Pessinus was a city in
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
, the Asian part of
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
on the upper course of the river Sakarya River (Sangarios), from which the mythological King Midas is said to have ruled a greater
PhrygiaIn antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
n realm. The city has been proven to have been in existence as far back as 700 BC.
Pessinus, the present village Ballıhisar is situated at 13 km from
SivrihisarSivrihisar is a town and district of Eskişehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 31,583 of which 10,574 live in the town of Sivrihisar...
a small town on the road
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
-
EskişehirEskişehir is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. According to the 2008 census, the population of the district was 614,247; of which 599,796 live in the city of Eskişehir. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it...
at the junction with the road to Afyon-
İzmirİzmir, historically Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the seat of İzmir Province, which has an area of 7350 km
2...
, at 120 km SW of
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
.
Pessinus was the mythological capital of King Midas, the ruler who wished for everything that he touched be turned into gold, and who was, in the myth, the founder of the temple of
CybeleCybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother...
, Midas’s mother.
Pessinus was a city in
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
, the Asian part of
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
on the upper course of the river Sakarya River (Sangarios), from which the mythological King Midas is said to have ruled a greater
PhrygiaIn antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
n realm. The city has been proven to have been in existence as far back as 700 BC.
Pessinus, the present village Ballıhisar is situated at 13 km from
SivrihisarSivrihisar is a town and district of Eskişehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 31,583 of which 10,574 live in the town of Sivrihisar...
a small town on the road
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
-
EskişehirEskişehir is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. According to the 2008 census, the population of the district was 614,247; of which 599,796 live in the city of Eskişehir. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it...
at the junction with the road to Afyon-
İzmirİzmir, historically Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the seat of İzmir Province, which has an area of 7350 km
2...
, at 120 km SW of
AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
.
History
Pessinus was the mythological capital of King Midas, the ruler who wished for everything that he touched be turned into gold, and who was, in the myth, the founder of the temple of
CybeleCybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother...
, Midas’s mother. Cybele is the mother of the Gods in the Phrygian tradition and her importance is the reason for the existence of Pessinus.
Following the conquests of
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
and the settlement of the
TolistobogiiTolistobogii is the name used by the Roman historian, Livy, for one of the three ancient Celtic tribes of Galatia in central Asia Minor, together with the Trocmi and Tectosages. Other authors referring to the same tribe use Tolistobogioi, Tolistobōgioi, Tolistoboioi, Tolistobioi, and...
, a Celtic tribe, around Pessinus and Gordium in the 270s BC, the city became a major
HellenisticHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era till Late Antiquity...
center in the region of
GalatiaAncient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia, an ancient region of Asia Minor, was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC...
. The
SeleucidsThe Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic empire, i.e. a successor state of Alexander the Great's empire. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East and at the height of its power included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan...
defeated the Celts, but the region was eventually lost by
Antiochus HieraxAntiochus Hierax , so called from his grasping and ambitious character, was a separatist ruler of the Greek Seleucid kingdom, the younger son of Antiochus II and Laodice I, Seleucid king of Syria...
to the
AttalidThe Attalid dynasty was a Hellenistic dynasty that ruled the city of Pergamon after the death of Lysimachus, a general of Alexander the Great. The Attalid kingdom was the rump state left after the collapse of the Lysimachian Empire. One of Lysimachus' officers, Philetaerus, took control of the city...
Kingdom of PergamonThe Kingdom of Pergamon was an Hellenistic kingdom founded by Attalus I in the 3rd century BC. The kingdom gradually expanded and reached its peak in 188 BC, after the Treaty of Apamea. In 133 BC, King Attalus III bequeathed the kingdom to the Roman people....
. In 133 BC,
Attalus IIIAttalus III Philometor Euergetes was the last Attalid king of Pergamon, ruling from 138 BC to 133 BC.He was the son of Eumenes II and wife Stratonike and the nephew of Attalus II, whom he succeeded...
bequeathed his kingdom, and Pessinus with it, to
RomeThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
.
