Antioch Pisidia: Encyclopedia II - Antioch Pisidia - Tour of Antioch

Antioch Pisidia - Tour of Antioch

Arriving at Antioch from the west, visitors can see the Fortifications and structures of various periods. Architectural fragments of the City Gate by the main street are awaiting re-erection. The road through the gate passes the ruins of the Waterfall and turns to the right at the beginning of the Decumanus Maximus, which has been excavated recently.

In this street, one can see the damaged drainage system and wear from the wheels of vehicles, and after passing the Theatre, one turns left into the second important street, the Cardo Maximus.

The Cardo leads the visitor to the Tiberia Platea and Central Church with buildings from later periods on either side. The remains of the 12 steps up to the monumental Propylon take one to the most impressive architectural structure which has survived from the earlier periods of Antioch: the Imperial Sanctuary-Augusteum.

Going back to the Tiberia Platea and following the Cardo to the right will take one to the source of life of the city: the Nympheum. The Aquaducts which can be seen behind the nympheum brought fresh water from springs in the Sultan Mountains 11 km from the city over the centuries. The Bath which is some distance from the water source, is to the west of the Nympheum and is in good condition. On the way to the Great Basilica, which can be seen from any high point of the city, one can see the small valley created by the horseshoe shaped Stadion. The tour ends back at the Western Gate.

Antioch Pisidia - City gate

Facing the valley in the west, the Western Gate is most probably the main entrance to the city as a number of ancient roads meet here. It is supported by the city walls on both sides. Like 40% of the monumental gates in Anatolia it is a three-vaulted victory arch. In architectural structure and in ornament, the gate was influenced by the pre-existing Propylon (the entrance to the Imperial Sanctuary).

It was excavated in 1924 by the University of Michigan team. The gate had inscriptions on both sides. These were mounted on architraves and were formed from individually cast bronze letters which had mounting lugs on their reverses. These lugs were fixed with lead into holes cut in the stone.

These letters are now missing, but in 1924 one stone was found which still had letters in position. It read: C.IVL.ASP. Robinson jumped to the conclusion that this referred to Caius Julius Asper who was proconsul of the Province of Asia in AD 212 and for many years this was taken as the date of construction of the gate.

Over the last ten years Dr Maurice Byrne has been working on the gate and the archives of the 1924 expedition. He has found that Robinson's own records show that lying on the ground next to the stone with the letters was another which had broken off it. This stone continued the name and showed that it was not that of the proconsul, but of a member of a distinguished Antioch family, the Pansiniani, who are known of over a number of generations. Many of the stones from the inscriptions on both sides of the gate are missing (in 1924 one of these was found in the local graveyard acting as a tombstone). Dr Byrne's present reading of the inscriptions (or rather of the holes into which they were mounted) is:

Inner side:

C. IVL. ASP[ER] PANSINI[AN]VS II VIR V TRIB[UNUS MILITUM] LEG I PRAEF AL[AE] D[E] S[UA] P[ECUNIA] F[ECIT] ET ORNAVIT

“Caius Julius Asper Pansinianus, mayor for the fifth time (or for five years), military tribune of the first legion, prefect of the foreign cavalry composed of soldiers from ... (here a stone is missing) constructed and ornamented (this gate) from his own money.”

Outer side:

IMP. CAESARI [DIVI NERVAE NEP.] DIVI [TRAIANI FIL. TRAIANO H]ADRIANO AU[G. PONT.] MAX. TRIB. POT. XIII. COS III P.P. ET SABINAE AU[G...] COL[ONIA].

“For the Emperor Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, grandson of the deified Nerva, son of the deified Traianus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunus for the 13th time, Consul for the 3rd time, Pater Patriae (Father of the land) and for Sabina Augusta....the colony.”

This outer inscription makes it possible to date the gate to the year AD 129 AD when Hadrian visited Asia Minor. The gates at Antalya and Phaselis were also built during this period. It is a possibility that further work was done on the gate at a later date which was recorded by the internal inscription.

Monumental gates in Roman cities, especially in colonies were built as victory arches to symbolize the military power of Roman authority. The main gate in Antioch decorated with nikes, weapons, armour, bucrania and garlands is a perfect example of this tradition.

