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ASPENDUS (mod. Balkis Kale , or, more...

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 767 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ASPENDUS (mod. Balkis Kale , or, more anciently in the native language, ESTVEDYS (whence the adjective Estvedijys on coins)  , an ancient city of
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Pamphylia, very strongly situated on an isolated hill on the right
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bank of the
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Eurymedon at the point where. the
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river issues from the Taurus . The sea is now about 7 M. distant, and the river is navigable only for about 2 M. from the mouth; but in the time of Thucydides
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ships could anchor off Aspendus . Really of pre-Hellenic date, the place claimed to be an Argive colony . It derived
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wealth from
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great salines and from a trade in oil and wool, to which the wide range of its admirable coinage bears witness from the 5th century B.C. onwards . There Alcibiades met the satrap Tissaphernes in 411 B.C., and thence succeeded in getting the Phoenician
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fleet, intended to co-operate with Sparta, sent back home . The Athenian,
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Thrasybulus, after obtaining contributions from Aspendus in 389, was murdered by the inhabitants . The city bought off Alexander in 333, but, not keeping faith, was forcibly occupied by the conqueror . In due course it passed from Pergamene to
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Roman dominion, and according to
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Cicero, was plundered of many
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artistic treasures by Verres . It was ranked by
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Philostratus the third city of Pamphylia, and in
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Byzantine times seems to have been known as Primopolis, under which name its bishop signed at Ephesus in A.D . 431 . In
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medieval times it was evidently still a strong place, but it has now sunk, in the general decay of Pamphylia, to a wretched
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hamlet . . The ruins still extant are very remarkable, and, with the noble Roman theatre, the finest in the
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world, have earned for the place (as is the case with certain other great monuments) a legendary connexion with Solomon's Sheban queen .

On the

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summit of the hillock, surrounded by a wall with three gates, lie the remains of the city . The public buildings round the forum can all be traced, and parts of them are
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standing to a considerable height . They consist of a
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fine nympheum on the north with a covered theatre behind it, covered market halls on the west, and a peristyle hall and a
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basilica on the east . In the plain below are large thermae, and ruins of a splendid aqueduct . But all else seems insignificant beside the huge theatre,
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half hollowed out of the north-east flank of the hill . This was first published by C . F . M . Texier in 1849, and has now been completely planned, &c., by Count Lanckoronski's expedition in 1884 . It is built of
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local conglomerate and is in marvellous preservation . Erected to the honour of the emperors
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Marcus Aurelius and L . Verus by the architect
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Zeno, for the heirs of a local Roman citizen (as an inscription repeated over both portals attests), its auditorium has a circuit of 313,17 feet .

There are

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forty tiers of seating, divided by one diazoma, and crowned by an arched gallery of rather later date, repaired in places with brick . This auditorium held 7500 spectators . The seats are not perfect, but so nearly so as to appear practically intact . The wooden stage has, of course, perished, but all its supporting structures are in place, and the great scena wall stands to its full height, and produces a magnificent impression whether from within or from without . Inwardly it was decorated with two orders of columns one above the other, with rich entablatures, much of which survives . In the tympanum is a
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relief of Bacchus (wrongly supposed to be of a
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female, and called the Bal-Kis, i.e . " Honey Girl ") . The position of the sounding board above the stage is apparent . Under the forepart of the auditorium, built out from the hill, are immense vaults . The whole structure was enclosed within one great wall, pierced with numerous windows . This structure was probably put to some ecclesiastical Byzantine use, as certain mutilated heads of saints appear upon it; and later it became a fortress and received certain additions . It is now under the care of the local aghd and not allowed to be plundered for
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building stone .

See C . Lanckoronski, Villes de la Pamphylie et de la Pisidie, i . (1890) . (D . G .

End of Article: ASPENDUS (mod. Balkis Kale , or, more anciently in the native language, ESTVEDYS (whence the adjective Estvedijys on coins)
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