OINOANDA
(Incealiler) Turkey.
City in
Lycia 32 km W-NW of Elmali. Oinoanda first appears
as a member of a tetrapolis headed by Kibyra and including also Bubon and Balbura. This was abolished by
Murena about 81 B.C. at the end of the Mithridatic war
(Strab. 631), and Bubon, Balbura, and presumably Oinoanda were attached to the Lycian League. Strabo does
not in fact mention Oinoanda in this connection, but the
city was subsequently a member of the League, as is
clear from the inscriptions. On the other hand, if the
Oeandenses of Pliny (
HN 5.147) are the men of Oinoanda, it seems that the city was for a time attached to
Galatia. If so, expulsion from the League may have been
the result of Oinoandan support for Brutus in the civil
wars. Only one coin of Oinoanda appears to be known;
it belongs to the period before 81 B.C. In the 2d c. A.D.
Oinoanda received from the millionaire Opramoas of
Rhodiapolis the sum of 10,000 den. for the construction
of a bath complex. Later the bishop of Oinoanda was
under the metropolitan of Myra.
The ruins are on a high hill directly above the village
of Incealiler; the hill is steep on all sides but the S, and
rises to a summit on the N. The city lay on a series of
levels facing S; the actual summit was occupied by a
fort still partly preserved. The city wall is best preserved
at the S end, where it stands in places to its full height
of about 10 m; the masonry is partly ashlar, partly
polygonal, and prominently bossed. The resemblance in
the style of these walls to those of Pergamon suggest
that they may have been erected at the time of Pergamene sovereignty in this region, after the treaty of
Apamea in 190 B.C. Inside the wall, to the N, ruins and
foundations of buildings are abundant, but the whole hill
is heavily overgrown.
In about the center of the city is a rectangular level
space identified as the agora, lined with statues; a number of bases remain. To the S and W are numerous
ruins including a three-roomed building whose S side is
formed by a terrace wall of smooth-faced polygonal masonry still standing some 4 m high.
Farther up the hill to the N is another open space
generally referred to as the Esplanade; here too are
numerous statue bases. In a stoa on its S side seems to
have been inscribed a lengthy discourse on the Epicurean
philosophy by a certain Diogenes of Oinoanda; about a
quarter of this inscription has been recovered among
the ruins. One of the buildings in this area has been
tentatively identified as a gymnasium.
The theater lies farthest N, buried in woods. It has
a diameter of 42 m, but a small capacity; 15 rows of
seats have been counted, and the orchestra is unusually
large in proportion. A considerable part of the stage
building remains, but it has collapsed.
Tombs are abundant on all sides of the city. The most
remarkable is a mausoleum outside the walls on the S,
with a very long inscription giving the genealogy of a
distinguished Oinoandan family. Sarcophagi are numerous; at least one has a recumbent lion on the lid, a type
characteristic of this region. In the cliff-face on the W
are several rock tombs of temple type, but not of the
first quality. The site has never been excavated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T.A.B. Spratt & E. Forbes,
Travels in
Lycia I (1847) 272-76
M; G. Cousin & E. Diehl,
BCH 10
(1886) 218; E. Petersen & F. von Luschan,
Reisen in
Lykien II (1889) 177f; F. Stark,
Alexander's Path (1958)
197f.
G. E. BEAN
