Kelainai

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Kelainai ( Greek  Κελαιναί ) was one of the most important ancient cities in Asia Minor , especially in the Achaemenid period . The sources of the meander located several major roads and at the intersection, including the Persian King Street , was the Phrygian town probably already in the Bronze Age , a regional trade center and evolved after they Antiochus I in Apamea was renamed to Roman times next to Ephesus to the largest market in Asia Minor, as Strabo reported. During the Byzantine period, the city lost its importance, but was probably never completely abandoned. Today's city of Dinar built over part of the ancient urban area, archaeological remains are only a few to be seen.

Location and topography

Kelainai was located at the sources of the Meander, today the city of Dinar ( Afyon province ) is in its place . Kelainai was, like Dinar today, an important traffic junction in the border area between Lydia and Phrygia and is mentioned by many ancient authors. The armies of Xerxes I , the younger Cyrus , Alexander the Great and the Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso marched through here. Four major routes came together in Kelainai; presumably the Persian royal road also passed the city. The reed-rich meander springs at Kelainai, which are fed underground by the nearby Aulotrene Lake, are the background for an old, multi-layered myth.

The oldest, Bronze Age settlement core was on the now largely undeveloped Üclerce Tepe in the northeast of Dinar. From there, the urban area probably expanded to the west in particular until Roman times; extensive necropolises with, in some cases, considerably large rock and tumuli give an impression of its former extent. In the surrounding area there were other large burial mounds that are probably related to the city. The most famous of these is the Tatarli Tumulus .

mythology

Marsyas representation from the theater of Perge

The most famous legend associated with Kelainai is that of the competition between Apollon and Marsyas ; Marsyas can often be found on the city's coins. According to older traditions, the place of the satyr's torture is in Kelainai at the source of the Marsyas River. According to one version, it arises from the battered body of Marsyas, according to another version it arises from the tears of the satyrs and nymphs who weep Marsyas' terrible fate. Another version, reported by Pliny and adopted by Solinus , lets the competition take place in the valley of the Aulotrene, which is about eight kilometers from the city.

Another circle of legends that is set in Kelainai is related to another famous Phrygian, King Midas . Several sources name Kelainai as the capital of his kingdom and say that Marsyas was originally called the source of Midas: it arose at the request of the Phrygian king through Dionysus ' help. Callisthenes reproduced the undoubted local legend according to which Zeus Idaios had an abyss opened up in Kelainai, which devoured several houses with their residents. An oracle had foretold Midas that the abyss would not close again until he threw his most valuable asset into it. Finally, his son Anchurus threw himself riding into the throat, which then closed again. In its place, Midas had a golden altar built for Zeus Idaios.

According to a third myth located in Kelainai-Apamea, the Mount Ararat is said to be located here , on which Noah's Ark touched down after the flood . This localization is first attested in the Sibylline Oracle (1, 261) and subsequently in Julius Africanus and other Byzantine authors. On various coins of the 3rd century from Apamea, Noah is depicted with his ark. They show that it is primarily a local tradition that is certainly related to the large Jewish community in Apamea.

history

Early history and the Persian period

Due to its excellent geographical location, Kelainai's urban roots go back to the Bronze Age. In the 6th century BC The city came under Lydian influence and entered into intensive trade contacts with Greek and Ionian cities. In a short time it became an important trading center. The first literary mention of the city is from the Lydian Pythios, who lived in Kelainai and is said to have been surpassed only by the great king Xerxes. He had already sent precious gifts to Darius I , the father of Xerxes, and it can be assumed that his family had already settled in Kelainai in pre-Ahaemenid times when the city was under Lydian rule. In the Achaemenid period, Kelainai became the Persian royal residence, probably the only one in Asia Minor. According to Xenophon , immediately after his defeat at Salamis (479 BC) , Xerxes had a palace built at the foot of the upper town. The younger Cyrus had another palace built at the sources of the meander, which was surrounded by a large paradeisos , a hunting garden full of wild animals. In his residence town he collected in 401 BC His army to strike against his brother Artaxerxes II. The army united here with 10,000 Greek mercenaries who came from Sardis (Anabasis, Zug of the Ten Thousand, Xenophon). Kelainai was certainly also the seat of the Phrygian satrap, even if no traditions are known about it. The satrap Pharnabazos had Alcibiades murdered near Kelainai (404 BC) while he was a refugee in Phrygia. Alkibiades had settled north of Kelainai in a place called Melissa, where his grave, which was revered until the imperial era, was also built. In 333 BC Alexander the Great reached Kelainai with his armies and installed Antigonus as satrap of Phrygia. The city was then Seleucid .

