DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0111
1. SITUATION AND ORIGIN. 85
and Herodotus VII 3 considered that the boundary between Lydia and
Phrygia lay east of Hierapolis, so that this city was Lydian. But
Xenophon, Anab. I 2, 6, puts the boundary west of Hierapolis, at the
crossing of the Maeander, including the city in Phrygia ; and this was
the generally adopted view, which we shall follow \
Hierapolis is marked by its very name as a religious city. On the
analogy of such phrases as ' the Holy City of the Olbians V we must
interpret Hierapolis as the Holy City of the tribe or race which
inhabited the district; and this title gradually fixed itself as the name
of the city which grew up around the hieron. The tribe as a whole was
called Hydreleitai3, and they appear to have had also another central
city, Hydrela or Kydrara, which originally commanded the whole
territory bounded b}r Colossai on the east, Laodiceia on the south, and
Mossyna on the north. But the priestly village round the hieron
grew into a city which under the Empire quite overshadowed Hydrela.
Both struck coins; both were in the Cibyratic conventus; but the
Holy City became one of the greatest centres of Phrygian life, while
Hydrela sank into a mere adjunct of Hierapolis and was subject to
the bishop of that city in Christian time. But in older times Kydrara
was the chief city. Xerxes passed by it on his march from Colossai
by the direct road to Sardis. At Kydrara (i.e. in its territory) an in-
scribed pillar marked the bounds of Lydia and Phrygia. Here the
road towards Caria went off to the left (crossing the Lycos, and passing
by the temple of Men Karou and the hot springs of Karoura), while
that towards Sardis crossed the Maeander and passed by Tripolis and
Kallatebos i.
§ 2. Keligious Chaeactee. The history of Hiera-Polis-Kydrara
was determined by the natural features of its situation. In no place
known to the ancients was the power of Nature more strikingly
revealed. The waters of almost all the streams in the Lycos valley
deposit limestone ; but the splendid hot springs at Hierapolis surpass
all the rest in this quality. If a tiny jet of water is made to flow in
any direction, it soon constructs for itself a channel of stone 5. The
1 Even Ptolemy, who retains the old Lycos valley, and makes Xerxes march
classification of Laodiceia and Tripolis by a circuitous path over more difficult
to Caria, ranks Hierapolis in Phrygia, ground for no apparent reason. On
2 On coins 'oXfiinv r^js lepas (iroXeas) the topographical question see pp. 6,
see Ch. I § 6. 37, 52, 160, 164, 173 n, 174.
3 See Ch. V § 9. 5 Vitruvius, VITI 3, 10, describes the
4 M. Radet takes a different view, process; and he is confirmed by Strabo,
BCH 1891 p. 376 f, which contradicts p. 629, and by the eyes of every tra-
our whole scheme of topography of the veller.
and Herodotus VII 3 considered that the boundary between Lydia and
Phrygia lay east of Hierapolis, so that this city was Lydian. But
Xenophon, Anab. I 2, 6, puts the boundary west of Hierapolis, at the
crossing of the Maeander, including the city in Phrygia ; and this was
the generally adopted view, which we shall follow \
Hierapolis is marked by its very name as a religious city. On the
analogy of such phrases as ' the Holy City of the Olbians V we must
interpret Hierapolis as the Holy City of the tribe or race which
inhabited the district; and this title gradually fixed itself as the name
of the city which grew up around the hieron. The tribe as a whole was
called Hydreleitai3, and they appear to have had also another central
city, Hydrela or Kydrara, which originally commanded the whole
territory bounded b}r Colossai on the east, Laodiceia on the south, and
Mossyna on the north. But the priestly village round the hieron
grew into a city which under the Empire quite overshadowed Hydrela.
Both struck coins; both were in the Cibyratic conventus; but the
Holy City became one of the greatest centres of Phrygian life, while
Hydrela sank into a mere adjunct of Hierapolis and was subject to
the bishop of that city in Christian time. But in older times Kydrara
was the chief city. Xerxes passed by it on his march from Colossai
by the direct road to Sardis. At Kydrara (i.e. in its territory) an in-
scribed pillar marked the bounds of Lydia and Phrygia. Here the
road towards Caria went off to the left (crossing the Lycos, and passing
by the temple of Men Karou and the hot springs of Karoura), while
that towards Sardis crossed the Maeander and passed by Tripolis and
Kallatebos i.
§ 2. Keligious Chaeactee. The history of Hiera-Polis-Kydrara
was determined by the natural features of its situation. In no place
known to the ancients was the power of Nature more strikingly
revealed. The waters of almost all the streams in the Lycos valley
deposit limestone ; but the splendid hot springs at Hierapolis surpass
all the rest in this quality. If a tiny jet of water is made to flow in
any direction, it soon constructs for itself a channel of stone 5. The
1 Even Ptolemy, who retains the old Lycos valley, and makes Xerxes march
classification of Laodiceia and Tripolis by a circuitous path over more difficult
to Caria, ranks Hierapolis in Phrygia, ground for no apparent reason. On
2 On coins 'oXfiinv r^js lepas (iroXeas) the topographical question see pp. 6,
see Ch. I § 6. 37, 52, 160, 164, 173 n, 174.
3 See Ch. V § 9. 5 Vitruvius, VITI 3, 10, describes the
4 M. Radet takes a different view, process; and he is confirmed by Strabo,
BCH 1891 p. 376 f, which contradicts p. 629, and by the eyes of every tra-
our whole scheme of topography of the veller.