Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "MAGNESIA Ancient city TURKEY".
About 32 km NE of Izinir. Founded, together with Magnesia ad Maeandrum,
by the Thessalian Magnetes, it was situated in the fertile valley of the Hermos
river at the nexus of important road systems. Here in 190 B.C. the Romans decisively
defeated Antiochos III of Syria, and the Magnesians sided with Rome in the struggle
with Mithridates. When Sulla reordered the province of Asia, Magnesia was made
a civitas libera. In A.D. 17 the area was struck by a terrible earthquake; the
Roman authorities seem quickly to have reconstructed the town. In later Byzantine
times it was an important political and military center.
There are some statues and small finds, and fragments of ancient buildings
are preserved in Turkish structures, but the Classical town proper is unknown.
However, in the vicinity are monuments of considerable significance, some of them
apparently marking the westernmost limits of Hittite influence or control (dates
and identifications have not been established conclusively in all cases). Pausanias
came from the area, and his references to it and its traditions are numerous.
Just outside the SW limit of Manisa is the Rock of Niobe (Paus. 1.21.3;
cf. Hom. Il. 24.615, and Soph. Ant. 806-16), a large natural rock formation rather
in the shape of a woman weeping. What had formerly been taken to be Niobe's Rock
is seen at Akpinar 6 km E of Manisa: a rock-cut figure of a seated woman shown
frontally in a niche. This figure (Tas Suret) is probably Pausanias' Mother Goddess
(3.22.4), that is, Kybele. It is in high relief and well over life size; though
badly worn, it is surely Hittite in origin (13th c. B.C.). Beside it is a panel
thought to contain a hieroglyphic inscription.
In the vicinity of the Tas Suret are monuments that may well be the
ones that Pausanias associated with Pelops and Tantalos (2.22.3 and 5.13.7). The
Tomb of Tantalos, long thought to be just N of Old Smyrna, can be sought at the
tomb known as that of S. Charalambos, 1 or 2 km E of the Tas Suret. Pausanias'
Throne of Pelops may be the same as a large rock-cutting in the shape of an altar
or a seat that exists high up on the slopes of Mt. Sipylos between the Tas Suret
and the S. Charalambos tomb. Pausanias' Sanctuary of the Plastene Mother (5.13.7)
has been identified a little way from the Tas Suret in the plain of the Hermos.
In the general vicinity of these monuments are Lydian constructions (houses and
cisterns?) of the 7th and 6th c. B.C., some of sun-dried brick.
About 20 km S of Manisa, in the Karabel gorge, is a rock-cut relief
of a standing ruler or war-god. Here also are the badly worn remains of what was
once a hieroglyphic inscription. This is probably one of the reliefs that Herodotos
identified, at second hand, as one of the XII dynasty pharaohs named Sesostris
(2.106). In fact the carving is Hittite, and is known locally as Eti Baba.
Some sculptures and other finds can be seen in the local Manisa museum,
and there are a few pieces in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
W. L. Macdonald, 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.
Magnesia Ad Sipylum, a city in the northwest of Lydia, at the foot of Mount Sipylus, and on the south bank of the Hermus, famous as the scene of the victory gained by Scipio Asiaticus over Antiochus the Great, B.C. 190.
(Eth. Magnes.) A town of Lydia, usually with the addition pros or hupo Sipuloi (ad Sipylum), to distinguish it from Magnesia on the Maeander in Ionia situated on the north-western slope of Mount Sipylus on the southern bank of the river Hermus. We are not informed when or by whom the town was founded, but it may have been a settlement of the Magnesians in the east of Thessaly. Magnesia is most celebrated in history for the victory gained under its walls by the two Scipios in B.C. 190, over Antiochus the Great, whereby the king was for ever driven from Western Asia. (Strab. xiii. p. 622 Plin ii. 93; Ptol. v. 2. § 16, viii. 17. § 16; Scylax, p. 37 Liv. xxxvii. 37, foll.; Tac. Ann. ii. 47.) The town, after the victory of the Scipios, surrendered to the Romans. (Appian, Syr. 35.) During the war against Mithridates the Magnesians defended themselves bravely against the king. (Paus. i. 20. § 3.) In the reign of Tiberius, the town was nearly destroyed by an earthquake, in which several other Asiatic cities perished; and the emperor on that occasion granted liberal sums from the treasury to repair the loss sustained by the inhabitants (Strab. xii. p. 579; xiii. p. 622; Tac. l. c.) From coins and other sources, we learn that Magnesia continued to flourish down to the fifth century (Hierocl. p. 660); and it is often mentioned by the Byzantine writers. During the Turkish rule, it once was the residence of the Sultan; but at present it is much reduced, though it preserves its ancient name in the corrupt form of Manissa. The ruins of ancient buildings are not very considerable. (Chandler, Travels in Asia, ii. p. 332; Keppel, Travels, ii. p. 295.) The accompanying coin is remarkable by having on its obverse the head of Cicero, though the reason why it appears here, is unknown. The legend, which is incorrectly figured, should be, MAPKOS TULLIOS KIKEPON.
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
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