Sadak Satala | |
|---|---|
 Satala Aphrodite as displayed in the British Museum | |
  Sadak Location in Turkey | |
| Coordinates:40°1′34″N39°35′41″E / 40.02611°N 39.59472°E /40.02611; 39.59472 | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Gümüşhane |
| District | Kelkit |
| Population (2022) | 348 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |
Located inTurkey, the settlement ofSatala (Old Armenian:ՍատաղSatał,Ancient Greek:Σάταλα[1]), according to the ancient geographers, was situated in a valley surrounded by mountains, a little north of theEuphrates, where the road fromTrapezus toSamosata crossed the boundary of theRoman Empire, when it was a bishopric, which remains a Latin Catholictitular see. Later it was connected withNicopolis by two highways. Satala is nowSadak, a village of 348 inhabitants (2022), in theKelkit District ofGümüşhane Province inTurkey.[2][3]
This site must have been occupied as early as the annexation ofLesser Armenia underVespasian.Trajan visited it in 115 and received the homage of the princes of the Caucasus and the Euxine. Probably it was Trajan who placed there theLegio XVApollinaris and began the construction of the greatcastra stativa (permanent camp) which it was to occupy till the 5th century.[4] The town must have sprung up around this camp; in the time ofPtolemy it was already important. In 530 the Persianswere defeated by the Byzantine Empire under its walls.Justinian I constructed more powerful fortifications there, but these did not prevent Satala from being captured in 607-8 by the Persians.
In the Middle Ages and Ottoman period an important east-west route betweenErzurum andSivas orTokat ran past Satala; however by that time Satala had ceased being an important settlement.[5]
In the LateRoman province ofArmenia Prima,[6] Satala was a suffragan of its capitalSebaste's Metropolitan Archbishop.
The Christians were already numerous in the time ofDiocletian.Le Quien seven of its bishops:[7]
The see is mentioned in theNotitiae episcopatuum until the thirteenth century; the name of the bishop in 1256 is recorded as Cosmas.
In the 18th century, the diocese was nominally restored asTitular bishopric ofSatala.As such it had the following incumbents, all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :
In 1933 it was renamedSatala in Armenia. It is vacant, having had as such the following incumbents, so far also all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :
Satala, then called Sadagh or Suddak, was visited by J. G. Taylor in 1868: he copied a damaged Latin inscription mentioningDomitian found on a Roman votive altar; found a large figurative mosaic fragment, a "magnificent specimen", being reused as the base of a fireplace; found more and larger mosaic fragments scattered about the village (all of them having been dug out of the top of a hill overlooking the village); and reported the existence of Byzantine epitaph inscriptions.[11][12] Taylor reported that cut stones had been removed from the site to construct government buildings atErzincan.
The first detailed investigation of the site was byAlfred Biliotti, the British vice-consul atTrebizond. He visited Satala in September 1874 as a response to the finding of bronze statue fragments including the piece now known as theSatala Aphrodite, producing a description of the site and a plan of the ruins. Lightfoot considers Biliotti's account to be "by far the most accurate and valuable description of the remains at Satala". Although Sadagh was assumed by Taylor to be the site of Satala, and indicated as such byKiepert in his maps,[13] the site's identification as Satala was not conclusively established until 1894 when two British scholars, Vincent Yorke and D. G. Hogarth, found several tiles at the site bearing the stamp of Legio XV Apollinaris.[14] Yorke described Satala in 1894 as a Turkish village of about 150 houses, constructed mostly from reused stone blocks. Yorke identified as an aqueduct a 5-arched structure that Biliotti had identified as part of a basilica church and Taylor as part of a bathhouse, a misidentification that continued into the 1990s.
Some remains of the walls of the rectangular legionary fortress survive, though much ruined. Their line can be traced in part on all four sides of the fortress that encompassed an area of 15.7 ha (smaller than most legionary fortresses). These walls probably date from the 6th century AD when, according toProcopius, Satala's fortifications were extensively rebuilt by Justinian, but in places they reuse the foundations of earlier walls. Within the walls little remains, and ruined structures noted by Biliotti have been demolished. The legionary base had a civilian settlement to the north of the north wall, but no traces of any substantial buildings survive. A ruinous structure consisting of a row of arches stands at some distance to the southeast of the fortress. Biliotti described it as a basilica, but since then it was frequently regarded as the remains of an aqueduct leading to an as yet unidentified lower city. This theory is now considered obsolete and the ruin has been reconfirmed as that of a basilica church. Lightfoot speculates that it might have been a martyrium church dedicated to the patron saint of Satala, St. Eugenius.[15]
The famousSatala Aphrodite, a larger than life-size head from an ancient Hellenistic bronze statue, was found in a field outside Sadak in 1872. It is now on display in theBritish Museum.[16]
In November 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 1400 year-old Byzantine sarcophagus in Sadak in Satala. According to researchers, there wereGreek inscriptions on the cover saying "Blessed Kandes sleeps here". According toGümüşhane Museum Director Gamze Demir, the broken part of the sarcophagus, which is considered to be 2.5 meters long is believed to be under the ground.[17][18][19]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Satala".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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