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 Aphrodisias (1,119 words)

 

 Aphrodisias

( φροδισίας; Aphrodisías).

[German version]

[1] City in Caria

This item can be found on the following maps:

Theatre | Byzantium | Asia Minor | Marble | Rome | Education / Culture

City in Caria, 38 km south of the Maeander, in the left side valley of the Morsylos (present-day Dandalaz çayı); the modern Geyre. Traces of 

neolithic and early Bronze Age settlement on the acropolis; old name of Νινόη (Steph. B yz. s. v. Ninoe) preserved in the local cult ( Zeus Nineudios).

 A. was for a long time overshadowed by the neighbouring community of Plarasa (the modern Bingeç, 15 km to the south-west), until the latter

declined to become a deme of A; the place name A. first attested in the 3rd cent. BC; city status from 2nd/1st cent. BC; flourished 1st-2nd cents. of 

the imperial age ( civitas libera).

The city with its cult of Aphrodite was patronized by Caesar, Mark Antony and the emperors from Augustus to Gordianus III (especially with a right

of asylia ( Asylum), as evidence surviving inscriptions of imperial communications in the theatre); the temple of Aphrodite (1st cent. BC/2nd cent.

 AD; preceding structures from the 7th and 3rd cents. BC) was a much-frequented place of pilgrimage in antiquity; in the 5th cent. AD it was

transformed into a Christian basilica, and A. renamed Stauropolis later as the seat of the bishop of Caria.

 Archaeologically attested: propylon and temple of Aphrodite, to the south of which the so-called bishop's palace (4th/5th cents.), an odeum (2nd

cent. BC), and in the south an agora with halls and a canopus from the time of Tiberius; in the south-west corner thermal baths of Hadrian; adjacent

to the south of which a basilica (3rd cent. AD); in the south-east a gatehouse with rich façade, to the north of which the Sebasteion, a ceremonial hall

for the Julian/Claudian dynasty; in the south of the city the acropolis with theatre and two small Byzantine churches (6th/10th cents. AD); in the

north by the city wall (3.5 km in length) a stadium for c. 30,000 spectators. A. was the centre of a celebrated school of sculpture (hence the

abundance of high quality statues, reliefs, sculpted sarcophagi).

Kaletsch, Hans (Regensburg)

Bibliography 

Tourist map Türkiye-Turkey, Turkish Defence Ministry, 1994, sheet 2

 Article Table Of Contents

[1] City in Caria

[2] Greek colony on the southern

tip of Caria

[3] Promontory on the southern tip

of Caria

 

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Les Guides Bleus, Turkey, 1970, 485 ff.

G. E. BEAN, Kleinasien 3, 1974, 231-242

K . T. ERIM, A. City of Venus Aphrodite, 1986

Id., A. Ein Führer durch die ant. Stadt und das Museum, 1990

E.  AKURGAL, Griech. und röm. Kunst in der Türkei, 1987, 413 f.

 W . KOENIGS, Westtürkei, 1991, 162-172

N. HIMMELMANN, Das Bildnis Pindars, in: Ant. Welt 24, 1993, 1, 56-58.

[German version]

Byzantine period

The small number of public inscriptions from the Byzantine as compared to the Roman era indicates that A. underwent a decline, which may have

 been accelerated in the 7th cent. by an earthquake. Renamed Stauropolis (7th cent.) and Caria (9th cent. [1. 94]). The hill of the acropolis is

converted into a fortress, the theatre complex incorporated and destroyed after the 6th cent. The temple of Aphrodite is rededicated as the Church of 

the Archangel. A court complex adjacent to the former odeum is a bishop's residence during the Byzantine period. South of the centre, a church with

triple apse is interpreted as a martyrium or minster.

Leisten, Thomas (Princeton)

Bibliography 

1  W . BRANDES, Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jh., 1989.

K . T. ERIM, A., 1986

CH. ROUECHÉ, A. in Late Antiquity, 1989

R . CORMACK , The Classical Tradition in the Byzantine Provincial City: The Evidence of Thessalonike and A., in: M. MULLET, R . SCOTT (ed.), Byzantium and

the Classical Tradition, 1981, 103-118.

