Magnesia ad Sipylum

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Magnesia ad Sipylum was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna (now İzmir) on the river Hermus (now Gediz) at the foot of Spil Mount. Nowadays this is the location of Manisa in Turkey.

No mention of the town is found till 190 BC, when Antiochus the Great was defeated in the battle of Magnesia by the Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. It became a city of importance under the Roman dominion and, though nearly destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, was restored by that emperor and flourished through the Roman empire. It was one of the few towns in this part of Anatolia which remained prosperous under the Turkish rule. The most famous relic of antiquity is the Niobe of Sipylus (Suratlu Tash) on the lowest slopes of the mountain about 6 km east of the town. This is a colossal seated image cut in a niche of the rock, of Hittite origin, and perhaps that called by Pausanias the very ancient statue of the Mother of the Gods, carved by Broteas, son of Tantalus, and sung by Homer. Near it lie many remains of a primitive city, and about a kilometer east is the rock-seat conjecturally identified with Pausanias' Throne of Pelops. There are also hot springs and a sacred grotto of Apollo.

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 20:09:38 PST (GMT -0800)
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