CREMNA
CREMNA (
ἡ Κρήμνα or
Κρέμνα), a place in Pisidia, and, as its name imports, a strong post on an eminence.
It was taken by the Galatian king Amyntas, a contemporary of Strabo (p. 569).
It became a Roman colony, as Strabo says; and there are imperial coins with the epigraph COL. IVL. AVG. CREMNA. The passage of Strabo about Cremna has caused great difficulty.
He says that Amyntas did not take Sandalium, which is situated between Cremna and Sagalassus. Strabo adds, “Sagalassus is distant from Apameia a day's journey, having a descent of about 30 stadia from the fort (
τοῦ ἐρύματος), and they call it also Selgessus.” Cramer (
Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 299) supposes Strabo to mean that “at the distance of 30 stadia from Sagalassus, in a northerly direction, was the important fortress of Cremna;” on which it may be useful to some readers to observe, that where a Greek text presents a difficulty, Cramer is often wrong in explaining it.
But there is no difficulty here. The French translation of Strabo makes a like mistake; and Groskurd the same, for he translates it “hat fast dreissig stadien hinabsteigung von jener veste,” by which it appears that he means Cremna. Arundell (
Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 81) properly remarks that, if there were only 30 stadia between Cremna and Sagalassus, “it is hardly conceivable that Sandalium should be between them.” It is not conceivable at all; and Strabo's text, whatever fault there may be in it, clearly places Cremna at some distance from Sagalassus, and “the fort” is not Cremna.
But there is nothing in the passage of Strabo from which we can determine the distance between Sagalassus and Cremna, nor their relative position. Ptolemy (
5.5) mentions the Cremna Colonia, and according to him it is in the same longitude as Sagalassus. Arundell found a place called
Germè fifteen miles SSE. of the village of
Allahsún, which is near the ruins of Sagalassus.
There is a view of
Germè in Arundell‘s work.
It is a striking position, “a terrific precipice on three sides.” The ruins are described by Arundell.
There are the remains of a theatre, of temples, of a colonnade, and of what is supposed to be a triumphal arch. Most of the buildings seemed to be of the Roman period.
There is a story in Zosimus (1.69) of an Isaurian robber, named Lydius, who seized Cremna, a city of Lycia, as he calls it.
There is no doubt that he means the same place which Strabo does.
[
G.L]
