Stratonicea

Stratonicea (Hittite: 𒀜𒊑𒅀 Atriya, Ancient Greek: Στρατoνικεια or Στρατoνικη; or per Stephanus of Byzantium: Στρατονίκεια) – also transliterated as Stratonikeia, Stratoniceia, Stratoniki, and Stratonike and Stratonice; a successor settlement to Chrysaoris; and for a time named Hadrianopolis – was one of the most important towns in the interior of ancient Caria, Anatolia, situated on the east-southeast of Mylasa, and on the south of the river Marsyas; its site is now located at the present village of Eskihisar, Muğla Province, Turkey. It is situated at a distance of 1 km (0.62 mi) from the intercity road D.330 that connects the district center of Yatağan with Bodrum and Milas, shortly before Yatağan power station if one has taken departure from the latter towns.

Late Bronze Age

Some scholars identified the city of Atriya from the Hittite documents as Stratonicea. Atriya played an important role during the conflict between the Mycenean Greek colonists (Ahhiyawa) and native Anatolians. During the reign of the Hittite Great King Tudhaliya IV, Utima and Atriya were a part of the Hittite territory while Awarna and Pina were controlled by the king of Milawata which was in turn controlled by the Ahhiyawans. In the historical document called the Milawata Letter, Hittite Great King Tudhaliya IV makes a complaint about the attitude of the King of Milawata. He mentions that he sent the hostages from Utima and Atriya to Milawata while the King of Milawata did not send him the hostages from Awarna and Pina, therefore not honoring his part of the hostage exchange deal.

Hellenistic period

According to Strabo, the city was founded by the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (281–261 BC), who named it after his wife Stratonice. Or at least this is what has been generally told; some historians have contested this date as too early, and proposed to consider the city's founder Stratonice's son, Antiochus II Theos, or, later still, Antiochus III the Great.

What seems certain is that the city was founded on the site of an old Carian town, Idrias, anciently called Chrysaoris, said to be the first town founded by the Lycians. Later it passed under the control of the Achaemenid Empire. According to Athens' tribute "assessment" of 425 BC Idrias was supposed to be responsible for the payment of the considerable sum of six talents. Like many other non-Greek cities on the 425 BC assessment Idrias is never recorded actually paying any tribute to Athens and was never a member of the Delian League. In early Seleucid times, Stratonikeia was a member of the Chrysaorian League, a confederation of Carian towns. The Stratonikeians, though of Macedonian rather than Carian origin, were admitted into the confederacy because of the Carian towns and villages within their territory. The league is attested by an inscription already in 267 BC, but was probably older still. Near the town was the temple of Zeus Chrysaoreus, at which the League's assembly met; at these meetings several city-states had votes in proportion to the number of towns they possessed.

The rural sanctuaries of Hekate at Lagina and Zeus at Panamara were absorbed into the territory of Stratonicea when the city was founded, receiving monumental temples at which the Stratoniceans would process to and worship every year.

Under the succeeding Seleucid kings, Stratonikeia was adorned with splendid and costly buildings. At a later time in the 3rd century BC it was ceded to the Rhodians. Rhodes seems to have then temporarily lost it, possibly during king Philip V of Macedon's Carian campaign (201–198 BC), but it retook control of the place in 197 BC, keeping it until 167 BC when the whole of Caria was declared free by the Roman Republic. From this point starts the city's independent coinage, which was to last until the times of the emperor Gallienus (253–268). In 130 BC the city had a central role in the revolt led against the Romans, since here the self-proclaimed king Aristonicus made a last stand before falling into the hands of his enemies with the fall of the city.

Roman period

Some time after, in 88 BC, Mithridates VI of Pontus (120–63 BC), after imposing a fine and a garrison on the city, resided for some time at Stratonikeia, and married Monime, the daughter of Philopoemen, one of its principal citizens. Then came in 40 BC the siege sustained against Quintus Labienus and his Parthian troops, and the brave resistance it offered to him entitled it to the gratitude of Augustus and the Senate. The alleged divine intervention against Quintus Labienus by Zeus at Panamara led to the elevation of that sanctuary, in the hinterland of Stratonikeia, to one favoured by the city. The emperor Hadrian is said to have taken this town under his special protection, and to have changed its name into Hadrianopolis, a name, however, which may (also) refer to another town also called Stratonikeia. Pliny enumerates it among free cities in Anatolia. Menippus, according to Cicero one of the most distinguished orators of his time, was a native of Stratonikeia.

Archaeology

Although human habitation in the region extends back to the early Bronze Age, and the existence of an Archaic and Classical settlement at the site is attested by the remains of earlier fortifications at Kadıkulesi hill, almost all of the visible remains date to the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Theater

The theater, with a capacity of c. 12,000, was located south of the center of the city at the northern foot of Kadıkulesi hill. Originally constructed in the Hellenistic period, it was remodeled in the early Imperial period (1st century AD), when the scene building was entirely rebuilt. Additional changes were made in the 2nd century AD, and the theater continued to function until the 4th century.