Hellenistic period

Antiochus I Soter (324–261 BC) later re-founded the city and named it Apamea after his mother . According to Strabo, Antiochus moved residents from Kelainai to Apamea, but the name Kelainai was apparently not completely given up: Dion Chrysostomos (35) holds z. B. His speech not in Apamea, but in Kelainai. Presumably, therefore, the focus of the settlement was shifted to the south as part of an urban expansion. Like Kelainai, Apamea also served as a residential city with an important Seleucid palace complex. Antiochus III resided here . between 193 and 188 BC And here was 188 BC. The peace between the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire was concluded. Apamea was then part of the Pergamene Kingdom and was founded in 133 BC. BC together with the other Pergamene possessions Roman. In 129 BC The city was ceded to Mithridates V of Pontus and declared free after his death (120 BC).

Roman time

Despite the obvious Roman presence in the city, it was not recognized until 84 BC. In the province of Asia . During the first half of the 1st century BC Apamea was assigned several times to the province of Cilicia and then returned to Asia. Even in Roman times, the city retained its economic importance and, after Ephesus, was the largest market town in Asia Minor and the capital of a convent . Frequent representations of Noah's Ark on the imperial coinage of the city indicate a considerable Jewish population. It was not until the Byzantine era that the city's importance declined significantly, although it remained a bishopric until the 9th century. There is still a titular diocese of Apamea in Bithynia today .

literature

  • FVJ Arundell: Discoveries in Asia Minor. London 1834, I, pp. 172-227.
  • K. Belke, N. Mersich: Phrygia and Pisidia. Tabula Imperii Byzantini 7. Vienna 1990, pp. 188-189.
  • WH Bucler, WM Calder : Monuments and Documents from Phrygia and Caria. МАМА VI. London 1939, XIV-XV, 64-88, 145-148.
  • IA Carradice: The Dinar Hoard of Persian Sigloi. in Studies in Greek Numismatics in Memory of Martin Jessop Price, ed. by R. Ashton, S. Hurter in collaboration with G. Le Rider, R. Bland. London 1998, pp. 65-81, pl. 17-20.
  • J. Chamonard, Ph.-E. Legrand: Inscriptions de Phrygie. BCH 17, 1893, pp. 241-293.
  • Michel Christol , Th. Drew-Bear: Un castellum romain près d'Apamée de Phrygie. TAM, supplementary volume. 12. Vienna 1987.
  • P. Chuvin: Mythographie et geographie dionysiaques: recherches sur l'œuvre de Nonnos de Panopolis. Clermont-Ferrand 1991, pp. 111-125.
  • Th. Corsten, Th. Drew-Bear: Sur deux inscriptions d'Eumeneia et d'Apameia en Phrygie. EpAnat 20, 1992, pp. 135-142.
  • Th. Drew-Bear: Nouvelles inscriptions de Phrygie. Studia Amstelodamensia ad epigraphicam, ius antiquum et papyrologicam pertinenta, 16. Zutphen, 1978.
  • Th. Drew-Bear, W. Eck: Emperor, military and quarry inscriptions from Phrygia. Chiron 6, 1976, pp. 289-318.
  • G. Hirschfeld: Kelainai - Apameia Kibotos. AbhBerlin 1875, pp. 1–26.
  • DG Hogarth: Notes upon a Visit to Celaenae - Apamea. JHS 9, 1888, pp. 343-349.
  • D. Müller: Topographic commentary on the histories of Herodotus. Asia Minor and adjacent areas with Southeast Thrace and Cyprus . Tübingen, 1997, sv Kelainai, pp. 129-148.
  • J. Nollé: Contributions to Asia Minor Coin Studies and History 4–5. Gephyra 3, 2006, pp. 49-131.
  • WM Ramsay: The Historical Geography of Asia Minor. London, 1890, pp. 403-404.
  • WM Ramsay: Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, being an essay of the local history of Phrygia from the earliest times to the Turkish conquest. Volume I., Part II. West and West-Central Phrygia. Oxford 1897, pp. 396-483, pp. 667-676.
  • R. Syme: Studies in Strabo. Oxford 1995, pp. 335-339.
  • A. Topbaş: Un sarcophage d'Apamée de Phrygie. RA, 1987, No. 2, pp. 361-374.
  • A. Topbaş: Dinar Tiyatro kazısı. Kurtarma kazıları sonuçları coin. Ankara 1993, pp. 16-25.
  • G. Weber: Dinair (Gueïkler) - Célènes - Apamée Cibotos. Besançon, 1892.

