Mylasa
Mylasa is an ancient city located in Caria, southwestern Asia Minor, near the river Cybersus and approximately eight miles from the Aegean coast. Historically significant, Mylasa was the principal non-Greek community in the region under Persian rule, maintaining a degree of autonomy through local dynasts, except during the Ionian Revolt. The city became a member of the Delian League around 450 BC but fell back under Persian control during conflicts involving Athens. In 390 BC, it was designated as the capital of the Persian province of Caria by satrap Hecatomnus.
Mylasa is noted for its religious significance, housing important temples dedicated to deities such as Zeus Osogos and Zeus Stratios. Its cultural heritage is also reflected in notable secular monuments, including the arched Baltalı Kapı, which features reliefs associated with its patron deities. Throughout its history, Mylasa experienced various periods of conflict and recovery, particularly during the Roman era, when it regained autonomy under Octavian's reign. The city continued to issue coins until the third century AD, further highlighting its historical prominence and economic significance in the region.
Mylasa
(Milas)
A city in Caria (southwestern Asia Minor) near the river Cybersus, eight miles from the Aegean coast. Under Persian domination, a town of that name, located at Peçin Kalesi (a hill above the village of Peçin), was the principal non-Greek community of Caria; it was ruled by local dynasts except for a brief interruption during the Ionian Revolt (499–494 BC) which the Mylasans supported. The city was a member of the Delian League led by Athens c 450/449, but during the rebellion of Samos against Athens (441–439) Persian control was probably resumed.
In 390 the satrap Hecatomnus established the capital of the new Persian province of Caria at a new settlement of Mylasa, four miles north of Peçin, or this may have been the work of his son Mausolus. Subsequently, c 360, Mausolus moved his residence to Halicarnassus (Bodrum). However, Mylasa remained his religious capital, and gave him an additional port at Passala (Küllük). Later, in or after the time of Alexander the Great, a certain Eupolemus issued coins at the city in his own name; during the third century, however, the place belonged successively to the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. After the defeat of the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV Epiphanes by the Romans (189), Mylasa was exempted from tribute—and spared subordination to the Rhodians, which was the fate of the rest of Caria. Not long afterward it formed a union (sympoliteia) with certain of its smaller neighbors.
When a Roman renegade, Quintus Labienus, overran Caria with a Parthian army in 40 BC, the rhetorician Hybreas persuaded his Mylasan people to resist, whereupon the city suffered severely at Labienus' hands. It recovered, however, with the help of Octavian (the future Augustus)—who reaffirmed its freedom in 31—and resumed the issue of coins, which continued until Gordian III (AD 238–44). These pieces depict the famous sanctuary of Zeus Osogos or Osogoas, also known as Zenoposeidon, a combination of Zeus and Poseidon; his emblems were an eagle, crab and trident. Part of the wall of his precinct is still standing, to the southwest of the city. A further important shrine was dedicated to Zeus Stratios or Labraundus (Labrandenus). This, too, was away from the city, in the eastern hills of Labraunda; it is one of the best-preserved sites in Asia Minor (even windows survive). Herodotus and Strabo also mention a temple of Zeus Karios, with which traces at Peçin Kalesi can be identified. A high podium (and one column) still to be seen within Mylasa itself may belong to another temple of the same deity; and another sanctuary on Hisarbaşı hill, reconstructed after Labienus' sack and dedicated to Augustus and Rome, was noted by a visitor in 1675 and has likewise left scanty remains. In addition, there was a holy place of a native divinity Sinuri eight miles southeast of the city. Secular monuments include an arched gateway, now known as Baltalı Kapı, Gate of the Axe, because it is adorned with a relief of the double axe which was the emblem of Mylasan Zeus. Standing at the beginning of a Sacred Way to the Labraunda shrine, the gate was subsequently utilized to support an aqueduct. Elaborate Hellenistic and Roman graves in the neighborhood include a tomb of the second century AD which is modelled on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, thus suggesting what that building looked like.