Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "FOKEA Ancient city TURKEY".
City on a small peninsula inside a gulf NW of Smyrna, the farthest
N of the Ionian cities and in the Aiolian region. The Phokaians, directed from
Athens, according to ancient authors (Nicol. Damasc. FGrH II, 1.35.2, frg. 51;
Paus. 7.3.10; Strab. 14.633; Hdt. 1.146), settled on land given them by the people
of Kyme. The 9th c. monochrome gray pottery found there may indicate that, like
Kymians, these first inhabitants of Phokaia were Aiolians. According to Pausanias,
Ionians from Teos and Erythrai settled there, perhaps in one of the earliest movements
of the Ionian expansion. Indeed, the Protogeometric pottery probably indicates
that the Ionians had lived at Phokaia at least since the end of the 9th c. B.C.
From this it might be deduced that the city was accepted into the Panionion after
the Ionians settled in the area at this early date.
The Phokaians were famous navigators, employing 50-oared vessels.
They traded with Naukratis in Egypt and, in association with Miletos, they founded
Lampsakos, at the N entrance to the Dardanelles, and Amisos (Samsun) on the Black
Sea. But Phokaia's major colonies were in the W Mediterranean, especially Elea
(Velia) on the W coast of Lucania in S Italy, Alalia in Corsica, Massalia (Marseilles)
in France, and Emporion (Ampurias) in Spain.
The city wall mentioned by Herodotos (1.163) has disappeared. It was
a defense against the Persians, and financed by King Argonthonius of Tartessos
in Andalusia. In 546 B.C., however, the Persians captured Sardis and soon devastated
most of the cities in W Asia Minor, including Phokaia. Many of the inhabitants
emigrated to their Mediterranean colonies. Although some of them seem to have
returned, there was no revival of the golden age of the first half of the 6th
c. The Phokaians could send only three ships to the battle of Lade in 494; but
owing to their naval skill, the command of the entire Hellenic fleet was given
to Dionysios of Phokaia.
The city was a member of the Delian League during the 5th c. and paid
a tribute of two talents, but in 412 Phokaia rebelled and left the League. During
the Hellenistic period it was ruled first by the Seleucids and then by the Attalids,
and in 132 B.C., although it participated in Aristonikos' uprising against the
Romans, the city was saved from destruction by the help of Massalia. Pompey gave
Phokaia its independence. In the Early Christian era, the city became the center
of a diocese, and in A.D. 1275 the Genoese, who were mining alum there, fortified
the town with a castle.
Phokaia was also famous for its coinage, made of electrum, and for
its purple dye. Telephanes of Phokaia was a sculptor for Darius and Xerxes in
the 5th c. B.C., and according to Vitruvius (7 Praef. 12) Theodoros of Phokaia
wrote on the Tholos at Delphi and was probably the builder of it (beginning of
the 4th c. B.C.).
In ancient times a temple stood on the highest point of a rocky platform
at the end of the peninsula, where the secondary school now stands. Excavations
have yielded many fragments of bases, columns, capitals, and architectural terracottas
which may have been part of the Temple of Athena mentioned by Xenophon (Hell.
13.1) and Pausanias (2.31.6; 7.5.4). Constructed of fine white porous stone, the
building seems to have been erected in the second quarter of the 6th c. B.C.,
and restored about the end of the same century after its destruction by the Persians.
The architectural and other finds are in the Izmir Museum.
The rock monument N of the asphalt road, 7 km E of Foca, was not built
but was carved out of the rock, like the tombs found in Lycia, Lydia, and Phrygia.
The pattern of a door on the facade also appears on Lydian works in the vicinity;
but on the other hand, the monument follows the Lycian custom in having two stories,
with the upper one in the form of a sarcophagus. The burial chamber, however,
was on the ground floor, and the presence of a stepped element between the two
floors is indicative of Achaemenid influence. The building must have been erected
in memory of a minor king, and therefore during a time when non-democratic Persian
rulers dominated the region. There were tyrants close by at Larisa during the
5th and 4th c., and the Phokaian monument may have been that of a tyrant who ruled
a small area in the 4th c. B.C.
