City History

Location of Priene - History and Research History

Location of the City The ruins of the city of Priene are located in the southern part of the Ionia Region, which covers central Western Anatolia according to the ancient geographical division of Anatolia, at the southern foot of Mount Mykale, known today as Mount Samsun. According to the administrative division of the Republic of Turkey, Priene is located within the boundaries of Güllübahçe Neighborhood, Söke District, Aydın Province. The Mykale Mountain Range, extending east-west, defines the northern natural border of the ancient city's territory. The tip of the peninsula forming the western end of the Mykale Mountain Range was within the territory of Samos, including the boundaries encompassing the ancient city of Thebai. Therefore, it is possible to say that the ancient city of Thebai, whose ruins are located on the hill northwest of the Doğanbey neighborhood today, formed the western border of Priene's territory. The lands within the territory of another Ionian city, Magnesia ad Maeandrum, located northeast of Priene, defined the city's eastern and northeastern borders. To the southeast, the city's lands extended as far as the territory of Myus. The Latmos Gulf to the south formed a natural border for the city's territory. Important ancient centers neighboring Priene include Ephesus to the north, Magnesia ad Maeandrum to the east, and Miletus and Didyma to the south. This region is a geography dominated by the Great Menderes River, formerly known as Maiandros. The ancient city, whose ruins have survived to the present day, rises on terraces on the northern edge of the large alluvial plain formed by this river. The region's temperate climate, the fertile lands of the alluvial plain within the city's territorium, and its proximity to the sea, which made it a favorable location for regional and overseas trade, undoubtedly influenced the choice of this area for the city that would be reestablished in the mid-4th century BC. However, the geographical changes associated with the alluvial deposits carried by the Great Menderes were perhaps the most important factor determining the fate of the city's settlement history. As a result of the aforementioned alluvial accumulation, the coastline gradually shifted westward, and the city, which was initially located near the northern coast of the Latmos Gulf, lost this characteristic over the centuries. In this context, it should be imagined that the area now called the "Söke Plain" was a bay in ancient times, with cities such as Miletus, Myus, and Herakleia ad Latmos located on its shores. It was widely believed that New Priene, founded in the mid-4th century BC, was located well inland from the coast even at the time of its founding and was connected to the sea via another port city called Naulokhos. However, recent research has also suggested that the city was a port city during the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. The ancient writer Strabo (63 BC – 23 AD) also states that Priene, which was originally a port city on the coast, became an inland city as a result of the floods and alluvial deposits of the Great Menderes River.p>

The history of the city of Priene can be examined in two parts, based on the city's relocation during a specific period. Priene, one of the twelve Ionian cities mentioned by ancient writers and founded around the end of the 10th century BC, was located in a different area from its current location. Moreover, despite approximately 125 years of systematic excavations and research in the ancient city, no archaeological finds dating to a period earlier than the Late Classical Period have been discovered. Therefore, "Old Priene" (the city of the Archaic and Classical periods) must have been located in a different place from the city whose ruins we see today. The relocation of cities to another area for similar reasons is a common occurrence in the Ancient Period. Another example of this situation is the relocation of Ephesus, another Ionian city, due to the silting up of the old city's harbor by the alluvial deposits of the Küçük Menderes River.

