time of the destruction of Ephesus,
or about B.C. 322. (Comp. Eustath. ad Dionys. v. 827, who quotes the first two
lines of the epigramma of Duris.) Pausanias (i. 9. § 7) states that Lysimachus
removed to his new Ephesus the people of Colophon and Lebedus, from which time
the ruin of these two towns may be dated.
The history of Ephesus, though it was one of the chief of the Ionian
towns, is scanty. As it was founded by Androclus the son of Codrus, the kingly
residence (basileion, whatever the word means) of the lonians was fixed there,
as they say (Strab. p. 633), and even to now those of the family are named kings
(basileis) and have certain honours, the first seat in the games, and purple as
a sign of royalty, a staff instead of a sceptre, and the possession or direction
of the rites of Eleusinian Demeter (comp. Herod. i. 147). Ephesus was it seems
from an early period a kind of sacred city, for Thucydides (iii. 104), when he
is speaking of the ancient religious festival at Delos to which the Ionians and
the surrounding islanders used to go with their wives and children, adds, as now
the Iones to the Ephesia. Strabo has also preserved the tradition of Ephesus having
been called Smyrna, and he has a very confused story about the Smyrnaei leaving
the Ephesii to found Smyrna Proper. He quotes Callinus as evidence of the people
of Ephesus having been once named Smyrnaei, and Hipponax to prove that a spot
in Ephesus was named Smyrna. This spot lay between Trecheia and the Acte of Lepra;
and this Lepra was the hill Prion which was above the Ephesus of Strabo's time,
and contained part of the wall. He concludes that the Smyrna of old Ephesus was
near the gymnasium of the later town of Ephesus, between Trecheia and Lepra. The
old Athenaeum was without the limits of the later city.
The Cimmerians in an invasion of western Asia took Sardis except the
acropolis (Herod. i. 15), in the reign of the Lydian king Ardys; and it seems
that they got into the valley of the Caystrus and threatened Ephesus. (Callinus,
Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci, p. 303.) Callinus also speaks of a war between the
Magnetes or people of Magnesia and Ephesus his native city (Strab.), which war
of course was before that inroad of the Cimmerii by which Magnesia was destroyed:
for there was a tradition of mere than one Cimmerian invasion. Ephesus fell successively
under the dominion of the Lydian and Persian kings. In B.C. 499, when the Athenians
and Eretrians with the Ionians went against Sardis, they sailed to Ephesus and
left their ships at Coressus. Some Ephesii were their guides up the valley of
the Caystrus and over the range of Tmolus. After the lonians had fired Sardis
they retreated; but the Persians overtook them at Ephesus and defeated the confederates
there. (Herod v. 102.) This is all that Herodotus says about Ephesus on this occasion.
After the naval battle before Miletus, in which the Ionian confederates were defeated,
some of the Chii, who had escaped to Mycale, made their way by night into the
Ephesia, where the women were celebrating the Thesmophoria, and the Ephesii, who
knew nothing of what had happened to the Chii, fell upon them supposing they were
robbers, and killed them or made a beginning at least. (Herod. vi. 16). The Ephesii
had no ships in the fight before Miletus; and we must conclude that they took
no part in the revolt. When Xerxes burnt the temple at Branchidae and the other
temples (Strab.), the temple of Ephesus was spared. Near the close of the Peloponnesian
War, Thrasyllus, an Athenian commander, who was on a marauding expedition, landed
at Ephesus, on which the Persian Tissaphernes summoned all the country to Ephesus
to the aid of Artemis. The Athenians were defeated and made off. (Xen Hell. i.
2. § 6.) Lysander, the Spartan commander, entered the port of Ephesus (B.C. 407)
with a fleet, his object being to have an interview with Cyrus at Sardis. While
he was repairing and fitting up his ships at Ephesus, Antiochus, the Athenian,
who was stationed at Notium as commander under Alcibiades, gave Lysander the opportunity
of fighting a seafight, in which the Athenians were defeated. (Xen. Hell. i. 5.
1, &c.) After the battle of Aegos Potami the Ephesians dedicated in the temple
of Artemis a statue of Lysander, and of other Spartans who were unknown to fame;
but after the decline of the Spartan power and the victory of Conon at Cnidus,
they set up statues of Conon and Timotheus in their temple, as the Samii also
did in their Heraeum. (Pans. vi. 3. § 15.)
There is no notice of Ephesus taking any active part in war against
the barbarians from the time of Croesus, who attacked this town first of all the
Ionian towns, and probably with the view of getting a place on the sea. For Ephesus
was the most convenient port for Sardis, being three days'journey distant (Xen.
Hell. iii. 2. 11), or 540 stadia (Herod. v. 54). It was the usual landing-place
for those who went to Sardis, as we see in many instances. (Xen. Anab. ii. 2.
6)
The Ionian settlers at Ephesus, according to tradition, found the
worship of Artemis there, or of some deity to whom they gave the name of Artemis.
(Callim. in Dian. 238.) A temple of Artemis existed in the time of Croesus, who
dedicated in the temple the golden cows and the greater part of the pillars, as
Herodotus has it (i. 92). Herodotus mentions the temple at Ephesus with that of
Hera at Samos as among the great works of the Greeks (ii. 146), but the Heraeum
was the larger. The original architect is named Chersiphron by Strabo, and another
architect enlarged it. The architect of the first temple that the lonians built
was a contemporary of Theodorus and Rhoecus, who built the Heraeum at Samos. When
Xenophon settled at Scillus, he built a temple to Artemis like the great one at
Ephesus; and he placed in it a statue of cypress like that of Ephesus, except
that the Ephesian Artemis was of gold. There was a stream Selinus near the temple
at Ephesus, and there was a stream so called at Scillus, or Xenophon gave it the
name. Xenophon was at Ephesus before he joined Agesilaus on his march from Asia
to Boeotia, and he deposited there the share that had been entrusted to him of
the tenth that had been appropriated to Apollo and Artemis of the produce of the
slaves which the Ten Thousand sold at Cerasus on their retreat. This fact shows
that the temple at Ephesus was one of the great holy places to the Ionic Hellenes.
(Xen. Anab. v. 3. 4, &c.) The worship of the goddess was carried by the Phocaeans
to Massalia (Marseille), and thence to the Massaliot settlements. (Strab. pp.
159,160, 179, 180, 184.) Dianium or Artemisium, on the coast of Spain, was so
called from having a temple of the Ephesian Artemis.
This enlarged temple of Artemis was burnt down by Herostratus, it
is said on the night on which Alexander was born. The, temple was rebuilt again,
and probably on the same site. The name of the architect is corrupted in the text
of Strabo, but it is supposed that the true reading is Dinocrates. Alexander,
when he entered Asia on his Persian expedition, offered to pay all that had been
expended on the new temple and all that it would still cost, if he might be allowed
to place the inscription on it; by which, as the answer of the Ephesii shows,
who decined his proposal, was meant his placing his name on the temple as the
dedicator of it to the goddess. The Ephesii undertook the building of their own
temple, to which the women contributed their ornaments, and the people gave their
property, and something was raised by the sale of the old pillars. But it was
220 years before the temple was finished.
The temple was built on low marshy ground to save it from earthquakes,
as Pliny says (xxxvi. 14), but Leake suggests another reason. The tall Ionic column
was more appropriate for a building in a plain, and the shorter Doric column looked
better on a height. Leake observes that all the greatest and most costly of the
temples of Asia, except one, are built on low and marshy spots. The Ephesii seem
always to have stuck to the old site of the temple, and it is probable that they
would have placed the new one there, even if their columns had been Doric instead
of Ionic.
The foundations of the new temple were laid on well-rammed charcoal
and wool. The length of the building was 425 feet, and the width 220. The columns
were 127, each made by a king, as Pliny says. The columns were 60 feet high, ad
36 were carved, and one of them by Scopas. The epistylia or stones that rested
over the intercolumniations, or on the part of the columns between the capitals,
and the frieze, were of immense size. It would take a book, says Pliny, to describe
all the temple; and Democritus of Ephesus wrote one upon it (Athen. xii. p. 525).
Leake (Asia Minor, p. 346) supposes that the temple had a double row of 21 columns
on each side, and a triple row of 10 columns at the two ends. This will make 120
columns, for 24 columns have been counted twice. If we add 4 columns in antis
at each end of the building, this will make the whole number 128, for the number
127 cannot be right. Leake has made his plan of the temple in English feet, on
the same scale as the other plans of temples; for he observes that we. cannot
tell whether Pliny used the Greek or the Roman foot. The English foot is somewhat
longer than the Roman, and less than the Greek. For the purpose of comparison
it is immaterial what foot is used. This was the largest of the Greek temples.
The area of the Parthenon at Athens was not one-fourth of that of the temple of
Ephesus; and the Heraeum of Samos, the great temple at Agrigentum and the Olympieium
at Athens were all less than the temple of Ephesus. The area of the Olympieium
was only about two-thirds of that of the Ephesian temple.
After the temple, that is, the construction of the building, was finished,
says Strabo, the Ephesians provided the abundant other ornaments by the freewill
offering of the artists, that is, the native artists of Ephesus. This is the meaning
that Groskurd gives to the obscure passage of Strabo (te ektimesei ton demiourgon):
and it is at least a probable meaning (Transl. Strab. vol. iii. p. 17). But the
altar was almost entirely filled with the work of Praxiteles. Strabo was also
shown some of the work of Thraso, a Penelope and the aged Eurycleia. The temple
contained one of the great pictures of Apelles, the Alexander Ceraunophoros (Plin.
xxxv. 10; Cic. c. Verr. ii. 4 c. 60). The priests were eunuchs, called Megalobuzi.
