Myus

Myus (Ancient Greek: Μυοῦς), sometimes Myous or Myos, or Myes, was an ancient Greek city in Caria. It was one of thirteen major settlements of the Ionian League, and was one of three that spoke the same Ionic subdialect, the other two being Miletus and Priene. All three were Ionian colonies placed at the mouth of the Maeander River in the middle of the west coast of Anatolia.

Miletus was more ancient than the Ionians, having been occupied by various ethnic groups since the Neolithic. It was partly Hellenized in the Late Bronze Age by Achaeans, who are termed Mycenaeans in scholarly language. The previous inhabitants at that time were Anatolian language speakers, ancestors of the Carians. The Ionians secured it along with its multi-cultural population during the Submycenaean period between the Bronze Age and the Dark Age. If the re-colonization is the remote start of the Ionian League, Myus and Priene must have been in existence then, although there is no evidence that they were pre-Ionian.

Miletus appears in Homer; Myus does not. Perhaps it was after the heroic age. It does appear in the earliest known historian, Hecataeus of Miletus (550-476 BC), whose works survive only in fragments. He mentions Μύης (Myes). Subsequently the historians, Herodotus and Thucydides call it Μυοῦς. The ultimate authority probably should be the inscriptions, which refer to a city-ethnic, or name of the demos, as Μυήσιοι or Μυήσσιοι based on Μύης. These names are also abbreviated in coins minted by Myus.

Herodotus calls Myus a polis and its citizens politai, which means that it had a politeia, or constitution, and was considered an independent state, at least in its earlier times. It had a demos, which would have met in assembly, and a ruling council (boule). It struck its own coins.

Original Miletus Bay

Myus was placed on a small peninsula jutting northwestward from Mount Latmus into a then estuary of the Aegean Sea, possibly called the Milesian kolpos ("bay" or "gulf"), at the mouth of the Maeander River. Downstream on the same bank a somewhat larger peninsula extending from Mount Grion was the site of Miletus. Across the estuary loomed Mount Mycale, on the southern flank of which Priene was placed. Between Mount Grion and Mount Latmus was an estuary on the estuary, called the Latmian kolpos, on the inland shore of which a smaller settlement, Heracleia, was placed. It was not part of the Ionian League. It may have been Carian. In this precipitous terrain was little room for agriculture, but the geological setting with multiple sheltered harbors was an ideal base for a maritime power.

Far to the north of the estuarial flood plain, at the point where it changes direction from northeast to east, was another settlement, originally a colony of the Aeolians, which they had named after a district of their homeland, Ancient Magnesia. The original was in Thessaly. Historians of the times made the distinction by calling the Anatolian one Maiandros, "Magnesia on the Maeander." It was always on the Maeander, never in the estuary. The closest city today is Tekin, at about 52.37 km (32.54 mi) from the mouth of the Maeander.

For most of its existence in the BCE Magnesia was not part of Ionia, and was not considered so. It arrived at a treaty with Miletos drawing a border between the two in the vicinity of the Island of Hybanda, which was also the border of Ionia. Hybandia remained Ionian. The Aeolian tradition came to an end when the city was conquered by the Ionians, and was resettled as Ionia. The architecture suddenly became Ionian. The imperial conquerors of the region, the Macedonians and Romans, treated it as Ionia. Something similar can be said of Tralles upstream, and the current location of Aydin. In Roman geography Tralles is the border of Ionia. None of this extension of Ionia to the north and east occurred during the lifespan of Myus.

Maeander river

Over the centuries the base proved untenable. The Maeander River, known subsequently in geology as the type for its sinuous configurations, beginning as a steeply cut dendritic pattern in the highlands to the east, empties into an east-west trending rift. Because of the large number of tributaries and the periodic flooding, the water carries a high sedimentary load in suspension, which it dumps into the rift, creating a flat ribbon of land that progrades to the west. The river wanders down it in multiple streams of high sinuosity, changing configuration at every flood. It reached the Aegean many centuries ago and continues to deposit a delta out into it.

The river basin contains 2,600,967 ha (10,042.39 sq mi), 3.3% of Turkey's surface area. About 44% is used for agriculture, most of the rest being for industry and residences. The river flows through 10 provinces, Aydin city being 68.27 km (42.42 mi) from the mouth. The mouth is at 37°32′25″N 27°10′08″E, the farthest extreme of a complex of barrier islands and lagoons.

Placement of the city

The site of the city lies north of the modern village Avşar in the Söke district of Aydın Province, Turkey. The former asty of Myus, now a park, Myus Antik Kenti (Turkish), was placed on a ridge, a former promontory, an extension of Mount Latmus, now located 24.70 km (15.35 mi) from the current edge of the delta. The promontory appears currently as two islands in the plain, a small one on the NW extremity dubbed Castle Hill by the archaeologists for the Byzantine fort upon it. It has an elevation of 56 feet. The other apparent island at the base of the peninsula is dubbed Settlement Hill from the traces of settlement upon it. It ascends Mount Latmus in progressively wider and higher stages. The total peninsula, about 0.5 mi. long, has always been known as the location of the city. However, there are no walls, no residential blocks or public buildings beyond a few temples, or any dock facilities. Nothing delimits the boundaries of the city.