Alabanda

Alabanda
Ἀλάβανδα (in Ancient Greek)
	Remains of Alabanda's bouleuterion
	Shown within Turkey
Alternative name	Antiochia of the Chrysaorians
Location	Doğanyurt, Aydın Province, Turkey
Region	Caria
Coordinates	37°35′30″N 27°59′08″E / 37.59167°N 27.98556°E
Type	Settlement

Alabanda (Ancient Greek: Ἀλάβανδα) or Antiochia of the Chrysaorians was a city of ancient Caria, Anatolia, the site of which is near Doğanyurt, Çine, Aydın Province, Turkey.

The city is located in the saddle between two heights. The area is noted for its dark marble and for gemstones that resembled garnets. Stephanus of Byzantium claims that there were two cities named Alabanda (Alabandeus) in Caria, but no other ancient source corroborates this.

History

According to legend, the city was founded by the Carian hero Alabandus. In the Carian language, the name is a combination of the words for horse ala and victory banda. On one occasion, Herodotus mentions Alabanda being located in Phrygia, instead of in Caria, but in fact the same city were meant.^[1] Amyntas, son of the Persian official Bubares and grandson of the Macedonian King Amyntas, received control of the city from King Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BC).^[2]^[3]

In the early Seleucid period, the city was part of the Chrysaorian League, a loose federation of nearby cities linked by economic and defensive ties and, perhaps, by ethnic ties. The city was renamed Antiochia of the Chrysaorians in honor of Seleucid king Antiochus III who preserved the city's peace. It was captured by Philip V of Macedon in 201 BC. The name reverted to Alabanda after the Seleucid defeat at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC. The Romans occupied the city shortly thereafter.

According to Cicero in Greece they worshiped a number of deified human beings, at Alabanda there was Alabandus.^[4]

In 40 BC, the rebel Quintus Labienus at the head of a Parthian army took the city. After Labienus's garrison was slaughtered by the city's inhabitants, the Parthian army stripped the city of its treasures. Under the Roman Empire, the city became a conventus (Pliny, V, xxix, 105) and Strabo reports on its reputation for high-living and decadence. The city minted its own coins down to the mid-third century. During the Byzantine Empire, the city was a created a bishopric.

The ruins of Alabanda are 8 km west of Çine and consist of the remains of a theatre and a number of other buildings, but excavations have yielded very few inscriptions.

Ecclesiastical history

The names of some bishops of Alabanda are known because of their participation in church councils. Thus Theodoret was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Constantine at the Trullan Council in 692, another Constantine at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and John at the Photian Council of Constantinople (879). The names of two non-orthodox bishops of the see are also known: Zeuxis, who was deposed for Monophysitism in 518, and Julian, who was bishop from around 558 to around 568 and was a Jacobite.^[5]^[6] No longer a residential diocese, Alabanda is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.^[7]^[8]

Notable people

Aridolis, tyrant of Alabanda during the Second Persian invasion of Greece
Amyntas, tyrant of Alabanda and grandson of Amyntas I
Leon of Alabanda (Λέων), a Greek rhetorician and writer^[9]
Apollonius the Effeminate, a Greek rhetorician
Menecles of Alabanda (Μενεκλῆς), a Greek rhetorician, brother of Hierocles^[10]
Hierocles of Alabanda (Ἱεροκλῆς), a Greek rhetorician, brother of Menecles^[10]
Apollonius Molon, a Greek rhetorician
Apaturius, a Greek scene-painter
Menedemus of Alabanda (Μενέδημος), a Greek general who participated at the Battle of Raphia

Bishops

Theodoret (mentioned in 451)
Zeuxis (? – 518 deposed) (Monophysite)
Julian (about 558 – about 568) (Jacobite)^[11]
Constantine (mentioned in 692)
Constantine II (mentioned in 787)
John (mentioned in 879)
Saba (9th–10th century)
Nicephorus (11th century)
Anonymous (mentioned 11th century)
William O'Carroll, (February 3, 1874 – October 13, 1880)^[12]^[13]^[14]
Rocco Leonasi (March 30, 1882 – March 14, 1883)
Giuseppe Francica-Nava de Bontifè (August 9, 1883 – May 24)
Nicola Lorusso (June 23, 1890 – June 8, 1891)
John Brady (June 19, 1891 – January 6, 1910)
Joseph Lang (February 26, 1915 – 1 November 1924)
François Chaize,(May 12, 1925 – February 23, 1949)
José María García Grain,(March 10, 1949 – May 27, 1959)
Michel Ntuyahaga (June 11, 1959 – November 10, 1959
James William Malone (January 2, 1960 – May 2, 1968)

Bibliography

Turkey: The Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts, Blue Guides ISBN 978-0-393-30489-3, pp. 349–50.
J. Ma, Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor, ISBN 978-0-19-815219-4, p. 175

External links

References

^ BEAN, G.E. "ALABANDA (Araphisar) Caria, Turkey". perseus.tufts.edu. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Retrieved 18 September 2016. Herodotos describes Alabanda in one case as in Caria, in the other as in Phrygia, but there is no doubt that the same city is meant.
^ Roisman & Worthington 2010, p. 136.
^ Briant 2002, p. 350.
^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum. "In Greece they worship a number of deified human beings, Alabandus at Alabanda, Tennes at Tenedos, Leucothea, formerly Ino, and her son Palaemon throughout the whole of Greece."
^ Michel Le Quien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 909-910
^ Sophrone Pétridès, v. Alabanda, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. I, Paris 1909, col. 1285
^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 828
^ Vincenzo Ruggiari, A historical Addendum to the episcopal Lists of Caria, in Revue des études byzantines, Année 1996, Volume 54, Numéro 54, pp. 221–234 (in particular p. 232)
^ Suda, lambda, 266
^ ^a ^b CICERO, DE ORATORE, 26
^ Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Volume I, coll. 909–910.
^ Alabanda at catholic-hierarchy.org.
^ /t0083.htm Alabanda at GCatholic.org.
^ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 447.

Sources

Briant, Pierre (2002). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1575061207.
Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian, eds. (2010). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-1-44-435163-7.