(Comp. Xen. Anab. v. 3, § 8.) They were highly honoured, and the Ephesii procured
from foreign places such as were worthy of the office. Virgins were also associated
with them in the superintendence of the temple. It was of old an asylum, and the
limits of the asylum were often varied. Alexander extended them to a stadium,
and Mithridates the Great somewhat further, as far as an arrow went that he shot
from the angle of the tiling of the roof (apo tes gonias tou keramou). M. Antonius
extended the limits to twice the distance, and thus comprised within them part
of the city; from which we learn that the temple was still out of the city, and
less than 1200 Greek feet from it. But this extension of the limits was found
to. be very mischievous, and the ordinance of Antonius was abolished by Augustus.
The extension of the limits by Antonius was exactly adapted to make, one part
of the city of Ephesus the rogues' quarter.
The growth of Ephesus, as a commercial city, seems to have been after
the time of Alexander. It was included within the dominions of Lysimachus, whose
reign lasted to B.C. 281. It afterwards was included in the dominions of the kings
of Pergamum. The city, says Strabo, has both ship-houses, and a harbour; but the
architects contracted the mouth of the harbour at the command of king Attalus,
named Philadelphus. The king supposing that the entrance would become deep enough
for large merchant vessels, and also the harbour, which had up to that time been
made shallow by the alluvium of the Caystrus, if a mole were placed in front of
the entrance, which was very wide. ordered it to be constructed. But it turned
out just the opposite to what he expected; for the alluvium being thus kept in
made all the harbour shallower as far as the entrance; but before this time, the
floods and the reflux of the sea took off the alluvium and carried it out to sea.
Strabo adds, that in his time, the time of Augustus, the city in all other respects,
owing to the favourable situation, is increasing daily, for it is the greatest
place of trade of all the cities of Asia west of the Taurus. The neighbourhood
of Ephesus also produced good wine.
After the mouth of the Caystrus, says Strabo, is a lake formed by
the sea, named Selinusia (Groskurd, Transl. Strab. vol. iii. p. 19, note, gives
his reasons for preferring the reading Selenusia); and close to it another lake,
which communicates with the Selinusia, both of which bring in a great revenue.
The kings (those of Pergamum, probably) took them away from the goddess, though
they belonged to her. The Romans gave them back to the goddess; but again the
publicani by force seized on the revenue that was got from them; but Artemidorus,
as he says himself, being sent to Rome, recovered the lakes for the goddess; and
the city of Ephesus set up his golden (gilded) statue in--the temple. Pliny (v.
29) seems to say that there were two rivers Selenuntes at Ephesus, and that the
temple of Diana lay between them. Bet these rivers have nothing to do with the
lakes, which were on the north side of the Caystrus, as the French editor of Chandler
correctly observes; and Pliny has probably confounded the river and the lakes.
The mountain Gallesus (Aleman) separated the territory of Ephesus, north of the
Caystrus, from that of Colophon. When Hannibal fled to Asia, he met king Antiochus
near Ephesus (Appian, Syr. c. 4); and when the Roman commissioners went to Asia
to see Antiochus, they had a good deal of talk with Hannibal while they were waiting
for the king, who was in Pisidia. Antiochus, during his war with the Romans, wintered
at Ephesus, at which time he had the design of adding to his empire all the cities
of Asia. (Liv. xxxiii. 38). Ephesus was then the king's head-quarters. The king's
fleet fought a battle with the fleet of the Romans and Eumenes at the port Corycus,
which is above Cyssus (Liv..xxxvi.43); and Polyxenidas, the admiral of Antiochus,
being defeated, fled back to the port of Ephesus (B.C. 189). [CASYSTES]
After the great defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia, near Sipylus, by L. Cornelius
Scipio, Polyxenidas left Ephesus, and the Romans occupied it. The Roman consul
divided his army into three parts, and wintered at Magnesia on the Maeander, Tralles,
and Ephesus. (Liv. xxxvii. 45). On the settlement of Asia after the war, the Romans
rewarded their ally Eumenes, king of Pergamum, with Ephesus, in addition to other
towns and countries, When the last Attalus of Pergamum died (B.C. 133) and left
his states to the Romans, Aristonicus, the son of an Ephesian woman by king Eumenes,
as the mother said, attempted to seize the kingdom of Pergamum. The Ephesii resisted
him, and defeated him in a naval fight off Cyme. (Strab.). The Romans now formed
their province of Asia (B.C. 129), of which Ephesus was the chief place, and the
usual residence of the Roman governor. One of the Conventus Juridici was also
named from Ephesus, which became the chief town for the administration of justice,
and of a district which comprised the Caesarienses, Metropolitae, Cilbiani inferiores
et superiores, Mysomacedones, Mastaurenses, Briullitae, Hypaepeni, Dioshieritae.
(Pliny, H.N. v. 29).
When Mithridates entered Ionia, the Ephesii and other towns gladly
received him, and the Ephesii threw down the statues of the Romans. (Appian, Mithrid.
c. 21). In the general massacre of the Romans, which Mithridates directed, the
Ephesii did not respect their own asylum, but they dragged out those who had taken
refuge there and put them to death. Mithridates, on his visit to western Asia,
married Monime, the daughter of Philopoemen of Stratonicea in Caria, and he made
Philopoemen his bailiff (episkopos of his town of Ephesus. But the Ephesii, who
were never distinguished for keeping on one side, shortly after murdered Zenobius,
a general of Mithridates, the same who carried the Chians off. L. Cornelius Sulla,
after his victories over Mithridates, punished the Ephesii for their treachery.
The Roman summoned the chief men of the Asiatic cities to Ephesus, and from his
tribunal addressed them in a speech, in which, after rating them well, he imposed
a heavy contribution on them, and gave notice that he would treat as enemies all
who did not obey his orders. This was the end of the political history of Ephesus.
Ephesus was now the usual place at which the Romans landed when they
came to Asia. When Cicero (B.C. 51) was going to his province of Cilicia, he says
that the Ephesii received him as if he had come to be their governor (ad Att.
v. 13). P. Metellus Scipio, who was at Ephesus shortly before the battle of Pharsalia,
was going to take the money that had been deposited from ancient times in the
temple at Ephesus, when he was summoned by Cn. Pompeius to join him in Epirus.
After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, M. Antonius paid a visit to
Ephesus, and offered splendid sacrifices to the goddess. He pardoned the partisans
of Brutus and Cassius, who had taken refuge in the temple, except two; and it
may have been on this occasion that he issued that order in favour of the rogues
of Ephesus which Augustus repealed. Antonius summoned the people of Asia, who
were at Ephesus represented by their commissioners, and, after recapitulating
the kindness that they had experienced from the Romans, and the aid that they
had given to Brutus and;Cassius, he told them that he wanted money; and that as
they had given his enemies ten years' taxes in two years, they must give him ten
years' taxes in one; and that they should be thankful for being let off more easily
than they deserved. The Greeks made a lamentable appeal to his mercy, urging that
they had given Brutus and Cassius money under compulsion; that they had even given
up their plate and ornaments, which had been coined into money before their eyes.
Antonius at last graciously signified that he would be content with nine years'
taxes, to be paid in two years. (Appian, B.C. v. 4, &c.) It was during this
visit that Antonius, according to Dion Cassius (xlviii. 24), took the brothers
of Cleopatra from their sanctuary in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and put them
to death; but Appian (B.C. v. 9) says that it was Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister,
and that she was taken from sanctuary in the temple of Artemis Leucophryne at
Miletus. Appian's account is the more trustworthy, for he speaks of the priest
of Ephesus, whom they call Megabyzus, narrowly escaping the vengeance of Antonius,
because he had once received Arsinoe as a queen. Before the sea-fight at Actium
the fleet of M. Antonius and Cleopatra was collected at Ephesus, and he came there
with Cleopatra. After the battle of Actium, Caesar Octavianus permitted Ephesus
and Nicaea, the chief cities of Asia and Bithynia, respectively to dedicate temples
to the deified dictator Caesar.
Strabo terminates his description of Ephesus with a list of the illustrious
natives, among whom was Heraclitus, surnamed the Obscure; and Hermodorus, who
was banished by the citizens for his merits. This is the Hermodorus who is said
to have assisted the Roman Decemviri in drawing up the Tables. (Dig. 1. 2. 2.
§ 4.) Hipponax the poet was also an Ephesian, and Parrhasius the painter. Strabo
also mentions Apelles as an Ephesian, but that is not certain. Of modern men of
note he mentions only Alexander, surnamed the Light, who was engaged in public
affairs, wrote history, and astronomical and geographical poems in hexameter verse.
Strabo does not mention Callinus, and it would seem, that as he speaks of him
elsewhere, he did not take him to be an Ephesian; and, among the men nearer his
own time, he has not mentioned the geographer Artemidorus in this passage, though
he does mention Artemidorus, the same man, as being sent to Rome about the lakes
and the revenues from them. Accordingly, Koray and, Groskurd suppose that the
name Artemidorus has dropped out of the MSS. of Strabo, and that Strabo must have
mentioned him with Alexander the Light.