[German version]

School of sculpture

The title ‘

 

 Aphrodisias school of sculpture’ was coined by Squarciapino to describe c. 25 sculptors known by their signatures to have been from A.

During the early imperial period, the Roman freedmen M. Cossutius Cerdo, Cossutius Menelaus and others from the ‘Pasiteles Circle’ were signing

 with their ethnic in Rome, Olympia and Crete. An inscription has been discovered that attests to the same origins for Coblanus. Aristeas and Papias,

as well as Antonianus, were working for Hadrian in Rome; at the same time Zenon Attina and Zenas Alexandrou. Inscriptions found in A. have

enabled at least five Roman statues of gods, signed by Flavius Chryserus, Flavius Andronicus and Flavius Zenon, and now in Copenhagen, to be

dated to the 4th cent. AD. Excavations in A. have uncovered 24 further signatures, some showing familial links with the Roman workshop. A 

sculptural centre had developed in A. on the basis of local marble quarries, and remained economically important until the 5th cent. AD, sculpture

competitions even being held. Work was produced in all genres and in the various period styles. However, it is no longer appropriate to use the

expression ‘sculptural school of A.’ in the stylistic sense to describe an expressively baroque stylistic tendency and ‘decorative school’.

Neudecker, Richard (Rome)

Bibliography 

 

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M. SQUARCIAPINO, La Scuola di Afrodisia, 1943

B. KIILERICH, H. TORP, Mythological sculpture in the fourth century A. D., in: MDAI(Ist) 44, 1994, 307-316.

[German version]

[2] Greek colony on the southern tip of Caria

Greek colony [1. 105-113] on the southern tip of Cape Zephyrion (Stadiasmus maris magni 184-187) (present-day Ovacık Burnu), on the coast of 

Cilicia Tracheia; separated by a narrow isthmus, with a western and eastern harbour (hence  λιµ ν  φροδίσιος κα  λιµ ν τερος; limḕ n Aphrodísios

kaì limḕ n héteros; in Scyl. 102), from a mainland that is difficult to access. Conquered in 197 BC by Antiochus III (Liv. 33,20), A. declined in

importance during the Roman period (oppidum Veneris, Plin. HN 5,92); it did not become the seat of a bishop, but in late antiquity was able to build

a basilica with mosaic decoration [2]. Thanks to its harbours still an important port during the Middle Ages; under the name of Porto Cavaliere a

possession of the Knights of St. John.

Hild, Friedrich (Vienna)

Bibliography 

1 E. BLUMENTHAL, Die altgriech. Siedlungskolonisation im Mittelmeerraum unter bes. Berücksichtigung der Südküste Kleinasiens, 1963

2 L. BUDDE, St. Pantaleon von A. in Kilikien, 1987.

H. HELLENKEMPER , F. HILD, s. v. A., Isaurien und Kilikien (TIB 5), 1990.

[German version]

[3] Promontory on the southern tip of Caria

 A promontory on the southern tip of Caria; according to the sequence of localities set out in Plin. HN 5,104 [1. 221] and Mela 1,84, A. or

 Aphrodisium must be located on the peninsula which separates the Bay of Thymnias (present-day Sömbeki körfezi) in the south (opposite the Greek 

island of Syme, Turkish Sömbeki) from the eastern part of the Bay of Schoinus in the north (present-day Hisarönü körfezi); perhaps a now unnamed

cape west of the town of Bozburun, or a short distance away on the northern side of the spit of land.

Kaletsch, Hans (Regensburg)

Bibliography 

1 G.  WINKLER , R . KÖNIG, C. Plinius Secundus d. Ä., Naturkunde (Latin-German), bk. 5, 1993.

Tourist map Türkiye-Turkey, Turk. Defence Ministry, 1994, sheet 2.

Citation"Aphrodisias." Brill’s New Pauly. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. Tulane University. 03 May 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-

pauly/aphrodisias-e127300>