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SOLOI (Ancient city) CYPRUS
A town in Cyprus, situated on a mountain, the ruler of which is said to have removed to the plain, upon the advice of Solon, and to have named the new town Soli in honour of the Athenian. There is still a place, called Epe, upon the mountain above the ruins of Soli. (Plut. Sol. 26; Steph. B. s. v.; Engel, Kypros, vol. i. p. 75.)
Soli or Soloe (Soloi, Ptol. v. 14. § 4), an important seaport town in the W. part of the N. coast of Cyprus, situated on a small river. (Strab. xiv. p. 683.) According to Plutarch (Sol. 26) it was founded by a native prince at the suggestion of Solon and named in honour of that legislator. The sojourn of Solon in Cyprus is mentioned by Herodotus (v. 113). Other accounts, however, make it an Athenian settlement, founded under the auspices of Phalerus and Acamas (Strab. l. c.), or of Demophon, the son of Theseus (Plut. l. c). We learn from Strabo (l. c.) that it had a temple of Aphrodite and one of Isis; and from Galen (de Simp. Med. ix. 3, 8) that there were mines in its neighbourhood. The inhabitants were called Solii (Solioi), to distinguish them from the citizens of Soli in Cilicia, who were called Soleis (Diog. Laert. V. Solon, 4). According to Pococke (ii. p. 323), the valley which surrounded the city is still called Solea; and the ruins of the town itself may be traced in the village of A Aligora. (Comp. Aesch. Pers. 889; Scyl. p. 41; Stadiasm. M. Magni, § 295, seq.; Const. Porphyr. de Them. i. p. 39, Lips.; Hierocl. p. 707, &c.).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
On the NW coast in the area of Morphou Bay. The ruins cover a large
area, part of which is now occupied by the modern village. The city extended on
the summit of a hill, a little back from the coast and over its N slope overlooking
the bay; it also extended over a narrow strip of flat land below as far as the
harbor. The city consisted of two parts, the acropolis and the lower city.
The city wall can still be traced along the S ridge of the acropolis.
To the E it follows the edge of the hill down to a point ca. 100 m E of the theater,
where it disappears in the plain. In all likelihood it reached the coast and was
continued by the E breakwater of the harbor, the end of which is still visible
above the water. The W part of the city wall runs from the acropolis in a NW direction
and disappears in the village near the modern main road. Near the middle of the
last portion of the wall traces of the W gate have been located. This wall must
have also reached the coast, where it was continued by the W breakwater, the end
of which is again visible above the water. These two extremities formed the entrance
to the harbor, now entirely silted up. A similar arrangement of walls and breakwaters
is to be seen at Nea Paphos (q.v.). This then was the winter harbor of Skylax
(GGM 1.103), also mentioned by Strabo (14.683). The necropolis extends E and S,
with the earliest tombs found in the E necropolis.
Soloi, one of the ancient kingdoms of Cyprus, was, according to tradition,
founded by Akamas and Phaleros. According to another version, a city called Aipeia
(supposed to have been the predecessor of Soloi) was founded by Demophon, brother
of Akamas. The name is connected with the visit of the Athenian lawgiver Solon
to Cyprus and to Philokypros of Aipeia. Solon advised the king to remove the city
of Aipeia from its inconvenient position in rough country to the plain by the
sea. Philokypros took the advice and founded a new city, which he called Soloi
in honor of his friend.
Owing to the existence of copper mines, the richest in the island,
the area was inhabited at an early date and the presence of Late Bronze Age settlements
in the vicinity is well attested. On archaeological evidence available today,
the city site has been occupied since Geometric times and like some other cities
in the island such as Salamis, Soloi may have succeeded a Late Bronze Age town
in the neighborhood. It owed its prosperity to the nearby copper mines, and flourished
down to Early Byzantine times, when it was gradually abandoned after the first
Arab raids of A.D. 647.
Little is known of its earliest history, though from Classical times
onwards the city played an important role in the history of Cyprus and at least
in the times of Alexander the Great seems to have been the most important city
of the island after Salamis.
During the rising against the Persians at the time of the Ionian Revolt
the king of Soloi, Aristokypros, son of Philokypros, was killed in the battle
on the plain of Salamis. Soloi itself successfully resisted the siege of the Persians
for five months but was finally captured, when the city walls had been undermined.
After this time there are but a few records of the city in literature. From inscriptions,
however, we know the names of Kings Stasias and Stasikrates, probably living in
the 4th c. B.C.