When Strabo was at Ephesus, in the days of Auguastus, the town was
in a state, of great prosperity. The trade, of Ephesus had .extended so far, that
the minium of Cappadocia, which used to be carried to Sinope now went to Ephesus.
Apameia, at the source of the Marsyas,. was the second commercial place. in. the
Roman. province of Asia, Ephesus being the first,. for it was the place that received
all. the commodities from Greece and Italy. (Strab.. pp. 540, 5.77.) There was
a road from Ephesus. to Antiocheia on the Maeander, through Magnesia on the Maeander,
Tralles, and Nysa. From Antiocheia the road. went to Garura [CARURA], on the borders
of Caria and Phrygia. From Carura. the road. was continued to Laodiceia, Apameia,
Metropolis, Chelidonii (a corrupt word, which is supposed to represent Philomelium),
and Tyriaeum; then it ran through Lycaonia through Laodiceia, the Burnt, to Coropassus;
and from Coropassus, which was in Lycaonia, to Garsaura in Cappadocia, on the
borders; then through Soandus and Sadakora to Mazaca, the metrotropolis of the
Cappadocians; and from Mazaca through Herphae to Tomisa in Sophene. (Strab. pp.
647, 663.)
It does not appear from, Strabo how the Ephesii managed the affairs
of the town in his time. He speaks of a senate (gerousia) being made by Lysimachus,
and the senate with certain persons called the Epicleti managed the affairs of
the city. We may conclude that it had a Boule, and also a Demus or popular assembly.
A town clerk of Ephesus (grammateus), a common functionary in Greek cities, is
mentioned. (Acts of the Apost. xix. 35.); An imperfect inscription, copied by
Chishull (Travels in Turkey, &c. p. 20), shows that there was an office (archeion)
in Ephesus for the registry of titles within the territory.
In the time of Tiberius there were great complaints of the abuses
of asyla., The Ephesii (Tacit. Ann. iii. 61) were heard before the Roman senate
in defence of the asylum of Artemis, when they told the whole mythical story of
the origin of the temple; they also referred to what Hercules had done for the
temple; and, coming nearer to the business, they said that the Persians had always
respected it, and after them the Macedonians, and finally the Romans. Plutarch
(De vitando aere alieno, c. 31) says that the temple was an asylum for debtors,
and it is probable that the precincts were generally well filled. In the reign
of Nero, Barea Soranus, during his government of Asia, tried to open the port,
which the bad judgment of the king of Pergamum and his architects had spoiled.
(Tacit. Ann. xvi. 23.)
When St. Paul visited Ephesus (Acts of the Apost. xix.), one Demetrius,
a silversmith which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto
the craftsmen. He called his men together, and showed them that their trade was
in danger from the preaching of Paul, who taught that they be no gods, which are
made with hands; so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought;
but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her
magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. The
town clerk, by a prudent and moderate speech, settled the tumult. Among other
things, he told them that the image of Diana fell down from Jupiter. Pliny (xvi.
40) mentions an old wooden statue of Diana at Ephesus. Licinius Mucianus, a contemporary
of Pliny, had examined it, and he said that it had never.been changed, though
the temple had been restored seven times. The representative of the Asiatic .goddess'
was not that of the huntress Artemis of. the Hellenes. Miller observes that, Artemis,
as the guardian of the Ephesian temple, which, according to the myth, was founded
by the Amazons, appears in an Asiatic Amazonian costume. The worship of. her image,
which was widely spread, and in the later imperial period repeated innumerable
times in statues and on coins, is connected with the Hellenic representations
of Artemis by no visible link. (Handbuch der Archaeologie.) The old statue that
fell down from Jupiter may have been a stone, an aerolite; and the wooden statue
that Mucianus saw, some very rude piece of work. According to Minucius Felix (c.
21), the Ephesian Diana.was represented with many breasts. (See the notes on Tacit.
Ann. iii. 61, ed. Oberlin.)
The apostle established a Christian church at Ephesus, and we learn
from what he said to the elders of the..church of: Ephesus, when they met him
at Miletus (Acts, xx. 17--31), that he had lived there, three years. He afterwards
addressed a letter to the Ephesians, which forms part of the canonical New Testament.
In the book of Revelations (ii. 11 &c.) the church of Ephesus is placed first
among the seven churches of Asia. The heathen and the Christian church of Ephesus
subsisted together for some time. The great festival called to koinon Asias was
held in several of the chief towns in turn, of which Ephesus was one. In A.D.
341 the third general council was held at Ephesus. The Asiarchs who are mentioned.in
the Acts of the Apostles (xix. 31), on the occasion of the tumult in Ephesus,
are probably, as Schleusner says, the representatives from the cities of Asia,
who had the charge of the religious solemnities.;. or they may have been the Asiarchs
of Ephesus. only. Under the Christian emperors Ephesus has the title of he prote
kai megiste metropolis tes Asias.
The remains of Ephesus are partly buried in rubbish, and overgrown
with vegetation. They are near a place now called Ayasaluk. These remains have
been visited and described by many travellers, but it is difficult without a plan
of the ground to understand the descriptions. Spon and Wheler visited the place
in 1675, and described it after the fashion of that day (vol. i. p. 244). The
ruins have also been described by Chishull (Travels in Turkey, &c. p. 23,
&c.), and at some length by Chandler (Asia Minor, c. 32, &c.), and by
many other more recent travellers. The disappearance of such a huge mass as the
temple of Diana can only be explained by the fact of the materials having been
carried off for modern buildings; and probably this and other places near the
coast supplied materials for Constantinople. The soil in the valley has also been
raised by the alluvium of the river, and probably covers many old substructions.
The temple of Ephesus, being the centre of the pagan worship in Asia, would be
one of the first to suffer from the iconoclasts in the reign of Theodosius I.,
when men in black, as Libanius calls them, overturned the altars, and defaced
the temples. When the great Diana of the Ephesians was turned out of her home,
the building could serve no other purpose than to be used as a stone quarry.
Chandler found the stadium of Ephesus, one side of which was on the
hill which he identifies with Prion, and the opposite side which was next to the
plain was raised on arches. He found the length to be 687 feet. He also describes
the remains of the theatre, which is mentioned in the tumult which was caused
at Ephesus by St. Paul's preaching. Fellows (Asia Minor, p. 274) observes that
there can be no doubt about the site of the theatre. Chandler saw also the remains
of an odeum or music hall. There are the remains of a temple of the Corinthian
order, which was about 130 feet long, and 80 wide. The cella was built of massive
stones. The columns were 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, and the whole height, including
the base and capitals, above 46 feet. The shafts were fluted, and of a single
piece of stone. The best preserved of these columns that Chandler saw was broken
into two parts. The frieze contained a portion of bold sculpture, which represented
some foliage and young boys. The quarries on Prion or Pion, for the name is written
both ways, supplied the marble for the temples of Ephesus. Prion, was Strabo has
it, was also called Lepre Acte; it was above the city of Strabo's time, and on
it, as he says, was part of the wall.
Hamilton (Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 24), one of the latest travellers
who has visited Ephesus, spent several days there. He thinks that the site of
the great temple is in some massive structures near the western extremity of the
town, which overlook the swamp or marsh where was the ancient harbour. This is
exactly the spot where it ought to be according to Strabo's description. The place
which Hamilton describes is immediately in front of the port, raised upon a base
thirty or forty feet high, and approached by a grand flight of steps the ruins
of which are still visible in the centre of the pile. Hamilton observes that brick
arches and other works have also been raised on various portions of the walls;
but this was probably done by the Christians after the destruction of the temple
and the removal of the columns by Constantine when a church was erected on its
ruins. The supposition that the basement of the temple has been buried by the
alluvium of the Cayster is very properly rejected by Hamilton, who has pointed
out the probable site. Pliny describes a spring in the city and names it Callipia,
which may be the Alitaea of Pausanias. Hamilton found a beautiful spring to the
north of the harbour; the head of the spring was about 200 yards from the temple.
The distance of the temple, supposed. to be near the port from the old city on
the heights seems to agreeU with: the story in Herodotus (i. 26). The position
of the tomb of Androclus, as described by Pausanias is quite consistent with this
supposed site of th great temple. Hamilton observes that the road which Pausanias
describes must have led along the valley between Prion and Coressus, which extends
towards Magnesia, and is crossed by the line of walls erected by Lysimachus. The
Magnesia Gates would also have stood in this valley, and must not be confounded
with those which are in the direction of Aiasaluck. Hamilton supposes that the
Olympieium may have stood in the space between the temple of Artemis and the theatre
in the neighbourhood of the agora, where he found the remains of a large Corinthian
temple, which is that which Chandler describes.
Hamilton describes the Hellenic wall of Lysimachus as extending along the heights
of Coressus for nearly a mile and three quarters, in a SE. and NW. direction,
from the heights immediately to the S. of the gymnasium to the tower called
the Prison; of St. Paul, but which is in fact one of the towers of the ancient
wall, closely resembling many others which occur at various intervals. The portion
which connected Mount Prion with Mount Coressus, and in which was the Magnesian
Gate, appears to have been immediately to the east of the gymnasium. The wall
is well built. Hamilton gives a drawing of a perfect gateway in the wall, with
a peculiar arch. He observed also another wall extending from the theatre over
the top of Mount Prion, and thence to. the eastern extremity of the stadium.