History of Ancient (First) Priene

The location of Ancient Priene has not yet been determined. According to Strabo and Pausanias, it was founded by Ionian settlers led by Aipytos, son of Neleus of Pylos, and Theban settlers led by Philotas, and the land on which the city was built was taken from the Carians. Strabo also states that during this migration, the indigenous peoples of the region, the Carians and Leleges, were forced to flee to the interior and take refuge in the inner parts of Caria. Writers such as Herodotus and Strabo provide information that Priene was one of the twelve cities in the Ionian League. The center of this religious-political union, united under the Cult of Poseidon Helikonios, was the Sacred Precinct of Poseidon at Panionion. The administration of this sacred precinct passed to Priene after the destruction of the neighboring city of Mellie. Strabo states that the rituals at the annual religious festivals of the Ionians were performed by Prienean priests. The symbol of the god Poseidon depicted on Priene coins from the Hellenistic period, the trident (three-pronged fork), shows that this cult was still important for Priene at that time. It can be seen that the Ionia Region, in which Priene was located, came under the rule of the Lydian Kingdom from the second half of the 7th century BC. Herodotus recounts that Ardys, son of Gyges, one of the kings of the Mermnad Dynasty ruling the Lydian Kingdom at that time, captured Priene. It is said that Priene was besieged during the reign of another Lydian king, Alyattes, who lifted the siege after being deceived by the political maneuvers of the famous statesman Bias. The period when Ionia came under Lydian rule, coinciding with the beginning of the Persian Empire's dominance in the region, approximately between 620 and 546 BC, was a golden age for science and philosophy. Writers such as Strabo and Diogenes state that Bias, considered one of the Seven Sages of the Ancient World who lived during this period, was a native of Priene. Bias's position as an advisor in his dialogues with Lydian kings such as Alyattes and Croesus, and the respect he earned from these kings, demonstrate that he was a figure of international renown during his lifetime. After the Lydians were defeated by the Persians in 546/545 BC, the cities of Western Anatolia also fell under the rule of the Persian Empire one after another. Cities that did not accept this rule, such as Priene, were destroyed and their people enslaved. Prienewith twelve ships. With the defeat of the Ionian League by the Persians in the Battle of Lade in 494 BC, Priene must have been punished like other allied cities. The only archaeological evidence of ancient Priene is an electrum coin dating from around the time of the Ionian Revolt, featuring the helmeted head of Athena, the city's main goddess, on its obverse.

Simultaneously with the Battle of Plataea28 (479 BC) fought by the Greeks against the Persians in mainland Greece, there was also a battle against the Persian fleet on the shores of Mykale in Western Anatolia, led by the Lacedaemonian Leotychidas. With the defeat of the Persian naval forces by the Greek allies, Priene, like other cities in Western Anatolia, was freed from Persian rule, albeit briefly. After these wars, Priene is seen to have paid a talent in taxes to the First Attica-Delos Naval League, established by the Greeks against the Persians. Priene's tax payments to the League can be traced from 453/452 BC to 428/427 BC (with gaps in some years). In the years when tax payments cannot be traced in the records, the city likely came under the rule of the neighboring city of Miletus.

As a result of the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta, the First Attica-Delos Naval League ended in 404 BC with the defeat of Athens. As a result of this event, when the threat of the cities of Western Anatolia falling back under the rule of the Persian Empire emerged, an army under the command of the Spartan Derkylidas set out for Ionia. In 397 BC, the Persian Army, their allies the Carians, and the Spartans and their allies the Ionians faced each other near Magnesia ad Maeandrum. According to Xenophon's account, the Prienians did not behave heroically in this battle. While the Peloponnesians were preparing for battle against the Persian army, the Prienians and soldiers from other Ionian cities dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. Shortly after this battle, as a result of the "King's Peace" signed between the Persians and the Greeks in 386 BC, Priene, like other cities in Western Anatolia, came under the rule of the Persian Empire. During these developments, which took place shortly before the relocation of the city of Priene, it is seen that the priest of Poseidon at Panionion continued to be chosen from among the Prienians each time.p>

