APAMEIA
APAMEIA -EA, or--IA (
Ἀπάμεια: Eth.
Ἀπαμεύς, Eth.
Apameensis, Eth.
Apamensis,Eth.
Apamenus, Eth.
Apameus）
1.
（
Kŭlat el-Mudîk), a large city of Syria, situated in the valley of the Orontes, and capital of the province of Apamene. (
Steph. B. sub voce Strab. xvi. p.752;
Ptol. 5.15.19; Festus Avienus, 5.1083; Anton. Itin.; Hierocles.)
It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicator, who gave it its name after his wife Apama (not his mother, as
Steph. B. sub voce asserts; comp. Strab. p. 578).
In pursuance of his policy of “Hellenizing” Syria, it bore the Macedonian name of Pella.
The fortress (see Groskurd's note on Strabo, p. 752) was placed upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence its other name of
Χερρόνησος. Seleucus had his commissariat there, 500 elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300 stallions.
The pretender, Tryphon Diodotus, made Apamea the basis of his operations. (Strab.
l.c.) Josephus (
J. AJ 14.3.2) relates, that Pompeius marching south from his winter quarters, probably at or near Antioch, razed the fortress of Apamea.
In the revolt of Syria under Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out for three years till the arrival of Cassius, B.C. 46. (Dion. Cass. 47.26--28; Joseph.
B. J. 1.10.10.)
In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place under the Arabic name of
Fâmieh, and was occupied by Tancred. (Wilken,
Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p. 474; Abulfeda,
Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.)
This name and site have been long forgotten in the country. Niebuhr heard that
Fâmieh was now called
Kŭlat el-Mudîk. (
Reise, vol. iii. p. 97.) And Burckhardt (
Travels, p. 138) found the castle of this name not far from the lake
El Takah; and fixes upon it as the site of Apamea.
Ruins of a highly ornamental character, and of an enormous extent, are still standing, the remains, probably, of the temples of which Sozomen speaks (7.15); part of the town is enclosed in an ancient castle situated on a hill; the remainder is to be found in the plain.
In the adjacent lake are the celebrated black fish, the source of much wealth. [
E.B.J]
2.
A city in Mesopotamia. Stephanus (s. v.
Ἀπάμεια) describes Apameia as in the territory of the Meseni, “and surrounded by the Tigris, at which place, that is Apameia, or it may mean, in which country, Mesene, the Tigris is divided; on the right part there flows round a river Sellas, and on the left the Tigris, having the same name with the large one.” It does not appear what writer he is copying; but it may be Arrian. Pliny (
6.27) says of the Tigris, “that around Apameia, a town of Mesene, on this side of the Babylonian Seleuceia, 125 miles, the Tigris being divided into two channels, by one channel it flows to the south and to Seleuceia, washing all along Mesene; by the other channel, turning to the north at the back of the same nation (Mesene), it divides the plains called Cauchae: when the waters have united again, the river is called Pasitigris.” There was a place near Seleuce called Coche (
Amm. Marc. 24.5, and the notes of Valesius and Lindebrog) ; and the site of Seleuceia is below
Bagdad. These are the only points in the description that are certain.
It seems difficult to explain the passage of Pliny, or to determine the probable site of Apameia.
It cannot be at
Korna, as some suppose, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, for both Stephanus and Pliny place Apameia at the point where the Tigris is divided. Pliny places Digba at
Korna, “in ripa Tigris circa confluentes,” --at the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
But Pliny has another Apameia (6.31), which was surrounded by the Tigris; and he places it in Sittacene.
It received the name of Apameia from the mother of Antiochus Soter, the first of the Seleucidae. Pliny adds: “haec dividitur Archoo,” as if a stream flowed through the town. D'Anville (
L'Esuphrate et le Tigre) supposes that this Apameia was at the point where the
Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris. D'Anville places the bifurcation near
Samarrah, and there he puts Apameia. But Lynch (
London Geog. Journal, vol. ix. p. 473) shows that the
Dijeil branched off near
Jibbarah, a little north of 34° N. lat.
He supposes that the
Dijeil once swept the end of the Median wall and flowed between it and
Jibbarah. Somewhere, then, about this place Apameia may have been, for this point of the bifurcation of the Tigris is one degree of latitude N. of Seleuceia, and if the course of the river is measured, it will probably be not far from the distance which Pliny gives (cxxv. M. P.). The Mesene then was between the Tigris and the
Dijeil; or a tract called Mesene is to be placed there.
The name Sellas in Stephanus is probably corrupt, and the last editor of Stephanus may have done wrong in preferring it to the reading Delas, which is nearer the name
Dijeil. Pliny may mean the same place Apameia in both the extracts that have been given; though some suppose that he is speaking of two different places.
3.
In Osrhoëne, a town on the left bank of the Euphrates opposite to Zeugma, founded by Seleucus Nicator. (
Plin. Nat. 5.21.)
