Γάργαρα | |
  Gargara Shown within Turkey | |
| Location | Ayvacık,Çanakkale Province,Turkey |
|---|---|
| Region | Troad |
| Coordinates | 39°35′10″N26°32′3″E / 39.58611°N 26.53417°E /39.58611; 26.53417 |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Founded | 6th century BCE |
| Abandoned | No sooner than the 9th century CE, possibly as late as the 14th |
| Periods | Archaic Greece toByzantine Empire |
Gargara (Ancient Greek:Γάργαρα) was anancient Greek city on the southern coast of theTroad region ofAnatolia. It was initially located beneath Mount Gargaron, one of the three peaks ofMount Ida, today known as Koca Kaya (39°35′10″N26°32′03″E / 39.58611°N 26.53417°E /39.58611; 26.53417).[1] At some point in the 4th century BCE the settlement moved approximately 5.8 km south of Koca Kaya to a site on the small coastal plain near the modern villages ofArıklı andNusratlı (39°32′22″N26°32′46″E / 39.53944°N 26.54611°E /39.53944; 26.54611), at which point the previous site came to be known asOld Gargara (Ancient Greek:Παλαιγάργαρος).[2] Both sites are located in theAyvacık district ofÇanakkale Province inTurkey.
Mount Gargaron has been identified with the mountain today called Koca Kaya (TurkishGreat Rock), a western spur of Mount Ida with a maximum elevation of 780 m.[3] The poetEpicharmus (fl. 540 - 450 BCE) refers to the mountain as "snowcapped" (ἀγάννιφα), and theEtymologicum Magnum (ca. 1150 CE) knew a tradition according to which the inhabitants of Old Gargara moved to their new site to escape the cold of their old home.[4] InHomer'sIliad it is said to have had an altar toZeus at its summit, and hence is a place the god frequently visits.[5] In one passage Zeus is said to have come to Mount Gargaron fromMount Olympos to view the battle between theTrojans and theAcahaeans, about 50 km NE of here.[6] In writers of the 1st and 2nd century AD such asStatius andLucian Zeus is said to have abducted the Trojan princeGanymede from Mount Gargaron while he was hunting in the nearby forests.[7] Lucian also represents theJudgement of Paris as taking place on Mount Gargaron rather than in its more traditional location further to the east aboveAntandrus.[8] The anonymous author ofOn Rivers thought that Gargara was Mount Ida's previous name, while the Latin poetValerius Flaccus used it as a learned way of referring to Ida.[9] TheEtymologicum Magnum explains the name of Gargaron either as deriving from the verb γαργαρίζειν ('to gargle') on account of the springs thought to bubble up on the summit (an inference taken from Homer's reference to 'many-fountained Ida' in conjunction with Gargaron), or as deriving from γαργαρέων ('uvula') on account of the mountain's shape.[10]
The poetAratus ofSoli wrote an epigram about his friend Diotimos, who used to teach the children of Gargara their letters up on Mount Gargaron:
There is no indication in the relevant passages of theIliad that Homer considered Mount Gargaron inhabited.[12] This is partly confirmed by the fact that the earliest archaeological remains found at the site (fortification walls around the acropolis and the foundations of a temple) date no later than the 6th century BCE.[13] In the 7th century BCE the poetAlcman said that the settlement was inhabited byLeleges, an Anatolian people, but this may simply be an inference from Homer's remark elsewhere in theIliad that the whole southern coast of the Troad was inhabited by Leleges.[14]Hecataeus of Miletus (ca. 550 - 476 BCE) andHellanicus of Lesbos (ca. 490 - 405 BCE) say that Gargara was inhabited byAeolian Greeks originally from nearbyAssos and Myrsilos ofMethymna (first half of the 3rd century BCE) that Assos was a foundation of Methymna, hence the Aeolian ethnicity of Assos and the secondary foundations of Gargara andLamponeia.[15] If Alcman was correct to indicate the existence of an Anatolian settlement named Gargara in the 7th century BCE, then this fact could be harmonized with the apparently contradictory story of Gargara instead being a Greek foundation by noting that many settlements in this region had a mixed Greco-Anatolian heritage in which the local Anatolian population became assimilated with the Greek newcomers.[16] With respect to how the early settlement came to adopt the name of the mountain, John Cook, the archaeologist who identified the site of Old Gargara on Koca Kaya, remarked that: "What we can believe is that the people of Methymna across the strait pointed to this bold peak as the Homeric Γάργαρον ἄκρον and that the settlers there felt themselves entitled to appropriate the name".[17]
