Phaselis
| Phaselis | |
|---|---|
| Φασηλίς (Greek) | |
| Main road
Main road
| |
| 36°31′25″N 30°33′08″E / 36.52361°N 30.55222°E | |
| Type | Settlement |
| Periods | Archaic to High Medieval |
| Associated with | Theodectes |
| Location | Tekirova, Antalya Province, Turkey |
| Region | Lycia |
| History | |
| Built | 700 BC |
| Built by | Rhodian colonists |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | Ruined |
| Owner | Public |
| Public access | Yes |
| Website | Phaselis Archaeological Site |
Phaselis (Ancient Greek: Φασηλίς) or Faselis (Turkish: Faselis) was a Greek and Roman city on the coast of ancient Lycia. Its ruins are located north of the modern town Tekirova in the Kemer district of Antalya Province in Turkey. It lies between the Bey Mountains and the forests of Olympos National Park, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) south of the tourist town of Kemer and on the 57th kilometre of the Antalya–Kumluca highway. Phaselis and other ancient towns around the shore can also be accessed from the sea by daily yacht tours.
History
The town was set up by the Rhodians in 690 BC.[1] Because of its location on an isthmus separating two harbours, it became the most important harbour city of eastern Lycia and an important centre of commerce between Greece, Asia, Egypt, and Phoenicia, although it did not belong to the Lycian League. The city was captured by the Persians after they conquered Asia Minor. Cimon, in 468 BC, attacked the city and it was enrolled in the Delian Confederacy.[2] Later it was captured by Alexander the Great.
After the death of Alexander, the city remained in Greek hands from 209 BC to 197 BC, under the dynasty of Ptolemaios, and with the conclusion of the Apamea treaty, was handed over to the Rhodian Peraia, together with the other cities of Lycia. From 190 BC to 160 BC it remained under Rhodeian hegemony, but after 160 BC it was absorbed into the Lycian confederacy under Roman rule. Phaselis, like Olympos, was under constant threat from pirates in the 1st century BC, and the city was even taken over by the pirate Zekenites for a period until his defeat in 77 or 76 BC by the Romans under Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. In 42 BC Brutus had the city linked to Rome. In the 3rd century AD, the harbor fell under the threat of pirates once again. So it began to lose importance, suffering further losses at the hands of Arab ships, until totally impoverished in the 11th century. When the Seljuqs began to concentrate on Alanya and Antalya as ports, Phaselis ceased to be a port of any note.
There was a temple of Athene at Phaselis, where the lance of Achilles was exhibited. It was the birthplace of the poet and orator Theodectes. It was also renowned for its roses, from which the essence was extracted.[3]
Bishopric
Phaselis became a Christian bishopric, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Mira, the capital of the Roman province of Lycia. Its bishop Fronto took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451. His successor, Aristodemus, was one of the signatories of the letter that in 458 the bishops of Lycia sent to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian concerning the murder of Proterius of Alexandria. The bishop of the time of the Second Council of Nicaea (787) did not attend, and the acts were signed in his name by a deacon called Ioannes.[4][5]
No longer a residential bishopric, Phaselis is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[6]
Notable people
- Lacritus, a Greek sophist
- Critolaus, a Greek Peripatetic philosopher
- Theodectes, a Greek rhetorician and tragic poet
Phaselis today
Phaselis has three harbours: the 'Northern Harbour', the 'Battle Harbour' and the 'Protected (Sun) Harbour', of which the last is the most important today. A 24-metre-wide ancient street runs through the middle of the city. The 'Hadrian Waterway Gate' is on the southern part of the street. There are ruins of shops and stores on the sides of the street and near these are ruins of public places such as Roman baths, agoras and theatres. These structures are dated to the 2nd century BC. There are water canals between the town centre and the 70 m plateau. There are also numerous sarcophagi.
See also
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Titular see in Lycia, suffragan of Myra. The city was a Doric colony on the Pamphylian Gulf. Situated on an isthmus separating two harbours, it owed to this fortunate location the fact that it became an important centre of commerce between Greece, Asia, Egypt, and Phoenicia, although it did not belong to the confederation of Lycian cities. The pirates of Cilicia were allied with it, first though business intercourse, then by treaty. After the capture of Olympus P. Servilius laid siege to it. It was defended by Zenicetus, who, being unable to hold it, set fire to the city and plunged into the flames together with his companions. Phaselis recovered from this disaster. However, as early as the Roman period the little harbour had become a swamp exhaling pestilential vapours, and the situation grew worse until the city was in complete decay. There was a temple of Athene at Phaselis, where the lance of Achilles was exhibited. It was the birthplace of the poet and orator Theodectes. It was also renowned for its roses, from which the essence was extracted. There was invented the bark called phaselos which figures on all the coins of the city. There was a Roman colony at Phaselis about 139 B.C., for the Romans wrote to the inhabitants to send help to Simon Machabeus and the Jews (I Mach., xv, 23). Only two of its bishops are known: Fronto at Chalcedon (451); and Aristodemus, who in 458 signed the letter from the bishops of Lycia to the Emperor Leo. At the Council of Nicæa (787), the absent bishop was represented by the deacon John. The see is mentioned in the "Notitiæ episcopatuum" until the thirteenth century. The ruins of Phaselis are at Tekir Ova in the vilayet of Koniah; they belong to the Roman period, the most important being a theatre. There are also numerous sarcophagi.
LE QUIEN, Oriens christianus, I, 985; BEAUFORT, Karamania, 53-65; FELLOWS, Asia Minor, 211 sqq.; LEAKE, Asia Minor, 190; Texier, Asie mineure, 697-99; HILL, Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum: Lycia, p. lxvii.
References
- Back to citation Grainger, John D. (2009-07-30). The Cities of Pamphylia. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78297-295-2; Keen, Antony G. (2018-07-17). Dynastic Lycia: A Political History of the Lycians and their Relations with foreign Powers, c. 545-362 B.C. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-35152-3; Clinton, Henry Fynes (1834). From the earliest accounts of the LVth Olympiad. University Press.
- Back to citation Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, The Life of Cimon, 12
- Back to citation "Phaselis". from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Back to citation Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 985-986
- Back to citation Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 450
- Back to citation Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 893