OLBA
(Uğura) Rough Cilicia, Turkey.
Now a
village located 22 km inland NE of Seleucia ad Calycadnum at an elevation of ca. 1000 m. It was probably capital of Pirindu (Rough Cilicia) in the 6th c. B.C. The
priests of the Temple of Zeus at Uzuncaburç ruled a state
of unknown extent in the Hellenistic period, possibly
under nominal Seleucid control. There was an Olban
polis organized by the 1st c. B.C. at the latest, and in the
Olban territory the provincial natives known as Kennateis or Kannatai. The priestly family was confirmed in
power by Antony, then by Augustus, under whom the
High Priest Ajax son of Teucer was toparch of the Kennateis and Lalasseis, the last perhaps located somewhere
in the Calycadnus valley. In the 1st c. A.D. M. Antonius
Polemo appeared as dynast of Olba, the Kennateis and
Lalasseis. The state and city lost their independence when
all Cilicia was made into a province ca. A.D. 72, and by
the time of Domitian the temple town was separated
from Olba and incorporated as a city, Diocaesarea.
The city site lies on and around a hill at the edge of a
fertile, well-watered plain, some 3 km to the E of the
temple. The hill is fortified by a ring wall of polygonal
masonry, perhaps of Hellenistic date. The great towers
at Uzuncaburç and the town of the Kanytelleis were dedicated by the priest Teucer son of Tarkyaris around the
late 3d or early 2d c. B.C. Other towers and forts possibly
Hellenistic, few well described, some with carved symbols
that appear on coins of Olba, guard all the approaches
to Olba, between Seleucia and the Lamus river, near the
coast and farther inland. All these towers and forts perhaps were used or built by Teucer as a defense system for his territories.
The remains of the city of Olba are few and unimpressive and, except possibly for the defense wall, all are
of the Roman and Christian periods. The ravines that
form the E and W sides of the fortified hill and join the
ravine of the Karyağdi Deresi are riddled with rock-cut
graves. A well-preserved section of an arched aqueduct,
dated by an inscription to A.D. 199-211, which brought
water from the upper Lamus, spans the ravine at the
NE end of the hill. Around the sides of the hill are
numerous house remains, some well preserved. The center city was at the W side on the plain, facing across to
Diocaesarea. Here are the remains of a theater hollowed
out of the hill with some remains of its scene building
preserved, and a fairly well preserved nympheum consisting of a wall with returns flanking a basin, approached
by three steps and a platform. Both theater and nymphaeum are probably of the 2d c. A.D. In the plain S of
these is a grave temple or heroon, a small prostyle tetrastyle Corinthian building with a square cella about 8.5 m
a side, only the walls are preserved. At the site are the
remains of two churches; and on a ledge in the Karyağdi
Deresi ravine just S of the citadel, a monastery (?).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Strab. 14.5.10; E. L. Hicks, “Inscriptions from Western Cilicia,”
JHS 12 (1891) 269-70; J. T.
Bent, “A Journey in Cilicia Tracheia,”
JHS 12 (1891)
222; R. Heberdey & A. Wilhelm,
Reisen in Kilikien,
DenkschrWien, Phil-Hist. Kl. 44, 6 (1896) 90-91; J. Keil
& A. Wilhelm,
Denkmäler aus dem Rauhen Kilikien,
MAMA III (1931) 80-89
MPI; T. S. MacKay, “Olba in
Rough Cilicia,” Diss. 1968
M.
T. S. MAC KAY
