Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "DENIZLI Town TURKEY" .
Laodiceia, Ad Lycum (Laodikeia pros toi Lnko: Eski Hissar). A city
in the south-west of Phrygia1 , about a mile from the rapid river Lycus,
is situated on the long spur of a hill between the narrow valleys of the small
rivers Asopus and Caprus, which discharge their waters into the Lycus. The town
was originally called Diospolis, and afterwards Rhoas (Plin. v. 29), and Laodiceia,
the building of which is ascribed to Antiochus Theos, in honour of his wife Laodice,
was probably founded on the site of the older town. It was not far west from Colossae,
and only six miles to the west of Hierapolis. (It. Ant. p. 337; Tab. Peut.; Strab.
xiii. p; 629.) At first Laodiceia was not a place of much importance, but it soon
acquired a high degree of prosperity. It suffered greatly during the Mithridatic
War (Appian, Bell. Mithr. 20; Strab. xii. p. 578), but quickly recovered under
the dominion of Rome; and towards the end of the Republic and under the first
emperors, Laodiceia became one of the most important and flourishing commercial
cities of Asia Minor, in which large money transactions and an extensive trade
in wood were carried on. (Cic. ad Fam. ii. 1. 7, iii. 5; Strab. xii. p. 577; comp.
Vitruv. viii. 3.) The place often suffered from earthquakes, especially from the
great shock in the reign of Tiberius, in which it was completely destroyed. But
the inhabitants restored it from their own means. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 27.) The wealth
of its inhabitants created among them a taste for the arts of the Greeks, as is
manifest from its ruins; and that it did not remain behind-hand in science and
literature is attested by the names of the sceptics Antiochus and Theiodas, the
successors of Aenesidemus (Diog. Laert. ix. 11. § 106, 12. § 116), and by the
existence of a great medical school. (Strab. xii. p. 580.) During the Roman period
Laodiceia was the chief city of a Roman conventus. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 7, ix. 25,
xiii. 54, 67, xv. 4, ad Att. v. 15, 16, 20, 21, vi. 1, 2, 3, 7, in Verr. i. 30.)
Many of its inhabitants were Jews, and it was probably owing to this circumstance,
that at a very early period it became one of the chief seats of Christianity,
and the see of a bishop. (St. Paul, Ep. ad Coloss. ii. 1, iv. 15, foil.; Apocal.
iii. 14, foll.; Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiv. 10, 20; Hierocl. p. 665.) The Byzantine
writers often mention it, especially in the time of the Comneni; and it was fortified
by the emperor Manuel. (Nicet. Chon. Ann. pp. 9, 81.) During the invasion of the
Turks and Mongols the city was much exposed to ravages, and fell into decay, but
the existing remains still attest its former greatness, The ruins near Denisli
are fully described in Pococke's, Chandler's, Cockerell's, Arundel's and Leake's
works. Nothing, says Hamilton (Researches, vol. i. p. 515), can exceed the desolation
and melancholy appearance of the site of Laodiceia; no picturesque features in
the nature of the ground on which it stands relieve the dull uniformity of its
undulating and barren hills; and with few exceptions, its grey and widely scattered
ruins possess no architectural merit to attract the attention of the traveller.
Yet it is impossible to view them without interest, when we consider what Laodiceia
once was, and how it is connected with the early history of Christianity. ...
Its stadium, gymnasium, and theatres (one of which is in a state of great preservation,
with its seats still perfectly horizontal, though merely laid upon the gravel),
are well deserving of notice. Other buildings, also, on the top of the hill, are
full of interest; and on the east the line of the ancient wall may be distinctly
traced, with the remains of a gateway; there is also a street within and without
the town, flanked by the ruins of a colonnade and numerous pedestals, leading
to a confused heap of fallen ruins on the brow of the hill, about 200 yards outside
the walls. North of the town, towards the Lycus, are many sarcophagi, with their
covers lying near them, partly imbedded in the ground, and all having been long
since rifled.
Amongst other interesting objects are the remains of an aqueduct,
commencing near the summit of a low hill to the south, whence it is carried on
arches of small square stones to the edge of the hill. The water must have been
much charged with calcareous matter, as several of the arches are covered with
a thick incrustation. From this hill the aqueduct crossed a valley before it reached
the town, but, instead of being carried over it on lofty arches, as was the usual
practice of the Romans, the water was conveyed down the hill in stone barrel-pipes;
some of these also are much incrusted, and some completely choked up. It traversed
the plain in pipes of the same kind; and I was enabled to trace them the whole
way, quite up to its former level in the town. ...The aqueduct appears to have
been overthrown by an earthquake, as the remaining arches lean bodily on one side,
without being much broken...
The stadium, which is in a good state of preservation, is near the
southern extremity of the city. The seats, almost perfect, are arranged along
two sides of a narrow valley, which appears to have been taken advantage of for
this purpose, and to have been closed up at both ends. Towards the west are considerable
remains of a subterranean passage, by which chariots and horses were admitted
into the arena, with a long inscription over the entrance. ...The whole area of
the ancient city is covered with ruined buildings, and I could distinguish the
sites of several temples, with the bases of the columns still in situ... The ruins
bear the stamp of Roman extravagance and luxury, rather than of the stern and
massive solidity of the Greeks. Strabo attributes the celebrity of the place to
the fertility of the soil and the wealth of some of its inhabitants: amongst whom
Hiero, having adorned the city with many beautiful buildings, bequeathed to it
more than 2000 talents at his death.