Roman involvement in Pessinus however had earlier roots. In 205 BC, alarmed by a number of meteor showers during the ongoing
Second Punic WarThe Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, who had three warring conflicts against each...
, the Romans, after consulting the
Sibylline BooksThe Sibylline Books or Libri Sibyllini were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and consulted at momentous crises through the history of the Republic and the Empire...
, decided to introduce the cult of the Great Mother of Ida (
Magna Mater Idaea, also known as
CybeleCybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother...
) to the city. They sought the aid of their ally Attalus I, and following his instructions, they went to Pessinus and removed the goddess' most important image, a large black stone that was said to have fallen from the sky, to Rome.
The stone was first placed in the Temple of
VictoryIn Roman mythology, Victoria was the personification/Goddess of victory. She is the Roman version of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill. Her name means victory.Unlike the Greek...
on the
Palatine HillThe Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city...
, but in 191 BC a new sanctuary was built for the goddess on the summit of the
Palatine HillThe Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city...
, one of the most sacred places in Rome. Along with the black stone, a throne was brought to Rome. The throne was destroyed twice by fire in 111 BC and 3 AD, both times being restored, in the latter case by the emperor Augustus.
Roman culture emerged in Pessinus again around 45 AD, when the Emperor
ClaudiusTiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death in AD 54...
sold the temple-state to the Galatian
tetrarchTetrarch can refer to:* one of the four co-emperors of the Roman Empire under the Tetrarchy.* minor provincial rulers of a territory divided in four parts:...
Brogitarus. This was a fundraising tactic used by the Roman emperors, starting with
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
around 45 BC.
Christianity reached the area in the 3rd century, and gradually, the temple was abandoned, although the emperor
Julian the ApostateFlavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian, Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher , was Roman Emperor , last of the Constantinian dynasty...
made a pilgrimage there. In ca. 398, Pessinus was established as the capital of the newly-established
provinceIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italian peninsula...
of
Galatia SalutarisGalatia was the name of a province of the Roman empire in Anatolia . It was established by the first emperor, Augustus , in 25 BC, covering most of the region of the same name, with capital at Ancyra....
, and became the seat of the a
metropolitan bishopIn Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital...
. Under
Justinian IFlavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ; AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death...
, it was renamed to
Ioustinianoupolis, a name which continued to be occasionally used for a long time. The region later became part of the
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
Anatolic ThemeThe Anatolic Theme , more properly the Theme of the Anatolics was a Byzantine theme in central Asia Minor...
. In late 715 AD, the city of Pessinus was destroyed by an Arab raid, along with the neighboring city Orkistos. The area remained under Byzantine control until lost to the Seljuk Turks in the latter 11th century, after which Pessinus became an inconspicuous mountain village at 900m height, gradually getting depopulated since it was fully protected.
The last constructions from Antiquity were pulled down in the 19th century, but archeologists from the
Ghent UniversityGhent University is one of the three large Flemish universities. It is located in the historic town of Ghent in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium...
,
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
, have been digging there since 1967, and have unearthed the ancient temple of Cybele and many other buildings, such as a theatre and bath houses.
The Kybele Archaeological Culture Center, located in Ballihisar Village of Eskişehir's Sivrihisar district, has on display artifacts dating to the Phrygian and Roman eras from the ancient city of Pessinus.
Sources and references
- Pessinus at www.archaeology.ugent.be
- Westermann Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte
- De Standaard (Flemish newspaper, Dutch language) August 9, 2005
- Pauly-Wissowa
The Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, commonly called the Pauly–Wissowa or simply RE, is a German encyclopedia of classical scholarship. With its supplements it comprises well over a hundred volumes....
- Cambridge Ancient History, vols. VII, VIII, IX, XI, and XIII
- Ghent University website
- JSTOR