KEDREAI
Turkey.
City in Caria, on the island
of Şehiroğlu or Sedir Ada, 16 km N of Marmaris. The
city was independent in the 5th c. B.C., paying a tribute
of half a talent, later reduced to a third, in the Delian
Confederacy. In 405 it was attacked by Lysander, who
captured it at the second attempt and enslaved the inhabitants; these are described by Xenophon (2.1.15) as semibarbarian. At an uncertain date in the Hellenistic period
Kedreai was incorporated into the Rhodian Peraea, and
formed one of the more important Rhodian demes. So
far as is known the independent city issued no coinage.
The principal deity was Apollo, with the epithets Pythios
and Kedrieus.
The island is less than 1 km long, divided in the middle
by a narrow isthmus. The W half is bare; the E is surrounded, just above the water, by a strong ashlar wall
with towers. Near the summit stood a Doric temple, apparently that of Apollo, but only the foundations are
preserved; it stands on a terraced platform with a solid
wall. The site was later occupied by a Christian church.
On the N slope is the theater, well preserved but overgrown and partly buried; the cavea had nine cunei but
no diazoma. The agora also is overgrown, but its supporting wall remains in fine condition. On the mainland
opposite the island, across some 200 m of water, is a
fairly extensive necropolis comprising built tombs and
sarcophagi. The stadium whose existence is implied by
the agonistic inscriptions has not been located. Like most
of the Peraean demes, Kedreai was neglected by the ancient geographers, though Stephanos quotes it from
Hekataios, and it does not appear in the Byzantine
bishopric lists.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Diehl & G. Cousin,
BCH 10 (1888)
423-28; G. Guidi & A. Maiuri,
Annuario 4-5 (1921-22)
378-84; P. M. Fraser & G. E. Bean,
The Rhodian Peraea
(1954) 67, 95-97; Bean,
Turkey beyond the Maeander
(1971) 156-57.
G. E. BEAN