He thinks that this may be the oldest wall. Besides this wall and that supposed
to be Lysimachus', already described, he found another wall, principally of
brick, which he supposes to have been built by the Byzantines when the town had diminished in size: considerable remains of this
may still be traced at the foot of Mount Coressus, extending from near the theatre
westward to the port and temple of Diana. There are remains of an aqueduct at
Ephesus. Spon and Wheler also describe a series of arches as being five or six
miles from Ephesus on the road to Scala Nova, with an inscription in honour
of Diana and the emperors Tiberius and Augustus.
Hamilton copied a few inscriptions at Ephesus (vol. ii. p. 455). Chandler
copied others, which were published in his Inscriptiones Antiquae, &c. In
the Antiquities of Ionia, vol. ii., there are views of the remains of Ephesus,
and plans. Some of the coins of Ephesus of the Roman period have a reclining figure
that represents the river Cayster, with the legend Ephesion Kaustros. Arundell
(Discourses in Asia Minor, vol. ii.) has collected some particulars about the
Christian history of Ephesus. The reader may also consult the Life and Epistles
of St. Paul by Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. p. 66, &c.
The name of the village of Aiasaluck near Smyrna is generally said
to be a corruption of Agios Theologos, a name of St. John, to whom the chief Christian
church of Ephesus was dedicated (Procop. de Aedif. v. 1). But, as Arundell observes,
this is very absurd: and he supposes it to be a Turkish name. Tamerlane encamped
here after he had taken Smyrna. The name is written Ayazlic by Tamerlane's historian
Cherefeddin Ali (French Translation, by Petis de la Croix, vol. iv. p. 58). It
has been conjectured that Tamerlane destroyed the place, but his historian says
nothing about that. Ephesus had perished before the days of Tamerlane.
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
LADI (Ancient city) TURKEY
The largest of a group of small islands in the Sinus Latmicus, close
by Miletus, and opposite the mouth of the Maeander. It was a protection to the
harbours of Miletus, but in Strabo's time it was one of the haunts and strongholds
of pirates. Lade is celebrated in history for the naval defeat sustained there
by the Ionians against the Persians in B.C. 494. (Herod. vi. 8; Thucyd. viii.
17, 24; Strab. xiv. p. 635 ; Paus. i. 35. § 6; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 37.)
That the island was not quite uninhabited, is clear from Strabo, and from the
fact of Stephanus B. mentioning the ethnic form of the name, Ladaios.
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
LARISSA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A town in the territory of Ephesus, on the north bank of the Caystrus,
which there flows through a most fertile district, producing an excellent kind
of wine. It was situated at a distance of 180 stadia from Ephesus, and 30 from
Tralles. (Strab. ix. p. 440, xiii. p. 620.) In Strabo's time it had sunk to the
rank of a village, but it was said once to have been a Polis, with a temple of
Apollo. Cramer (As. Min. i. p. 558) conjectures that its site may correspond to
the modern Tirieh.
LEUCOPHRYS (Ancient small town) TURKEY
Leucophrys (Leukophrus), a town in Caria, apparently in the plain
of the Maeander, on the borders of a lake, whose water was hot and in constant
commotion. (Xenoph. Hell. iv. 8. § 17, iii. 2. § 19.) From the latter of the passages
here referred to, we learn that the town possessed a very revered sanctuary of
Artemis; hence surnamed Artemis Leucophryene or Leucophryne. (Paus. i. 26. § 4;
Strab. xiv. p. 647; Tac. Ann. iii. 62.) The poet Nicander spoke of Leucophrys
as a place distinguished for its fine roses. (Athen. xv. p. 683.)
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
MAGNESIA ON MEANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Eth. Magnes.) A city in Ionia, generally with the addition pros or
epi Maiandroi (ad Maeandrum), to distinguish it from the Lydian Magnesia, was
a considerable city, situated on the slope of mount Thorax, on the banks of the
small river Lethaeus, a tributary of the Maeander. Its distance from Miletus was
120 stadia or 15 miles. (Strab. xiv. pp. 636, 647; Plin. v. 31.) It was an Aeolian
city, said to have been founded by Magnesians from Europe, in the east of Thessaly,
who were joined by some Cretans. It soon attained great power and prosperity,
so as to be able to cope even with Ephesus (Callinus, ap. Strab. xiv. p. 647.)
At a later time, however, the city was taken and destroyed by the Cimmerians;
perhaps about B.C. 726. In the year following the deserted site was occupied,
and the place rebuilt by the Milesians,or, according to Athenaeus (xii. p. 525),
by the Ephesians. Themistocles during his exile took up his residence at Magnesia,
the town having been assigned to him by Artaxerxes to supply him with bread. (Nepos,
Themist. 10; Diod. xi. 57.) The Persian satraps of Lydia also occasionally resided
in the place. (Herod. i. 161, iii. 122.) The territory of Magnesia was extremely
fertile, and produced excellent wine, figs, and cucumbers (Athen. i. p. 29, ii.
p. 59, iii. p. 78.) The town contained a temple of Dindymene, the mother of the
gods; and the wife of Themistocles, or, according to others, his daughter, was
priestess of that divinity; but, says Strabo, the temple no longer exists, the
town having been transferred to another place. The new town which the geographer
saw, was most remarkable for its temple of Artemis Leucophryene, which in size
and in the number of its treasures was indeed surpassed by the temple of Ephesus,
but in beauty and the harmony of its parts was superior to all the temples in
Asia Minor. The change in the site of the town alluded to by Strabo, is not noticed
by any other author. The temple, as we learn from Vitruvius (vii. Pr?fat.), was
built by the architect Hermogenes, in the Ionic style. In the time of the Romans,
Magnesia was added to the kingdom of Pergamus, after Antiochus had been driven
eastward beyond Mount Taurus. (Liv. xxxvii. 45, xxxviii. 13.) After this time
the town seems to have decayed, and is rarely mentioned, though it is still noticed
by Pliny (v. 31) and Tacitus (Ann. iv. 55). Hierocles ranks it among the bishoprics
of Asia, and later documents seem to imply that at one time it bore the name of
Maeandropolis. (Concil. Constantin. iii. p. 666.) The existence of the town in
the time of the emperors Aurelius and Gallienus is attested by coins.
Formerly the site of Magnesia was identified with the modern Guzel-hissar;
but it is now generally admitted, that Inek-bazar, where ruins of the temple of
Artemis Leucophryene still exist, is the site of the ancient Magnesia. (Leake,
Asia Minor, pp. 242, foll.; Arundell, Seven Churches, pp. 58, foll.; Cramer, Asia
Minor, vol. i. pp. 459, foll.)
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MARATHISSION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Marathesium (Marthesion: Eth. Marathesios an Ionian town on the coast
of Lydia, south of Ephesus, and not far from the frontiers of Caria, whence Stephanus
(s. v.) calls it a town of Caria. (Scylax, p. 37; Plin. H. N. v. 31.) The town
at one time belonged to the Samians; but they made an exchange, and, giving it
up to the Ephesians, received Neapolis in return. (Strab. xiv. p. 639.) Col. Leake
(Asia Minor, p. 261) believes that a few ancient ruins found at a place called
Skalcanova mark the site of Marathesium, though others regard them as remains
of Pygela.
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MASTAURA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A town in the north of Carla, at the foot of Mount Messogis, on the
small river Chrysaoras, between Tralles and Tripolis. (Strab. xiv. p. 650; Plin.
v. 31; Steph. B. s. v.; Hierocl. p. 659.) The town was not of any great repute,
but is interesting from its extant coins, and from the fact that the ancient site
is still marked by a village bearing the name Mastaura, near which a few ancient
remains are found. (Hamilton, Researches, i. p. 531.)
MILITOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Miletos: Eth. Milesios, Milesius. Once the most flourishing city of
Ionia, was situated on the northern extremity of the peninsula formed, in the
south-west of the Latmicus Sinus, by Mount Grion. The city stood opposite the
mouth of the Maeander, from which its distance amounted to 80 stadia.
At the time when the Ionian colonies were planted on the coast of
Asia Minor, Miletus already existed as a town, and was inhabited, according to
Herodotus (i. 146), by Carians, while Ephorus (ap. Strab. xiv. p. 634) related
that the original inhabitants had been Leleges, and that afterwards Sarpedon introduced
Cretan settlers. The testimony of Herodotus is born out by the Homeric poems,
in which (Il. ii. 867) Miletus is spoken of as a place of the Carians. That the
place was successively in the hands of different tribes, is intimated also by
the fact mentioned by Pliny (v. 30), that the earlier names of Miletus were Lelegeis,
Pityusa, and Anactoria. (Comp. Paus. vii. 2. § 3; Steph. B. s. v.) On the arrival
of the Ionians, Neleus, their leader, with a band of his followers, took forcible
possession of the town, massacred all the men, and took the women for their wives,-an
event to which certain social customs. regulating the intercourse between the
sexes, were traced by subsequent generations. It appears, however, that Neleus
did not occupy the ancient town itself, but built a new one on a site somewhat
nearer the sea. (Strab. l. c.) Tombs, fortifications, and other remains, attributed
to the ancient Leleges, were shown at Miletus as late as the time of Strabo (xiv.
p. 611; comp. Herod. ix. 97). As in most other colonies the Ionians had amalgamated
with the ancient inhabitants of the country, the Milesians were believed to be
the purest representatives of the Ionians in Asia. Owing to its excellent situation,
and the convenience of four harbours, one of which was capacious enough to contain
a fleet, Miletus soon rose to a great preponderance among the Ionian cities. It
became the most powerful maritime and commercial place; its ships sailed to every
part of the Mediterranean, and even into the Atlantic; but the Milesians turned
their attention principally to the Euxine, on the coasts of which, as well as
elsewhere, they founded upwards of 75 colonies. (Plin. v. 31; Senec. Cons. ad
Helv. 6; Strab. xiv. p. 635; Athen. xii. p. 523.) The most remarkable of these
colonies were Abydos, Lampsacus, and Parium, on the Hellespont; Proconnesus and
Cyzicus on the Propontis ; Sinope and Amisus on the Euxine; while others were
founded in Thrace, the Crimea, and on the Borysthenes. The period during which
Miletus acquired this extraordinary power and prosperity, was that between its
occupation by the Ionians and its conquest by the Persians, B.C. 494.
