DIOCAESAREA
(Uzuncaburç) Cilicia, Turkey.
Originally the hieron of Olba, the town around the
temple was incorporated as a separate city, whose first
known coins were minted under Domitian but whose
foundation may have dated from ca. A.D. 72 when Vespasian made one province of Cilicia. The city's history,
subsequent to its separation, is virtually unknown. It may
also have been known by the native name of Prakana.
The temple town is located 23 km inland at a height
of 1000 m on an ancient road, paved in Roman times,
which led N from Seleucia ad Calycadnum, and from
the temple NW to modern Mağara (Kirobaşi), thence
probably W to Claudiopolis (Mut) and over the Tauros
to Laranda (Karaman). There are heroa along the road,
those around Imbriogōn Komē perhaps belonging to
Seleucia, one grave tower at Ovacik, ca. 9 km S-SE of
Uzuncaburç, probably to Olba or Diocaesarea. Guarding
the road about halfway up to the temple are watch towers and behind them a fort (Meydan Kalesi), probably
built in the Hellenistic period to defend the territory of
Olba. Diocaesarea and Olba are connected by a road
marked by Roman milestones, the earliest dating from
A.D. 75-76, others from 197 and ca. 308. How the two
cities were separated and what area each controlled is
not known. On imperial coinage both claimed to be
metropolis of the Kennateis, apparently the name of the
local tribe. Both also claimed to be metropolis of Cetis,
probably Rough Cilicia, referring to the time when Olba
was capital of the country, then called Pirindu.
The city lies in a flat area among low hills. It was
walled, its area roughly oval in shape, ca. 700 m E-W,
500 m N-S. Houses of the modern town are scattered
around the site. The most conspicuous remains are those
of the temple and a great tower. The priests of the Temple of Zeus at Olba claimed that the temple was founded
by Ajax, the son of Teucer, the hero of the Trojan war,
who founded Salamis in Cyprus. At present there is no
evidence to confirm or deny early settlement of any sort
in this upland area, or an early shrine on this spot. The
temple, the earliest datable monument in the city, is
peripteral, Corinthian in style, the stylobate 33.70 x
21.20 m, 6 x 12 columns, all of which save three are
standing at least in part, four with capitals in position.
The columns are faceted to about one-quarter of their
height, fluted above. Nothing remains of the interior
walls, although in 1958 the krepis of the temple was
cleared and apparently revealed something of the interior
arrangement. In Christian times the temple was converted
to a church, the columns tied with a wall, and the two
central columns of the E end removed to give space for
an apse. A high peribolos wall of regular ashlar masonry surrounds the temple except on the E. Cuttings for the
roof beams of a porch can be seen along the inner face
of the W peribolos wall. Here an inscription records the
repair by a later priest of the roof (or dwelling) of Zeus
Olbios, first built by Seleucus Nicator. What building is
referred to is not clear. A date of the early 3d c. B.C. has
generally been agreed on for the temple but the mid
2d c. has been suggested on stylistic grounds. The temple
was dedicated to Zeus, the Greek version of the native
weather god, to whom the sanctuary was no doubt originally dedicated. A coin of Septimius Severus minted at
Diocaesarea (Hill,
BMCCat, Lycaonia . . . , 72, pl. 12,
14) shows a bucranium in the pediment, Nikai (?) as
acroteria.
At the N edge of the city wall is a great tower of regular ashlar masonry, not quite preserved to the top, ca.
22.5 m high, about 12 x 16 m at the base, of S or 6
stories, divided into various rooms. There is a door on
the S side, and on the E a window with balcony on the
third floor. An inscription of the late 3d or early 2d c.
B.C. records its building by the priest Teucer, son of
Tarkyaris. Conspicuous inscriptions record a repair, possibly of the 3d c. A.D. Nothing more of the Hellenistic
city remains in place.
In the 1st c. A.D. the main streets were colonnaded.
One runs E-W along the N wall of the temple peribolos,
with many of the columns still standing. Across the street
just E of the temple are the remains of an ornamental
gateway consisting of two parallel rows, each of six columns, supporting an entablature. Five at the S end are
still standing. The central intercolumniation was spanned
by an arch continuing the line of the entablature. The
columns are unfluted, with Corinthian capitals, and have
consoles to support statues protruding from them. At the
W end of the street, near the city wall, are the remains
of a tychaion. A row of six unfluted, monolithic, granite
columns with Corinthian capitals, of which five still remain, stands at the E end of a long, narrow platform, at
the W end of which is a square cella, open to the E,
nearly 34 m away from the row of columns, which has
an architrave. The inscription on it, dating to the second
half of the 1st c. A.D., records the donation of the
tychaion to the city. East of the tychaion a colonnaded
street (no columns standing) leads N to a well preserved
triple arched gate in the city wall. On this is an inscription recording a complete repair (of the wall as well as
the gate?) under Arcadius and Honorius (A.D. 398-405).
The gate is probably of the 2d c. A.D.
The remains of the theater are to the E of the temple,
just S of the E-W street. The cavea is dug into the hill;
a considerable number of seats, a diazoma, and vomitorium are preserved. No remains of the scene building
are visible in place, but an architrave block probably
from the proscenium has an inscription to Lucius and
Marcus Verus, dated A.D. 164-65, perhaps the date of the
theater. The most noteworthy of the other remains in
the city is a long rectangular building of the Roman
period, perhaps a gymnasium, S of the temple. Outside
the city, crowning a round hill ca. 1 km to the S is a
grave tower, square in plan with shallow pilasters at the
corners, Doric capitals and entablature, and a stepped
pyramid above. This is generally considered to be the
tomb of one of the priests of the Hellenistic period.
Outside the city wall along the ancient road leading
to Mağara, and along a road leading NE from the city
are extensive cemeteries with rock-cut tombs and sarcophagi of the Roman and Christian periods. Besides the
temple church there are the remains of two other
churches, one of the 4th or 5th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Strab. 14.5.10; J. T. Bent, “Cilician
Symbols,”
CR 4 (1890) 321-22; id., “A Journey in Cilicia Tracheia,”
JHS 12 (1891) 221; E. L. Hicks, “Inscriptions from Western Cilicia,”
JHS 12 (1891) 262-69; R.
Heberdey & A. Wilhelm,
Reisen in Kilikien, DenkschrWien, Phil-Hist. Kl. 44, 6 (1896) 84-89; E. Herzfeld,
AA 24 (1909) 434-50; J. Keil & A. Wilhelm, “Vorlaufiger
Bericht über eine Reise in Kilikien,”
JOAI 18 (1915)
34-42; id.,
Denkmäler aus dem Rauhen Kilikien, MAMA
III (1931) 44-79
MPI; Y. Voysal,
Uzuncaburç ve Ura,
Milli Eğitim Bakaliği, Eski Eserler ye Müzerler Genel,
Müdürlüğü Yayinlardan, ser. 1 vol. 15 (1963)
P; T. S.
MacKay, “Olba in Rough Cilicia,” Diss. 1968
MI; C.
Börker, “Die Datierung des Zeus-temples von Olba-Diokaesereia,”
AA 86 (1971) 37-54
I.
T. S. MAC KAY