Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "ASPENDOS Ancient city TURKEY".
About 30 km E of Antalya, 13 km inland and on the Eurymedon river.
Strabo (667) says it was founded by Argives; these may have been either an Argive
contingent of the "mixed peoples" who settled Pamphylia under Mopsos,
Calchas, and Amphilochos after the Trojan war, or later settlers in the 7th or
6th c. The connection with Mopsos is confirmed by the early name of the city,
which appears on coins as Estwediiys; this derives almost certainly from Asitawandas,
founder of the recently discovered city at Karatepe in E Cilicia, who describes
himself in a bilingual inscription as a descendant of Mopsos (Muksos or MPS).
In 469 B.C. a Persian fleet and army collected at Aspendos was attacked
and defeated on land and sea by the Athenian Kimon at the battle of the Eurymedon.
This may have resulted in the enrollment of Aspendos in the Delian Confederacy;
her name appears in the assessment of 425 B.C. though there is no evidence that
she ever paid tribute, and in 411 the city was used by the Persians as a base.
In 389 Aspendos was the scene of the murder of Thrasybulos by the local inhabitants
(Xen. Hell. 4.8.30; Diod. 14.99).
On the arrival of Alexander in 333 the Aspendians at first offered
to surrender their city, but later declined to accept his terms; upon being invested,
however, they submitted meekly enough (Arr. 1.26-7). Under Alexander's successors,
Pamphylia was claimed both by the Seleucids and by the Ptolemies; a 3d c. inscription
of Aspendos confers citizenship on certain soldiers for their services to King
Ptolemy (apparently Soter). On the other hand, about 220 B.C. the Aspendians contributed
4,000 men to Achaeus' lieutenant Garsyeris (Polyb. 5.73). After the battle of
Magnesia in 190 B.C. Manlius Vulso, in the course of his march through Asia Minor,
levied 50 talents from Aspendos (and a similar amount from the other Pamphylian
cities), apparently as the price of Roman friendship (Polyb. 21.35; Livy 38.15).
Described as populous by Strabo (667), Aspendos was unmercifully looted by Verres.
The coinage, which began in the early 5th c. B.C., continued abundant
through the Imperial period. In the 5th c. A.D. Aspendos took for a time the name
of Primupolis; the reason for this is not known, and in the Notitiae the old name
is again in use.
The city occupies a flat-topped hill some 39 m high, divided into
two unequal parts by a deep hollow. The sides are for the most part precipitous,
but two gullies on the E side led to gates of which little now survives; a third
gate near the N extremity is better preserved.
In the outer face of the E part of the hill is the theater, generally
admitted to be the finest extant specimen of a Roman theater. Apart from the stage
itself and the greater part of the decoration of the stage building, it is virtually
complete. It faces a little S of E and is built of pudding-stone, with seats,
floors, and facings of marble. It was constructed in the 2d c. A.D. by a local
architect, Zeno, and was dedicated to the gods of the country and the Imperial
House by two brothers, Curtius Crispinus and Curtius Auspicatus. Although the
cavea rests on the hillside, the form of the building is essentially Roman; whether
a theater stood on the spot in Hellenistic times is uncertain. The outer, E face
of the stage building consists of a high wall pierced by a central door (later
enlarged and now used for the admission of visitors) and two smaller doors on
either side. Above these are four rows of windows varying in shape and size; above
and below the top row are stone blocks pierced with holes for holding the masts
which supported the awning (velum) over the cavea. At either end is an entrance
for spectators; there are two other smaller entrances from the hillside at the
back of the cavea, but the vaulted vomitoria familiar in Graeco-Roman theaters
are lacking. The inner face of the stage building has the usual five doors opening
onto the stage, and a row of smaller doors below to the space under the stage.
The facade had originally two rows of columns in two stories, with niches holding
statues; over each niche was a pediment supported by small columns. Of all this
only those parts survive which were actually let into the wall. At the top is
a large pediment containing a relief of Bacchus surrounded by flowers. Sloping
grooves high up in the side walls indicate a wooden roof to the stage, possibly
intended as a sounding board. The stage itself was some 6 m in depth from front
to back and a little over 1.5 m in height. At either end an enclosed staircase
led to the separate floors of the stage building. The cavea has 40 rows of seats,
equally divided by a single diazoma; on some of them, names have been carved to
reserve the places. At the top is an open passage backed by an arcade; this has
been repaired more than once, most recently in the last few years. There are 10
stairways below the diazoma and 21 above it.
On the level ground to the N of the theater is the stadium, running
roughly N and S. The N end is rounded, the S open, as at Perge. Under the seats
was a vaulted gallery used apparently for the circulation of the spectators. On
the outer E side, also as at Perge, is a row of chambers serving as shops; small
windows in their back wall open to the vaulted gallery, which was thus not entirely
dark. No starting-sill is preserved. A hippodrome is mentioned in an inscription
(CIG 3.4342d), but has not been found; probably it was merely an open space without
permanent seating.
The main part of the city stood on the hill to the W of the theater,
separated from the theater hill by a deep depression. The ruins, all of Roman
date, are impressive. The central feature is the agora, surrounded on three sides
by public buildings. Of these the most conspicuous is a basilica on the E side;
this is in two parts, a main hall of which only the foundations remain, and an
annex at the N end still standing over 15 m high. The combined length is as much
as 125 m. The annex has three doors communicating with the main hall, and another
arched door on its N side; in its S wall are two windows, and four exterior buttresses
support the W wall.