A bridge of boats kept up a communication between Zeugma and Apameia.
The place is now
Rum-kala.
4.
（
Medania, Mutania), in Bithynia, was originally called
Μύρλεια (
Steph. B. sub voce Ἀπάμεια), and was a colony from Colophon. (
Plin. Nat. 5.32.) Philip of Macedonia, the father of Perseus, took the town, as it appears, during the war which he carried on against the king of Pergamus, and he gave the place to Prusias, his ally, king of Bithynia. Prusias gave to Myrlea, which thus became a Bithynian town, the name of his wife Apameia.
The place was on the S. coast of the Gulf of Cius, and NW. of Prusa. The Romans made Apameia a, colony, apparently not earlier than the time of Augustus, or perhaps Julius Caesar; the epigraph on the coins of the Roman period contains the title Julia.
The coins of the period before the Roman dominion have the epigraph
Ἀπαμέων Μυρλεάνων. Pliny (
Plin. Ep. 10.56), when governor of Bithynia, asked for the directions of Trajan, as to a claim made by this colonia, not to have their accounts of receipts and expenditure examined by the Roman governor. From a passage of Ulpian (
Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 11) we learn the form Apamena: “est in Bithynia colonia Apamena.”
[p. 1.153]
5.
（
ἡ Κιβωτός), a town of Phrygia, built near Celaenae by Antiochus Soter, and named after his mother Apama. Strabo (p. 577) says, that “the town lies at the source (
ἐκβολαῖς) of the Marsyas, and the river flows through the middle of the city, having its origin in the city, and being carried down to the suburbs with a violent and precipitous current it joins the Maeander.” This passage may not be free from corruption, but it is not improved by Groskurd's emendation (
German Transl. of Strabo, vol. ii. p. 531). Strabo observes that the Maeander receives, before its junction with the Marsyas, a stream called Orgas, which flows gently through a level country [
MAEANDER].
This rapid stream is called Catarrhactes by Herodotus (
7.26).
The site of Apameia is now fixed at
Denair, where there is a river corresponding to Strabo's description (Hamilton,
Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 499). Leake (
Asia Minor, p. 156, &c.) has collected the ancient testimonies as to Apameia. Arundell (
Discoveries, &c., vol. i. p. 201) was the first who clearly saw that Apameia must be at
Denair; and his conclusions are confirmed by a Latin inscription which he found on the fragment of a white marble, which recorded the erection of some monument at Apameia by the negotiatores resident there. Hamilton copied several Greek inscriptions at
Denair (Appendix, vol. ii.).
The name Cibotus appears on some coins of Apameia, and it has been conjectured that it was so called from the wealth that was collected in this great emporium; for
κιβωτός is a chest or coffer. Pliny (
5.29) says that it was first Celaenae, then Cibotus, and then Apameia; which cannot be quite correct, because Celaenae was a different place from Apameia, though near it.
But there may have been a place on the site of Apameia, which was called Cibotus.
There are the remains of a theatre and other ancient ruins at
Denair.
When Strabo wrote Apameia was a place of great trade in the Roman province of Asia, next in importance to Ephesus. Its commerce was owing to its position on the great road to Cappadocia, and it was also the centre of other roads. When Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia, B.C. 51, Apameia was within his jurisdiction (
ad Fam. 13.67), but the dioecesis, or conventus, of Apameia was afterwards attached to the province of Asia. Pliny enumerates six towns which belonged to the conventus of Apameia, and he observes that there were nine others of little note.
The country about Apameia has been shaken by earthquakes, one of which is recorded as having happened in the time of Claudius (
Tac. Ann. 12.58); and on this occasion the payment of taxes to the Romans was remitted for five years. Nicolaus of Damascus (
Athen. p. 332) records a violent earthquake at Apameia at a previous date, during the Mithridatic war: lakes appeared where none were before, and rivers and springs; and many which existed before disappeared. Strabo (p. 579) speaks of this great catastrophe, and of other convulsions at an earlier period. Apameia continued to be a prosperous town under the Roman empire, and is enumerated by Hierocles among the episcopal cities of Pisidia, to which division it had been transferred.
The bishops of Apameia sat in the councils of Nicaea. Arundell contends that Apameia, at an early period in the history of Christianity, had a church, and he confirms this opinion by the fact of there being the ruins of a Christian church there.
It is probable enough that Christianity was early established here, and even that St. Paul visited the place, for he went throughout Phrygia.
But the mere circumstance of the remains of a church at Apameia proves nothing as to the time when Christianity was established there.
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| COIN OF APAMEIA, IN PHRYGIA. |
6.
A city of Parthia, near Rhagae (
Rey). Rhagae was 500 stadia from the Caspiae Pylae. (Strab. p. 513.) Apameia was one of the towns built in these parts by the Greeks after the Macedonian conquests in Asia.
It seems to be the same Apameia which is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus (
23.6). [
G.L]
