ANCYRA
(Ankara) Galatia, Turkey.
The
chief city of the Roman province of Galatia, in central
Asia Minor. Its legendary founder was King Midas, but
it does not appear in the historical record until the time
of Alexander the Great. Until Galatia became a Roman
province in 25 B.C., Ancyra remained comparatively
insignificant although its commercial importance increased as that of the old Phrygian capital, Gordion,
diminished. Throughout the period of the Roman Empire the city flourished, and its importance continued
during the Byzantine era when the city was strongly
fortified against invasions from the East.
Most of the Roman city has been destroyed by modern
Ankara, but some monuments have survived, notably
the Temple of Rome and Augustus, the Roman baths
and palaestra, and the “Column of Julian.”
The temple was octostyle pseudodipteral, with 15
columns down the flanks, four detached columns in
front of the pronaos, and two between the antae of the
opisthodomos. Only the core of the building still stands,
preserved through its later use as a church when the
opisthodomos was converted into an apse. The walls of
the pronaos carry the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi
Augusti and the S cella wall the Greek, complete except for some areas of damage. Another important inscription, the list of high priests of the koinon of Galatia under Tiberius, stands on the left-hand anta of the
pronaos. It has been maintained that the temple was
originally dedicated to the god Mên and dates to the
middle of the 2d c. B.C., but for both architectural and
historical reasons an Augustan date is preferable.
The Roman baths lie to the W of the temple near
the site of the old Turkish city gate leading to Çankiri
(now destroyed). The baths stood behind a palaestra
that was surrounded by a colonnaded portico. Although
little of the superstructure survives, the hypocausts and
much of the substructure have been excavated and
restored. The baths were dated by the excavators to the
time of Caracalla, and are notable for their size and
for the number of hot rooms, which the city's winter
climate made desirable. The palaestra serves as a depot
for the inscriptions and architectural fragments from
Roman and Byzantine Ancyra. Beside it is a Byzantine
burial chamber, decorated with painted frescos. This
was excavated near the railway station and re-erected
on its present site. The “Column of Julian” stands alone
between the baths and the temple. Its attribution to the
reign of Julian is uncertain although it is clearly of
late Roman date.
The most striking remnant of ancient Ancyra is the
Byzantine citadel. The inner fortifications were possibly
built ca. A.D. 630 after the city had been recaptured
by the emperor Heraclius from Chosroes II. It was
restored on several occasions, most notably by the emperor Michael III in A.D. 859. At some undetermined
date the outer fortifications were added. The walls are
largely built from the debris of the Roman city and are
full of architectural pieces and inscriptions. The most
impressive section is the W wall of the inner fortification where the regular, closely spaced, pentagonal towers give the profile of the blade of a giant saw.
Ancyra's archaeological museums, the Museum of
Anatolian Civilizations and the Museum of the Middle
East Technical University, contain little from the Roman or Byzantine period but are chiefly of interest to
Classical archaeologists for their very rich collections
of Phrygian material.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. de Jerphanion, “Mélanges d'Archéologie Anatolienne,”
Méanges de l'Université St-Joseph 13 (1928) ch. XII-XV
PI; E. Mamboury,
Ankara, Guide Touristique (1934)
MP; D. Krencker & M. Schede,
Der Tempel in Ankara (1936), reviewed by E. Wiegand,
Gnomon 13 (1937) 414-22; N. Dolunay, “Türk Tarih
Kurumu yapilan Çankirikapi hafriyati,”
Belleten 5
(1941) 261-66; E. Bosch,
Quellen zur Geschichte der
Stadt Ankara im Altertum (1967); M. Akok, “Ankara
Şehrindeki Roma hamami,”
Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi 17
(1968) 537
PI.
S. MITCHELL