In the 5th century BCE Gargara was a member of theDelian League and paid a tribute to Athens of between 4,500 and 4,600drachmas as part of the Hellespontine district.[18] It is currently thought that the Gargarians moved from the site at Koca Kaya down to the coast in the 4th century BCE, although this has not been confirmed by excavation.[19] A long inscription found atIlion indicates that by ca. 306 Gargara was a member of thekoinon of Athena Ilias, a regional association of cities in the Troad which held an annual festival at Ilion. The inscription records a series of honorific decrees passed by thekoinon which praise a prominent and wealthy citizen, Malousios of Gargara, for providing interest free loans to finance the annual festival.[20]
The local antiquarian writerDemetrius of Scepsis (ca. 205-130 BCE) relates that Gargara received an influx of settlers who were forcibly moved from their home inMysia,Miletoupolis, by 'the kings' (presumably those ofBithynia) in the late 3rd or early 2nd century BCE. Miletoupolis was a semi-Greek settlement, and so Demetrius relates that as a result of this influx of immigrants there are hardly any Aeolians left in Gargara.[21] This episode should perhaps be connected with the invasion of this region byPrusias II of Bithynia in 156 - 154 BCE. Elsewhere in the Hellenistic period, citizens of Gargara are found serving asproxenoi atChios and as mercenaries atAthens, participating in a private association of resident foreigners onRhodes, making dedications toPtolemy III Euergetes and his family in Egypt, receiving honours at Ilion, and making dedications onDelos.[22] In the 230s or 220s BCE Gargara was one of the places at whichTheorodokoi ofDelphi were received, and in the 120s BCE it is attested as a port at which customs dues was being paid soon afterAttalus III had bequeathed theAsia to Rome in 133 BCE.[23]
While Gargara continued to exist in the Roman period, we hear about it primarily in the context of Latin literature, since it became a by-word for agricultural prosperity in Latin poetry followingVirgil's reference to it in theGeorgics:
Gargara is likewise used as an expression of proverbial fertility inOvid'sArs Amatoria,Seneca's tragedyThe Phoenician Women, and as late as the 5th century CE in the odes ofSidonius Apollinaris.[25]Macrobius in hisSaturnalia (early 5th century CE) devoted a chapter to the question of what had given Virgil the idea of using Gargara this way in the first place, concluding that it was an inference firstly from Mount Ida's reputation for being well-watered in Homer, secondly from Mysia's general reputation for fertility, and thirdly from the use of γάργαρα (gargara) inOld Comedy to express an immense quantity of anything.[26]
Gargara appears to have been continuously occupied until at least the 9th century, and perhaps as late as the 14th. It was asuffragan bishopric of themetropolis ofEphesus for which we know the names of three of its bishops: John (518), Theodorus (553), and Ephraim (878).[27] In addition to possible middle Byzantine remains seen at Gargara by John Cook, other documents such as theEpistulae Dogmaticae ofPatriarch Germanus I of Constantinople (715-730) and theNotitiae Episcopatuum also attest Gargara's continued existence throughout this period.[28] Finally, four documents from theMonastery of Great Lavra onMount Athos dating to 1284 and 1304 attest a Constantine of Gargara and his family.[29] The latest period of occupation at the site may be represented by the nearby castles of Menteşe and Şahin Kale which Cook thought could be either Byzantine orGenoese.[30]
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