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Apollonia (Susa)
Unless otherwise indicated,
pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can
be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge
Livius. |
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Apollonia (satellite
photo) was founded towards the end of the seventh century BCE as the
port of Cyrene,
the great Greek metropolis in the northeast of the country that is now
called Libya. Because Apollonia was dependent on the older city, it was
never a very important town, and shared in Cyrene's fate. So, it was part
of the Persian or Achaemenid
Empire after 513 BCE. |
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After Alexander
the Great had conquered the Persians (331), Apollonia and Cyrene
were part of the Ptolemaic
Empire, which was founded by one of Alexander's generals, Ptolemy
I Soter. The cities retained much of their autonomy, because
they were in the periphery. In the first century BCE, the Cyrenaica was
integrated in the Roman Empire. |
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The theater, east of the city, just outside the
walls. It was built in the third century BCE and is one of Apollonia's
oldest monuments. The stage that was added in the Roman age, was demolished
in the fifth century; the columns were reused in the Eastern
Basilica. In the background, you can see the remains of an immense
mole that closed the eastern harbor. |
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The Bathhouse was built during the reign of the emperor Hadrian
(117-138). Probably, the court that is the core of the Bathhouse is the
same as the peristyle of an older house: many Greek houses from the Hellenistic
age were built around a garden-court (cf. the Villa
of the Four Seasons Mosaic in Ptolemais
and the Villa
of Jason Magnus in Cyrene). |
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Apollonia was made capital of a newly created province,
Libya Superior, by the emperor Diocletian
(284-305). It was renamed Sosouza ('savioress'), probably after
a goddess who was venerated here (Isis?). The military leader of the region,
the dux, built his palace in the city, and rebuilt the original
wall from the third century BCE. |
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The preceding photo shows the court of the ducal palace, seen from
the south, and this is one of the gates. As you can see, a cross was cut
into the stone over this door: a memory of the Christianization of the
Roman empire during the reign of Constantine
the Great (306-337) and his son Constantius
II (337-361). The palace once had two storeys, but only the
rooms on the ground floor -where the governor received his guests- remain.
An earthquake damaged the city in 365, but it survived, although many
ancient buildings were destroyed. As a consequence, the Western Basilica,
which was constructed after the disaster, has a different orientation than
the earlier buildings. |
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These arches also belong to the palace of the governor. There were
two large villas near this monument, which were probably used as an annex
to the palace. According to the Secret
History (9.27)
of Procopius, the Byzantine empress Theodora spent several years in the
palace of Apollonia, as mistress of a governor named Hecebolus. Later,
she married Justinian
(527-565) and became one of the most powerful women from Antiquity.
Apollonia became especially important in the fifth century, when the
interior was abandoned to the Libyan nomads (Synesius
of Cyrene describes these disastrous years in his Catastasis).
The port remained one of the last bases of the Byzantine troops and there
were several new building projects, like the three basilicas, which will
be described on the next
page. |
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The bathhouse again (front), and the remains of the mole that once
enclosed the harbor. In 1987, a small ship (thirteen meters long) was discovered;
the remains are now in the museum of Susa. Since the earthquake of 365,
parts of the land have been swallowed by the sea; you must imagine that
the harbor was a bit smaller.
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© Jona Lendering
for
Livius.Org,
2006
Revision: 19 June 2007
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