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EPIFANIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Epiphaneia (Epiphaneia: Eth. Epiphaneus), a city of Cilicia, which,
Pliny says (v. 27), was originally called Oeniandos: he places it in the interior
of Cilicia. Cicero, in his description of his Cilician campaign, says that he
encamped at Epiphaneia, which was one day's journey from the Amanus. Gn. Pompeius
(Appian, Mithrid. c. 96) settled some pirates here after he had broken up the
robbers, and also at Adana and Mallus. The Table places Epiphaneia 30 M. P. east
of Anazarbus, and the same distance from Alexandria ad Issum. If Ptolemy's figures
are right (v. 8), we may collect that he supposed Epiphaneia to be near the place
which he calls the Amanicae Pylae. It is mentioned by Ammianus (xxii. 11), but
he gives no information as to its position.
A town of Cilicia Campestris, southeast of Anazarbus, and situated on the small river Carsus, near the range of Mount Amanus.
Mainly identified with large site 91 km SE of Adana and ca. 6 km W
of Erzin on the right side of railroad track to Iskenderun. The otherwise unknown
native town of Oiniandos was renamed for Antiochos IV Epiphanes at the beginning
of the 2d c. B.C. After a shortlived autonomy, Epiphaneia was colonized with ex-pirates
by Pompey and adopted 68/7 B.C. as its era date. A coin of A.D. 113/4 suggests
that the city was honored by Trajan with his name, but Epiphaneia's history is
otherwise obscure apart from its claim, with many other places, to be the birthplace
of St. George.
The extensive ruins of the city, constructed almost entirely of black
basalt, were enclosed by a wall 2 m thick with large square towers at intervals
throughout its length. Very conspicuous is the long aqueduct of which numerous
arches still remain, with a part of the watercourse still draining into a cistern
with walls nearly 1.5 m thick. The theater, with a diameter of ca. 87 m, has been
robbed of its seating, but retains its upper promenade of 12 m width, this upper
part being strengthened by buttresses at intervals of 5.5 m. There are two ruined
churches, both apparently of the 5th or 6th c.; one of these may have been originally
a pagan building with walls of stone orthostats to which a concrete apse had later
been added at the E end of the rectangle.
M. Gough, 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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