The kings of Cyprus assisted Alexander the Great actively during the
siege of Tyre and some of them accompanied him on his way to the E. The kings
of Salamis and Soloi paid the expenses for the choruses, when celebrating in 331
the capture of Tyre. Nikokreon of Salamis and Pasikrates of Soloi vied with each
other as choregoi, the Athenian tragic actor Athenodoros, provided by Pasikrates,
being victorious. Nikokles, the son of Pasikrates, was one of the leaders of the
Cypriot fleet, which was used by Alexander on his expedition to Indus. And Stasanor,
possibly a brother of Pasikrates, also accompanied Alexander. Alexander made Stasanor
governor of Areia and Drangiane in 329 and later in 321 he also received Bactria
and Sogdiane. Hiero of Soloi, also was sent to circumnavigate the Arabian peninsula
and got as far as the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Soloi is the birthplace of the
peripatetic historian Klearchos, a pupil of Aristotle.
The last king of Soloi was called Eunostos, probably the elder son
of Pasikrates. All the kingdoms of Cyprus were abolished by Ptolemy I Soter with
the exception of Soloi, which seems to have been in an exceptional position. How
long Pasikrates continued to reign after we last hear of him in 321, when he sided
with Ptolemy, we do not know; Eunostos, however, was his successor.
During the Ptolemaic period little is known of Soloi though contacts
with Alexandria must have been maintained. The city continued to flourish in Graeco-Roman
times and soon became the seat of a bishop. According to the Acta Auxibii (8-9),
the saint was baptized and ordained bishop by John Mark the Evangelist and sent
to Soloi, where he lived for fifty years (A.D. 52-102/3).
The principal monuments uncovered so far include the theater, an archaic
Greek temple on the acropolis, both excavated in 1929, and part of the lower city
and an Early Christian basilican church in 1965 onwards.
Of the temples at Cholades excavated by the former expedition nothing
is visible, the site having been filled up subsequently. The temples date from
Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman times and the gods worshiped there have been identified
with Aphrodite, Kybele, Isis, Serapis, the Dioskouroi, Canopos, Eros, Priapos,
and possibly Mithras. Strabo mentions a Temple of Aphrodite and Isis and from
the Acta Auxibii we learn of the Temple of Zeus near the W gate. A city of the
importance of Soloi could not have been without a gymnasium, but of it nothing
is known. Trial trenches on the S side of the acropolis have shown that the royal
palace should be located here.
Excavations in the lower city revealed several buildings dating from
archaic to Graeco-Roman times. The structures in the late Graeco-Roman period
were erected on workshops of the early Graeco-Roman period. Among the workshops
were identified a glass factory and a dyer's factory. In the lower layers were
remains of Hellenistic buildings and among the Classical levels a public building
built of well-dressed stones. Below the levels of the Classical period, represented
by an accumulation of debris corresponding to the Persian wars, were found the
remains of the archaic city.
Probably the most important discovery to date is that of a large street
paved with stone slabs. The part revealed measures 4.95 m in width. On the S side
was a portico with columns of which the bases are preserved in situ. This was
certainly the main E-W street in Graeco-Roman times--it probably dates from the
3d c. A.D.--and may have been a colonnaded street.
The theater lies on the N slope of the lower hill, E of the acropolis,
overlooking the sea to the N. It consists of the cavea, which had been cut in
the rock, of a semicircular orchestra, and of the stage-building. A diazoma encircled
the cavea two-thirds of the way up. The semicircular cavea had a diameter of 52
m. The floor of the orchestra was plastered with lime-cement on a substructure
of rubble; it had a diameter of 17 m. The stage-building is rectangular, 36.15
m x 13.20 m; but of this structure only the platform on which it was built is
preserved. The theater could hold about 3500 spectators. It has recently been
reconstructed to its diazoma.
The recent excavation of tombs in the E necropolis yielded some very
interesting results. One of the tombs dates from the Cypro-Geometric period, a
fact which adds about two centuries to the material hitherto known from the area.
But the most important discovery was that in the dromos of one of the archaic
tombs: in front of the burial chamber of the rock-cut tomb were found the remains
of a horse and of a smaller animal, probably a sheep, sacrificed in honor of the
dead. Similar customs of sacrifice and burial of animals are known at Salamis,
Tamassos, and Palaipaphos, but in Soloi they were recorded for the first time.
The finds are in the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.
K. Nicolaou, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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