Apamea
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Apamea is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the Sogdian wife of Seleucus I Nicator.
Contents
Variants
- Apamea = (Pliny.vi.17, Pliny.vi.30, Pliny.vi.31, Pliny.vi.32)
- Apameia (Ancient Greek: Απάμεια)
- Apama
- Apamea Ragiana
Iran (Persia)
- Apamea Media, in Media, near Laodicea (Nahavand, Iran), precise location unknown
- Apamea Ragiana, south of the Caspian Gates, in Parthia (later MediaApamea Ragiana (Greek: Απάμεια) – Apamea Rhagiana, Apamea Raphiana, or Apameia Rhagiane; previously, Arsace, Khuvar, and Choara – was an ancient Hellenistic city of Choarene, Media (formerly Parthia), according to Strabo 500 stadia (ca. 15 km) south of the Caspian Gates, southeast of Rhagae. The city was founded after the Macedonian conquest of Persia. The city is also mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6). The precise location of Apamea is not known, but it is certainly in Iran; the ruins have not been found.
Asia Minor (Turkey)
- Apamea (Euphrates), in Osroene, opposite Zeugma on the Euphrates, now flooded by the Birecik Dam
- Apamea (Phrygia) or Apamea Cibotus, formerly Kibotos, commercial center of Phrygia, near Celaenae, now at Dinar, Afyonkarahisar Province; former bishopric and now a Latin Catholic titular bishopric
- Apamea Myrlea or Apamea in Bithynia, formerly Myrlea and Brylleion, in Bithynia, on the Sea of Marmara; currently near Mudanya, Bursa Province; former archdiocese, Latin Catholic titular archbishopric
Iraq
- Apamea (Babylonia), on the Tigris near the Euphrates, precise location unknown
- Apamea (Sittacene), on the Tigris, precise location unknown
Syria
- Apamea, Syria, on the Orontes River, northwest of Hama, Syria, a former Roman provincial capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[1] mentions 'Media and the Caspian Gates'....Ecbatana1, the capital of Media, was built2 by king Seleucus, at a distance from Great Seleucia of seven hundred and fifty miles, and twenty miles from the Caspian Gates.
The remaining towns of the Medians are Phazaca, Aganzaga, and Apamea,3 surnamed Rhagiane.
1 A city of great magnitude, pleasantly situate near the foot of Mount Orontes, in the northern part of Greater Media. Its original foundation was attributed by Diodorus Siculus to Semiramis, and by Herodotus to Deioces. It was the capital of the Median kingdom, and afterwards the summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings. The genuine orthography of the name seems to be Agbatana. The ruins seen at the modern Hamadan are generally supposed to represent those of the ancient Ecbatana; but it is most probable that at different times, if not contemporaneously, there were several cities of this name in Media.
2 Pliny in this statement, as also in the distances which he here assigns to Ecbatana, is supposed to have confounded Ecbatana with Europus, now Veramin, rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator.
3 This was a city in the vicinity of Rhagæ, which was distant about 500 stadia from the Caspian Gates. It was built by the Greeks after the Macedonian conquest of Asia. The other places here mentioned do not appear to have been identified.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[2] mentions Mesopotamia .... In the vicinity of the Euphrates is Nicephorion, of which we have13 already stated that Alexander, struck with the favourable situation of the spot, ordered it to be built. We have also similarly made mention14 of Apamea on the Zeugma.
13 In B. v. c. 21.
14 In B. v. c. 21.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[3] mentions....After traversing the mountains of the Gordyæi13, it passes round Apamea14, a town of Mesene, one hundred and twenty-five miles on this side of Babylonian Seleucia, and then divides into two channels, one15 of which runs southward, and flowing through Mesene, runs towards Seleucia, while the other takes a turn to the north and passes through the plains of the Cauchæ16, at the back of the district of Mesene. When the waters have reunited, the river assumes the name of Pasitigris.
13 See c. 17 of the present Book.
14 The site of this place seems to be unknown. It has been remarked that it is difficult to explain the meaning of this passage of Pliny, or to determine the probable site of Apamea.
15 Hardouin remarks that this is the right arm of the Tigris, by Stephanus Byzantinus called Delas, and by Eustathius Sylax, which last he prefers.
16 According to Ammianus, one of the names of Seleucia on the Tigris was Coche.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[4] mentions Tigris....Between these peoples and Mesene is Sittacene, which is also called Arbelitis24 and Palæstine. Its city of Sittace25 is of Greek origin; this and Sabdata26 lie to the east, and on the west is Antiochia27, between the two rivers Tigris and Tornadotus28, as also Apamea29, to which Antiochus30 gave this name, being that of his mother. The Tigris surrounds this city, which is also traversed by the waters of the Archoüs.
24 From Arbela, in Assyria, which bordered on it.
25 A great and populous city of Babylonia, near the Tigris, but not on it, and eight parasangs within the Median wall. The site is that probably now called Eski Baghdad, and marked by a ruin called the Tower of Nimrod. Parisot cautions against confounding it with a place of a similar name, mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 17, a mistake into which, he says, Hardouin has fallen.
26 Now called Felongia, according to Parisot. Hardouin considers it the same as the Sambana of Diodorus Siculus, which Parisot looks upon as the same as Ambar, to the north of Felongia.
27 Of this Antiochia nothing appears to be known. By some it has been supposed to be the same with Apollonia, the chief town of the district of Apolloniatis, to the south of the district of Arbela.
28 Also called the Physcus, the modern Ordoneh, an eastern tributary of the Tigris in Lower Assyria. The town of Opis stood at its junction with the Tigris.
29 D'Anville supposes that this Apamea was at the point where the Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris, which bifurcation he places near Samurrah. Lynch, however, has shown that the Dijeil branched off near Jibbarah, a little north of 34° North lat., and thinks that the Dijeil once swept the end of the Median wall, and flowed between it and Jebbarah. Possibly this is the Apamea mentioned by Pliny in c. 27.
30 The son of Seleucus Nicator.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[5] mentions Arabia....Some writers also make mention of two other cities situate at long intervals, as you sail along the Tigris, Barbatia, and then Thumata, distant from Petra, they say, ten days' sail; our merchants report that these places are subject to the king of Charax. The same writers also state, that Apamea12 is situate where the overflow of the Euphrates unites with the Tigris; and that when the Parthians meditate an incursion, the inhabitants dam up the river by embankments, and so inundate their country.
12 In Sitacene, mentioned in the preceding Chapter.