Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "ALAVANDA Ancient city TURKEY" .
Alabanda (he Alabanda, ta Alabanda: Eth. Alabandeus, Alabandeus,
Alabandensis, Alabandenus: Adj. Alabandicus), a city of Caria, was situated
160 stadia S. of Tralles, and was separated from the plain of Mylasa by a mountain
tract. Strabo describes it as lying at the foot of two hills (as some read the
passage), which are so close together as to present the appearance of an ass
with its panniers on. The modern site is doubtful; but Arab Hiss&,acute; on
a large branch of the Maeander, now called the Tshina, which joins that river
on the S. bank, is supposed by Leake to represent Alabanda; and the nature of
the ground corresponds well enough with Strabo's description. The Tshina may
probably be the Marsyas of Herodotus (v. 118). There are the remains of a theatre
and many other buildings on this site; but very few inscriptions. Alabanda was
noted for the luxurious habits of the citizens. Under the Roman empire it was
the seat of a Conventus Juridicus or court house, and one of the most flourishing
towns of the province of Asia. A stone called lapis Alabandicus, found in the
neighbourhood, was fusible (Plin. xxxvi. 8. s. 13), and used for making glass,
and for glazing vessels.
Stephanus mentions two cities of the name of Alabanda in Caria,
but it does not appear that any other writer mentions two. Herodotus, however
(vii. 195), speaks of Alabanda in Caria (ton en tei Kariei), which is the Alabanda
of Strabo. The words of description added by Herodotus seem to imply that there
was another city of the name; and in fact he speaks, in another passage (viii.
136), of Alabanda, a large city of Phrygia. This Alabanda of Phrygia cannot
be the town on the Tshina, for Phrygia never extended so far as there.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Late in the 3d c. Alabanda was colonized by the Seleucids and took the name of 'Antiocheia of the Chrysaorians' in honor of Antiochos III.
It is one of Karia cities, which is founded at Araphisar village that is 7 km. far from Cine District of Aydin.
About 11 km W of the present town of Cine. It was one of the three
inland cities of Caria which Strabo considered noteworthy. According to Stephanos
of Byzantium it was named by King Kar after his son Alabandos in consequence of
a cavalry victory, for in Carian ala = horse and banda = victory. A god Alabandos
is mentioned by Cicero (ND 3.50). Herodotos describes Alabanda in one case as
in Caria, in the other as in Phrygia, but there is no doubt that the same city
is meant. Stephanos' second city of Alabanda in Caria can never have existed.
Late in the 3d c. Alabanda was colonized by the Seleucids and took
the name of "Antiocheia of the Chrysaorians" in honor of Antiochos III.
Under this name it was recognized by the Amphictyonic Council as inviolable and
sacred to Zeus Chrysaoreus and Apollo Isotimos. Despite this privilege the city
and its territory was sacked soon afterwards by Philip V of Macedon in the course
of his Caria:i expedition (201-197). Rhodian domination after Magnesia in 190
was hardly more than nominal, and about 170 the Alabandians obtained an alliance
with Rome. They had already at that time built a Temple of Urbs Roma. After 129
B.C. Alabanda suffered like the rest in the province of Asia from the provincial
maladministration, and by 51 B.C. was in debt to the Roman banker Cluvius. In
40 B.C. the city with its sanctuaries was harshly treated by Labienus for its
resistance to him. Under the Empire Alabanda had the status of a conventus.
The site at Araphisar is said by Strabo (660) to lie under two adjoining
hills in such a way as to resemble a pack-ass loaded with its panniers. The city
wall runs over these hills and included also a large area of the plain. On the
hills the wall is well preserved in places, but on the level ground it has virtually
disappeared. The masonry is a slightly bossed ashlar with rubble filling. There
are numerous towers, and half a dozen gates may be recognized by gaps in the wall.
Excavations in 1905 brought to light the foundations of two temples.
The first of these is the Temple of Apollo Isotimos. It was Ionic, with a peristyle
(8 x 13 columns), orientated NE-SW; the frieze showed a battle of Greeks and Amazons.
At present hardly anything remains visible. The epithet Isotimos, peculiar to
Apollo at Alabanda, is thought to mean "equal in honor (to Zeus Chrysaoreus)."
In Imperial times the temple was rededicated to Apollo Isotimos and the Divine
Emperors.
The second temple stood on the slope of the hill a little above the
plain. It was Doric, with a peristyle (6 x 11 columns), and comprised a pronaos
and a cella; the entrance was on the W. It is commonly called Temple of Artemis
from a figurine of Artemis-Hekate found on the spot, but this evidence is obviously
slender. The date is probably about 200 B.C. This building too has suffered much
since the excavation.
Of the theater only the ends of the retaining wall of the cavea are
standing, in elegant bossed ashlar, with an arched entrance on either side; the
seats and stage building are gone. The cavea is large and comprises rather more
than a semicircle. This building has not been excavated.
Outside the city wall on the N stands a single arch of an aqueduct,
of the usual Roman type, but the upper part, including the water channel, is not
preserved. The most conspicuous building on the plain is a rectangular structure
in brown stone standing over 9 m in height; it is probably a council house. The
S front contained four doors and a row of windows; in the interior a staircase
on either side led up to the curved rows of seats. In the exterior of all four
sides, especially on the S front, a horizontal row of square holes has been cut
at some later date; their purpose is not clear. Close by are the ruins of another
large building which has not been excavated; it is thought to have been a bath
building. Between this and the council house is a broad open space, probably the
agora. The excavators unearthed a colonnaded stoa surrounding it, with an entrance
at the NW corner, but of this nothing is now visible. The street leading to the
city on the E was lined by an extensive necropolis. The tombs are of sarcophagus
type, with inscriptions frequently recording the trade or profession of the deceased.
G. E. Bean, 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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