BYBASSOS
(Hisarönü) Turkey.
Site in Caria
13 km SW of Marmaris, proved by the identification of
Kastabos at Pazarllk on the mountain above Hisarönü.
Bybassos was a Rhodian deme and Kastabos lay in its
territory. Herodotos (
1.174) observes that Knidian territory began from the Bybassian Chersonese, that is, the
Loryma peninsula SW of Marmaris; Diodoros (5.62)
speaks of Bubastos in the Chersonese; Pliny (
HN 5.104）
uses regio Bubassus; Mela (1.84) says that the sinus
Bubasius includes Kyrnos; Stephanos Byzantios s.v.
calls it a city. Bybassos was long believed to be represented by the ruins at Emecik, on the Knidian peninsula
10 km E of Datça (Reşadiye), and the Bybassian Chersonese to be the E half of that peninsula, but this is
demonstrably wrong. Bybassos was among the more important of the Rhodian mainland demes, and the demotic
is frequent in the inscriptions.
The ruins at Hisarönü are scanty and inscriptions lacking. The acropolis hill is about 1 km W of the village;
it carries remains of a fortification wall and some
stretches of terrace wall; Hellenistic sherds are abundant.
Other remains in the neighborhood include a long double
field wall a little to the N, some remnants of buildings
on the seashore, and some evidence of the existence of a
church.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Annuario 4-5 (1921-22) 405; P. M.
Fraser & G. E. Bean,
The Rhodian Peraea (1954) 62-65; id.,
Turkey beyond the Maeander (1971) 162-63; J. M. Cook & W. H. Plommer,
The Sanctuary of Hemithea at Kastabos (1966) 6-9, 11-12, 62-63.
G. E. BEAN