Monographic:

  • Lâtife Summerer, Askold Ivantchik, Alexander von Kienlin (eds.): Kelainai - Apameia Kibôtos: Développement urbain dans le contexte anatolien. Urban development in the Anatolian context. Actes du colloque international (= Kelainai I ). Ausonius, Bordeaux 2011.
  • Askold Ivantchik, Lâtife Summerer, Alexander von Kienlin (eds.): Kelainai-Apameia Kibotos: an Achaemenid, Hellenistic and Roman metropolis - Kelainai-Apameia Kibotos: une métropole achéménide, hellénistique et romaine (= Kelainai II ). Ausonius, Bordeaux 2016.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Strabo, Geography 12, 8, 15.
  2. ↑ Xenophon , Anabasis 1, 2, 7-8.
  3. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 1,29,1; Quintus Curtius Rufus , Historia Alexandri Magni 3.1.
  4. ↑ Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita 38, 13.
  5. ↑ http://ausonius.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/KELAINAI/Kelainai/Prospection_region_de.html
  6. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 16, 89.
  7. ↑ Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium 40, 7–8.
  8. ↑ Callimachus , Aetia , fr. 75; Sositheos Fri. 2.
  9. ^ Pseudo- Plutarch , De fluv. 10.
  10. ↑ Kallisthenes, The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrHist), No. 124 F 56.
  11. ↑ Johannes Malalas , Chronographia 1,4; Georgios Synkellos , Weltchronik 22; Georgios Kedrenos , World Chronicle 1.20 etc.
  12. ↑ http://ausonius.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/KELAINAI/Kelainai/Legendes_de.html
  13. ↑ Herodotus , Historien 7, 27-29.
  14. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis 1, 2, 8.
  15. ↑ Xenophon, Hellenika 4,1.15.
  16. ↑ Cf. Livius, Ab urbe condita 38, 13: caput Phrygiae .
  17. ↑ Diodor , Libraries 14, 11; Plutarch, Alkibiades 39; Athenaios , Deipnosophistai 13, 574-575.
  18. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 1,29,3; Quintus Curtius Rufus, Historia Alexandri Magni 3,1,8; Marcus Junianus Iustinus , Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 13,4,14; Diodor, Libraries 18, 52, 1-2. 19, 69, 2; Plutarch, Demetrios 6.5.
  19. ^ Strabo, Geography 12, 8, 15; Livy, Ab urbe condita 38:13.
  20. ↑ Strabo, Geography 12,8,15.
  21. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 35.15; 37.44; 38.15.
  22. ^ Strabo, Geography 12, 8, 15.
  23. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 5,105.

Coordinates: 38 ° 4 ′  N , 30 ° 10 ′  E