Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "KUTAHYA Province TURKEY" .
AZANITIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Azani (Azanoi: Eth. Azanites), as the name appears in Strabo, and
Stephanus (s. v. Azanoi). The name on coins and inscriptions is Aizanoi, and also
in Herodian, the grammarian, as quoted by Stephanus. Azani is a city of Phrygia
Epictetus. The district, which was called Azanitis, contained the sources of the
river Rhyndacus.
This place, which is historically unknown, contains very extensive
ruins, which were first visited in 1824 by the Earl of Ashburnham (Arundell‘s
Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 347); it had been incorrectly stated (Cramer's Asia Minor,
vol. ii. p. 14) that the ruins were discovered by Dr. Hall. They have since been
visited by several other travellers. The remains are at a place called Tchavdour-Hissar,
on the left bank of the Rhyndacus. There are two Roman bridges with elliptical
arches over the Rhyndacus; or three according to Fellows. (Plan, p. 141.) On the
left bank of the Rhyndacus, on a slight eminence, is a beautiful Ionic temple,
one of the most perfect now existing in Asia Minor. (Hamilton, Researches, &c.,
vol. i. p. 101.) Eighteen columns and one side and end of the cella are standing.
There are also the colossal foundations of another temple; and some remains of
a third. The theatre is situated near half a mile from the temple; and there is
a stadium which extends north and south in a direct line of prolongation from
the theatre, with which it is immediately connected, although at a lower level.
Some of the marble seats, both in the stadium and in the theatre, are well preserved,
and of highly finished workmanship. There is a view of the temple of Azani in
Fellows' Asia Minor. There are many fronts of tombs sculptured as doors with panels
and devices, having inscriptions. (Fellows, who has given a drawing of one of
these doors.) Among the coins which Hamilton procured at this place, and in the
surrounding country, there were coins of Augustus, Claudius, Faustina, and other
imperial personages. Some also were autonomous, the legends being Demos, Hiera
Boule, or Hierasunkletos Aizaneiton, or Aizaniton. Several inscriptions from Azani
have been copied by Fellows, and by Hamilton. None of the inscriptions are of
early date, and probably all of them belong to the Roman period. One of these
records the great, both benefactor and saviour and founder of the city, Cl. Stratonicus,
who is entitled consul (hupaton); and the monnment was erected by his native city.
This Stratonicus, we may infer from the name Claudius, was a native, who had obtained
the Roman citizenship. The memorial was erected in the second praetorship (to
B strategountos) of Cl. Apollinarius. Another inscription contains the usual formula,
he Boule kai ho Demos. In the interior of the cella of, the temple there are four
long inscriptions, one in well formed Greek characters, another in inferior Greek
characters, and two in badly cut Roman characters. There are also inscriptions
on the outside of the cella. It appears from one inscription that the temple,
which is now standing, was dedicated to Zeus.
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
AZANITIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
The district of Aezani, today called Orencik Ovasi, is located on
the upper course of the Rhyndakos (Cavdarhisar Suyu), 54 km SW of Kutahya, in
Azanitis (Strab. 12.576). It was captured by Eumenes II from Prusias I of Bithynia
in 184 B.C. and attached to the kingdom of Pergamon; from 133 B.C. it belonged
to Rome.
The oldest pottery finds of Late Hellenistic and Early Roman times
come from the Holy of Holies of the Meter Steunene (Kybele) 3.5 km W of the town,
on the Penkalas (Paus. 8.4.3; 10.32.3), the upper course of the Rhyndakos. Coins
from the 1st c. B.C. bear the inscription EZEANITON. The important ruins of the
Roman city, visible today, belong for the most part to the 2d c. A.D. It was a
bishop's seat in the Christian period, with a church built into a Temple of Zeus.
Later it was expanded as a fort by the Tartar race of the Cavdar, and from that
derives its present name.
The Roman city had no fortifications. It extended on both sides of
the river, whose deep channel was contained between high embankments of large
ashlar blocks. From bank to bank there originally stretched four bridges of ashlar,
of which two are still in use. The five barrel vaults of one of these increase
in width and height toward the center.
On the left bank of the river lie the agora, with a small market temple,
a second, Doric agora, the precinct of the Temple of Zeus, baths with a gymnasium,
a stadium, and a theater. On the right bank are the tholos of a macellum and the
ruins of two temples. Sprawling necropoleis with sarcophagi and portal-shaped
tombstones lie on the slopes surrounding the town.
With its 16 columns still standing, the Temple of Zeus is the best-preserved
Ionic temple in Asia Minor. It towers high above the surrounding area, being set
on a high, vaulted platform, with double-aisled porticos around the edge. These
porticos enclosed a courtyard of 112 x 130 m. In the center, the temple stood
on a podium 2.86 m high, approached by stairways of 11 and 7 steps. One climbed
directly up to the temple precinct from the agora through an imposing propylon
with 27 steps, by which a characteristic impressiveness, usual in imperial architecture,
was achieved. Between the propylon and the temple and on an axis with them lay
an altar for burnt sacrifices.
The temple itself was pseudodipteral, with 8 Ionic columns on the
ends and 15 on the flanks. The columns were farther apart at the center than at
the ends, in the ratio of 4:4:5:6. The cella had 4 columns in front of the pronaos,
in the manner of a prostyle, and 2, with composite capitals, in antis in the opisthodomos.
Between the cella and the opisthodomos a staircase was inserted. The general plan
is similar to the Hellenistic type created by Hermogenes in Magnesia, which was
also used for the Temple of Augustus in Ancyra. The cella walls have the unusual
attribute of an inscription zone, framed with meander band and molding over an
orthostat socle. The inscriptions concern a lawsuit over the possession of the
temple, from which the date of the building may be set in the time of Hadrian,
between A.D. 125 and 145, and honorary decrees from the year A.D. 157 for M. Ulpius
Apuleius Eurykles, a famous citizen of Aezani. An interesting enrichment of the
architecture is provided by small vases in relief in the upper zones of the column
flutes, below the Ionic capitals.
The excavated remains of the large central akroterion of the gable
show a bust of Zeus on the E and on the W a female bust, perhaps to be identified
as Kybele. It may be conjectured that an impressive vault located under the temple,
of the same dimensions as its inner structure and accessible from the opisthodomos
in the W via the stairs mentioned above, was dedicated to the goddess. This is
also suggested by the dedicatory inscription of a priest "of Zeus and Kybele."
From here, the Spring processions may have led to the Holy of Holies of the Meter
Steunene.
On the right bank of the river, near the upper of the surviving Roman
bridges, there were revealed in 1971 the remains of a round structure 14 m in
diameter. The socle of this building, consisting of a base, lower molding, orthostates,
and cornice, formed a platform reached by two 10-stepped stairways, on which apparently
rested a tholos with 16 columns and conical roof. This evidently formed the central
building of a macellum, and probably housed a fountain. Subsequently there was
added to the orthostates a copy of the Price Edict promulgated by Diocletian in
302. Of the original 12 whole and 4 half-orthostates there survive 8 whole and
one half, densely inscribed with Edict lists. They have been set up in their original
places.
R. Naumann, 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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