KELAINAI
later APAMEIA (Dinar) Phrygia, Turkey.
Founded at the junction of the roads that still
join Ionia to the East, and Phrygia to Pamphylia, as in
antiquity. In 333 B.C. Alexander the Great marched to
Kelainai on his expedition through Asia Minor and left
there as satrap of Phrygia one of his best generals, Antigonos. This was the opening move in the maneuver for
succession that culminated in 301 in the events that led
to the battle of Ipsos (
Paus. 1.8.1;
Diod. 20.107.2-4), in
which Seleukos I was victorious. His son Antiochos Soter
(324-261 B.C.) moved Kelainai to the plain, rebuilt it,
and named it after his mother. The meeting place of the
conventus iuridicus in the Roman period, the city later
became a bishopric. There are no remains in situ except
the old and new city walls. Fragments of columns and
architraves, as well as some inscriptions can, however,
be seen in some gardens of the town.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Ramsay,
The Historical Geography
of Asia Minor (1890); id.,
The Cities and Bishoprics of
Phrygia (1895-97); C.H.E. Haspels,
The Highlands of
Phrygia: Sites and Monuments, I (1971) 147f.
C. BAYBURTLUOĞLU
