CHOMA
(Hacimusalar) Lycia, Turkey.
The
site, 14.5 km SW of Elmali, is first mentioned by Pliny
(
HN 5.101), then by Ptolemy and Hierokles and in the
Byzantine bishop lists. In the 2d c. A.D. it received 7000
denarii from Opramoas of Rhodiapolis for a stoa and a
Temple of the Augusti. Its character as a genuine Lycian
city in the Classical period is proved by a rock tomb
with inscription in the Lycian language in the hills a
few miles to the W. It was probably included in the
Lycian League in the 1st c. A.D.; the earliest coins, of the
1st c. B.C., were of nonfederal type. Otherwise coinage
is confined to Gordian III.
The site was identified in 1963 on the strength of a
number of inscriptions. The name alludes evidently to
the mound, low but conspicuous in the flat plain, about
0.8 km from the present village. The river Aedesa, mentioned by Pliny (
HN 5.101), is clearly the modern Akçay. Nothing whatever of the ancient city remains standing, either on the mound or in the neighborhood, and
there are no tombs to be seen. The remnants of antiquity
consist merely of sherds and ancient blocks in the villages
of Hacimusalar and Sarilar.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. E. Bean & R. M. Harrison in JRS
(1967) 40-44; Bean,
Journeys in Northern Lycia 1965-1967 (
Österreichische Akademie Denkschriften 104,
1971) 22-23.
G. E. BEAN
