LO´RYMA
LO´RYMA (
τὰ Λόρυμα), a small fortified place with a port, close to Cape Cynossema, on the western-most point of the Rhodian Chersonesus, in Caria. Its harbour was about 20 Roman miles distant from Rhodes. (
Liv. 37.17,
45.10 ;
Steph. B. sub voce Plin. Nat. 5.29;
Ptol. 5.2.11;
Thuc. 8.43; Senec.
Quaest. Nat. 3.19 ; Appian,
App. BC 4.72.) Strabo (
xiv. p.652) applies the name Loryma to the whole of the rocky district, without mentioning the town. The Larumna of Mela (1.16) and the Lorimna of the Tab. Peut. perhaps refer to Loryma, although it is also possible that they may be identical with a place called Larymna mentioned by Pliny in the same district. Leake (
Asia Minor, p. 223) regards the ruins in the west of
Port Aplotheca as belonging to the ancient town of Loryma.
These ruins are seen on the spur of a hill at the south-western entrance of the port; the town was long and narrow, running from, west to east; on each of its long sides there are still visible six or seven square towers, and one large round one at each end : the round tower at the east end is completely demolished.
The walls are pre, served almost to their entire height, and built in the best style, of large square blocks of limestone. Towards the harbour, in the north, the town had no gate, and on the south side alone there appear three rather narrow entrances.
In the interior no remains of buildings are discernible, the ground consisting of the bare rock, whence it is evident that the place was not a town, but only a fort. Sculptures and inscriptions have not been found either within or outside the fort, but several tombs with bare stelae, and some ruins, exist in the valley at the head of the harbour. (Ross,
Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. iv. pp. 46, &c.)
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L.S]
