Phocaea (ancient world)
Phocaea, known today as Foça, is an ancient coastal city located in Ionia, on the western shores of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Positioned near the northern entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna, Phocaea was strategically flanked by two harbors and benefited from the nearby Smardus River. Occupied by Ionian settlers from as early as 800 BC, the city was originally more closely associated with the Aeolian region before becoming a prominent Ionian settlement. The inhabitants of Phocaea were renowned for their maritime skills, establishing a significant trade network that included connections with Egypt and founding several colonies in the western Mediterranean, such as Massalia (modern Marseille) and Alalia in Corsica.
The city is also noted for its early achievements in coinage and for its cultural contributions, including the work of the sculptor Telephanes. Throughout its history, Phocaea faced various challenges, including Persian sieges, which ultimately led to the migration of many of its residents to Mediterranean colonies during the 6th century. Despite these hardships, Phocaea played a role in the Ionian Revolt against Persian rule and later became a member of the Delian League. Its prominence declined after the rise of nearby Smyrna and it eventually came under the control of various Hellenistic powers. Despite its diminished status, Phocaea regained some autonomy under Roman rule and continued to produce coins featuring significant cultural symbols. The site today contains remnants of its rich ancient heritage, including a theatre and possible temple ruins, reflecting its historical significance in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Subject Terms
Phocaea (ancient world)
Phokaia (Foça)
A coastal city of Ionia (western Asia Minor), situated on a bay near the end of a headland flanked by a harbor on either side (Naustathmos and Lampster), beside the northern entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna (Izmir). A small river, the Smardus, flowed into the gulf nearby, and Phocaea commanded the valley of the Hermus (Gediz Çayı). It was the northernmost of the Ionian towns, and indeed, at the time of the earliest Greek settlements, had more properly belonged to Aeolis than to Ionia, since its Ionian colonists—under Athenian leadership, according to ancient authors—had been ceded land by the people of Aeolian Cyme (Namurt Limanı). Pottery found on the site of Phocaea suggests that their occupation took place not later than 800 BC.
Nevertheless, they still lacked good arable soil; so instead they exploited the potentialities of an excellent harbor, and became some of the most skillful and enterprising of all Greek sailors. They provided a port for the Lydian interior, traded with Naucratis (Kom Gieif) in Egypt, and founded Lampsacus (Lapseki) at the northern entrance to the Hellespont (Dardanelles) and in association with Miletus Amisus (Samsun) on the Euxine (Black) Sea. But the historic achievement of the Phocaeans lay in the west. Already in the later seventh century their seamen had passed outside the Straits of Gibraltar to Tartessus, establishing friendly relations that secured them a large share in the tin and bronze market. They also established numerous colonies in the western Mediterranean, of which the most famous—later one of the leading cities of the ancient world—was Massalia (Massilia, Marseille) on the southern coast of Gaul, which in turn created settlements along the same coast and on the Mediterranean shores of Spain, while other Phocaeans colonized Alalia (Aleria) in Corsica (c 565–560).
In the sixth century Phocaea inaugurated an extensive and widely circulating electrum (pale gold) coinage, displaying the punning type of a seal (phoce, from the shape of some islands adjoining the city). About 540, however, threatened by a besieging Persian army, many of its inhabitants migrated to its Mediterranean colonies, and, in particular, to Alalia, from which later on (after a historic battle c 535 against Etruscans [from Caere, now Cerveteri] and Carthaginians), they were obliged to move instead to Elea (Velia, Castellamare di Bruca) in Lucania (southwest Italy). An important Phocaean sculptor, Telephanes, however, worked for the Persian court; and some of the emigrants eventually returned home. Their city joined the Ionian revolt against the Persians, but was only able to send three ships to the disastrous battle of Lade (495), although owing to their naval skill the supreme Ionian command was given to one of their citizens, Dionysius; he fled to Sicily after the defeat. After the Persian Wars the Phocaeans became members of the Delian League directed by Athens, but rebelled in 412, during the Peloponnesian War, and left the League. Following the death of Alexander the Great (323) their city was eclipsed by the revival of Smyrna, and came successively under the domination of the Seleucids, the Ptolemies and the Attalids of Pergamum. When the last named kingdom was bequeathed to Rome, Phocaea joined Aristonicus' unsuccessful rebellion against the Romans (132), but after its suppression was saved from destruction by the intervention of Massalia. Pompey the Great granted Phocaea the status of a free community c 63.
Thereafter it resumed the issues of coinage, from the time of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14) to Philip the Arab (AD 244–49). The designs on these pieces included a figure of Poseidon (Neptune) with his foot on a prow, and the contest of Poseidon with Athena. A temple of that goddess, mentioned by Xenophon and Pausanias, is probably identifiable with a shrine at the tip of the headland, which was erected c 575–550, was evidently restored after its destruction by the Persians, and has now been excavated. Adjacent graves carved out of the rock, somewhat resembling tombs in Lycia, Lydia and Phrygia, probably include the burial places of local autocrats who had ruled the city under Persian suzerainty.