On the N side of the agora is an unusual building of uncertain use.
It is nearly 15 m high and about 50 m long, but only 1.8 m thick. The back, facing
N, is plain; on the front, towards the agora, are two horizontal rows of five
niches; in the lower row the larger middle niche is pierced by a door, while the
others have openings later blocked up. Embedded in the wall above these niches
are the remains of an entablature which was carried on columas arranged in pairs;
of these only the bases survive. The building has been supposed to be a nymphaeum,
despite the total absence of the necessary pipes, basins, and other apparatus;
the only tangible evidence for the identification is a dolphin's-head spout found
on the spot, combined with a general resemblance to the facade of other nymphaea,
and the fact that the aqueduct, so far as preserved, leads towards it. Others
have thought it a purely ornamental facade, designed, in the absence of the usual
stoa, to bound the agora on the N.
Facing the basilica across the agora is a long market hall, comparatively
poorly preserved. It was in two stories, with a row of shops backed by a gallery.
The stoa in front of it is now destroyed, but its position is marked by a line
of steps.
Near the NW corner of the agora is another building of uncertain purpose.
It is some 48 x 27 m and is rounded at the E end. A covered theater or odeum has
been suggested, or perhaps a council house, but there is no provision for seating.
The suggestion that it was a gymnasium is equally doubtful.
The fine aqueduct, certainly among the most interesting that survive
from the Roman period, brought water to the city across the marshy land from the
hills to the N. The water channel, formed of pierced cubical blocks, was carried
on arches which served at the same time as a viaduct. By the foot of the hills
on the N, and again close to the city, it was carried up to towers about 30 m
in height, descending again on the other side. Both towers and most of the arcade,
less than 0.8 km long, are well preserved. At the top of each tower the water
ran into an open basin, thus releasing the air from the pipe to afford a freer
flow; the additional height prevented loss of pressure on the far side of the
basin. After rising to the rim of the acropolis, the aqueduct ran across the flat
summit towards the city center, but in this part it is now destroyed and the meager
traces of its course do not allow a reconstruction of its form. The building of
this aqueduct is alluded to in an inscription (BCH 10.160.8) recording a munificent
gift by a certain Tiberius Claudius Italicus "for the introduction of water."
It dates to the 1st or 2d c. A.D. and refers evidently to the original construction.
What provision was previously made for a supply of water does not appear; perhaps
the river sufficed.
In the lower part of the city, S of the theater, are two large buildings
close together. Like the rest of the city they are unexcavated but are identified
as baths, though here again there is no trace of water supply, or of any of the
usual apparatus of baths.
The necropolis, or at least the main burial ground, lay beside a road
that ran below the acropolis on the E. Here are several built tombs and one rock-cut,
and in this region great numbers of funeral stelai have come to light. These have
a characteristic form, with pediment and acroteria, and in most cases are inscribed
merely with the name and patronymic of one or more persons; on some are carved
a knotted ribbon. The names are written in the characteristic Aspendian script
and dialect, and are largely Anatolian; they date in general to the Hellenistic
period.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Aspendos: Eth. Aspendios. A city of Pamphylia, on the Eurymedon, 60
stadia from the mouth of the river, and an Argeian colony (Strab. p. 667). It
is mentioned by Thucydides (viii. 81, 87, 108) as a port, or at least a place
up to which ships might ascend. The town was situated on highly ground; on a mountain,
as Pliny (v. 27) calls it; or a very lofty hill, which commands a view of the
sea. (Mela, i. 14.) The site must be easily determined by an examination of the
lower part of the Eurymedon. From an extract in Spratt's Lycia (vol. ii. p. 32)
it may be collected that the name is still Aspendus; it is described as 6 or 8
miles from the sea, and a lofty city. One argument that is urged to prove the
identity is, that a great marsh near it is still called Capru, a name identical
with that of the ancient marsh or lake Capria. Strabo mentions the lake Capria,
and then the Eurymedon; and he may mean that the lake or marsh is near the river.
The brief extract as to Aspendus in Spratt is rather obscure. Pliny (xxxi. 7)
mentions a lake at Aspendus, where salt was produced by evaporation. In the neighbourhood
the olive was much cultivated.
Thasybulus lost his life at Aspendus; being surprised in his tent
by the Aspendians, on whom he had levied contributions. (Xen. Hell. iv. 8; Diod.
xiv. 99.) Alexander, in his Asiatic expedition, visited Aspendus, and the place
surrendered upon preparation being made by the king to besiege it. (Arrian, Anab.
i. 26.) It was a populous place after Alexander's time, for it raised on one occasion
4000 hoplites. (Polyb. v. 73.) The consul Cn. Manlius, when moving forward to
invade Galatia, came near Termessus, and made a show of entering Pamphylia, which
brought him a sum of money from the Aspendii and other Pamphylians. (Liv. xxxviii.
15; Polyb. xxii. 18.)
The old medals of Aspendus have the epigraph ES. EST. ESTPh. ESTPHEDNGS.,
but those of more recent date have the common form AS. ASPENDION. (Cramer, Asia
Minor, vol. ii. p. 282.)
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
A city of Pamphylia, lying for the most part on a rocky precipice, on the banks of the river Eurymedon. It was a flourishing place even before the expedition of the younger Cyrus. It was here that the Athenian patriot Thrasybulus terminated his life. Being off the coast, he levied contributions from the Aspendians, who, seizing an opportunity when he was on shore, surprised him in his tent at night, and slew him.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
the later name of Aspendus
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