Tripolis on the Meander (, ''Eth.'' , ) – also Neapolis (), Apollonia (), and Antoniopolis () – was an ancient city on the borders 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 ...

Caria Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...

and

Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...

, on the northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander, and on the road leading from

Sardes Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy) ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

to Laodicea ad Lycum. ( It. Ant. p. 336; Tab. Peut.) It was situated 20 km to the northwest 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 ...

. Ruins of it still exist near Yenicekent (formerly Yeniji or Kash Yeniji), a township in the Buldan district of

Denizli Province Denizli Province () () is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey in Western Anatolia, on high ground above the Aegean coast. Neighbouring provinces are Uşak to the north, Burdur, Isparta, Afyon to the east, Aydın, Manisa to t ...

, Turkey. (Arundell, ''Seven Churches'', p. 245; Hamilton, ''Researches'', i. p. 525; Fellows, ''Asia Minor'', p. 287.) The ruins mostly date from the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

periods and include a theater, baths, city walls, and a

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

. An ancient church, dating back 1,500 years, has been unearthed in 2013.

Province

The earliest mention of Tripolis is by Pliny (v. 30), who treats it as a

n town.

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(v. 2. § 18) and

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

describe it as a

n town. Hierocles (p. 669) likewise calls it a Lydian town.

William Mitchell Ramsay Sir William Mitchell Ramsay (15 March 185120 April 1939) was a British archaeologist and New Testament scholar. He was the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor, and a leading scholar in the study of the New Testament. R ...

also places Tripolis within Lydia.William Mitchell Ramsay, ''The Historical Geography of Asia Minor''
(reprint by Cambridge University Press 2010 ), p. 134 The city minted coins in antiquity, some of which bore an image of

Leto In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Leto (; ) is a childhood goddess, the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe (Titaness), Phoebe, the sister of Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis.Hesiod, ''Theogony' ...

. Catalogues of coins of Tripolis generally refer to the city as belonging to Lydia. However, one book on coin collecting list Tripolis as part of Lydia on one page, but speaks of it as part of Caria on another. A website on which various contributors give news of Turkish archaeology treats Tripolis as part of Phrygia.

Other names

Pliny says the city was also called Apollonia (), and Stephanus of Byzantium that, in his time, it was called Neapolis ().

Bishopric

The city of Tripolis was the seat of an ancient

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, suffragan to

Sardis Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy) ...

. Very little is known of the Bishopric, but we retain the names of some

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

s, including: *

Ramsay Ramsay may refer to: People * Ramsay (surname), people named Ramsay * Clan Ramsay, a Scottish clan * Ramsay brothers, Indian film makers * Richard Sorge (1895–1944), Soviet spy codenamed "Ramsay" Places Australia * Ramsay, Queensland, a lo ...

reports that a bishop of Tripolis in Lydia named Agogius attended the

First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea ( ; ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. The Council of Nicaea met from May until the end of July 325. This ec ...

in 325. *Leontius

Michel Le Quien Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. Biography Le Quien studied at , Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made ...

, ''Oriens christianus: in quatuor patriarchatus digestus ''(Typographia Regia, 1740
p879
/ref> *Commodus at

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 ...

. and

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

*Paulus, *Joannes, *Anastasius *Sisinnius The see is included in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

's list of

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

s, which treats it as part of the late

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 ...

of Lydia. * Nicolas Fryes de Brisaco, (21 June 1456 Appointed – 17 July 1498) ''Hierarchia Catholica'', Volume 2, Page 256 File:Tripolis_on_the_Meander,_Lydia,_Turkey_(19313019059).jpg, Ruins of Tripolis ad Maeandrum near Yenicekent, Turkey File:Tripolis_on_the_Meander,_Lydia,_Turkey_(19473332066).jpg, Supportive arch in Tripolis, Turkey File:Tripolis_on_the_Meander,_Lydia,_Turkey_(19492900512).jpg, Further ruins

References

External links

Tripolis ad Maeandrum
archaeological project website
"Tripolis" at the Turkish Ministry of Culture
*
''Tripolis'' site description and photo gallery at Turkish Archaeological News
{{Authority control Buldan District Archaeological sites in the Aegean region Populated places in ancient Caria Populated places in ancient Lydia Populated places in Phrygia Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Roman towns and cities in Turkey Catholic titular sees in Asia History of Denizli Province Buildings and structures in Denizli Province Tourist attractions in Denizli Province Former populated places in Turkey

Province

Other names

Bishopric

See also

References

External links