Lebedos

Lebedos was an ancient Greek city and was one of the twelve Ionian cities on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey ). It was located on a peninsula that is now called Kısık and belongs to the modern village of Ürkmez. Their acropolis was half a kilometer inland on a hill about 35 meters high. In ancient times, the next major cities were Smyrna in the north, Colophon in the east, and Ephesus in the south.

The city was founded in the 7th century BC. Founded. It was famous for its hot springs, which made Lebedos a popular health resort, as well as for its temple of Apollon Klarios and for an annual Dionysus festival.

In ancient times the story was told that fishermen from Lebedos had once pulled a valuable tripod from the sea, which Hephaestus himself made. They quarreled about it, and when they could not come to an agreement, they consulted an oracle and received the answer that the tripod should belong to the greatest wise man - then the Thales was brought to him .

Around 304 BC BC Antigonus I. Monophthalmos wanted to merge the city of Lebedos with Teos and move the inhabitants to a new place. However, this synoikism was only partially realized. Another synoicism took place at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. BC under Lysimachus , who wanted to settle the inhabitants of Lebedos together with citizens of Colophon and Teos in Ephesus, which was renamed Arsinoeia. The city was founded around 266 BC. Re-founded by Ptolemy II , initially under the name Ptolemais . Strabo reports that the Dionysian artists' guild of the Technites had its headquarters in Lebedos after it was established at the end of the 3rd century BC. Was expelled from Teos because of their relaxed way of life .

Horace compared Lebedos in the 1st century BC With tiny Roman villages:

“Or are you so tired of the sea and driving on the roads that you even like it in Lebedos? You know how things are with Lebedos: a village more deserted than Gabii and Fidenae . And yet I wanted, if it had to be, to live there, forgetting my own and forgotten by them, in order to quietly watch the anger of Neptune on solid land. "

In fact, Lebedos continued to exist in the Roman Empire, minted its own coins until the end of the 2nd century and was the seat of a bishop in late antiquity. The titular diocese of Lebedus of the Roman Catholic Church goes back to the diocese .

Today, apart from some remains of the city wall of Lebedos, nothing can be seen.

literature

George Ewart Bean : Lebedos, Turkey . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
Sheila L. Ager: Civic identity in the Hellenistic world: The case of Lebedos . In: Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. 39, 1998, pp. 5-21.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Horace, Epistulae 1, 11, 6–10: An Lebedum laudas odio maris atque viarum? Scis Lebedus quid sit: Gabiis desertior atque Fidenis uicus; tamen illic vivere vellem, oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis, Neptunum procul e terra spectare furentem.

38.078055555556 26.964722222222Coordinates: 38 ° 4 ′ 41 ″ N , 26 ° 57 ′ 53 ″ E

[1] Horace, Epistulae 1, 11, 6–10: An Lebedum laudas odio maris atque viarum? Scis Lebedus quid sit: Gabiis desertior atque Fidenis uicus; tamen illic vivere vellem, oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis, Neptunum procul e terra spectare furentem.