The tomb called Seytan Hamami (the Devil's Baths), in Foca itself,
is carved out of rock like some of the Lydian tombs. The Greek sherds found in
this grave date from the end of the 4th c.
E. Akurgal, 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.
(Phokaia). The northernmost of the Ionian cities on the west
coast of Asia Minor, celebrated as a great maritime State, and especially as the
founder of the Greek colony of Massilia in Gaul. The name Phocaean is often used
with reference to Massilia. It was said to have been founded by Phocian colonists
under Philogenes and Damon. It was originally within the limits of Aeolis, in
the territory of Cyme; but the Cymaeans voluntarily gave up the site for the new
city, which was soon admitted into the Ionian Confederacy on the condition of
adopting oecists of the race of Codrus. It was admirably situated, and possessed
two excellent harbours, Naustathmus and Lampter. After the Persian conquest of
Ionia, Phocaea had so declined that she could only furnish three ships to support
the great Ionian revolt; but the spirit of her people had not been extinguished;
when the common cause was hopeless, and their city was besieged by Harpalus, they
embarked, to seek new abodes in the distant West, and bent their course to their
colony of Aetalia in Corsica. During the voyage, however, a portion of the emigrants
resolved to return to their native city, which they restored, and which recovered
much of its prosperity, as is proved by the rich booty gained by the Romans, when
they plundered it under the praetor Aemilius, after which it does not appear as
a place of any consequence in history.
Care must be taken not to confound Phocaea with Phocis, or
the ethnic adjectives of the former, Phokaeus and Phocaeensis, with those of the
latter, Phokeus and Phocensis; some of the ancient writers themselves have fallen
into these mistakes.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ionian city of the coast of Lydia
in Asia Minor.
Phocaea was part of the Ionian Confederacy, the Paniones, grouping
cities founded in Asia Minor
by Ionians fleeing what was to become Achaia,
in northern Peloponnese, where
they had earlier settled along the southern coast of the gulf
of Corinth west of Sicyon,
when the area was conquered by Achaeans that gave it their name.
Phocaea was very active in establishing colonies in various parts
of the Mediterranean during the VIIth and VIth centuries B. C., as far as France
(Massalia, now Marseille),
Corsica (Alalie) and Spain
(Tartessus, past the straight of Gibraltar,
in the Cadiz area, where
the Phoenicians had already established a trading post as early as the XIIth century,
B. C., a city called Tarshish, mentioned in the Bible).
Herodotus credits them for being the first Greeks to make long travels at
sea and for discovering the Adriatic
Sea, northern Italy (Tyrrhenia)
and Spain, and tells how
they fled to Cyrnus (Corsica)
when Harpagus, a general of Cyrus the Great, took their city in 545B. C., as part
of his conquest of Ionia
(they may also have founded Massalia
on that same occasion). They later moved to Reggio
in southern Italy after a
naval battle against the Carthaginians and Etruscans (called Tyrrhenians by Herodotus).
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Phocaea (Phokaia: Eth. Phokaieus or Phokaeus), the most northern of the Ionian cities in Asia Minor, was situated on a peninsula, between the Sinus Cymaeus and the Sinus Hermaeus, and at a distance of 200 stadia from Smyrna. (Strab. xiv. p. 632; Plin. v. 31 ; Pomp. Mela, i. 17.) It was said to have been founded by emigrants from Phocis, under the guidance of two Athenian chiefs, Philogenes and Damon. (Strab. l. c. p. 633; Paus. vii. 3. § 5.) The first settlers did not conquer the territory, but received it as a gift from the Cumaeans. The town, however, did not become a member of the Ionian confederacy until it placed princes of the line of Codrus at the head of the government. It had two excellent harbours, Naustathmus and Lampter, and before the entrance into them was situated the little island of Baccheion, which was adorned with temples and splendid buildings (Liv. xxxviii. 