Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "SAGALASSOS Ancient city TURKEY".
City in Pisidia N of Antalya, whose name and variants thereof have
been transmitted through many sources (Strab. 12.569-70, 13.631; Ptol. 12.19;
Arr. 1.28.2; Diod. 18.44ff; Plin. HN 5.94). Little is known about its early history
and development, but it is thought that in the Hellenistic period it was forcibly
occupied by Alexander.
The city was SE of Apamea in Phrygia and near the source of the Cayster
river in the mountainous area of Milyas; it dominated a considerable area of Pisidia.
Its territory was devastated by Gn. Manlius Vulso. In the Imperial period, it
was called magnificent, first city of Pisidia, friend and ally of Rome, and belonged
to the province of Galatia.
The ruins were described in detail by 19th c. travelers. The subdivision
of the urban center follows the highly developed city plan of the Hellenistic
type spread under Alexander and repeated in the mountain cities of Asia Minor,
of which Sagalossos and Termessos are the more notable examples. The grid is oriented
E-W along a rocky ridge (Davras Dagi), and the site is terraced upward, culminating
in the level area of the Temple of Antoninus Pius. A cross-street joins the upper
terraces to a nympheum. To the W is the Temple of Apollo Klarios and to the E
the gymnasium, opposite which are the theater and the basilica.
The Temple of Antoninus Pius is Corinthian (13.87 x 26.83 m) while
that of Apollo Klarios is Ionic, peripteral and hexastyle; a Christian basilica
was built on its foundations. The theater, of the last quarter of the 2d c. A.D.,
has a cavea of the Hellenistic type, horseshoe-shaped and partially resting upon
rock; the NW section was constructed in the Roman period. A diazoma with a vaulted
circular corridor divided the cavea in the middle, and the scaenae frons was unusually
complex and architecturally interesting. An odeon of the Imperial period is one
of the most complete ever discovered. There was also a palaestra (53 x 44 m, with
a paved central court and porticos along its sides), and an upper agora, set on
a terrace above that of the Temple of Antoninus Pius, which dates from the Claudian
period.
N. Bonacasa, 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.
Total results on 9/7/2001: 7 for Sagalassus, 8 for Sagalassos.
(Sagalassos or Selgessos). Now Allahsun; a large fortified city of Pisidia, [p. 1398] near the Phrygian border, a day's journey southeast of Apamea Cibotus. It lay, as its large ruins still show, in the form of an amphitheatre on the side of a hill, and had a citadel on a rock thirty feet high.
Sagalassus (Sagalassos: Eth. Sagalasseus or Sagalassmnos), an important
town and fortress near the north-western frontier of Pisidia, or, as Strabo (xii.
p. 569) less correctly states, of Isauria, while Ptolemy (v. 3. § 6) erroneously
mentions it among the towns of Lycia. (Comp. Steph. B. s. v.) Alexander the Great
took the town by assault, having previously defeated its brave Pisidian inhabitants,
who met the aggressor drawn up on a hill outside their town. (Arrian, Anab. i.
28.) Livy (xxxviii. 15), in his account of the expedition of On. Manlius, describes
Sagalassus as situated in a fertile plain, abounding in every species of produce;
he likewise characterises its inhabitants as the bravest of the Pisidians, and
the town itself as most strongly fortified. Manlius did not take it, but by ravaging
its territory compelled the Sagalassians to come to terms, to pay a contribution
of 50 talents, 20,000 medimni of wheat, and the same quantity of barley. Strabo
states that it was one of the chief towns of Pisidia, and that after passing under
the dominion of Amyntas, tetrarch of Lycaonia and Galatia, it became part of the
Roman province. He adds that it was only one day's march from Apamea, whereas
we learn from Arrian that Alexander was five days on the road between the two
towns; but the detention of the latter was not occasioned by the length of the
road but by other circumstances, so that Strabo's account is not opposed to that
of Arrian. (Comp. Polyb. xxii. 19; Plin. v. 24.) The town is mentioned also by
Hierocles (p. 693), in the Ecclesiastical Notices, and the Acts of Councils, from
which it appears to have been an episcopal see.
The traveller Lucas (Trois Voyages, i. p. 181, and Second Voyage,
i. c. 34) was the first that reported the existence of extensive ruins at a place
called Aglasoun, and the resemblance of the name led him to identify these ruins
with the site of the ancient Sagalassus. This conjecture has since been fully
confirmed by Arundell (A Visit to the Seven Churches, p. 132, foil.), who describes
these ruins as situated on the long terrace of a lofty mountain, rising above
the village of Aglasoun, and consisting chiefly of massy walls, heaps of sculptured
stones, and innumerable sepulchral vaults in the almost perpendicular side of
the mountain. A little lower down the terrace are considerable remains of a large
building, and a large paved oblong area, full of fluted columns, pedestals, &c.,
about 240 feet long; a portico nearly 300 feet long and 27 wide; and beyond this
some magnificent remains either of a temple or a gymnasium. Above these rises
a steep hill with a few remains on the top, which was probably the acropolis.
There is also a large theatre in a fine state of preservation. Inscriptions with
the words Sagalasseon polis leave no doubt as to these noble ruins belonging to
the ancient town of Sagalassus. (Comp. Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 486, foll.;
Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 164, foll.)
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
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