GAGAI
(Aktaş) Lycia, Turkey.
About 11
km SE of Kumluca. First mentioned by pseudo-Skylax in
the 4th c. B.C. The foundation was attributed to Rhodes;
according to the story certain Rhodian sailors arriving in
Lycia called out “ga, ga,” either as a request to the natives for land or on sighting land in a storm; they then
founded a city and called it Gagai. Opramoas of Rhodiapolis bestowed on Gagai 8000 denarii and undertook to
pay for baths and certain oracular shrines; of these latter
nothing is heard elsewhere. The coinage includes Hellenistic issues of Lycian League type and imperial issues
under Gordian III.
The ruins are not abundant. The acropolis hill is on
two levels; apart from a fort on the upper level, all the
walls and buildings are of late date. There are no Lycian
tombs. At the N foot of the hill is a small theater, poorly
preserved. A single inscription has been found on the
site, an honorific decree for a Gagatan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T.A.B. Spratt & E. Forbes,
Travels in
Lycia (1847) I 183-87.
G. E. BEAN
