DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0134
108 III. HIERAPOLIS: THE HOLY CITY.
The following festivals or games are known at Hierapolis:
AKTIA quoted by Eckhel from an autonomous coin.
AK(TI A) • n(Y0l)A, Annia Faustina, Mionnet III 306 \
AKTIA and TTY0IA each on an urn (type Demos) Br. Mus.
FTY01A Gallienus Imhoof MG p. 403 ; Elagabalus Eckhel \
AHTHei A • TTY0IA in a crown (type Demos) Br. Mus.
AHTnEIA-T7Y0IA CIG 3910.
ATTOAAntMIA • nY0IA CIG 3428 (Hadrianeia mentioned).
The Actia were of course founded in honour of the victory of
Actium. That event seems to have been hailed with joy in Lydia,
several of whose cities took it as an era to reckon from2. These
games therefore attest the Lydian connexion of Hierapolis. Tripolis
must apparently have been favoured by Antonius, and his popularity
seems to have been great in the Cibyratic conventus and along the
Maeander, to judge from the frequency of the name afterwards. The
Actia Pythia, if the name be a real one, must be identified with the
Actia1.
The Pythia, Letoia-Pythia, Apollonia-Pythia, and Leto'ia, must
probably be taken as four different names for the great festival of the
city-cultus.
Mr. Head mentions games Chrysanthina at Hierapolis ; but I find
no certain proof of this. Alliance coins of Hierapolis and Sardis
show the games Pythia (representing the former) and Chrysanthina
(representing the latter); and Sardian coins boast of the Chrysanthina.
The name is probably derived, as Mr. Head suggests, from the use of
the corn-marigold (-^pvo-avdos) in the victor's wreath. The flower, in
that case, must have been sacred to Cybele; and the games were held
in her honour. It would be quite natural that the same custom and
the same name should exist at HierajDolis as at Sardis; but the coins
in the British Museum that bear the names of both festivals are all
alliance coins.
It was probably the old-standing religious importance of Hierapolis
that led Justinian, some time before A. d. 553 (perhaps in 535), to
make it a metropolis for ecclesiastical purposes, if not also for civil
purposes. A district of Phrygia, Pacatiana, was separated from the
rest of the province and placed under it3. This new district may be
1 The coin is said to read AKTIA : Tralla, Ch. V App. IV.
ought we not to read AKTIA and eli- 3 At the Council of 680 Sisinnios of
minate the games Actia Pythia ? In CIG Hierapolis, signed mep ifinvTov koX tJ;?
3910 Actia and Letoia-Pythia are distin- vir efii avi>6Sov; and the division is
guished. doubtless older than the Council of 553,
2 Palaiapolis, Philadelpheia, and where Hierapolis ranks as a metropolis.
The following festivals or games are known at Hierapolis:
AKTIA quoted by Eckhel from an autonomous coin.
AK(TI A) • n(Y0l)A, Annia Faustina, Mionnet III 306 \
AKTIA and TTY0IA each on an urn (type Demos) Br. Mus.
FTY01A Gallienus Imhoof MG p. 403 ; Elagabalus Eckhel \
AHTHei A • TTY0IA in a crown (type Demos) Br. Mus.
AHTnEIA-T7Y0IA CIG 3910.
ATTOAAntMIA • nY0IA CIG 3428 (Hadrianeia mentioned).
The Actia were of course founded in honour of the victory of
Actium. That event seems to have been hailed with joy in Lydia,
several of whose cities took it as an era to reckon from2. These
games therefore attest the Lydian connexion of Hierapolis. Tripolis
must apparently have been favoured by Antonius, and his popularity
seems to have been great in the Cibyratic conventus and along the
Maeander, to judge from the frequency of the name afterwards. The
Actia Pythia, if the name be a real one, must be identified with the
Actia1.
The Pythia, Letoia-Pythia, Apollonia-Pythia, and Leto'ia, must
probably be taken as four different names for the great festival of the
city-cultus.
Mr. Head mentions games Chrysanthina at Hierapolis ; but I find
no certain proof of this. Alliance coins of Hierapolis and Sardis
show the games Pythia (representing the former) and Chrysanthina
(representing the latter); and Sardian coins boast of the Chrysanthina.
The name is probably derived, as Mr. Head suggests, from the use of
the corn-marigold (-^pvo-avdos) in the victor's wreath. The flower, in
that case, must have been sacred to Cybele; and the games were held
in her honour. It would be quite natural that the same custom and
the same name should exist at HierajDolis as at Sardis; but the coins
in the British Museum that bear the names of both festivals are all
alliance coins.
It was probably the old-standing religious importance of Hierapolis
that led Justinian, some time before A. d. 553 (perhaps in 535), to
make it a metropolis for ecclesiastical purposes, if not also for civil
purposes. A district of Phrygia, Pacatiana, was separated from the
rest of the province and placed under it3. This new district may be
1 The coin is said to read AKTIA : Tralla, Ch. V App. IV.
ought we not to read AKTIA and eli- 3 At the Council of 680 Sisinnios of
minate the games Actia Pythia ? In CIG Hierapolis, signed mep ifinvTov koX tJ;?
3910 Actia and Letoia-Pythia are distin- vir efii avi>6Sov; and the division is
guished. doubtless older than the Council of 553,
2 Palaiapolis, Philadelpheia, and where Hierapolis ranks as a metropolis.