Alexandria Troas

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Atticus baths

Alexandria Troas ( ancient Greek Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ Τρωάς ) is an ancient city in Asia Minor landscape Troas , now the Turkish province of Canakkale belongs. It is located about 30 km south of Troy in the district of Ezine on the Aegean coast .

The city was founded shortly after 310 BC. Founded by Antigonus I. Monophthalmos and named Antigonia , but as early as 301/300 BC. Renamed by Lysimachus in Alexandria Troas. The decisive factor was a demarcation by name to Alexandria ad Issum (today İskenderun ) and Alexandria . It is not clear whether this Hellenistic foundation was a new establishment or the renaming of an older settlement. However, the city first experienced its heyday in Roman times, as written sources and buildings show. Constantine the Great considered making it the capital of the Roman Empire, but chose Byzantion . Worth seeing are the arches of the Herodes Atticus - Therme and parts of the estimated 8 km of the original city wall and, on the southwest side of the road, the foundations of a Roman bath.

Alexandria Troas also played a role in the spread of early Christianity. On three trips Paul visited Alexandria Troas. In the second letter to the Corinthians he refers by name to Troas ( 2 Cor 2: 12-13  EU ). Ignatius of Antioch also stayed in Alexandria Troas on his extradition trip to Rome, where he wrote three of the Ignatius letters named after him .

In 2003, a team of archaeologists from the Asia Minor research center at the University of Münster , headed by Elmar Schwertheim, found a stone slab with a 90-line inscription from the time of Hadrian in the city . It contains three letters from the emperor to the supraregional association of competitors with regulations for various agons . a. the distribution of the prize money to the winners is determined as well as sanctions against those responsible for violations. The marble slab was examined at the University of Münster and scientifically processed by Schwertheim together with the Cologne classical philologist Georg Petzl in several publications; the first publication of the inscription took place in 2006. This gave rise to new excavation campaigns in the city since 2007, which are currently still ongoing. Finds from the excavations are collected in the Çanakkale Archaeological Museum .

The excavation has been continued since 2011 under the direction of Erhan Öztepe from Ankara University .

Remarks

  1. ↑ The majority of exegetes, e. B. Erich Gräßer : The second letter to the Corinthians. Part 2. Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-579-00514-6 , p. 98 (Ecumenical paperback commentary on the New Testament. Volume 8/1), today assumes that Paul means the city of Alexandria Troas. Walter Bauer , Kurt Aland : Greek-German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature , however, point to the landscape of Troas . 1988, col. 1652.
  2. ↑ Cf. IgnPhld 11, 2; IgnSm 12, 1; IgnPol 8, 1.
  3. ^ Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 56, 1359 ( Greek text ).

literature

  • Gustav Hirschfeld : Alexandreia 16 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, column 1396.
  • Cevdet Bayburtluoğlu:  Alexandria Troas, Anatolia . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
  • Elmar Schwertheim, Hans Wiegartz: New Research in Neandria and Alexandria Troas . Bonn 1994 (Asia Minor Studies, Vol. 11).
  • Elmar Schwertheim, Hans Wiegartz (ed.): The Troas. New research on Neandria and Alexandria Troas II . Bonn 1996 (Asia Minor Studies, Vol. 22).
  • Marijana Ricl: The inscriptions of Alexandreia Troas . Habelt, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-7749-2791-X ( inscriptions of Greek cities from Asia Minor , vol. 53).
  • Elmar Schwertheim (ed.): The Troas. New research III . Bonn 1999 (Asia Minor Studies, Vol. 33).
  • Elmar Schwertheim (ed.): Studies for ancient Asia Minor V . Bonn 2002 (Asia Minor Studies, Vol. 44).
  • Georg Petzl, Elmar Schwertheim: Hadrian and the Dionysian artists. Three letters from the emperor to the artists' association newly found in Alexandria Troas . Habelt, Bonn 2006, ISBN 978-3-7749-3507-5 (Asia Minor Studies. Volume 58).
  • Stefan Feuser : The port of Alexandria Troas . Bonn 2009 (Asia Minor Studies, Vol. 63).

Web links

Commons : Alexandria Troas  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 39 ° 45 '  N , 26 ° 10'  E