The history of Miletus, especially the earlier portion of it, is very
obscure. A tyrannis appears to have been established there at an early time; after
the overthrow of this tyrannis, we are told, the city was split into two factions,
one of which seems to have been an oligarchical and the other a democratic party.
(Plut. Quaest. Gr. 32.) The former gained the ascendant, but was obliged to take
extraordinary precautions to preserve it. On another occasion we hear of a struggle
between the wealthy citizens and the commonalty, accompanied with horrible excesses
of cruelty on both sides. (Athen. xii. p. 524.) Herodotus (v. 28) also speaks
of a civil war at Miletus, which lasted for two generations, and reduced the people
to great distress. It was at length terminated by the mediation of the Persians,
who seem to have committed the government to those landowners who had shown the
greatest moderation, or had kept aloof from the contest of the parties. All these
convulsions took place within the period in which Miletus rose to the summit of
her greatness as a maritime state. When the kingdom of Lydia began its career
of conquest, its rulers were naturally attracted by the wealth and prosperity
of Miletus. The first attempts to conquer it were made by Ardys, and then by Sadyattes,
who conquered the Milesians in two engagements. After the death of Sadyattes,
the war was continued by Alyattes, who, however, concluded a peace, because he
was taken ill in consequence, it was believed, of his troops having burnt a temple
of Athena in the territory of Miletus. (Herod i. 17, &c.) At this time the city
was governed by the tyrant Thrasybulus, a friend of Periander of Corinth (Herod.
v. 92), and a crafty politician. Subsequently Miletus seems to have concluded
a treaty with Croesus, whose sovereignty was recognised, and to whom tribute was
paid.
After the conquest of Lydia by the Persians, Miletus entered into
a similar relation to Cyrus as that in which it had stood to Croesus, and was
thereby saved from the calamities inflicted upon other Ionian cities. (Herod.
i. 141, &c.) In the reign of Darius, the Ionians allowed themselves to be prevailed
upon by Histiaeus and his unscrupulous kinsman and successor openly to revolt
against Persia, B.C. 500. Miletus having, in the person of its tyrant, headed
the expedition, had to pay a severe penalty for its rashness. After repeated defeats
in the field, the city was besieged by land and by sea, and finally taken by storm
B.C. 494. The city was plundered and its inhabitants massacred, and the survivors
were transplanted, by order of Darius, to a place called Ampe, near the mouth
of the Tigris. The town itself was given up to the Carians. (Herod. vi. 6, &c.;
Strab. xiv. p. 635.)
The battle of Mycale, in B.C. 479, restored the freedom of Miletus,
which soon after joined the Athenian confederacy. But the days of its greatness
and glory were gone (Thuc. i. 15, 115, &c.); its ancient spirit of liberty, however,
was not, yet extinct, for, towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, Miletus threw
off the yoke imposed upon her by Athens. In a battle fought under the very walls
of their city, the Milesians defeated their opponents, and Phrynichus, the Athenian
admiral, abandoned the enterprise. (Thuc. viii. 25, &c.) Not long after this,
the Milesians demolished a fort which the Persian Tissaphernes was erecting in
their territory, for the purpose of bringing them to subjection. (Thuc. viii.
85.) In B.C. 334, when Alexander, on his Eastern expedition, appeared before Miletus,
the inhabitants, encouraged by the presence of a Persian army and fleet stationed
at Mycale, refused to submit to him. Upon this, Alexander immediately commenced
a vigorous attack upon the wails, and finally took the city by assault. A part
of it was destroyed on that occasion ; but Alexander pardoned the surviving inhabitants,
and granted them their liberty. (Arrian, Anab. i. 18, &c.; Strab. l. c.) After
this time Miletus continued, indeed, to flourish as a commercial place, but was
only a second-rate town. In the war between the Romans and Antiochus, Miletus
sided with the former. (Liv. xxxvii. 16, xliii. 6.) The city continued to enjoy
some degree of prosperity at the time when Strabo wrote, and even as late as the
time of Pliny and Pausanias. (Comp. Tac. Ann. iv. 63, 55.) From the Acts (xx.
17), it appears that St. Paul stayed a few days there, on his return from Macedonia
and Troas. In the Christian times, Ephesus was the see of a bishop, who occupied
the first rank among the bishops of Caria; and in this condition the town remained
for several centuries (Hierocl. p. 687; Mich. Duc. p. 14), until it was destroyed
by the Turks and other barbarians.
Miletus, in its best days, consisted of an inner and an outer city,
each of which had its own fortifications (Arrian l. c.), while its harbours were
protected by the group of the Tragusaean islands in front of which Lade was the
largest. Great and beautiful as the city may have been, we have now no means of
forming any idea of its topography, since its site and its whole territory have
been changed by the deposits of the Maeander into a pestilential swamp, covering
the remains of the ancient city with water and mud. Chandler, and other travellers
not being aware of this change, mistook the ruins of Myus for those of Miletus,
and describe them as such. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 239.) Great as Miletus was as
a commercial city, it is no less great in the history of Greek literature, being
the birthplace of the philosophers Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, and of
the historians Cadmus and Hecataeus.
The Milesians, like the rest of the Ionians, were notorious for their
voluptuousness and effeminacy, though, at one time, they must have been brave
and warlike. Their manufactures of couches and other furniture were very celebrated,
and their woollen cloths and carpets were particularly esteemed. (Athen. 1. p.
28, xi. p. 428, xii. 540, 553, xv. 691; Virg. Georg. iii. 306, iv. 335.)
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Ampe (Ampe: Eth. Ampaios), a place where Darius settled the Milesians who were made prisoners at the capture of Miletus, B.C. 494. (Herod. vi. 20.) Herodotus describes the place as on the Erythraean sea (Persian Gulf); he adds that the Tigris flows past it. This description does not enable us to fix the place. It has been supposed to be the Iamba of Ptolemy, and the Ampelone of Pliny (vi. 28), who calls it Colonia Milesiorum. Tzetzes has the name Ampe. (Harduin‘s note on Plin. vi. 28.)
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MYKALI (Cape) TURKEY
Mycale (Mukale), the westernmost branch of Mt. Mesogis in Lydia; it
forms a high ridge and terminates in a promontory called Trogylium, now cape S.
Maria. It runs out into the sea just opposite the island of Samos, from which
it is separated only by a narrow channel seven stadia in breadth. It was in this
channel, and on the mainland at the foot of Mount Mycale, that the Persians were
defeated, in B.C. 479. It is probable that at the foot of Mount Mycale there was
a town called Mycale or Mycallessus, for Stephanus Byz. (s. v.) and Scylax (p.
37) speak of a town of Mycale in Caria or Lydia. The whole range of Mount Mycale
now bears the name of Samsum. (Hom. Il. ii. 869; Herod. i. 148, vii. 80, ix. 96;
Thuc. i. 14, 89; viii. 79; Diod. ix. 34; Paus. v. 7. § 3, vii. 4. § 1; Strab.
xiii. pp. 621, 629; Ptol. v. 2. § 13; Agathem. p. 3.)
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MYOUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Myus (Muous: Eth. Muousios), an Ionian town in Caria, on the southern
bank of the Maeander, at a distance of 30 stadia from the mouth of that river.
Its foundation was ascribed to Cydrelus, a natural son of Codrus. (Strab. xiv.
p. 633.) It was the smallest among the twelve Ionian cities, and in the days of
Strabo (xiv. p. 636) the population was so reduced that they did not form a political
community, but became incorporated with Miletus, whither in the end the Myusians
transferred themselves, abandoning their own town altogether. This last event
happened, according to Pausanias (vii. 2. § 7), on account of the great number
of flies which annoyed the inhabitants; but it was more probably on account of
the frequent inundations to which the place was exposed. (Vitruv. iv. 1.) Myus
was one of the three towns given to Themistocles by the Persian king (Thucyd.
i. 138; Diod. Sic. xi. 57; Plut. Them. 29; Athen. i. p. 29; Nep. Them. 10.) During
the Peloponnesian War the Athenians experienced a check near this place from the
Carians. (Thucyd. iii. 19.) Philip of Macedonia, who had obtained possession of
Myus, ceded it to the Magnesians. Athen. iii. p. 78.) The only edifice noticed
by the ancients at Myus was a temple of Dionysus, built of white marble. (Paus.
l.c.) The mmense quantity of deposits carried down by the Maeander have considerably
removed the coast-line, so that even in Strabo's time the distance between Myus
and the sea was increased to 40 stadia (xii. p. 579), while originally the town
had no doubt been built on the coast itself. There still are some ruins of Myus,
which most travellers, forgetting the changes wrought by the Maeander, have mistaken
for those of Miletus, while those of Heracleia have been mistaken for those of
Myus. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 239, &c.) The mistake is repeated by Sir C.
