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PATARA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Patara (Patara : Eth. Patareus, Patarensis or Pataranus). A flourishing
maritime and commercial city on the south-west coast of Lycia. The place was large,
possessed a good harbour, and was said to have been founded by Patarus, a son
of Apollo. (Strab. xiv. p. 666; Steph. B. s. v.) It was situated at a distance
of 60 stadia to the south-east of the mouth of the river Xanthus. (Stadiasm. Mar.
Mag. § 219.) Patara was most celebrated in antiquity for its temple and oracle
of Apollo, whose renown was inferior only to that of Delphi; and the god is often
mentioned with the surname Patareus (Patareus, Strab. l. c.; Lycoph. 920; Horat.
Carm. iii. 4. 64; Stat. Theb. i. 696; Ov. Met. i. 515; Virg. Aen. iv. 143; Pomp.
Mela, i. 15.) Herodotus (i. 182) says that the oracle of Apollo was delivered
by a priestess only during a certain period of the year; and from Servius (ad
Aen. l. c.) we learn that this period was the six winter months. . It has been
supposed that the town was of Phoenician or Semitic origin; but whatever may be
thought on this point, it seems certain that at a later period it received Dorian
settlers from Crete; and the worship of Apollo was certainly Dorian. Strabo informs
us that Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, who enlarged the city, gave it the name
of Arsinoe, but that it nevertheless continued to be called by its ancient name,
Patara. The place is often noticed by ancient writers as one of the principal
cities of Lycia, as by Livy, xxxiii. 41, xxxvii. 15-17, xxxviii. 39; Polyb. xxii.
26; Cic. p. Flacc. 32; Appian, B.C. iv. 52, 81, Mithr. 27; Plin. ii.112, v. 28;
Ptol. v. 3. § 3, viii. 17. § 22; Dionys. Per. 129, 507. Patara is mentioned among
the Lycian bishoprics in the Acts of Councils (Hierocl. p. 684), and the name
Patera is still attached to its numerous ruins. These, according to the survey
of Capt. Beaufort, are situated on the sea-shore, a little to the eastward of
the river Xanthus, and consist of a theatre excavated in the northern side of
a small hill, a ruined temple on the side of the same hill, and a deep circular
pit, of singular appearance, which may have been the seat of the oracle. The town
walls surrounded an area of considerable extent; they may easily be traced, as
well as the situation of a castle which commanded the harbour, and of several
towers which flanked the walls. On the outside of the walls there is a multitude
of stone sarcophagi, most of them bearing inscriptions, but all open and empty;
and within the walls, temples, altars, pedestals, and fragments of sculpture appear
in profusion, but ruined and mutilated. The situation of the harbour is still
apparent, but at present it is a swamp, choked up with sand and bushes. (Beaufort,
Karmania, pp. 2, 6.) The theatre, of which a plan is given in Leake's Asia Minor
(p. 320), was built in the reign of Antoninus Pius; its diameter is 265 feet,
and has about 30 rows of seats. There are also ruins of thermae, which, according
to an inscription upon them, were built by Vespasian. (Comp. Sir C. Fellows, Tour
in Asia Min. p. 222, foll.; Discov. in Lycia, p. 179, foil.; Texier, Descript.
de l'Asie Min., which contains numerous representations of the ancient remains
of Patara; Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, i. p. 31; foll.)
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
(ta Patara). One of the chief cities of Lycia, situated on the coast a few miles east of the mouth of the Xanthus. It was early colonized by Dorians from Crete, and became a chief seat of the worship of Apollo, who had here a very celebrated oracle, which uttered responses in the winter only. Hence Apollo is called by Horace Delius et Patareus Apollo.
On the coast 11 km S of Xanthos, 5 km E of the mouth of the Xanthos
river. Patara was at all times among the most important cities of Lycia, and its
principal port. The harbor, though reckoned too small to accommodate the Roman
fleet of Aemilius in 190 B.C., was nearly 1.6 km in length by rather less than
0.4 km in width. It is now silted up and separated from the sea by a broad sand
dune.
Patara was probably a Lycian foundation; its Lycian name, known from
the inscriptions and coins, was Pttara. The city is mentioned in the 5th c. by
Herodotos and Hekataios, and in the 4th by pseudo-Skylax; it surrendered peaceably
to Alexander and was one of four cities whose revenues were offered by him to
the Athenian Phokion, though the gift was not accepted. It was an important naval
base during the wars of the Successors, and was occupied in this capacity by Antigonos
in 315 B.C. and by Demetrios during his siege of Rhodes in 304. Later it came,
with the rest of Lycia, into the hands of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who changed
the name for a while to Arsinoe. In 190 B.C. it was held by Antiochos III despite
Rhodian efforts to capture it.