Antioch Pisidia - The waterfall

On the main axis of the street through the gate, about 7 m into the city, the remains of a semi-circular ended pool can be seen. This stands at the bottom of a waterfall which consisted of a series of tanks 2 meters wide and 0.80 m high. These rose up the hill to the Decumanus Maximus and water flowed down the hill from tank to tank. This must have been a most welcome sight to thirsty travellers on a hot summer's day. A similar waterfall is known at Perge. The water system feeding the waterfall is not yet clear and awaits investigation at the start of the Decumanus Maximus.

Antioch Pisidia - The theatre

Beyond the City Gate the Decumanus Maximus begins. Fifty meters up this street there is the entrance to the theatre. Unfortunately little more than the semi-circular seating survives. It is rather difficult to get an idea of a typical Graeco-Roman building from its present condition. The blocks of the cavea (auditorium), diazoma (dividing corridor of the auditorium), kerkidai (climbing steps), entrances and the orchestra have been carried away for later period constructions in Antioch and in Yalvaç. Arundell observed that many blocks had been removed when he identified the theatre in 1833.

During the recent clearing by Dr.Taşlıalan it is understood that the width of the scene building at the back of the theatre is c.100 meters. So we can compare the building to the theatre of Aspendos in Pamphylia with its capacity of 12,000 people. It is rather bigger and larger than the other important Pisidian city theatres at Sagalassos, Termessos and Selge.

The theatre was enlarged in the period AD 311-13. This involved building above the Decumanus Maximus which was taken through a tunnel 5 m wide and 55 m long. An inscription which was at the entrance to the tunnel dates this enlargement. The original architecture can be dated back to the founding of the colony or may go back to the Hellenistic age. Further excavation is needed.

Antioch Pisidia - Central church

At the end of the Decumanus Maximus a left turn takes one into the Cardo Maximus, leading after 75 meters to the Central Church.

The church is on the axis of the Platea, Propylon, and Augusteum and was so named by researchers because of its topographical position. One apse which was then visible had been identified as part of a church by Arundell, but none of the further researchers were interested in the building until 1924, when it was excavated and the architect Woodbridge drew a rough plan. It was thought that the church had a small Latin-cross plan, but continuing excavations in 1927 by Ramsay and in the present by Taşlıalan have shown that the central church has a larger and a more orthodox plan.

Ramsay carried out unrecorded excavations in 1927 and found an iron seal with the names of three martyrs from the period of Diocletian: Neon, Nikon and Heliodorus. Taşlıalan adds the name of St. Bassus of Antioch to this finding and the church is known as St.Bassus Church today.

Ramsay went deeper to earlier phases of the church and found another apse in the south of the church. He thought that this earlier apse had been built on the synagogue in which St.Paul preached to the first Christians of Antioch. The details of the plan and connections between the two apses and the construction phases are not clear because of unsystemathic digging. So the 4th century date given by Ramsay can be taken forward about a century because new results from Mitchell's survey and Taşlıalan's excavations.

Antioch Pisidia - Tiberia platea-Tiberius square

Opposite the central church, at the end of a 11 m wide and 85 m long street can be seen the stairs of the Propylon. This large street was decorated with colonades and statues on both sides. There is still an argument whether the name Tiberia Platea should be given to the whole street complex or only to the 30 m wide square in front of the Propylon. The architectural plan of the shops behind the porticos on both sides of the large street-square and the connection between square and street are evidence that the whole complex up to the Propylon can be named as the Tiberia Platea.

The 1924 finds: inscriptions, altars, drinking cups, eating or preserving pottery, several kitchen tools and hundreds of coins show that the shops were like little restaurants and bars. Because of the central situation of the Platea and its close proximity to the Imperial Sanctuary we can say that this place was at the heart of urban life in its time.

The name of the Platea is known from the famous inscription recording the edict governing the hoarding of grain made by L.Antistius Rusticus, Governor of Galatia-Cappadocia. The inscription is in Afyon Museum today. Robinson and Ramsay published it in the same year in different articles, each claiming the right of publication. This was the opening round in a series of increasingly rancourous publications by these two scholars. As a consequence of this quarrel the Americans did not return after 1924 and the well-shaped paving blocks of this ownerless area were pulled up and used for road building or for modern buildings in Yalvaç as late as the 1970s.

A short wander amongst the older houses of Yalvaç will reveal many ornamental pieces from the Augusteum, Tiberia Platea, Propylon and other important buildings of Antioch. It is certain that many pieces lie beneath the foundations of mud-brick walls which are now covered by the risen level of the streets.

Over two hundred further pieces of the Monumentum Antiochenum (Res Gestae) whose first fragments were found in 1914, were also found during the 1924 excavations of the Platea. The restored remains of nearly 60 pieces are on display in Yalvaç Museum.

In 1924, 20 meters from the Propylon and at the south corner of the Platea architectural blocks from an eight columned circular building were unearthed. This little tholos (rotunda) was built on a square base of side 5.20 m. It is appears that the Ionic and Composite columns were standing directly on the stylobate without column bases. The building was covered with a conical stone roof decorated in imitation of tiling and looking like fish scales. From the remains of an inscription reading ...I ANTONINI AUG. on a cornice block which can still be seen at the site, we learn that the tholos belongs to the period of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla) who became Augustus in 198 and died in 217.

As a characteristic of the period we see concentrated drillwork and light contrast in the stonemasonship of the building. There are several similar examples of a tholos in other metropolitan cities of antiquitiy, for example at Pergamon and Ephesus. Meanwhile, the small inscription on the cornice shows us the importance of epigraphy for dating archaeological remains.

During the Michigan excavations in 1924 an interesting square block of side 1.7 m was found set into the pavement on the main axis of the Propylon, Platea and Augusteum.

It bore an inscription on a domed circular panel. This was originally formed from bronze letters recessed into the stone. Although the bronze letters were missing it was possible to read the whole inscription. Because it was too heavy to carry away or because there were many well-shaped blocks nearby the block was not removed although it has been damaged. It can be seen at the site today. The inscription, which dates to the first building phase of the Platea in 25–50 A.D., records the gift of our citizen Baebius Asiaticus who paid for the paving of the street:

T.BAEBIUS T.F.SER[GIA] ASIATICUS AED[ILIS] III[MIL] PEDUM D[E] S[UA] P[ECUNIA] STRAVIT

“Titus Baebius Asiaticus, son of Titus, of the tribe Sergia, Aedile (Mayor) paved 3000 feet from his own money.”

It is clear, as Mitchell has pointed out, exactly where these 3000 feet paved by Baebius were. This is because 3000 Roman feet, each of 0.296 m, fit the total lengths of the Decumanus and Cardo (810 m) plus that of the Platea (70 m) = 880 m or 2973 Roman feet!

Another interesting find in the Platea is a fountain block. The remains of a water system made out of earthenware tubes can be seen in the Platea today. This system distributed water which came from the nympheum to the shops from a fountain under the second column of the Propylon to the north.

Antioch Pisidia - Propylon

The 12 steps at the end of the Tiberia Platea are all that remain of the Propylon, a monumental passage gateway leading up to the Imperial Sanctuary. Woodbridge, the architect of the 1924 excavations proposed a reconstruction of the Propylon which is still accepted today.

It was triple-arched and highly ornamented with its massive entablature carried by four columns in front and four at the rear. The building was an exemplar not only for the later Western City Gate but also for many other victory arches in Anatolia. The Propylon was built to honour Augustus who, as Octavian, had won the sea-battle of Actium against Marcus Antonius in 35 BC and thus became the single power of the Roman world. The aim of the decoration of the building is to commemorate the naval and other victories of Augustus.

The Sanctuary beyond the gate provides the function for the building. The discovery of many fragments of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti in front of the Propylon is further confirmation. Although there is not agreement on the exact position where the stone panels bearing the inscription were mounted on the Propylon, it is clear that the letters of the inscription (the remains of which are in Yalvaç Museum) were intended to be read at eye level.

The most recent work on the bronze letter inscriptions which were mounted on the architraves of both sides of the central entrance has been done by Dr. Maurice Byrne. He located in the 1924 photographic archive evidence of three stones which have been lost subsequently. These show that the same inscription was mounted on both sides of the building, but that the vertical alignment of the letters in the two lines of the inscription differed by the width of one letter between the two sides. The inscription reads:

IMP. CAES[ARI. DI]VI. [F. A]VGVSTO. PONTI[F]ICI. M[AXIM]O COS. X[III.TRIB]UN[ICIAE.]POTESTATIS. XXII.[IM]P.XIIII. P.[P.]

“For the emperor Caesar Augustus, son of a god, pontifex maximus, consul for the 13th time, with tribunician power for the 22nd time, imperator for the 14th time, father of the country.” The inscription is a dedication to Augustus who became Pater Patriae on 5 February, 2 BC. A similar briefer inscription exists on an Imperial Temple at Pola:

ROMAE ET AVGVSTO CAESARI DIVI F. PATRI PATRIAE.

The width of the central entrance is 4.5 metres and of the side entrances 3.5 m. Both upper sides of the central arch were decorated with two face-to-face Pisidian captives, one of them naked, whose hands are tied at the back. The side entrances are decorated with Eros and Nike face-to-face and carrying garlands. There was a frieze on the architrave ornamented with symbols of victory, several weapons, armour and tritons.

Without Woodbridge's reconstruction it is impossible to recreate the shape of the Propylon from what can be seen today. The structure has been totally destroyed and blocks may have been used in later defences, or in buildings in Yalvaç.

Antioch Pisidia - Augusteum imperial sanctuary

The most effective, most monumental complex at Antioch is reached after climbing the twelve steps of the Propylon. The temple that was constructed at the highest point of the city by cutting away the rock has on first sight a stunning effect on the visitor with its ornamental and architectural richness. The Augusteum was one of the first places to be dug by Ramsay's team in 1913. Callander, a member of the team, wrote with emotion on their work at the Augusteum. Current thinking is that construction of the temple started when Augustus was alive and that it was dedicated to him after his death. The complex seen now is contemporary with the Propylon and Platea but there are some traces on the rock that the area could have been used for another cult in earlier times.

When a large section of the mound was cut away to form the semicircle and smooth the area, a huge block, 14x28 m and 2.5 m high, was left in the centre as a podium for the temple. The interior of this podium was carved out to form a cult room (Naos).

There were twelve steps up to the temple, like at the Propylon, and the order was a four columned prostylos. The 8.72 m high fluted drum-columns, which stood on Anatolian type bases, carried with their Corinthian capitals a three-fascia architrave. On the architrave there was a frieze of garlands and bukrania. The entablature was surmounted with a tympanon which had an epiphania window (at which god showed himself to the people) in the middle, surrounded with lotus and palmet leaves.

The ornamental richness of the building is completed with a floral frieze on the walls of the cella. Important parts of the friezes are well-preserved and can be seen at the site and in Yalvaç Museum but unfortunately the same cannot be said about the columns and other architectural blocks In the surrounding sanctuary which measures c. 100x85 m, the perimeter of the semi-circular area was covered with a portico. At each end of this portico, on the south and north sides there were stoas. The stoas and portico are connected to each other organically and in the area carved from the rock, the broken surfaces were renovated with local limestones. The stoas at the sides were one floored with Doric columns. The semi-circular portico had two floors, the lower with Doric columns without bases and the upper with fine Ionic columns. In reconstruction tests it is believed that about 150 columns were used in the monumental construction.

The excavators reported that the rock was covered with a hard stucco-like mortar. The regular rectangular holes were for beams carrying the second floor of the portico and the occasional rectangular holes of different size were possibly for the scaffolding put up during the construction and then filled with mortar.

Antioch Pisidia - Nympheum and water supply system

After returning to the Cardo Maximus from the Augusteum and continuing to the north of the city, the Nympheum waits at the beginning of Cardo. The building is a large U-shape and was built to collect water brought by the aqueduct and distribute it throughout the city.

The Nympheum complex included a reservoir 27x3 m to collect incoming water, an ornamented facade building 9 m high and a pool 27 by 7 m and 1.5 m deep. Just behind the complex, the remains of the aquaduct which brought water to the city from the “Suçıkan” source in Sultan Mountains c. 11 km away, can be seen. The modern town of Yalvaç uses the same water from the same source today.

The excavations in the nympheum only reveal the foundations and it is difficult to interpret the ornaments of the facade from only a few fine marble remains, but no doubt these were similar to those in other Roman cities. No inscription has been found associated with the building.

In Imperial Rome, aqueducts appeared with the development of urbanism and a well-preserved example of such a structure can be seen at Antioch. Especially as a result of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), the problem of supplying the needs of fast growing populations was solved by these structures. The aquaduct arches were constructed robustly to bear the weight of the water and they are still standing despite many earthquakes.

In Antioch the water, which comes from an altitude of 1465 m in the mountains, is conveyed the 11km to the city sometimes in channels, sometimes in tunnels and sometimes on arches of one or two stories, according to the terrain, in stone and earthenware tubes to the nympheum which is at 1178 m.

This gives an average slope of 2.6% along the 287 m difference of altitude between the source and nympheum. The water pressure along such a slope is high and the pressure of flow was lowered by phases and when the water arrived at the syphon aquaducts at the end of the system, the flow was controlled with a slope of only 0.02%. As a result of this feat of experimental engineering 3000 cubic meters of water was distributed to the city daily without any problems for centuries. The height of nympheum should therefore be at least 9 m to give water to the higher points of city like the Platea, and Owens has suggested that part of the supply was a sealed pressurised tube.

Around 200 meters of the aquaduct can be seen on the hills and the ruined parts can be followed along a line right up to the nympheum.

The height of the arches which are still standing varies between 5 and 7m and the massive blocked pylons are on average 4 m high and have a floor area of 4 m². The blocks are bossaged with a deep anathrosys and this gives an effect of solidity to the whole structure. The lines beneath the arch feet hide the heaviness of the structure and give a lightness of appearance. There are no ornaments on the keystones showing us that the building was primarily functional. The distance between two pylons varies between 3.8 and 4.7 m.

The key-stones are sometimes single, sometimes double, and the masonship of the round arches is different but the aquaduct appears as a unity. The cause of this strength or solidity depends on the perfectionism of the arch architecture.

The entablature is completely ruined, but many of the stone tubes for the water supply (Specus Canalis) with c. 25 cm holes can be seen in the area.

The nympheum and water supply system is dated to the first half of first century when Antioch became Colonia Caesarea.

Antioch Pisidia - The bath

The bath lies at the northwest corner of the city and the building did not receive much interest from researchers over the last 150 years. Most of them identified the building as an arched, colossal complex but none of them had anything to say about the function of the building. Seven section of the building have been unearthed by the excavations directed by Taşlıalan in recent years, but an important part of the complex, which is 70x55 m, is still buried and the plan is not yet clear. There is still some uncertainty whether the building is in fact a bath or not.

For example, because of sun and wind factors, the entrances to bath-houses in Anatolia were made on the south or east sides, but here the situtation is different, the entrances are on the west and north-west sides. Also there are not clear traces of a water supply and heating system and in this situation the building rather looks like the lower part of a huge building that bore a massive structure above on its strong arches. Also because of the slope of the area on which it is constructed, the arches provide a solution so that the complex looks like the foundations for a building on a slope. For instance at Pergamon the same remedy was used for the Trajaneum.

But until further excavations prove the contrary the building can be accepted as a bath house which it resembles.

Treating it as a bath, the building is a reasonable distance from the nympheum. The exterior of the walls of the building on the north side are similar to the semi-circular fortifications of the western city walls. So it is possible that the massive external walls of the structure were also used for fortification in an as yet unrecognized plan and the small entrance in the north wall was used for the supply of wood needed for heating. The stonemasonship of the building is the strongest work visible at Antioch and it looks as if it will keep the building standing for many thousand years yet to come.

In the rooms cleared during the excavations it is understood that some places were filled deliberately. The style of the blocked and mortar-filled walls show the techniques of different centuries and show that the building was used over an extended period and possibly for different purposes also.

The court which is 38 by 29 m, identified as a palaestra, at the east side of the complex is connected to the building in an organic way. The court is surrounded with a colonaded-portico but the plan is not yet clear.