Fellows (Journal of a Tour in As. Min. p. 263), though it had been pointed out
long before his time.
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NYSSA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Nysa or Nyssa (Nusa or Nussa), is said to have been the name of the
place in which the god Dionysus was born, whence it was transferred to a great
many towns in all parts of the world which were distinguished for the cultivation
of the vine.
I. In Asia. 1. A town in Caria, on the southern slope of mount Messogis,
on the north of the Maeander, and about midway between Tralles and Antioch. The
mountain torrent Eudon, a tributary of the Maeander, flowed through the middle
of the town by a deep ravine spanned by a bridge, connecting the two parts of
the town. (Strab. xiv. p. 650; Horn. hymn. iv. 17; Plin. v. 29; Ptol. v. 2. §
18; Hierocl. p. 659; Steph. Byz. s. v.) Tradition assigned the foundation of the
place to three brothers, Athymbrus, Athymbradus, and Hydrelus, who emigrated from
Sparta, and founded three towns on the north of the Maeander; but in the course
of time Nysa absorbed them all; the Nysaeans, however, recognise more especially
Athymbrus as their founder. (Steph. B. s. v. Athumbra; Strab. l. c.) The town
derived its name of Nysa from Nysa, one of the wives of Antiochus, the son of
Seleucus (Steph. B. s. v. Antiocheia), having previously been called Athymbra
(Steph. B. s. v. Athumbra) and Pythopolis (Steph. B. s. v. Puthopolis).
Nysa appears to have been distinguished for its cultivation of literature,
for Strabo mentions several eminent philosophers and rhetoricians; and the geographer
himself, when a youth, attended the lectures of Aristodemus, a disciple of Panaetius;
another Aristodemus of Nysa, a cousin of the former, had been the instructor of
Pompey. (Strab. l. c.; Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 6. 4) Hierocles classes Nysa among the
sees of Asia, and its bishops are mentioned in the Councils of Ephesus and Constantinople.
The coins of Nysa are very numerous, and exhibit a series of Roman emperors from
Augustus to Galllienus. The site of Nysa has been recognised by Chandler and other
travellers at Sultan-hissar, above the plain of the Maeander, on a spot much resembling
that described by Strabo; who also mentions a theatre, a forum, a gymnasium for
youths, and another for men. Remains of a theatre, with many rows of seats almost
entire, as well as of an amphitheatre, gymnasium, &c., were seen by Chandler.
(Leake, Asia Minor, p. 248; Fellows, Discover. pp. 22, foil.; Hamilton, Researches,
i. p. 534.) The country round Nysa is described as bearing evidence of the existence
of subterraneous fires, either by exhalations and vapours, or by its hot mineral
springs.
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ORTHOSIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A town of Caria, not far from Aatbanda, on the left bank of the Maeander,
and apparently on or near a hill of the same name (Strab. xiv. p. 650; Plin. xxxvii.
25). Near this town the Rhodians gained a victory over the Carians (Polyb. xxx.
5; Liv. xlv. 25; corp. Ptol. v. 2. § 19; Plin. v. 29, xxxvii. 9, 25; Hierocl.
688). The ancient remains near Karpusli probably mark the site of Orthosia (Leake,
Asia Minor, p. 234); though others, regarding them as belonging to Alabanda, identify
it with Dsheni-sheer.
PANIONION (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
Panionium (Panionion), a place on the western slope of Mount Mycale,
in the territory of Priene, containing the common national sanctuary of Poseidon,
at which the Ionians held their regular meetings, from which circumstance the
place derived its name. It was situated at a distance of 3 stadia from the sea-coast.
(Strab. xiv. p. 639; Herod. i. 141, foll.; Mela, i. 17; Plin. v. 31; Paus. vii.
5. § 1.) The Panionium was properly speaking only a grove, with such buildings
as were necessary to accommodate strangers. Stephanus B. is the only writer who
calls it a town, and even mentions the Ethnic designation of its citizens. The
preparations for the meeting and the management of the games devolved upon the
inhabitants of Priene. The earlier travellers and geographers looked for the site
of the Panionium in some place near the modern village of Tshangli; but Col. Leake
(Asia Minor, p. 260) observes: The uninhabitable aspect of the rocks and forests
of Mycale, from Cape Trogilium to the modern Tshangli, is such as to make it impossible
to fix upon any spot, either on the face or at the foot of that mountain, at which
Panionium can well be supposed to have stood. Tshangli, on the, other hand, situated
in a delightful and well watered valley, was admirably suited to the Panionian
festival: and here Sir William Gell found, in a church on the sea-shore, an inscription
in which he distinguished the name of Panionium twice. I conceive, therefore,
that there can be little doubt of Tshangli being on the site of Panionium.
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PRIINI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Priene (Priene: Eth. Prieneus, Prienios), an Ionian city, near the
coast of Caria, on the southeastern slope of Mount Mycale, and on a little river
called Gaeson, or Gaesus. It had originally been situated on the sea-coast, and
had two ports, one of which could be closed (Scylax, p. 37), and a small fleet
(Herod. vi. 6); but at the time when Strabo wrote (xii. p. 579) it was at a distance
of 40 stadia from the sea, in consequence of the great alluvial deposits of the
Maeander at its mouth. It was believed to have been originally founded by Aepytus,
a son of Neleus, but received afterwards additional colonists under a Boeotian
Philotas, whence it was by some called Cadme. (Strab. xiv. pp. 633, 636; Paus.
vii. 2. § 7; Eustath. ad Dionys. 825; Diog. Laert. i. 5. 2.) But notwithstanding
this admixture of Boeotians, Priene was one of the twelve Ionian cities (Herod.
i. 142; Aelian, V. H. viii. 5; Vitruv. iv. 1), and took a prominent part in the
religious solemnities at the Panionia. (Strab. xiv. p. 639.) It was the native
place of the philosopher Bias, one of the seven sages. The following are the chief
circumstances known of its history. It was conquered by the Lydian king Ardys
(Herod. i. 15), and when Croesus was overpowered by Cyrus, Priene also was forced
with the other Greek towns to submit to the Persians. (Herod. i. 142.) It seems
to have been during this period that Priene was very ill-used by a Persian Tabules
and Hiero, one of its own citizens. (Paus. l. c.) After this the town, which seems
to have more and more lost its importance, was a subject of contention between
the Milesians and Samians, when the former, on being defeated, applied for assistance
to Athena (Thucyd. i. 115.) The town contained a temple of Athena, with a very
ancient statue of the goddess. (Paus. vii. 5. § 3; comp. Polyb. xxxiii. 12; Plin.
v. 31.) There still exist very beautiful remains of Priene near the Turkish village
of Samsoon; its site is described by Chandler (Travels, p. 200, &c.) as follows:
It was seated on the side of the mountain, flat beneath flat, in gradation to
the edge of the plain. The areas are levelled, and the communication is preserved
by steps out in the slopes. The whole circuit of the wall of the city is standing,
besides several portions within it worthy of admiration for their solidity and
beauty. Among these remains of the interior are the ruins of the temple of Athens,
which are figured in the Ionian Antiquities, p. 13, &c. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor,
pp. 239, 352; Fellows, Asia Min. p. 268, &c.; Rasche, Lex. Num. iv. 1. p. 55;
Eckhel, Doctr. Rei Num. vol. ii. p. 536.)
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PYGELA (Ancient city) TURKEY
or Phygela (Pugela, Phugela: Eth. Pugeleus), a small town on the coast
of the Caystrian bay, a little to the south of Ephesus, was said to have been
founded by Agamemnon, and to have been peopled with the remnants of his army;
it contained a temple of Artemis Munychia. (Xenoph. Hellen. i. 2. § 2; Strab.
xiv. p. 639; Steph. B. s. v. Harpocrat. s. v.; Plin. v. 31; Scylax. p. 37; Pomp.
Mela, i. 17; Liv. xxxvii. 1.) Dioscorides (v. 12) commends the wine of this town,
which is still celebrated. Chandler (Travels, p. 176) observed its remains on
a hill between Ephesus and Scala Nova, (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 261.)
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TEMNUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Temnus (Temnos: Eth. Temnites), a town of Aeolis in Asia Minor, not
far from the river Hermus, situated on a height, from which a commanding view
was obtained over the territories of Cyme, Phocaea, and Smyrna. (Strab. xiii.
p. 621.) From a passage in Pausanias (v. 13. § 4), it might be inferred that the
town was situated on the northern bank of the Hermus. But this is irreconcilable
with the statement that Temnus was 30 miles south of Cyme, and with the remarks
of all other writers alluding to the place. Pliny (v. 29) also seems to be mistaken
in placing Temnus at the mouth of the Hermus, for although the deposits of the
river have formed an extensive alluvial tract of land, it is evident that the
sea never extended as far as the site of Temnus. The town had already much decayed
in the time of Strabo, though it never appears to have been very large. (Xenoph.
Hell. iv. 8. § 5; Herod. i. 149; Polyb. v. 77, xx. 25; Cic. pro Flace. 18) In
the reign of Tiberius it was much injured by an earthquake (Tac, Ann. ii. 47),
and in the time of Pliny it had ceased to be inhabited altogether. Its site is
commonly identified with the modern Menimen, though Texier, in his Description
de l'Asie Mineure, looks for it at the site of the village of Guzal-Hissar.