History of New Priene

For the reasons mentioned in the section on the city's location, the Prienians began searching for a new homeland in the mid-4th century BC. As a result, they rebuilt their city on terraces constructed on the slopes south of the steep 381 m high rock formation west of the Turunçlar neighborhood in Güllübahçe. This area was chosen for the new city because it was open to the cool western winds in summer, while the extremely steep cliffs behind the city blocked the cold winter winds. Other factors that played a role included the natural barrier against the risk of siege, the availability of water sources to supply the city, and the proximity to stone quarries that would provide material for the construction of public and civil buildings in the city. The city, with its Hippodamian plan (grid plan) consisting of main east-west streets running parallel to each other, narrower streets intersecting them perpendicularly, and insulae (building blocks) between these streets, is one of the best-preserved examples of the ideal type of regular city plan. It is possible that Pytheos, the most famous architect of the period, who also planned the Temple of Athena Polias in Priene, was involved in the design of the city. Priene, which was still under the rule of the Persian Empire during its founding, came under the rule of the Kingdom of Macedonia after Alexander the Great defeated the Persians at Granicus in 334 BC. An ante block, now housed in the British Museum, bears the inscription, "King Alexander dedicated this temple to Athena Polias." This inscription suggests that Alexander the Great provided financial support for the construction of the Priene Athena Polias Temple and that the people of Priene were permitted to dedicate the temple to the city's most important goddess. After Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, the lands of his empire, stretching from Macedonia to India, were divided among his generals, and Priene came under the rule of the Seleucid Empire, headed by one of these generals. In 277 BC, the invading Galatians reached Priene and besieged the city. During this siege, a citizen named Sotas distinguished himself in the city's defense and was honored with a stele by the city council.

After the Battle of Laodicea in 246 BC, the city came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, based in Alexandria, Egypt. About fifty years later, after Seleucid King Antiochus III expelled the Ptolemies from Western Anatolia, the city was briefly under Seleucid rule again. The city, which came under the rule of various kingdoms and empires from the time of Alexander the Great to the Roman Empire, actually had an autonomous structure; while it was dependent on these kingdoms in foreign affairs, it made its own decisions in internal affairs through the city council and the people's assembly. Following the defeat of Seleucid King Antiochus III by Rome in 190 BC, the Treaty of Apameia (188 BC) was signed, reorganizing relations in Anatolia, and Rome recognized Priene as one of its free allies.

In the mid-2nd century BC, Priene witnessed a political crisis caused by Orophernes, King of Cappadocia. King Orophernes, who had been educated in Ionia, perhaps in Priene, during his youth, entrusted Priene with a large fortune of four hundred talents during his reign. In 158 BC, Orophernes' stepbrother, Ariarathes V, who seized the Cappadocian throne with the help of his brother-in-law, King II Attalus of Pergamon, demanded the return of this treasure entrusted to Priene by Orophernes. The Prienians, however, declared that they would only return this money to him while Oropharnes was alive. Upon this, Ariarathes V, with the support of Attalus II, plundered the lands of Priene and besieged the city. The Prienians sent envoys to Rome, the great political power of the time, asking for help. The Roman Republic did not respond positively to their request. As a result, the Prienians both repay the money they had pinned their hopes on to Orophernes and are punished by King Ariarathes V as a consequence of this incident. the annexation of the Pergamon Kingdom's territories to the Roman Republic meant that Priene, like other cities in Western Anatolia, came under Roman rule and was incorporated into the Province of Asia (Provincia Asia), established in 129 BC.

The First Mithridatic War, which lasted from 89 to 85 BC, had negative consequences for the cities of Western Anatolia. Mithridates VI, hailed as a savior by many cities in Asia Minor, was defeated by the Roman commander Sulla. As a result of this defeat, the cities of Western Anatolia that supported Mithradates were punished with much heavier taxes. During the Roman Imperial Period, the economy partially recovered, as evidenced by the construction of monuments such as the Propylon of the Athena Sacred Area and the Upper Gymnasium Baths.

