Laodicea
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Laodicea (Greek: Λαοδίκεια); also transliterated as Laodikeia or Laodiceia was a Hellenistic city in Mesopotamia. Pliny (vi. 30) places Laodicea along with Seleucia and Artemita. Laodicea's precise location is unknown, but it is in modern-day Iraq.
Variants
- Laodicea (Pliny.vi.39)
- Laodikeia
- Laodiceia
Origin of name
Laodicea = city of Lor
Jat Gotras Namesake
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[1] mentions....A narrow passage which leads to Persepolis12, the former capital of the kingdom, destroyed by Alexander. It has also, at its extreme frontier, Laodicea13, founded by Antiochus. To the east of this place is the fortress of Passagarda14, held by the Magi, at which spot is the tomb of Cyrus; also Ecbatana15, a city of theirs, the inhabitants of which were removed by Darius to the mountains.
12 Which was rebuilt after it was burnt by Alexander, and in the middle ages had the name of Istakhar; it is now called Takhti Jemsheed, the throne of Jemsheed, or Chil-Minar, the Forty Pillars. Its foundation is sometimes ascribed to Cyrus the Great, but more generally to his son, Cambyses. The ruins of this place are very extensive.
13 Its site is unknown; but Dupinet translates it the "city of Lor."
14 The older of the two capitals of Persia, Persepolis being the later one. It was said to have been founded by Cyrus the Great, on the spot where he gained his victory over Astyages. Its exact site is doubtful, but most modern geographers identify it with Murghab, to the north-east of Persepolis, where there are the remains of a great sepulchral monument of the ancient Persians, probably the tomb of Cyrus. Others place it at Farsa or at Dorab-Gherd, both to the south-east of Persepolis, the direction mentioned by Strabo, but not in other respects answering his description so well as Murghab.
15 It is most probable that he does not allude here to the Ecbatana, mentioned in c. 17 of this Book.
History
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[2] mentions ....It is requisite in this place to trace the localities of the Medi also, and to describe in succession the features of the country as far as the Persian Sea, in order that the account which follows may be the better understood. Media8 lies crosswise to the west, and so presenting itself obliquely to Parthia, closes the entrance of both kingdoms9 into which it is divided. It has, then, on the east, the Caspii and the Parthi; on the south, Sittacene, Susiane, and Persis; on the west, Adsiabene; and on the north, Armenia. The Persæ have always inhabited the shores of the Red Sea, for which reason it has received the name of the Persian Gulf. This maritime region of Persis has the name of Ciribo10; on the side on which it runs up to that of the Medi, there is a place known by the name of Climax Megale,11 where the mountains are ascended by a steep flight of stairs, and so afford a narrow passage which leads to Persepolis12, the former capital of the kingdom, destroyed by Alexander. It has also, at its extreme frontier, Laodicea13, founded by Antiochus.
8 Media occupied the extreme west of the great table-land of the modern Iran. It corresponded very nearly to the modern province of Irak-Ajemi.
9 The Upper and the Lower, as already mentioned.
10 Hardouin suggests that this should be Syrtibolos. His reasons for so thinking will be found alluded to in a note to c. 31. See p. 80, Note 98.
11 Or the "Great Ladder." The Baron de Bode states, in his Travels in Luristan and Arabistan, that he discovered the remains of a gigantic causeway, in which he had no difficulty in recognizing one of the most ancient and most mysterious monuments of the East. This causeway, which at the present day bears the name of Jaddehi-Atabeg, or the "road of the Atabegs," was looked upon by several historians as one of the wonders of the world, who gave it the name of the Climax Megale or "Great Ladder." At the time even of Alexander the Great the name of its constructor was unknown.
12 Which was rebuilt after it was burnt by Alexander, and in the middle ages had the name of Istakhar; it is now called Takhti Jemsheed, the throne of Jemsheed, or Chil-Minar, the Forty Pillars. Its foundation is sometimes ascribed to Cyrus the Great, but more generally to his son, Cambyses. The ruins of this place are very extensive.
13 Its site is unknown; but Dupinet translates it the "city of Lor."
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[3] mentions Mesopotamia....The whole of Mesopotamia formerly belonged to the Assyrians, being covered with nothing but villages, with the exception of Babylonia1 and Ninus.2 The Macedonians formed these communities into cities, being prompted thereto by the extraordinary fertility of the soil.
Besides the cities already mentioned, it contains those of Seleucia3, Laodicea4, Artemita5; and in Arabia, the peoples known as the Orei6 and the Mardani, besides Antiochia7, founded by Nicanor, the governor of Mesopotamia, and called Arabis.
1 The great seat of empire of the Babylonio-Chaldæan kingdom. It either occupied the site, it is supposed, or stood in the immediate vicinity of the tower of Babel. In the reign of Labynedus, Nabonnetus, or Bel- shazzar, it was taken by Cyrus. In the reign of Augustus, a small part only of Babylon was still inhabited, the remainder of the space within the walls being under cultivation. The ruins of Babylon are found to commence a little south of the village of Mohawill, eight miles north of Hillah.
2 Nineveh. See c. 16 of the present Book.
3 On the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite to the ford of Zeugma; a fortress of considerable importance.
4 Its site is unknown. Dupinet confounds it with the place of this name mentioned in the last Chapter, calling them by the name of Lor.
5 Pliny is wrong in placing Artemita in Mesopotamia. It was a city of Babylonia, in the district of Apolloniatis. The modern Sherbán is supposed to occupy its site.
6 Burnouf, having found the name of these people, as he supposes, in a cuneiform inscription, written "Ayura," would have them to be called Aroei. The Orei are also mentioned in B. v. c. 20.
7 This Antioch does not appear to have been identified.
External links
References
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