1 Ptolemy (v. 2. § 18) and Philostratus (Vit. Soph. i. 25) call it a town
of Caria, while Stephanus B. (s. v.) describes it as belonging to Lydia; which
arises from the uncertain frontiers of these countries.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TRIPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Tripolis (Tripolis: Eth. Tripolites). A town of Phrygia, on the
northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander, and on the road leading from
Sardes by Philadelphia to Laodiceia. (It. Ant. p. 336; Tab. Peut.) It was situated
12 miles to the north-west of Hierapolis, and is not mentioned by any writer before
the time of Pliny (v. 30), who treats it as a Lydian town, and says that it was
washed by the Maeander. Ptolemy (v. 2. § 18) and Stephanus B. describe it as a
Carian town, and the latter (s. v.) adds that in-his time it was called Neapolis.
Hierocles (p. 669) likewise calls it a Lydian town. Ruins of it still exist near
Yeniji or Kash Yeniji. (Arundell, Seven Churches, p. 245; Hamilton, Researches,
i. p. 525; Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 287.)
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
Properly the name of a confederacy composed of three cities,
or a district containing three cities; but it is also applied to single cities
which had some such relation to others as to make the name appropriate.
Now Kash Yeniji; a city on the Maeander, twelve miles west
of Hierapolis, on the borders of Phrygia, Caria, and Lydia, to each of which
it is assigned by different authorities.
This extract is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LAODIKIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
City in Phrygia, 6 km N of Denizli, founded by Antiochos II of Syria
in honor of his wife Laodice between 261 and 253 B.C. An alternative tradition,
recorded by Stephanos Byzantios, that the foundation was made by Antiochos I in
response to a dream, and the city named after his sister Laodice, is generally
discredited, no sister of that name being known. According to Pliny (HN 5.105)
the site was previously occupied by a place called Diospolis; this may be correct,
as Zeus was the chief deity of Laodicea.
The city has little history. Achaios was crowned there in 220 B.C.
(Polyb. 5.57). In the first Mithridatic war Laodicea opposed the king and was
besieged by his forces; the defense was conducted by Quintus Oppius (App.Mithr.
20). Chosen as the capital of the conventus of Kibyra, the city resisted the Parthians
under Labienus in 40 B.C. at the instigation of a citizen named Zeno (Strab. 660).
It was damaged by an earthquake in A.D. 60, but recovered without help from the
emperor. The title of neocorus was granted by Commodus, taken away after his death
and damnatio, then restored by Caracalla. Christianity was introduced by Epaphras,
the companion of St. Paul, though in Revelations the Laodiceans are rebuked as
lukewarm. Later the city was the seat of the metropolitan of Phrygia Pacatiana.
A disastrous earthquake in 494 ended all prosperity, though the city continued
to exist until the Turkish conquest.
The site occupies a low flat-topped hill 10 km S of Hierapolis, on
the other side of the river Lykos. The whole city was contained within the circuit
wall, of which only a few traces remain on the E side. The three gates were called
the Ephesian Gate, the Hierapolis Gate and the Syrian Gate, though only the last
of these names has ancient authority; it is also the best preserved. Two small
but perennial streams, called in antiquity the Kapros and Asopos, run close below
the hill, one on each side.
The two theaters, both above average size, are in the NE slope of
the hill. The larger one faces NE, with most of its seats preserved; the lower
parts of the stage building also survive, though only the front wall is at present
visible, with a large shallow niche in the middle. The smaller one faces NW, but
only the upper parts of the seating remain. The stadium, at the S end of the plateau,
is hardly better preserved; it is exceptionally long, about 370 m, and rounded
at both ends. A few of the rows of seats survive. Inscriptions call it the amphitheatral
stadium, and it was dedicated to Vespasian in A.D. 79 by a wealthy citizen. At
its SE end is a large ruined building, in solid masonry, which has been variously
identified as a gymnasium or, with greater probability, as a bath building; it
was dedicated to Hadrian and Sabina. Just outside this building are the remains
of a water tower still some 5 m high; the pipes are visible running up in the
mass of the masonry.
An aqueduct coming from the S connected with this tower; its course
may be traced for several km towards Denizli. Immediately S of the water tower
the channel consists of a double row of blocks pierced through the middle. Some
blocks also have a funnel-shaped hole from the upper surface to the central pipe;
these were normally plugged with round stones. The purpose was evidently to enable
a stoppage to be located. The pipes tended to become choked with a lime deposit;
when this occurred the plug would be removed to see whether the channel was dry
at that point. On the next hill to the S was a clearing basin, where the water
coming from the S ceased to flow by the force of gravity and began to cross the
intervening hollow to the city under pressure. Farther S the water was carried
partly in aqueducts built of masonry, partly in a rock-cut channel. The source
was the spring now called Baspinar, in the town of Denizli; the fall from there
to Laodicea is ca. 105 m.
Near the center of the plateau is a recently excavated nymphaeum,
the only excavation yet conducted on the site. In its original form, dating apparently
to the 3d c. A.D., it consisted of a square water basin with a colonnade on two
sides adjoined by semicircular fountains; these were fed from chambers above by
water brought from the tower near the stadium. Later the basin was converted into
a closed room approached by steps on one side and used for Christian purposes.
The fountains were walled off and troughs placed in front of them. Among the finds
was a life-size statue of Isis.
Little remains of other public buildings on the hill. About 100 m
N of the stadium is a small odeum or council chamber, in which five or six rows
of seats are visible. The city's tombs were placed in the usual fashion beside
the roads leading to the city gates; most of them are sarcophagi.
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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