ELAEUSSA
later SEBASTE (Ayaş) Rough Cilicia,
Turkey.
Now a village on the coast between
Korykos and Lamus. The city may have been founded
about the 2d or 1st c. B.C. Under the Romans it was given
perhaps to Tarcondimotos some time before 31 B.C., and
in 20 B.C. with Korykos and other areas of Rough Cilicia
to Archelaos I of Cappadocia, who changed the name to
Sebaste in honor of Augustus. A son of Archelaos by the
same name may have succeeded, and in A.D. 38 Antiochos
IV of Commagene took over. He died in A.D. 72, at which
time or soon after both Cilicias were formed into one
province under a legatus pro praetore. Elaeussa flourished
during the Roman period in spite of various setbacks; it
was apparently prosperous in the 6th and 5th c. A.D.,
although its harbor had silted up by the 6th. It seems not
to have recovered from the period of Arab invasions,
and has been more or less deserted since.
Elaeussa is situated on the sandy shore of a shallow bay
with an island in the center, now a peninsula, which in
antiquity sheltered the harbor. On the island Archelaos
built a palace in which he spent much of his time. There
are numerous ruins on the island including the remains
of a church, but all are apparently later than the palace.
An aqueduct led to the island, and the remains of two
more span the ravine to the W of the city (Cambazli or
Çukurbağ Deresi). A well-preserved water course and
arched aqueduct runs along the coast from the Lamus
river to Elaeussa and Korykos; a building inscription on
it dates not earlier than A.D. 400.
The theater cavea is cut in the rock slope a little inland opposite the island, facing S. The seats have been
robbed, but the bedding for them can be seen. Some remains of the stage building are preserved, and just S of
them parts of another building (stoa?) with some column
bases preserved along its S side; in 1818 there were said
to be 16 of them. On a high tongue of land at the W
end of the bay are the conspicuous remains of a Roman
peripteral temple, oriented NW-SE, the entrance at the
NW. The columns, 6 x 12, are fluted, five are left standing higher than their bases, but none is complete. The
stylobate measures 17.60 x 32.94 m and is set on a podium
where the ground falls away on all sides but the NW.
The capitals are described as a cross between the Composite and Corinthian orders. The architrave has three
fasciae, the one remaining frieze block is decorated with
a dolphin rider and hippocampus. No trace of the original cella remains. In the Early Christian period a church
was built on the temple stylobate, at right angles to
it, the apse at the NE side of the stylobate, with an adjoining enclosure filling the NW end of the temple. The
columns of the S half of the SW side of the temple and
all the columns of the SE side were removed, leaving an
open platform. Part of the E end of the church and the
apse is paved with a fairly well-preserved garden and
animal mosaic, very similar to some at Antioch dated to
the 5th c. A.D. West of the temple and near the two aqueducts across the stream are the remains of a large building of opus reticulatum with four barrel-vaulted rooms,
perhaps a bath.
The inhabitants of Elaeussa eventually lived by a forest of tombs, which fill almost every available space
along the ancient shore road, the majority dating from
the 2d c. A.D. into the Christian period. There are sarcophagi, freestanding and rock-cut, some decorated with
garlands and inscriptions. There are rock-cut and masonry chamber tombs and mausolea. From the 2d or 3d c.
A.D. there are eight or more heroa of the Corinthian
order, faced with ashlar masonry. Some of these are
rectangular with pilasters at the corners and vaulted interiors; others are tetrastyle prostyle podium temples
with narrow doorless porches. In the necropolis along the
road NE of the city is a sarcophagus under an elaborate
baldachino.
From near the theater an ancient paved road leads
NW to a site called Çati Ören (skeleton ruins) in a plain
where are a (Hellenistic?) fortress of polygonal masonry, a Temple of Hermes and an early basilica, and nearby a cave temple to Hermes. To the NE about 1.5 km
is another (Hellenistic?) fort on the edge of a ravine,
with club symbols carved on it. Both these sites might
have belonged to Olba in the Hellenistic period and later.
At Çati Ören an inscription of ca. the Augustan period
mentions a dynast, possibly Archelaos of Elaeussa or
Polemo, dynast of Olba in the 1st c. A.D. Northeast of
Elaeussa, ca. 3 km inland, is the town of the Kanytelleis
or Kanytelideis, which was a deme of Elaeussa in the
Roman period, but was in Olban territory in the late 3d
c. B.C. On the roads leading from this site to the coast and
inland are necropoleis, including heroa; on the road to
Elaeussa are numerous rock-cut tombs and reliefs. The
main area of the site is around a large rectangular depression, a natural limestone cave whose roof has collapsed. At the edge of this is a large rectangular tower
of polygonal masonry, with an inscription dedicating it
to Zeus Olbios, by the priest Teucer son of Tarkyaris,
presumably the same man who built the great tower at
Uzuncaburç There are house remains here and there
and five churches, some well preserved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Beaufort,
Karamania (1823) 241-43;
for Beaufort's plan of Elaeussa see U.S. Naval Chart
(Hydrographic Office, Washington, D.C., 1954) no.
4254,
Plans on the South Coast of Turkey, H; C. L.
Irby,
Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor
During the Years 1817 and 1818 (1823) 510-20; L. de
Laborde,
Voyage dans l'Asie Mineure (1838) 133f; V.
Langlois,
Voyage dans la Cilicie (1861) 220-33; J. T.
Bent, “A Journey in Cilicia Tracheia,”
JHS 12 (1891)
208-11; E. L. Hicks, “Inscriptions from Western Cilicia,”
JHS 12 (1891) 226-37; R. Heberdey & A. Wilhelm,
Reisen in Kilikien, DenkschrWien, Phil.-Hist. Kl. 44, 6
(1896) 51-67; G. L. Bell, “Notes on a Journey through
Cilicia and Lycaonia,”
RA 7 ser. 4 (1906) 398-412; J.
Keil & A. Wilhelm,
Denkmaler aus dem Rauhen Kilikien,
MAMA III (1931) 220-28
MPI; M. Gough, “A Temple Church at Ayas,”
AnatSt 4 (1954) 49-65
MPI; A.
Machatschek,
Die Nekropolen und Grabmaler im Gebiet
von Eleiussa Sebaste und Korykos, DenkschrWien, Phil.Hist. Kl. 96, 2 (1967)
MPI.
T. S. MAC KAY
