CELAENAE
CELAENAE (
Κελαιναί: Eth.
Κελαινεύς), a city of Phrygia. Strabo (p. 577) says that the Maeander rises in a hill Celaenae, on which there was a city of the same name as the hill, the inhabitants of which were removed to Apameia. [
APAMEIA No. 5.] Hamilton, who visited the source (
Researches, &c. vol. i. p. 499), says that “at the base of a rocky cliff a considerable stream of water gushes out with great rapidity.” This source of the Marsyas, and the cliff above it, may have been within the city of Celaenae; but it did not appear to Hamilton that this cliff could be the acropolis of Celaenae which Alexander considered to be impregnable (Arrian.
Anab. 1.29;
Curt. 3.1), and came to terms with the inhabitants.
He supposes that the acropolis may have been further to the NE., a lofty hill about a mile from the ravine of the Marsyas (vol. ii. p. 366).
Herodotus speaks of Celaenae in describing the march of Xerxes to Sardis (B.C. 481).
He says (7.26) that the sources of the Maeander are here,
[p. 1.580]and those of a stream not less than the Maeander: it is named Catarrhactes, and, rising in the Agora of Celaenae, flows into the Maeander. Xenophon, in describing the march of Cyrus (
Anab. 1.2.7), says that Cyrus had a palace at Celaenae, and a large park, full of wild animals; the Maeander flowed through the park, and also through the city, its source being in the palace.
There was also a palace of the Persian king at Celaenae, a strong place, at the source of the Marsyas, under the acropolis; and the Marsyas also flows through the city, and joins the Maeander.
The sources of the Marsyas were in a cave, and the width of the river was 25 feet; within Celaenae perhaps he means. The Catarrhactes of Herodotus is clearly the Marsyas of Xenophon, and the stream which Hamilton describes, who adds, “it appeared as if it had formerly risen in the centre of a great cavern, and that the surrounding rocks had fallen in from the cliffs above.” The descriptions of Herodotus and Xenophon, though not the same, are perhaps not inconsistent.
The town, palaces, acropolis, and parks of Celaenae must have occupied a large surface. In Livy's description (38.13), the Maeander rises in the acropolis of Celaenae, and runs through the middle of the city; and the Marsyas, which rises not far from the sources of the Maeander, joins the Maeander. When the people of Celaenae were removed to the neighboring site of Apameia Cibotus, they probably took the materials of the old town with them. Strabo's description of the position of Apameia is not free from difficulty. Leake thinks that it clearly appears from Strabo that both the rivers (Marsyas and Maeander) ran through Celaenae, and that they united in the suburb, which afterwards became the new city Apameia.
It is certain that Celaenae was near Apameia, the site of which is well fixed. [
APAMEIA No. 5.]
It was an unlucky guess of Strabo (p. 579), and a bad piece of etymology, to suggest that Celaenae night take its name from the dark colour of the rocks, in consequence of their being burnt. But Hamilton observed that all the rocks are, “without exception, of a greyish white or cream-coloured limestone.” The rock which overhangs the sources of the Marsyas contains many nummulites, and broken fragments of other bivalve shells.
[
G.L]