In the Lycian League Patara was one of the six cities of the first
class possessing three votes in the League assembly; in 190 B.C. Livy calls it
caput gentis. Under the Empire it continued to flourish, and held the rank of
metropolis; it was the seat of the imperial legate and the repository of the archives
of the Lycian League. Patara was the birthplace of Bishop Nicholas of Myra in
the 4th c., and later its own bishop ranked 31st under the metropolitan of Myra.
Coinage began in the 5th c. After 168 B.C. the coins, though often
varying from the familiar League types, constantly feature Apollo; this is not,
however, the case with the earlier issues, where Hermes and Athena are predominant.
Imperial coinage, as usual in Lycia, is confined to Gordian III; Apollo is still
the constant type.
Apollo had a temple and oracle at Patara. The oracle is mentioned
first by Herodotos (1.182). Despite the evident fame of the oracle, very little
is heard of its activity. Of the temple building we have no description, nor has
any trace of it ever been seen on the site itself.
The site of Patara is now quite deserted, and has never been excavated;
the harbor has become a marsh which only partially dries up in summer. The ground
is flat except for a hill some 19 m high at the E entrance to the harbor. Of the
ancient city wall very little remains. A number of the buildings are still in
good preservation. On the E side of the harbor, and apparently in the line of
the city wall, is a triple arch standing virtually complete; six consoles on each
face carried busts of the family of Mettius Modestus, governor of Lycia-Pamphylia
about A.D. 100, and the building is accordingly dated to that time. To the S of
this are the ruins of a bath building and a basilica. Also to the S are the baths
of Vespasian, identified by an inscription over the door; this building (ca. 105
x 48 m) is divided into five intercommunicating rooms; the inscription refers
to swimming pools.
In the NE slope of the hill is the theater, unusually well preserved
but now largely filled with drifting sand; an inscription records the dedication
in A.D. 147 of the proscenium and the stage constructed by one Vilia Procula and
her father. The theater is, however, much older than this, as is shown by another
inscription recording repairs made to it in the time of Tiberius. The building
is over 90 m in diameter, and the cavea is remarkable for its steep gradient.
The ground floor of the stage building is in the Doric order, and above it is
a row of windows.
Near the top of the hill is a deep circular pit 9 m wide with a square
pillar of masonry in the middle; a stairway, partly rock-cut, leads down to the
bottom. This was at one time supposed to be the oracle of Apollo. Others have
regarded it as a lighthouse, but its situation, below the summit of the hill on
the side away from the sea, is hardly suitable. It seems in fact to be a cistern,
the central pillar being intended to facilitate roofing. Cisterns would be a necessity
at Patara in early times, for the site was almost totally without water until
aqueducts were constructed (see below). And the site near the top of the hill
is obviously appropriate for distributing the water to the city below. There are
some other traces of buildings on the hill, but not enough to constitute a true
acropolis.
At the opposite (W) side of the harbor mouth is a rectangular foundation
which supported a round building approached by steps; of its inscription only
a few letters have been found. This is supposed, with much greater probability,
to have been a lighthouse. Its date has not been determined.
Farther to the N, also at the edge of the harbor, is the granary of
Hadrian, so identified by its inscription. In size and form it is remarkably similar
to the granary of Hadrian at Andriake (Myra). Some 67 x 19 m, it is divided into
eight intercommunicating rooms of equal size. Each room has also its own door
in the facade, and above these are windows and consoles. Except for the loss of
its vaulted roof, this building stands complete.
The principal necropolis is to the N of the site, consisting mainly
of sarcophagi of Lycian type but not of early date; only one tomb of temple form
has been found at Patara. Among other tombs around the theater hill and in the
neighborhood of the granary is a conspicuous built tomb approached by eight steps,
with a paneled ceiling, having originally four columns in front and two between
antae, with a pediment above.
Ruins of two aqueducts are to be seen: one near the coast to the W
of the Letoum, the other in the hills N of Kalkan. The former is of the usual
Roman type; the latter, also of Roman date, is in the form of a wall of polygonal
masonry 6 m high, pierced by two narrow doors, with a water channel above, preserved
for a length of 0.4 km. One or both of these presumably fed Patara, though no
remains of them are visible within 8 km of the city.
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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