Category: Pisidia
The captivating Antonine Nymphaeum is a huge monumental fountain constructed on the north side of the Upper Agora by the Romans between 161 and 180 AD in the ancient city of Sagalassos in Pisidia, southwest Anatolia (nowadays Minor Asia).
No less than seven different types of stone went toward the edifice that actually measures a good 9m high and 28m long, with cascading water falling off a 4.5m height to add further gloss to its presence!
It fell in ruins due to a devastating earthquake in the mid seventh century AD but has been largely restored in recent decades.
Sagalassos was a very ancient town and later city laid out in terraces high at an altitude of about 1400 to 1700m in the Western Taurus (mountains), southwestern nowadays Turkey, and attested as early as 14th century BC as Salawassa in Hittite records.
The mountainous nature of its terrain is actually reflected in its apparent Luwian very name as the suffix ‘-assos’ often indicates a mountain, with ‘-assa’ its counterpart in Hittite which was largely influenced and eventually supplanted as a language by the former in the course of the second half of the second millennium BC.
What the first component means turns hard to find but ‘Salawa-‘ in the Hittite name could carry the sense of something like ‘jackal’ so that the whole name be interpreted as ‘mountain/domain of the jackal’ since that was a name for Sha, the jackalesque animal of Egyptian god Set (who was also a storm god, among others, like Taru).
The ground is that the Taurus Mountains were apparently held holly, accommodating many temples, as they shaped the high ground/realm of Hattian storm god Ta(h)ru, after whom they were apparently named, in deep antiquity.
Sagalassos lay in the lands of Pisidia, a region located north of Pamphylia and below Phrygia, which was part of the independent Luwian kingdom of Arzawa before the latter fell under the rule of the Hittite initially towards the end of the 15th century and thoroughly about the end of the following (14th) century.
Unlike what is suggested by some scholars, all the same, the Pisidians look distinct from the Pamphylians in the south and are rather related to the Milyans within their own region instead.
Arzawa, for that matter, were allies of Egypt as attested in correspondence (Arzawa letters) between Pharaoh Amenhotep the Magnificent and Arzawan King Tarḫuntaradu*, whose name apparently means ‘devotee of Tarhunt (another name for weather god Tar(h)u),’ in the first half of the 14th century so could there have been a greater Egyptian influence in aspects of culture and cults?
It is quite intriguing that if the names ‘Salawa’ and ‘Sha’ are put together there comes out the form ‘Salawa-Sha,’ which is effectively identical to the Hittite name ‘Salawassa.’ That said, it is unclear whether the latter regarded the town alone or the wider area around.
Other variations of the town’s name were Selgessos and Sagallesos there has got to be said where ‘Sagalle’ in Arabic means ‘pure, serene’ and might be relevant (the Arabs carried out many raids in the region and took hold of nearby Cilicia in the 7th and 8th century AD).
Moving on, the town came under the reign of the Phrygians in the early first millennium (probably 9th century) BC and later under the Lydians to expand considerably before landing in the hands of the Persians in 546 BC, a latter period that saw the rise of warlike factions.
It enjoyed prosperity and grew among the wealthiest cities of Pisidia, boasting a population of a few thousand, yet was devastated by Alexander (the Great) and the Macedons despite putting up a brave resistance in 332 BC.
After the latter’s death, the region of Pisidia shifted hands between Antigonus I the Monophthalmus, Lycimachus of Thrace, the Seleucids of Syria and the Attalids of Pergamon in a long struggle for power and dominion within the split former Macedonian empire before the Romans took over in the late second century BC.
There followed a spell under the command of Galatian client king Amyntas between 39 and 25 BC but his death saw a return to Roman rule as part of the province of Galatia during the reign of emperor Augustus and the city flourished to reach a peak during the second century AD particularly favoured by Hadrian, who declared it as the first city of the province and center of the imperial cult.
A trademark large building project conducted under the latter left a lasting Roman stamp on the character of the city featuring the magnificent Antonine Nymphaeum, the Imperial Baths displaying a colossal statue of the emperor, the Lower and Upper Agora as well as the Roman theatre that could seat as many as 9000 spectators among others.
Into the Eastern Roman Empire, the city suffered a devastating earthquake in 518 AD that signalled the beginning of the end compounded by a plague that very much halved its population around 541 and 543 AD where a further overwhelming earthquake halfway through the following century saw the site abandoned.
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*There is a Hausa (West Africa) word ‘aradu’ with an Arabic root that means ‘thunderbolt,’ which was in a tree-pronged form a symbol for god Tarhunt (Taru). So could Tarḫunt-aradu, the name of the Arzawan king, carry the sense of ‘Tarhunt’s thunderbolt’ instead?
He was also married to a daugther of Amenhopep III’s, which further means that he was held in high esteem by the Egyptian Pharaoh. It is also quite interesting that, in an identical pattern, the first component in the names of both kings is that of the supreme god in their respective lands.
Breaking through History 