ASPENDOS
(Belkis) Pamphylia, Turkey.
About
30 km E of Antalya, 13 km inland and on the Eurymedon river. Strabo (
667) says it was founded by Argives; these may have been either an Argive contingent
of the “mixed peoples” who settled Pamphylia under
Mopsos, Calchas, and Amphilochos after the Trojan war,
or later settlers in the 7th or 6th c. The connection with
Mopsos is confirmed by the early name of the city,
which appears on coins as Estwediiys; this derives almost
certainly from Asitawandas, founder of the recently discovered city at Karatepe in E Cilicia, who describes himself in a bilingual inscription as a descendant of Mopsos (Muksos or MPS).
In 469 B.C. a Persian fleet and army collected at Aspendos was attacked and defeated on land and sea by the
Athenian Kimon at the battle of the Eurymedon. This
may have resulted in the enrollment of Aspendos in the
Delian Confederacy; her name appears in the assessment
of 425 B.C. though there is no evidence that she ever paid
tribute, and in 411 the city was used by the Persians as
a base. In 389 Aspendos was the scene of the murder of
Thrasybulos by the local inhabitants (
Xen. Hell. 4.8.30;
Diod. 14.99).
On the arrival of Alexander in 333 the Aspendians at
first offered to surrender their city, but later declined to
accept his terms; upon being invested, however, they submitted meekly enough (Arr. 1.26-7). Under Alexander's
successors, Pamphylia was claimed both by the Seleucids
and by the Ptolemies; a 3d c. inscription of Aspendos
confers citizenship on certain soldiers for their services
to King Ptolemy (apparently Soter). On the other hand,
about 220 B.C. the Aspendians contributed 4,000 men to
Achaeus' lieutenant Garsyeris (Polyb. 5.73). After the
battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C. Manlius Vulso, in the
course of his march through Asia Minor, levied 50 talents
from Aspendos (and a similar amount from the other
Pamphylian cities), apparently as the price of Roman
friendship (Polyb. 21.35;
Livy 38.15). Described as populous by Strabo (
667), Aspendos was unmercifully looted
by Verres.
The coinage, which began in the early 5th c. B.C., continued abundant through the Imperial period. In the 5th c.
A.D. Aspendos took for a time the name of Primupolis;
the reason for this is not known, and in the
Notitiae the
old name is again in use.
The city occupies a flat-topped hill some 39 m high,
divided into two unequal parts by a deep hollow. The
sides are for the most part precipitous, but two gullies on
the E side led to gates of which little now survives; a
third gate near the N extremity is better preserved.
In the outer face of the E part of the hill is the theater,
generally admitted to be the finest extant specimen of a
Roman theater. Apart from the stage itself and the greater part of the decoration of the stage building, it is virtually complete. It faces a little S of E and is built of
pudding-stone, with seats, floors, and facings of marble.
It was constructed in the 2d c. A.D. by a local architect,
Zeno, and was dedicated to the gods of the country and
the Imperial House by two brothers, Curtius Crispinus
and Curtius Auspicatus. Although the cavea rests on the
hillside, the form of the building is essentially Roman;
whether a theater stood on the spot in Hellenistic times
is uncertain. The outer, E face of the stage building consists of a high wall pierced by a central door (later enlarged and now used for the admission of visitors) and
two smaller doors on either side. Above these are four
rows of windows varying in shape and size; above and
below the top row are stone blocks pierced with holes for
holding the masts which supported the awning (velum)
over the cavea. At either end is an entrance for spectators; there are two other smaller entrances from the hillside at the back of the cavea, but the vaulted vomitoria
familiar in Graeco-Roman theaters are lacking. The inner face of the stage building has the usual five doors
opening onto the stage, and a row of smaller doors below to the space under the stage. The facade had originally two rows of columns in two stories, with niches
holding statues; over each niche was a pediment supported by small columns. Of all this only those parts survive which were actually let into the wall. At the top is
a large pediment containing a relief of Bacchus surrounded by flowers. Sloping grooves high up in the side
walls indicate a wooden roof to the stage, possibly intended as a sounding board. The stage itself was some
6 m in depth from front to back and a little over 1.5 m
in height. At either end an enclosed staircase led to the
separate floors of the stage building. The cavea has 40
rows of seats, equally divided by a single diazoma; on
some of them, names have been carved to reserve the
places. At the top is an open passage backed by an arcade; this has been repaired more than once, most recently in the last few years. There are 10 stairways below
the diazoma and 21 above it.
