Sillyon

36.9925 30.989722222222Coordinates: 36 ° 59 ′ 33 ″ N , 30 ° 59 ′ 23 ″ E

Sillyon

Turkey

A city gate of Sillyon

Hellenistic building in Sillyon

Sillyon (Greek Σίλλυον) or Syllaion (Συλλαῖον), also Sylleion (Σύλλειον), was an ancient city in the fertile Pamphylian plain. The remains can be seen from afar on a table mountain at a height of 213.4 meters ( NN ) near Asar in the Serik district of the Turkish province of Antalya . Sillyon is within sight of the Mediterranean Sea, 15 kilometers away, and Perge , 12 kilometers away , 27 kilometers east of the city of Antalya and, together with Attaleia , Perge, Side and Aspendos, was one of the five most important cities in Pamphylia.

history

According to legend, the city was founded by the Greek seers Mopsos and Kalchas on their way back from the Trojan War at the same time as Attaleia (Antalya), Perge, Aspendos and Side , like a statue base that bears the name of Mopsos and which was found in the ruins , it suggests. It was first used in the 4th century BC. Mentioned by the geographer Pseudo-Skylax . From 469 BC. The city was a member of the Attic-Delian Sea League and appears in Athenian tribute lists in the 5th century BC. Chr. On. The historian Flavius Arrianus later reports in his Anabasis of a siege by Alexander in 333 BC. BC, which was canceled due to lack of time and because of the heavy occupation of the city. The city was expanded in the Seleucid period. Sillyon was the seat of a bishopric under Byzantine rule. Up into the 20th century, parts of the city repeatedly fell from the steep Table Mountain due to landslides, most recently in 1969 the Odeon and the theater's stage.

archeology

Inscription in Pamphylian

A ramp leads from a gate system with two defense towers to another gate on the plateau. It is supported by a Hellenistic wall. The core of the city lies on the southwest part of the plateau. A large Byzantine building in full height as well as a Hellenistic building, probably a gymnasium 6 meters high, with ten windows of different sizes, where the walls and folds for the shutters are still in good condition, have been preserved. Another, smaller Hellenistic building has an inscription in Pamphylian on a door post. Further to the east, the remains of houses and foundations of temples that cannot be identified in more detail can be seen on terraces. A small mosque comes from the Seljuk period. The remains of a stadium can be seen in the hamlet of Asar at the foot of the mountain.

exploration

As part of a research project on the urban and regional history of Pamphylia and Pisidia , Carola Gmyrek and Sabine Walentowski are commissioned by the German Archaeological Institute to develop a coin corpus and Helga Schwarz an inscription corpus for the city of Sillyon.

Places in the vicinity

Acropolis of Sillyon

Tekkekoy	Yankoy	Zırlankaya
Abdurrahmanlar		Berendi
Eskiyürük	Kayaburnu	Çanakçı

literature

George Ewart Bean : Sillyon (Asar Köyü) 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 .
Gernot Lang: Classical Ancient Sites of Anatolia. BoD 2003, ISBN 3-8330-0068-6 , p. 439 ff. ( Excerpt from Google Books ).
Marianne Mehling (Hrsg.): Knaur's cultural guide in color Turkey . Droemer-Knaur, 1987, ISBN 3-426-26293-2 .
Frederick E. Winter: Greek Fortifications. Taylor & Francis, 1971.
Hotz, Walter: The Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia. Handbook of Monuments of Art. Darmstadt, Scientific Book Society, 1989.
Günther Korbel: South coast of Turkey. Nuremberg 1991.
GE Bean: Turkey's Southern Shore . 1968.
K. Lanckoronski: Cities of Pamphylia and Pisidia. Vienna 1890–92.
Hermann Collitz : Pamphylian inscription; Collection d. Greek dialect inscriptions Vol. I . 1884.

Web links

Commons : Sillyon - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Pernille Flensted-Jensen, Mogens Herman Hansen: Pseudo-Skylax 'use of the term “polis” . In: Mogens Herman Hansen, Kurt A. Raaflaub (Ed.): More studies in the ancient Greek “polis” . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06969-0 , p. 164 ( excerpt from GoogleBooks ).
^ ES Roberts: An introduction to Greek epigraphy. Part 1. University Press, Cambridge 1887, pp. 316-317 ( on GoogleBooks ).
↑ Research on the urban and regional history of Pamphylia and Pisidia ( Memento from July 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

[1] Pernille Flensted-Jensen, Mogens Herman Hansen: Pseudo-Skylax 'use of the term “polis” . In: Mogens Herman Hansen, Kurt A. Raaflaub (Ed.): More studies in the ancient Greek “polis” . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06969-0 , p. 164 ( excerpt from GoogleBooks ).

[2] ES Roberts: An introduction to Greek epigraphy. Part 1. University Press, Cambridge 1887, pp. 316-317 ( on GoogleBooks ).

[3] Research on the urban and regional history of Pamphylia and Pisidia ( Memento from July 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )