Colossae (; ) was an ancient city of

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

in southern

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(Anatolia),

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The

Epistle to the Colossians The Epistle to the Colossians is the twelfth book of the New Testament. It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle and Saint Timothy, Timothy, and addressed to the Church (congregation), church in Colossae, a small Phrygian cit ...

, an early Christian text which identifies its author as

Paul the Apostle Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

, is addressed to the church in Colossae. A significant city from the 5th century BC onwards, it had dwindled in importance by the time of Paul, and was notable for the existence of its local angel cult. It was part of the Roman and Byzantine province of

Phrygia Pacatiana In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

, before being destroyed in 1192/3 and its population relocating to nearby ''Chonae'' (Chonai, modern-day Honaz).

Location and geography

Colossae was in

, in Asia Minor. It was located southeast of Laodicea on the road through the Lycus Valley near the Lycus River at the foot of Mt. Cadmus, the highest mountain in Turkey's western Aegean Region, and between the cities Sardeis and Celaenae, and southeast of the ancient city of

Hierapolis Hierapolis (; , lit. "Holy City") was a Hellenistic Greek city built on the site of a Phrygian cult center of the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele, in Phrygia in southwestern Anatolia, Turkey. It was famous for its hot springs, its high qualit ...

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

said that at Colossae "the river Lycos falls into an opening of the earth and disappears from view, and then after an interval of about five furlongs it comes up to view again, and this river also flows into the Meander River" Colossae has been distinguished in modern research from nearby ''Chonai'' (), called Honaz in modern times, with what remains of the buried ruins of Colossae ("the mound") lying to the north of Honaz.

Origin and etymology of place name

The medieval poet Manuel Philes incorrectly said that the name ''Colossae'' was connected to the Colossus of Rhodes.Cadwallader, Alan H., and Michael Trainor (2011). "Colossae in Space and Time: Overcoming Dislocation, Dismemberment and Anachronicity". In Cadwallader and Trainor, eds. ''Colossae in Space and Time: Linding to an Ancient City.'' Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 18–19. More recently, in an interpretation that ties Colossae to an Indo-European root that happens to be shared with the word ''kolossos'', Jean-Pierre Vernant has connected the name to the idea of setting up a sacred space or shrine. Another proposal relates the name to the Greek ''kolazo'' 'to punish'. Others have said the name derives from its manufacture of dyed wool, or ''colossinus''.Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?''

Biblical Archaeology Review ''Biblical Archaeology Review'' is a magazine appearing every three months and sometimes referred to as ''BAR'' that seeks to connect the academic study of archaeology to a broad general audience seeking to understand the world of the Bible, the ...

, March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 47.

History

Before the Pauline period

The first mention of the city may be in a 17th-century BC Hittite inscription, which speaks of a city called Huwalušija, which some archeologists believe is a reference to early Colossae. The 5th-century geographer

first mentions Colossae by name and said it was a "great city in Phrygia", which accommodates the Persian king

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was ...

while en route to wage war against the Greeks in the

Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world ...

, showing the city had already reached a certain level of wealth and size by this time. Writing in the 5th century BC,

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

said Colossae was "a populous city, wealthy and of considerable magnitude".

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

said the city drew great revenue from its sheep, and that the wool of Colossae gave its name to a colour, ''colossinus''. In 396 BC Colossae was the site of the execution of the rebellious Persian satrap

Tissaphernes Tissaphernes (; ; , ; 445395 BC) was a Persian commander and statesman, Satrap of Lydia and Ionia. His life is mostly known from the works of Thucydides and Xenophon. According to Ctesias, he was the son of Hidarnes III and therefore, the gre ...

, who was lured there and slain by an agent of the party of

Cyrus the Younger Cyrus the Younger ( ''Kūruš''; ; died 401 BC) was an Achaemenid prince and general. He ruled as satrap of Lydia and Ionia from 408 to 401 BC. Son of Darius II and Parysatis, he died in 401 BC in battle during a failed attempt to oust his ...

Pauline period

During the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

period, the town was of some mercantile importance. By the 1st century it had dwindled greatly in size and significance. Paul's letter to the Colossians points to the existence of an early Christian community. Colossae was home to the miracle near the Archangel church, where a sacristan named Archipos witnessed, how the Archangel Michael thwarted a plan by the heathens to destroy the church by flooding it with the waters of near-by mountain rivers. The

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

commemorates this feast on 6(19) September. Michael_Miracle_Icon_Sinai_12th_century

The canonical biblical text

is addressed to the Christian community in Colossae. The epistle has traditionally been attributed to

due to its autobiographical salutation and style, but some modern critical scholars now believe it to be written by another author some time after Paul's death.. It is believed that one aim of the letter was to address the challenges that the Colossian community faced in its context of the syncretistic Gnostic religions that were developing in Asia Minor. According to the Epistle to the Colossians, Epaphras seems to have been a person of some importance in the Christian community in Colossae, and tradition presents him as its first bishop. The epistle also seems to imply that Paul had never visited the city, because it only speaks of him having "heard" of the Colossians' faith, and in the

Epistle to Philemon The Epistle to Philemon is one of the books of the Christianity, Christian New Testament. It is a Prison literature, prison letter, authored by Paul the Apostle (the opening verse also mentions Saint Timothy, Timothy), to Saint Philemon, Philem ...

Paul tells Philemon of his hope to visit Colossae upon being freed from prison. Tradition also gives Philemon as the second bishop of the see. The city was decimated by an earthquake in the 60s AD, and was rebuilt independent of the support of Rome. The Apostolic Constitutions list Philemon as a bishop of Colossae. On the other hand, the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

'' considers Philemon doubtful. The first historically documented bishop is Epiphanius, who was not personally at the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

, but whose metropolitan bishop Nunechius of Laodicea, the capital of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

, signed the acts on his behalf.

Byzantine period and decline

The city's fame and renowned status continued into the Byzantine period, and in 858, it was distinguished as a Metropolitan See. The Byzantines also built the church of St. Michael in the vicinity of Colossae, one of the largest church buildings in the Middle East. Nevertheless, sources suggest that the town may have decreased in size or may even been completely abandoned due to Arab invasions in the seventh and eighth centuries, forcing the population to flee to resettle in the nearby city of Chonai (modern day Honaz). Colossae's church was destroyed in 1192/3 during the Byzantine civil wars. It was a suffragan diocese of Laodicea in Phyrigia Pacatiana but was replaced in the Byzantine period by the Chonae settlement on higher ground.

Modern study and archeology

Most archeological attention has been focused on nearby Laodicea and Hierapolis.Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?''

, March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 48. Excavations of Colossae began in 2021 led by Bariş Yener of Pammukale University in Denizli. The first several years involve surface surveys to analyze pottery and survey the landscape. They hope to start digging in 2023–24. The site exhibits a biconical

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

almost high, and encompasses an area of almost . On the eastern slope there sits a theater which probably seated around 5,000 people, suggesting a total population of 25,000–30,000 people. The theater was probably built during the Roman period, and may be near an agora that abuts the '' cardo maximus'', or the city's main north–south road. Ceramic finds around the theater confirm the city's early occupation in the third and second millennia BC. Northeast of the tell, and most likely outside the city walls, a necropolis displays

tombs with two main styles of burial: one with an antecedent room connected to an inner chamber, and

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

, or underground chambers accessed by stairs leading to the entrance. Outside the tell, there are also remains of sections of columns that may have marked a processional way, or the ''cardo''. Today, the remains of one column marks the location where locals believe a church once stood, possibly that of St. Michael. Near the Lycus River, there is evidence that water channels had been cut out of the rock with a complex of pipes and sluice gates to divert water for bathing and for agricultural and industrial purposes.

Modern legacy

The holiness and healing properties associated with the waters of Colossae during the Byzantine era continue to this day, particularly at a pool fed by the Lycus River at the Göz picnic grounds west of Colossae at the foot of Mt. Cadmus. Locals consider the water to be therapeutic.Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?''

, March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 50.

Notes and references

External links

Map and pictures of ruins
* {{Authority control 1192 disestablishments 1193 disestablishments 12th-century disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire Populated places disestablished in the 12th century Roman towns and cities in Turkey Pauline churches New Testament cities Former populated places in Turkey Populated places in Phrygia Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Catholic titular sees in Asia History of Denizli Province Honaz District