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THYMBRIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Thymbria (Thumbria), a small town of Caria, only 4 stadia east of Myus on the
banks of the Maeander; in its neighbourhood there was a socalled Charonium, or
cave from which poisonous vapours issued. (Strab. xiv. p. 636.)
TRALLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Trallis (Tralleis, Trallis: Eth. Trallianos). A large and flourishing
city of Caria, on the southern slope of mount Messogis, a little to the north
of the Scamander, a small tributary of which, the Eudon, flowed close by the city,
while another passed right through it. Its acropolis was situated on a lofty eminence
in the north of the city. Tralles was said to have been founded by Argives in
conjunction with a body of Thracians, whence its name Tralles was believed to
be derived (Strab. xiv. pp. 648, 649; Hesych, s. v.; Diod. Sic. xvii. 65; Plut.
Ages. 16), for it is said to have previously been called Anthea, Evanthea, Erymna,
Charax, Seleucia, and Antiochia (Steph. B. s. vv. Trallis, Charax; Etym. M. p.
389; Plin. v. 29). Others, however, state that it was a Pelasgian colony, and
originally bore the name of Larissa (Agath. ii. 17; Schol. ad Hom. Il. x. 429).
It was situated in a most fertile district, at a point where highroads met from
the south, east, and west; so that it must have been a place of considerable commerce.
(Cic. ad Att. v. 1. 4, ad Fans. iii. 5, ad Quint. Frat. i. 1; Strab. xiv. p. 663.)
The inhabitants of Tralles were celebrated for their great wealth, and were generally
appointed asiarchs, that is, presidents of the games celebrated in the district.
But the country in which Tralles was situated was much subject to earthquakes;
in the reign of Augustus many of its public buildings were greatly damaged by
a violent shock; and the emperor gave the inhabitants a handsome sum of money
to repair the losses they had sustained. (Strab. xii. p. 579.) Out of gratitude,
the Trallians petitioned to be permitted to erect a temple in honour of Tiberius,
but without effect. (Tac. Ann. iv. 55.) According to Pliny (xxxv. 49), king Attalus
had a palace at Tralles. A statue of Caesar was set up in the temple of Victoria
at Tralles; and during the presence of Caesar in Asia a miracle is said to have
happened in the temple, respecting which see Caes. Bell. Civ. iii. 105; Plut.
Caes. 47; and Val. Max. i. 6. The city is very often mentioned by ancient writers
(Xen. Anab. i. 4. 8, Hist. Gr. iii. 2. § 19; Polyb. xxii. 27; Liv. xxxvii. 45,
xxxviii. 39; Died. xiv. 36, xix. 75; Juven. iii. 70; Ptol. v. 2. § 19; Hierocl.
p. 659). During the middle ages the city fell into decay, but was repaired by
Andronicus Palaeologus (G. Pachymer, p. 320). Extensive ruins of the place still
exist above the modern Ghiuzel Hissar, in a position perfectly agreeing with the
description of Strabo.
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
VARGASA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Bargasa (Bargasa: Eth. Bargasenos), a city of Caria. The Ethnic name
is given by Stephanus on the authority of Apollonius in his Carica. There are
also coins of Bargasa with the epigraph Bargasenon. It is mentioned by Strabo
(p. 656), who, after speaking of Cnidus, says, then Ceramus and Bargasa, small
places above the sea. The next place that he mentions is Halicarnassus. Bargasa
is therefore between Cnidus and Halicarnassus. Leake places Bargasa in his map,
by conjecture, at the head of the gulf of Cos, at a place which he marks Djovata;
this seems to be the Giva of Cramer. Neither of them states the authority for
this position.
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
AFRODISIAS (Ancient city) AYDIN
A town of Caria sacred to Aphrodite.
ANTIOCHIA PROS MAIANDRO (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Caria, on the Maeander, built by Antiochus I. (Soter) on the site of the old city of Pythopolis.
ARPASSA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Caria on the river Harpasus.
DIDYMA (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
Branchidae, after wards Didyma. A place on the sea-coast of Ionia, a little
south of Miletus, and celebrated for its temple and oracle of Apollo, surnamed
Didymeus. This oracle, which the Ionians held in the highest esteem, was said
to have been founded by Branchus, son of Apollo by a Milesian woman. The reputed
descendants of this Branchus, the Branchidae, were the hereditary ministers of
this oracle. The temple, called Didymaeum, which was destroyed by Xerxes, was
afterwards rebuilt, and its ruins contain some beautiful specimens of the Ionic
order of architecture.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EFESSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Ionia, near the mouth of the river Cayster, called
by Pliny alterum lumen Asiae. Mythology assigns, as its founders, Ephesus, the
son of the river Cayster, and Cresus (Kresos), a native of the soil. Another account
makes it to have been settled by Ephesus, one of the Amazons. According to a third
tradition, the place owed its origin to the Amazons. If we follow the better authority
of Strabo, we will find a settlement to have been Bronze first made in this quarter
by the Carians and Leleges. Androclus, the son of Codrus, came subsequently with
a body of Ionian colonists. He protected the natives who had settled from devotion
about the Temple of Artemis and incorporated them with his followers, but expelled
those who inhabited the town above, which the Carians and Leleges had built on
Mount Prion. Pliny enumerates other names for the city, such as Alope, Morges,
Ortygia, Ptelea, Samornia, Smyrna, Trachea, etc.
Lysimachus, wishing to protect Ephesus from the inundations
to which it was yearly exposed by the overflowings of the Cayster, built a city
upon the mountain and surrounded it with walls. The inhabitants were unwilling
to remove into this, but a heavy rain falling, and Lysimachus stopping the drains
and flooding their houses, they were glad to exchange. The port of Ephesus had
originally a wide mouth, but foul with the mud lodging in it from the Cayster.
Attalus Philadelphus and his architect were of opinion that if the entrance were
contracted, it would become deeper and in time be capable of receiving ships of
burden. But the slime, which had before been moved by the flux and reflux of the
tide and carried off, being stopped, the whole basin, quite to the mouth, was
rendered shallow. The situation, however, was so advantageous as to overbalance
the inconveniences attending the port. The town increased daily, and under the
Romans was considered the chief emporium of Asia this side of Taurus. In the arrangement
of the provinces under the Eastern emperors it became the capital of the province
of Asia. Towards the end of the eleventh century Ephesus experienced the same
fate as Smyrna. A Turkish pirate, named Tangripanes, settled here; but the Greek
admiral, Ioannes Ducas, defeated him in a bloody battle and pursued the flying
Turks up the Maeander to Po lybotum. In 1306, it was among the places which suffered
from the exactions of the Grand Duke Roger; and two years after it surrendered
to the sultan Saysan, who, to prevent future insurrections, removed most of the
inhabitants to Tyriaeum, where they were massacred. In the conflicts which desolated
Asia Minor at a subsequent period, Ephesus was again a sufferer, and the city
became at length reduced to a heap of ruins.
Ephesus was famed for its splendid temple of Artemis or Diana.
The statue of the goddess was regarded with peculiar veneration and was believed
by the people to have fallen from the skies. It was never changed, though the
temple had been more than once restored. This rude object of primeval worship
was a block of wood, said by some to be of beech or elm, by others cedar, ebony,
or vine, and attesting its very great antiquity by the fashion in which it had
been formed. It was carved into the similitude of Artemis, not as the graceful
huntress, but an allegorical figure which we may call the goddess of nature, with
many breasts, and the lower parts formed into an Hermaean statue, grotesquely
ornamented, and discovering the feet beneath.. It was gorgeously apparelled, the
vest embroidered with emblems and symbolical devices, and to prevent its tottering
a bar of metal was placed under each hand. A veil or curtain, which was drawn
up from the floor to the ceiling, hid it from view, except while service was in
progress in the temple. This image was preserved till the later ages in a shrine,
on the embellishment of which mines of wealth were consumed. The priests of Artemis
suffered emasculation, and virgins were devoted to inviolable chastity. They were
eligible only from the superior ranks, and enjoyed a great revenue with privileges,
the eventual abuse of which induced Augustus to restrict them.
The reputation and the riches of their goddess had made the
Ephesians desirous of providing for her a magnificent temple. The fortunate discovery
of marble in Mount Prion gave them new vigour. The cities of Asia contributed
largely, and Croesus defrayed the expense of many of the columns. The spot chosen
for it was a marsh, as most likely to preserve the structure free from gaps and
uninjured by earthquakes. The foundation was made with charcoal rammed down and
with fleeces. The base consumed immense quantities of marble. The edifice was
erected on a basement with ten steps. The architects were Chersiphron of Crete
and his son Metagenes (B.C. 541); and their plan was continued by Demetrius, a
priest of Artemis; but the whole was completed by Daphnis of Miletus and a citizen
of Ephesus, the building having occupied 220 years. It was the first specimen
of the Ionic style in which the fluted column and capital with volutes were introduced.
The whole length of the temple was 425 feet, and the breadth 220; with 127 columns
of the Ionic order and of Parian marble, each of a single shaft and sixty feet
high. These were donations from kings, according to Pliny, but there is reason
to doubt the correctness of the text where this assertion is made. Of these columns
thirty-six were carved; and one of them, perhaps as a model, by Scopas. The temple
had a double row of columns, fifteen on either side; but Vitruvius has not determined
if it had a roof, probably over the cell only. The folding-doors or gates had
been continued four years in glue, and were made of cypress wood, which had been
treasured up for four generations, highly polished. These were found by Mutianus
as fresh and as beautiful 400 years after as when new. The ceiling was of cedar;
and the steps for ascending the roof were of the single stem of a vine.