In one room, the remains of a floor heating system (Hypocaust) is visible as baked-clay tubes and rectangular brick-columns, but this would not reach the central heating oven of the building which should be at east or south side, if the building is a bath. It will be possible to understand the functions and phases of the building by continuing the excavations and in this situation the building may be comparable with the bath-house of Sagalassos in Pisidia which is 80x55 m. The beginning of the building phases can be dated to the first half of the first century A.D. like the aquaduct and nympheum.

Antioch Pisidia - Stadium

Outside the late period defence walls and opposite the Great Basilica, a small valley can be discerned. It has been recognized as a stadium only recently. The building blocks have all gone but traces of a U-shaped stadium c.190x30 m for athletic games and competitions can be seen.

Antioch Pisidia - The great basilica

One of the most important building complexes of Antioch is the Great Basilica in the northwest of the city, close to the outer walls. Arundell first identified the building as a basilica and the plan published by him became a guide for subsequent researchers. The Basilica was excavated first in 1924 by the Michigan team and it was then buried again for 80 years until the outside of the building was cleared by Taşlıalan who has most recently made a sondage in the apse.

The building lies in the east-west direction and is 70 by 27 m The narthex which is 27 by 13 m bears against the defence walls. The format reflects all the specifications of a basilica with an apse, a large nave in the middle and two narrow ones at the sides. The outer wall of the apse is of hectagonal plan.

The basilica shows changes to its plan over time. Possibly at the end of the 4th century the apse and naves were filled up to the level of the floor visible today and the filled area was pressed and covered with mosaics. Three new entrances were added to the building on the north side in this phase and the courtyard on the north side also dated to this period. The central axis of the basilica is different to the central axis of the mosaic floor, showing changes of structure. The mosaic which was unearthed by Robinson's team is covered with c. 30 cm of earth today, and 1924 photographs show that it was of geometrical floral motives in rectangular frames.

In the central nave at the beginning of the apse where there should be an altar a mosaic inscription was found giving the name of Bishop Optimus who represented Antioch at the Council of Constantinople in 381. This date is at the beginning of the building of basilical churches in Asia Minor. It also consolidates the dating of the Great Basilica. So, the Great Basilica of Antioch is known as one of the two earliest examples of Early Christian churches in Anatolia. The other example is in another Antioch on the Orontes (Hatay) dedicated to St. Babylas in Daphne.

The apse is 10.8 m in diameter and the central nave is separated by two rows of 13 columns standing on hectagonal bases. Beneath the filling, there are earlier construction phases of the naves. The recent sondage shows traces of an arched foundation on both sides. Possibly the second floor was carried on this. These vaults were subsequently filled and the columns of the Optimus phase erected on this filled surface. Three gates were added to the north wall of which the central one is 4 m wide and two were added to the south wall. The northern entrances open onto the central ceremonial court which is surrounded with an L–shaped portico. All the material of this court is reused from earlier buildings. In the north of the court a baptistery pool was added to the basilical complex and the foundations of a mosaic paved building beside the pool may possibly be a bishops residence.

There is no church comparable to the basilica in Pisidia and it is earlier than the churches of Sagalassos, Thekla, Anabarzus and Korykos. Evidence from the late fourth century like the enlarged theatre, a new agora, enlarged fortifications show that the city had one of its most brilliant eras at the beginning of the 5th century .

Dr.Taşlıalan identified the Great Basilica as the “Church of St.Paul” by means of an altar which was found in Yalvaç market place and he claims that the wall foundations at the south side of the basilica belong to the synagogue where St.Paul first preached to the Gentiles.

The altar is dated to the 6th century and the rough inscription is easily readable as “AGIOS PAULOS”. W.M. Calder is the first who mentions this altar, found in the Yalvaç Baths, in his reports of 1911 and he said it could be belong to an unknown Church of St.Paul. Podromos, the Greek guide of Calder, was the first man who translated the inscription on the altar.

It is not clear if the basilica was used for another purpose in its earlier levels. Conservation and lifting of the mosaics will give opportunities to go deeper into the naves of Optimus and this will shed further light on this important Antioch building.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tour of Antioch", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki