Apamea (Phrygia)

Apamea Cibotus, Apamea ad Maeandrum (on the Maeander), Apamea or Apameia (Ancient Greek: Ἀπάμεια, Ancient Greek: κιβωτός) was an ancient city in Anatolia founded in the 3rd century BC by Antiochus I Soter, who named it after his mother Apama. It was in Hellenistic Phrygia, but became part of the Roman province of Pisidia. It was near, but on lower ground than, Celaenae (Kelainai).

Geography

The site is now partly occupied by the city of Dinar (sometimes locally known also as Geyikler, "the gazelles," perhaps from a tradition of the Persian hunting-park, seen by Xenophon at Celaenae), which by 1911 was connected with İzmir by railway; there are considerable remains, including a theater and a great number of important Graeco-Roman inscriptions. Strabo (p. 577) says, that the town lies at the source (ekbolais) 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 after the latter is joined by the Orgas (called the Catarrhactes by Herodotus, vii. 26).

Phrygia

In antiquity, Phrygia (/ˈfrɪdʒiə/; Greek: Φρυγία, Ancient Greek: [pʰryɡía], Turkish: Frigya) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, centered on the Sakarya River.

During the heroic age of Greek mythology, several legendary kings were Phrygians: Gordias whose Gordian Knot would later be cut by Alexander the Great, Midas who turned whatever he touched to gold, and Mygdon who warred with the Amazons. According to Homer's Iliad, the Phrygians were close allies of the Trojans and participants in the Trojan War against the Achaeans. Phrygian power reached its peak in the late 8th century BC under another, historical, king: Midas, who dominated most of western and central Anatolia and rivaled Assyria and Urartu for power in eastern Anatolia. This later Midas was, however, also the last independent king of Phrygia before its capital Gordium was sacked by Cimmerians around 695 BC. Phrygia then became subject to Lydia, and then successively to Persia, Alexander and his Hellenistic successors, Pergamon, Rome and Byzantium. Phrygians were gradually assimilated into other cultures by the early medieval era, and after the Turkish conquest of Anatolia the name Phrygia passed out of usage as a territorial designation.

Phrygia (name)

For the region, see Phrygia

Phrygia was a daughter of Cecrops, from whom the country of Phrygia was believed to have derived its name.

Phrygia is also an epithet for Cybele, as the goddess who was worshipped above all others in Phrygia, and as a surname of Athena on account of the Palladium which was brought from Phrygia.

Phrygia was also a feminine personal name attested in ancient Athens, since ca. 500 BC

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.