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PESSINOUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Pessinus, Pesinus (Pessinous, Pesinous: Eth. Pessinountios), the principal
town of the Tolistoboii, in the west of Galatia, situated on the southern slope
of Mount Dindymus or Agdistis, near the left bank of the river Sangarius, from.
whose sources it was about 15 miles distant. (Paus. i. 4. § 5; Strab. xii. p.
567.) It was 16 miles south of Germa, on the road from Ancyra to Amorium. (It.
Ant. pp. 201, 202.) It was the greatest commercial town in those parts, and was
believed to have derived its name from the image of its great patron divinity,
which was said to have fallen (pesein) from heaven. (Herodian, i. 11; Amm. Marc.
xxii. 9.) Pessinus owes its greatest celebrity to the goddess Rhea or Cybele,
whom the natives called Agdistis, and to whom an immensely rich temple was dedicated.
Her priests were anciently the rulers of the place ; but in later times their
honours and powers were greatly reduced. (Strab. l. c., x. p. 469; Diod. Sic.
iii. 58, &c.) Her temple contained her image, which, according to some, was of
stone (Liv. xxix. 10, 11), or, according to others, of wood, and was believed
to have fallen from heaven. (Apollod. iii. 11; Amm. Marc. l. c.) The fame of the
goddess appears to have extended all over the ancient world; and in B.C. 204,
in accordance with a command of the Sibylline books, the Romans sent a special
embassy to Pessinus to fetch her statue, it being believed that the safety of
Rome depended on its removal to Italy. (Liv. l. c.; Strab. xii. p. 567.) The statue
was set up in the temple of Victory, on the Palatine. The goddess, however, continued
nevertheless to be worshipped at Pessinus; and the Galli, her priests, sent a
deputation to Manlius when he was encamped on the banks of the Sangarius. (Liv.
xxxviii. 18; Polyb. xx. 4.) At a still later period, the emperor Julian worshipped
the goddess in her ancient temple. (Amm. Marc. l. c.) The kings of Pergamum adorned
the sanctuary with a magnificent temple, and porticoes of white marble, and surrounded
it with a beautiful grove. Under the Roman dominion the town of Pessinus began
to decay, although in the new division of the empire under Constantine it was
made the capital of the province Galatia Salutaris. (Hierocl. p. 697.) After the
sixth century the town is no longer mentioned in history. Considerable ruins of
Pessinus, especially a well-preserved theatre, exist at a distance of 9 or 10
miles to the south-east of Sevri Hissar, where they were first discovered by Texier.
(Descript. de l'Asie Mineure). They extend over three hills, separated by valleys
or ravines. The marble seats of the theatre are nearly entire, but the scena is
entirely destroyed; the whole district is covered with blocks of marble, shafts
of columns, and other fragments, showing that the place must have been one of
unusual magnificence. (Hamilton, Researches, i. p. 438, foll.; Leake, Asia Minor,
p. 82, foll., who seems to be mistaken in looking for Pessinus on the right bank
of the Sangarius.)
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
(Pessinous) or Pesinus (Pesinous). A city in the southwest corner of Galatia, on the southern slope of Mount Dindymus or Agdistis, was celebrated as a chief seat of the worship of Cybele, under the surname of Agdistis, whose temple, crowded with riches, stood on a hill outside the city. In this temple was an image of the goddess, which was removed to Rome to satisfy an oracle in the Sibylline Books.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Total results on 3/5/2001: 54 for Pessinus, 4 for Pessinous.
About 16 km off the Ankara-Eskisehir road near Sivrihisar, the center
of one of the chief Celtic settlements of the 270s B.C. It was famous for its
great shrine of the Mother Goddess (Kybele; locally often Agdistis) and was therefore
a center of the cult of Attis as well (Paus. 1.4.5 and 7.17. 10-11). Strabo (12.5.3)
describes Pessinous as being a major market center, her eunuch priests much enriched.
The Attalids, who dominated the town, rebuilt Kybele's sanctuary, adding to or
near it porticos constructed of white marble. At the end of the 3d c. B.C. the
goddess' cult-stone, said to have fallen from heaven (Amm. Marc. 22.9.7) was transported
to Rome and set up in the Temple of Victory on the Palatine, as a result of a
Sibylline reading. By 25 B.C., when Augustus formed the province of Galatia, Pessinous
was under Roman rule. In A.D. 362 the emperor Julian worshiped there (Amm. Marc.
22.9.8). The site has been excavated since 1967.
A temple has been uncovered, seemingly of Hellenistic date, that may
derive from models farther W, such as the Temple of Athena at Priene. At Pessinous
however the shorter ends of the peristyle are formed by walls, and on the long
sides seven rectangular marble pillars appear, the walls of the short ends being
turned along the long flanks to the extent of about two columns' distance. From
the point of view of Classical design, this suggests a model based on a 6 x 11
column system. The structural techniques as reported seem to be Hellenistic.
The excavation of a necropolis has brought to light several Roman
tombs of considerable importance; some of them have door facades in the manner
of Phrygian and other Anatolian tombs. The local depot displays some of the finds.
Recently a canal, with step-sides, has been uncovered within the town, as well
as what is apparently a regulatory dam system of Roman date.
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.
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