The dimensions of this great temple excite ideas of uncommon
grandeur from their massiveness; but the notices of its internal ornament increase
one's admiration. It was the repository in which the great artists of antiquity
dedicated their most perfect works to posterity. Praxiteles and his son Cephisodorus
adorned the shrine; Scopas contributed a statue of Hecate; Timarete, the daughter
of Micon, the first recorded female artist, finished a picture of the goddess,
the most ancient in Ephesus; and Parrhasius and Apelles employed their skill to
embellish the walls. The excellence of these performances may be supposed to have
been proportionate to their price; and a picture of Alexander grasping a thunderbolt,
by the latter, was added to the superb collection at the expense of twenty talents
of gold. This description, however, applies chiefly to the temple as it was rebuilt,
after the earlier temple had been partially burned (perhaps the roof of timber
only), by Herostratus, who chose that method to ensure to himself an immortal
name, on the very night that Alexander the Great was born. Twenty years after,
that magnificent prince, during his expedition against Persia, offered to appropriate
his spoils to the restoration of it if the Ephesians would consent to allow him
the sole honour and would place his name on the temple. They declined the proposal,
however, with the flattering remark that it was not right for one deity to erect
a temple to another; national vanity was, however, the real ground of their refusal.
The architect who superintended the erection of the new edifice was Dinocrates,
of whose aid Alexander afterwards availed himself in building Alexandria. The
extreme sanctity of the temple inspired universal awe and reverence; and it was
for many ages a repository of foreign and domestic treasure. There property, whether
public or private, was secure amid all revolutions. The conduct of Xerxes was
an example to subsequent conquerors, and the impiety of sacrilege was not suffered
by the Ephesian goddess; but Nero deviated from this rule in removing many costly
offerings and images and an immense quantity of silver and gold. It was again
plundered by the Goths from beyond the Danube in the time of Gallienus--a party
under Raspa crossing the Hellespont and ravaging the country until compelled to
retreat, when they carried off a prodigious booty.
The destruction of so illustrious an edifice deserved to have
been carefully recorded by contemporary historians. We may conjecture that it
followed the triumph of Christianity. The Ephesian reformers, when authorized
by the imperial edicts, rejoiced in the opportunity of insulting Artemis, and
deemed it piety to demolish the very ruin of her habitation. When, under the auspices
of Constantine and Theodosius, churches were erected, the pagan temples were despoiled
of their ornaments or accommodated to other worship. The immense dome of Saint
Sophia now rises from the columns of green jasper which were originally placed
in the Temple of Artemis, and were taken down and brought to Constantinople by
order of Justinian. Two pillars in the great church at Pisa were also transported
thence. The very site of this stupendous and celebrated edifice was long undetermined,
but in 1869 was discovered by Mr. J. T. Wood--an Englishman who found a clue to
its situation in two letters from Antoninus Pius to the Ephesians (A.D. 145-150);
in another letter from Hadrian, dated September 27th, A.D. 120; and in an inscription
which prescribed the order of the processions to the temple. Excavations continued
until 1874 have greatly added to our knowledge of the temple.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
GERGAS (Ancient settlement) TURKEY
(Gergis) or gergitea (ta Gergitha). A city of Dardania in Troas,
a settlement of the ancient Teucri, and, consequently, a town of very great antiquity
(Herod. iv. 122). Gergis, according to Xenophon, was a place of much strength.
It had a temple sacred to Apollo Gergithius, and was said to have given birth
to the Sibyl, who is sometimes called Erythraea, from Erythrae, a small place
on Mount Ida, and at others Gergithia.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
HERAKLIA ON LATMOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Caria, on the seacoast, near the mouth of the river Latmus, between Miletus and Priene. It was called, for distinction's sake from other places of the same name, Heraclea Latmi.
LADI (Ancient city) TURKEY
An island off the west coast of Caria, opposite to Miletus and to the bay into which the Maeander falls.
LARISSA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Larissa Ephesia, a city of Lydia, in the plain of the Cayster.
LEUCOPHRYS (Ancient small town) TURKEY
A city of Caria, close to a curious lake of warm water, and having a renowned temple of Artemis Leucophryne.
MAGNESIA ON MEANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Magnesia Ad Maeandrum, a city in the southwest of Lydia, situated on the river Lethaeus, a tributary of the Maeander. It was destroyed by the Cimmerians (probably about B.C. 700), and rebuilt by colonists from Miletus. It was celebrated for its beautiful temple of Artemis, ruins of which still exist.
MARATHISSION (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Marathesion). A town of Ionia, between Ephesus and Neapolis. It originally belonged to the people of Samos, but they gave it to the Ephesians in exchange for Neapolis, which was nearer to Samos.
MILITOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Miletos). One of the greatest cities of Asia Minor. It belonged
territorially to Caria and politically to Ionia, being the southernmost of the
twelve cities of the Ionian confederacy. The city stood upon the southern headland
of the Sinus Latmicus, opposite to the mouth of the Maeander, and possessed four
distinct harbours, protected by a group of little islands; its territory was rich
in flocks, and the city was celebrated for its woollen fabrics, the Milesia vellera.
At a very early period it became a great maritime State, and founded numerous
colonies, especially on the shores of the Euxine. Among these were Abydos, Tomi,
Olbia, Cyzicus, and Odessus; and in Egypt, Naucratis. It was the birthplace of
the philosophers Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, and of the historians Cadmus
and Hecataeus. It was the centre of the great Ionian revolt against the Persians,
after the suppression of which it was destroyed (B.C. 494). It recovered sufficient
importance to oppose a vain resistance to Alexander the Great, which brought upon
it a second ruin. Under the Roman Empire it still appears as a place of some consequence.
The earlier name of Miletus is said to have been Pityusa (Pituousa) or Anactoria
(Anaktoria).
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MYOUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Muous). The least city of the Ionian confederacy. It stood in Caria, on the bank of the Maeander.
ORTHOSIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Caria, on the Maeander, where the Rhodians defeated the Carians, B.C. 167.
PANIONION (Ancient sanctuary) TURKEY
A spot on the north of the promontory of Mycale, with a temple to Poseidon, which was the place of meeting for the cities of Ionia.
PANORMOS (Ancient port) KUSADASI
The outer harbour of Ephesus.
PRIINI (Ancient city) TURKEY
One of the twelve Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor,
stood in the northwest corner of Caria, at the foot of Mount Mycale. It was the
birthplace of Bias , one of the Seven Sages of Greece. It was important from a
religious point of view in connection with the Pan-Ionian festival on Mount Mycale,
where the people of Priene took precedence as being the supposed descendants of
the inhabitants of Helice in Hellas Proper.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PYGELA (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Pugela) or Phygela (Phugela). A small town of Ionia, on the coast of Lydia.
TEMNUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Now Kayajik; a city of Aeolis, in the northwest of Lydia, thirty miles south of Cyme. It was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, and is not noticed by Pliny. Under the Byzantine Empire it was called Archangelus.
TRALLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A flourishing commercial city of Lydia, in Asia Minor. It stood
on a plateau at the southern foot of Mount Messogis (with a citadel on a higher
point), on the banks of the little river Eudon, a northern tributary of the Maeander,
from which the city was distant eighty stadia (eight geographical miles). It was
said to have been founded by Argives and Thracian settlers on the site of an older
town called Anthea. Under the Seleucidae it bore the names of Seleucia and Antiochia.
MYKALI (Cape) TURKEY
Promontory on the Ionian coast between Ephesus
and Miletus, facing the island
of Samos.
Mycale was also the name of a summit on that promontory, on which
a confederacy of twelve Ionian cities founded in Asia
Minor by Ionians coming from Attica
and what later became Achaia
in northern Peloponnese, collectively
called the Paniones (etymologically, “all the Ionians pan Iones”),
had erected a sanctuary to Poseidon called the Panionion
where they celebrated a yearly festival called Panionia.
The twelve cities of the Ionian confederacy included, from south to
north, the Carian cities of Miletus
(the leading city of Ionia),
Myous and Priene,
the Lydian cities of Ephesus,
Colophon, Lebedus,
Teos, Clazomenae
and Phocaea, plus Samos
and Chios on the islands
of the same names, and Erythraeus
on the mainland facing Chios.
Cape Mycale was, in 479, the site of a naval victory of a Greek fleet
over a Persian fleet, which, after the victories of Salamis
and Plataea, marked the end
of the first phase of the second Persian War and of Persian incursions on Greek
mainand.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
HERAKLIA ON LATMOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Pages Turkish of the Ministry of Culture
MAGNESIA ON MEANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
MASTAURA (Ancient city) TURKEY
We haven't got much information about Mastaura, which is located near Nysa Ancient City at the shore of Menderes River. The city was on the route of commercial places and had the privilege of minting money. Strabon mentioned about Mastaura as well as Orthosia. It was the episcopal centre during Christianity Period and it participated to Ephesos and Khalkedon councils. Some monuments and coins were found in the region that is called "Mastavra Castle" among public.
ALAVANDA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Late in the 3d c. Alabanda was colonized by the Seleucids and took the name of 'Antiocheia of the Chrysaorians' in honor of Antiochos III.
TRALLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Other names which Tralles is alleged to have borne in early times are Seleuceia, Antiocheia. Euantheia, Polyantheia, Erymna, Charax and Caesareia
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