Apamea (Phrygia): Difference between revisions

The site is now partly occupied by the city of ''[[Dinar (District), Afyonkarahisar|Dinar]]'' (sometimes locally known also as ''Geyikler'', "the gazelles," perhaps from a tradition of the Persian hunting-park, seen by [[Xenophon]] at Celaenae), which by 1911 was connected with [[İzmir]] by railway; there are considerable remains, including a theater and a great number of important [[Graeco-Roman]] inscriptions.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Apamea|display=Apamea s.v. 2|volume=2|page=159|first=David George|last=Hogarth|authorlink=David George Hogarth}}</ref>

The original inhabitants were residents of Celaenae who were compelled by Antiochus I Soter to move farther down the river, where they founded the city of Apamea (Strabo, xii. 577). [[Antiochus the Great]] transplanted many [[Jewish people|Jews]] there. (Josephus, ''Ant.'' xii. 3, § 4). It became a seat of [[Seleucid]] power, and a center of Graeco-Roman and [[Graeco-Hebrew]] civilization and commerce. There [[Antiochus the Great]] collected the army with which he met the [[Roman Republic|Romans]] at [[Battle of Magnesia|Magnesia]], and two years later the [[Treaty of Apamea]] between Rome and the Seleucid realm was signed there. After Antiochus' departure for the East, Apamea lapsed to the [[Pergamon|Pergamene]] kingdom and thence to [[Rome]] in 133 BCE, but it was resold to [[Mithridates V of Pontus]], who held it till 120 BCE. After the [[Mithridatic Wars]] it became and remained a great center for trade, largely carried on by resident [[Italian people|Italians]] and by Jews.<ref name="EB1911"/> By order of Flaccus, a large amount of Jewish money &ndash; nearly 45 [[kilograms]] of gold &ndash; intended for the Temple in Jerusalem was confiscated in Apamea in the year 62 BCE (.<ref>[[Cicero]], ''Pro Flacco'', ch. xxviii.).</ref> In 84 BCE [[Sulla]] made it the seat of a ''[[conventus]]'', and it long claimed primacy among Phrygian cities.<ref name="EB1911"/> When Strabo wrote, Apamea was a place of great trade in the Roman [[Asia (Roman province)|province of Asia]], next in importance to [[Ephesus]]. Its commerce was owing to its position on the great road to [[Cappadocia]], and it was also the center of other roads. When Cicero was [[proconsul]] of [[Cilicia]], 51 BCE, Apamea was within his jurisdiction (''ad Fam.'' xiii. 67), but the dioecesis, or conventus, of Apamea was afterwards attached to Asia. [[Pliny the Elder]] enumerates six towns which belonged to the conventus of Apamea, and he observes that there were nine others of little note.

[[File:Kibotos 1096.jpg|thumb|right|[[Battle of Kibitos]], [[13th century|13C]] manuscript]]Apamea continued to be a prosperous town under the [[Roman Empire]]. Its decline dates from the local disorganization of the empire in the 3rd century; and though a [[Diocese|bishopric]], it was not an important military or commercial center in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] times. The [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] took it first in 1070, and from the 13th century onwards it was always in [[Muslim]] hands. For a long period it was one of the greatest cities of [[Asia Minor]], commanding the Maeander road; but when the trade routes were diverted to [[Constantinople]] it rapidly declined, and its ruin was completed by an earthquake.<ref name="EB1911"/>