On the level ground to the N of the theater is the
stadium, running roughly N and S. The N end is rounded,
the S open, as at Perge. Under the seats was a vaulted
gallery used apparently for the circulation of the spectators. On the outer E side, also as at Perge, is a row of
chambers serving as shops; small windows in their back
wall open to the vaulted gallery, which was thus not entirely dark. No starting-sill is preserved. A hippodrome
is mentioned in an inscription (
CIG 3.4342d), but has not
been found; probably it was merely an open space without permanent seating.
The main part of the city stood on the hill to the W
of the theater, separated from the theater hill by a deep
depression. The ruins, all of Roman date, are impressive.
The central feature is the agora, surrounded on three
sides by public buildings. Of these the most conspicuous
is a basilica on the E side; this is in two parts, a main
hall of which only the foundations remain, and an annex
at the N end still standing over 15 m high. The combined
length is as much as 125 m. The annex has three doors
communicating with the main hall, and another arched
door on its N side; in its S wall are two windows, and
four exterior buttresses support the W wall.
On the N side of the agora is an unusual building of
uncertain use. It is nearly 15 m high and about 50 m
long, but only 1.8 m thick. The back, facing N, is plain;
on the front, towards the agora, are two horizontal rows
of five niches; in the lower row the larger middle niche
is pierced by a door, while the others have openings later
blocked up. Embedded in the wall above these niches are
the remains of an entablature which was carried on columas arranged in pairs; of these only the bases survive.
The building has been supposed to be a nymphaeum, despite the total absence of the necessary pipes, basins, and
other apparatus; the only tangible evidence for the identification is a dolphin's-head spout found on the spot,
combined with a general resemblance to the facade of
other nymphaea, and the fact that the aqueduct, so far
as preserved, leads towards it. Others have thought it a
purely ornamental facade, designed, in the absence of the
usual stoa, to bound the agora on the N.
Facing the basilica across the agora is a long market
hall, comparatively poorly preserved. It was in two stories, with a row of shops backed by a gallery. The stoa
in front of it is now destroyed, but its position is marked
by a line of steps.
Near the NW corner of the agora is another building
of uncertain purpose. It is some 48 x 27 m and is rounded
at the E end. A covered theater or odeum has been suggested, or perhaps a council house, but there is no provision for seating. The suggestion that it was a gymnasium
is equally doubtful.
The fine aqueduct, certainly among the most interesting that survive from the Roman period, brought water
to the city across the marshy land from the hills to the
N. The water channel, formed of pierced cubical blocks,
was carried on arches which served at the same time as
a viaduct. By the foot of the hills on the N, and again
close to the city, it was carried up to towers about 30 m
in height, descending again on the other side. Both towers and most of the arcade, less than 0.8 km long, are
well preserved. At the top of each tower the water ran
into an open basin, thus releasing the air from the pipe
to afford a freer flow; the additional height prevented
loss of pressure on the far side of the basin. After rising
to the rim of the acropolis, the aqueduct ran across the
flat summit towards the city center, but in this part it is
now destroyed and the meager traces of its course do not
allow a reconstruction of its form. The building of this
aqueduct is alluded to in an inscription (
BCH 10.160.8)
recording a munificent gift by a certain Tiberius Claudius
Italicus “for the introduction of water.” It dates to the
1st or 2d c. A.D. and refers evidently to the original construction. What provision was previously made for a supply of water does not appear; perhaps the river sufficed.
In the lower part of the city, S of the theater, are two
large buildings close together. Like the rest of the city
they are unexcavated but are identified as baths, though
here again there is no trace of water supply, or of any
of the usual apparatus of baths.
The necropolis, or at least the main burial ground, lay
beside a road that ran below the acropolis on the E. Here
are several built tombs and one rock-cut, and in this region great numbers of funeral stelai have come to light.
These have a characteristic form, with pediment and
acroteria, and in most cases are inscribed merely with
the name and patronymic of one or more persons; on
some are carved a knotted ribbon. The names are written
in the characteristic Aspendian script and dialect, and
are largely Anatolian; they date in general to the Hellenistic period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. Lanckoroński,
Städte Pamphyliens
und Pisidiens (1890) I 85-124, 179
MI; J. B. Ward Perkins,
“The Aqueduct at Aspendos,”
BSR 23 (1955) 115-23;
G. E. Bean,
Turkey's Southern Shore (1968) ch. 5
MI.
G. E. BEAN
