Kyme (Aiolis)
Kyme (lat. Cyme ) was an ancient Greek city located on two city hills in the Aeolian landscape of Asia Minor on a southern side bay of the Elaitic Gulf (today Çandarlι körfezi ) near today's place Aliağa in Turkey .
According to ancient tradition, the city was founded by the Aeolians and the Lokrians . Side was settled from here . Kyme was a member of the Aeolian League of Eleven Cities and, according to Strabo, was considered the largest and most important city in Aeolia. The daughter of a Kymian king was the wife of King Midas . 546 BC The city became involved in the Paktyes revolt . 499 BC It was at the Ionian Rebellion , 480 BC. Involved in the Xerxes procession . In the winter of 480/79 BC Kyme was winter quarters for the Persian fleet. 477 BC The city joined the Attic League , 412 BC. BC one stood against Athens on the Spartan side. Since 400 BC Finally, apart from a few interruptions, Kyme switched to the side of the Persians . Since the conquest by Alexander the Great , the city has been under Greek rule again. 218 BC Chr. Kyme joined with other cities of Ionia and the Aegean Sea from Achaeus to Attalos I . 190 BC The city became Seleucid . Two years later, Rome ruled that the city should be granted tax exemption. 154 BC Prusias II paid compensation for damage caused. In a battle near Kyme was 132 BC. BC Aristonikos defeated. Three years later the city was added to the new Roman province of Asia . In the 1st century BC Kyme seems to have been very wealthy. In Byzantine times the city was a suffragan of Ephesus .
Remains of the stoa , the theater, the temples of Aphrodite (4th century BC) and Isis (2nd century AD), the city wall and city gates are still present from antiquity . The remains of a medieval harbor house were found in front of the sunken south pier. During excavations, the remains of valuable Hellenistic statues were also found.
Famous sons of the city were Hesiod's father and the historian Ephorus . Also of Homer was said in some sources that he was son of the city. The inhabitants of the city, who were more arable farmers than seafarers, were considered simple-minded in ancient times and were the target of general ridicule.
literature
- George Ewart Bean: Asia Minor . Volume 1. Aegean Turkey from Pergamon to Didyma . 5th edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-17-009678-8 , pp. 103-105.
- Jan Bouzek et al. (Ed.): Kyme . 2 volumes, 1974/1980.
- Helmut Engelmann : The inscriptions from Kyme. Habelt, Bonn 1976 ( inscriptions of Greek cities from Asia Minor , vol. 5), ISBN 3-7749-1418-4
- Hans Kaletsch: Kyme [3]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , Col. 967 f.
Web links
- Inscriptions from Kyme
- Coins of Kyme (English)
Coordinates: 38 ° 46 ' N , 26 ° 56' E