22); and owing to this favourable position, and the enterprising spirit of its inhabitants, the town soon rose to great eminence among the maritime cities of the ancient world. Herodotus (i. 163, &c.) states that the Phocaeans were the first Greeks who undertook distant voyages, and made themselves acquainted with the coasts of the Adriatic, and the Tyrrhenian and Iberian seas; and that they were the first to visit Tartessus. Arganthonius, king of the Tartessians, became so attached to them as to try to prevail upon them to quit Ionia and settle in his own dominions; but on their declining this, he gave them a large sum of money to fortify their own city against the Persians. The Phocaeans accordingly surrounded their city by a wall of several stadia in circumference, and of a very solid construction. In the war of Cyrus, Phocaea was one of the first towns that was besieged by the army of Cyrus, under the command of Harpagus. When called upon to surrender, the Phocaeans, conscious of being unable to resist the enemy much longer, asked and obtained a truce of one day, pretending that they would consider his proposal. But in the interval they embarked with their wives and children and their most valuable effects, and sailed to Chios. There they endeavoured by purchase to obtain possession of the group of islands called Oenussae, and belonging to the Chians; but their request being refused, they resolved to sail to Corsica, where twenty years before these occurrences they had planted the colony of Alalia. Before setting out they landed at Phocaea and put the Persian garrison to the sword. They then bound themselves by a solemn oath to abandon their native country; nevertheless, however, one half of their number, unable to overcome their feelings, remained behind. The rest proceeded to Corsica, where they were kindly received by their colonists. Soon they became formidable to the neighbouring nations by their piracy and depredations, so that the Tyrrhenians and Carthaginians united to destroy their power. The Phocaeans succeeded indeed in defeating their enemies, but their loss was so great that they despaired of being able to continue the contest, and proceeded to Rhegium, in the south of Italy. Not long after their arrival there, they were induced to settle at Elaea or Velia, in Lucania, which, in the course of time, became a flourishing town. Among the numerous colonies of the Phocaeans the most important was Massilia or Marseilles, in the south of France, and the most western Maenaca in Hispania Baetica. After the emigration of half the population, Phocaea continued to exist under the Persian dominion; but was greatly reduced in its commerce and prosperity, as we may infer from the fact that it furnished only three ships to the fleet of the revolted Ionians at the battle of Lade; but their commander was nevertheless the ablest man among the Ionians. (Herod. vi. 11-17.) After these events Phocaea is little mentioned (Thucyd. i. 13, viii. 31; Hom. Hymn. i. 35; Scylax, p. 37); but some centuries later, in the war of the Romans against Antiochus, when Phocaea was besieged by a Roman fleet, Livy (xxxvii. 31) describes the place as follows: - Tile town is situated in the inmost recess of a bay; its shape is oblong, and its walls enclose a space of 2500 paces; they afterwards unite so as to form a narrower wedge: this they themselves call Lampter, and it is about 1200 paces in breadth. A tongue of land running out into the sea a distance of 1000 paces, divides the bay nearly into two equal parts, and forms on each side of the narrow isthmus a very safe port. The one towards the south was called Naustathmus, from its being able to contain a great number of ships, the other was situated close to the Lampter. On that occasion the town was taken by the Romans, after a desperate resistance, and given up to plunder by the praetor Aemilius, though the inhabitants had voluntarily opened their gates. The town with its territory, however, was restored to the inhabitants by Aemilius. (Liv. l. c. 32; Polyb. xxii. 27, comp. v. 77, xxi. 4; Liv. xxxviii. 39.) At a still later period the Phocaeans offended the Romans by supporting the cause of Aristonicus, the claimant of the throne of Pergamum; and they would have been severely punished had not the inhabitants of Massilia interceded in their behalf. (Justin, xxxvii. 1, xliii. 3; Strab. p. 646.) The existence of Phocaea can be traced throughout the imperial period from coins, which extend down to the time of the Philips, and even through the period of the Lower Empire. (Hierocl. p. 661.) From Michael Ducas (Ann. p. 89) we learn that a new town was built not far from the ancient city by some Genoese, in A.D. 1421. This latter, situated on the isthmus mentioned by Livy, not far from the ruins of the ancient city, is the place now called Foggia Nova: the ruins bear the name of Palaeo Foggia. (Chandler, Travels, p. 96; Arundell, Seven Churches, p. 294; Hamilton, Researches, ii. p. 4; Eckhel, Doctr. Num. ii. p. 53, &c.; Rasche, Lex. Rei Num. iii. 2, p. 1225, &c.; Sestini, p. 83; Thisquen, Phocaica, Bonn, 1842, 8vo.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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