After the division of the Roman Empire, Priene became part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) centered in Constantinople. The churches, chapels, and synagogues within the city and its immediate surroundings are remains that bear witness to this period. Furthermore, during this period, the city's Acropolis, known in ancient times as "Teloneia," underwent intensive construction. From the 5th century AD onwards, the city was a bishopric center affiliated with the Ephesus metropolitanate, and the names of its bishops are recorded until around 1270. After the region came under Turkish rule in the late 13th century, there are no written sources or archaeological finds indicating that settlement continued in the city.p>

Approximately four hundred years after the settlement in Priene came to an end and the city was abandoned, it was first visited in 1673 by English merchants residing in Izmir, who identified the ruins in the area of the ancient city as Priene. The results of this trip were published in 1682 in a book titled "A Journey in Greece" by G. Wheler.

About a century after this first visit, which determined the location of Priene, Priene once again attracted the attention of researchers interested in antiquity. The focus of interest and research was the Temple of Athena Polias, mentioned in Vitruvius's "Ten Books on Architecture" as the work of the architect Pytheos. In 1750, the English traveler R. Wood visited and examined the ruins of Priene that were visible at the time. Italian technical artist G. B. Battista later developed the first reconstructions of the Ionic order of the Temple of Athena Polias based on R. Wood's notes and sketches. G. B. Battista's drawings are now accessible online. As a result of R. Wood's reports, two research expeditions were organized to Priene, the first in 1764 and the second in 1811, with the expenses covered by the Society of Dilettanti in London. The results of these studies were published in 1769 and 1821 in volumes titled "Antiquities of Ionia." The last volume in particular published, among other plans, the first city plan, numerous drawings of the Temple of Athena Polias and its Propylon, and some sections of the agora. Following his initial investigations in 1861, R. P. Pullan conducted the first excavations at the Sacred Precinct of Athena on behalf of the Society of Dilettanti in 1868 and 1869. Selected architectural fragments, sculptures, small finds, and inscriptions uncovered during these excavations were taken to the British Museum. R. P. Pullan's excavation reports were published in 1881 in Volume IV of Antiquities of Ionia. The inscriptions found during the excavations and taken to the British Museum were introduced to the scientific world by E. L. Hicks in 1886. Similarly, the sculptures transported to the British Museum were only published in a monograph by J. C. Carter in 1983. In 1873, O. Rayet and A. Thomas studied and researched the architecture of the Temple of Athena Polias. The 1880 publication Milet et le Golfe Latmique II, written by these researchers, was the first to include photographs and reconstructions of the temple with color plates.C. Humann, Director of the Berlin Royal Museums' Izmir Station, visited Priene in 1894 and requested an excavation permit for Priene from the Ottoman Empire authorities in December of the same year. C. Humann began to establish the necessary infrastructure for the excavation as soon as the possibility of the permit being granted became more likely. At this stage, the road from Söke to Priene was improved, and the excavation house, which is still in use today, was built. Later, in September 1895, after the application was approved by all relevant authorities, C. Humann was able to begin excavations. After C. Humann's death in Izmir in 1896, T. Wiegand took over as excavation director. T. Wiegand continued the work, particularly with the contributions of H. Schrader, until 1899. The excavations, covering a large part of the ancient city, served the scientific study of the city and revealed the almost completely intact fabric of a small Hellenistic period city. The well-preserved city ruins that were uncovered led T. Wiegand to describe Priene as "the Pompeii of Anatolia." Excavations covering a large area revealed public buildings, the most important sacred areas, the entire city center, and well-preserved residential areas rich in finds in the western part of the city. The finds from the excavations conducted under the leadership of T. Wiegand were divided between the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and the Berlin Royal Museums in a 2:1 ratio, as agreed. The results of these first German excavations in Priene were published as follows, according to subject:

1. The work titled "Priene. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in den Jahren 1895-1898" (Priene. Results of Excavations and Investigations in the Years 1895-1898), published by T. Wiegand and H. Schrader in 1904, can be considered a detailed preliminary excavation report. The inscriptions and Testimonia (ancient sources providing information about Priene) found during the excavations were published in 1906 by F. F. Hiller von Gaertringen in a volume titled "Inschriften von Priene."