Alinda

Alinda
Ἄλινδα
Agora of Alinda
Shown within Turkey
Location Near Karpuzlu, Aydın Province, Turkey
Region Caria
Coordinates 37°33′30″N 27°49′25″E / 37.55833°N 27.82361°E / 37.55833; 27.82361Coordinates: 37°33′30″N 27°49′25″E / 37.55833°N 27.82361°E / 37.55833; 27.82361
Type Settlement

Alinda (Greek: Ἄλινδα) was an ancient inland city and bishopric in Caria, in Asia Minor (Anatolia), now a Latin Catholic titular bishopric.

Location and remains

It is situated near Demircideresi, on a hilltop which commands the modern-day town of Karpuzlu, Aydın Province, in western Turkey, and overlooks a fertile plain.

The non-restored but very well preserved ruins remain much visited, especially within the circuit of organized tours (locally called "safaris") with departure from either the international tourism center of Bodrum or from Milas and reaching Karpuzlu through a mountain road from the south.

In 2018, four kilometers of the ancient stone road, which connects the ancient cities of Alinda and Latmus, have been destroyed by villagers to make way for their olive groves.[1]

History

Alinda could have been an important city since the second millennium BC and has been associated with Ialanti that appears in Hittite sources (J. Garstang, p. 179).

It was this fortress which was held by the exiled Carian Queen Ada. She greeted Alexander the Great here in 334 BC.

The city could have been renamed "Alexandria by the Latmos" (Greek: Αλεξάνδρεια στη Λάτμο) shortly afterwards, and was recorded as thus by Stephanus of Byzantium, although different sources raise different possibilities as to the exact location of the settlement of that name. The prior name of Alinda was restored by at least 81 BC. It appears as "Alinda" in Ptolemy's Geographia (Book V, ch. 2) of the 2nd century AD.

Alinda remained an important commercial city; minting its own coins from the third century BC to the 3rd century AD.[2] Stephanus records that the city had a temple of Apollo containing a statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles.

Alinda has a necropolis of Carian tombs and has been partially excavated. Alinda also had a major water system including a Roman aqueduct, a nearly-intact market place, a 5,000-seat Roman amphitheater in relatively good condition, and remains of numerous temples and sarcophagi.[3]

Ecclesiastical history

Alinda appears on Byzantine lists of bishoprics. It was a suffragan of the Metropolitan of Stauropolis, the capital of the Roman province of Caria, but was to fade.

Residential Bishops

(incomplete)

Titular Bishopric

It was nominally restored as a Latin titular see of the Roman Catholic Church but is vacant since the death of the last bishop in 1976, having had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :

  • Alexandre-Louis-Victor-Aimé Le Roy, Holy Ghost Fathers (C.S.Sp.) (1892.07.03 – 1921.05.13), as Apostolic Vicar of Gabon (Gabon) (1892.07.03 – 1896.05.24), later Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans, Holy Ghost Fathers) (1896.07 – 1926), Titular Archbishop of Caria (see) (1921.05.13 – 1938.04.21)
  • Edward Komar (1921.06.16 – 1943.09.29)
  • Juan Hervás y Benet (1944.01.13 – 1947.12.22)
  • Eris Norman Michael O’Brien (1948.02.05 – 1951.01.11) as Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney (Australia) (1948.02.05 – 1951.01.11); later Titular Archbishop of Cyrrhus (1951.01.11 – 1953.11.16), Coadjutor Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn (Australia) (1951.01.11 – 1953.11.16), succeeding as Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn (1953.11.16 – 1966.11.20), emeritate as Titular Archbishop of Apamea in Syria (1966.11.20 – 1974.02.28)* Gabriel Manek, Divine Word Missionaries (S.V.D.) (1951.03.08 – 1961.01.03) as Apostolic Vicar of Larantuka (Indonesia) (1951.03.08 – 1961.01.03), later Metropolitan Archbishop of Endeh (Indonesia) (1961.01.03 – 1968.12.19), emeritate as Titular Archbishop of Bavagaliana (1968.12.19 – 1976.05.15)
  • Charles Alexander Grant (1961.02.06 – 1967.03.14)
  • Robert Lebel (1974.03.11 – 1976.03.26)
  • Juan Hervás y Benet (1976.09.30 – 1982.06.06)

References

  1. ↑ Ancient road destroyed to make way for villagers’ olive groves in Aydın
  2. ↑ Cobb Institute of Archaeology. "Museum object: Coin". Mississippi State University. Archived from the original on 2006-09-01.
  3. ↑ Professor Fikret Yegül. "Roman Building Technology and Architecture: Water supply systems: Cisterns, reservoirs, aqueducts". University of California. Archived from the original on 2005-11-20.
  4. ↑ Fergus Millar, A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II (408–450) (University of California Press, 2006) p100.
  5. ↑ Richard Price, Michael Gaddis, The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, Volume 1 (Liverpool University Press, 1 Jan. 2005) p451
  6. ↑ Biographical Index of the Middle Ages / Biographischer Index des Mittelalters / Index Biographique du Moyen-Âge (Walter de Gruyter,2008) p1068.

See also

  • The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. "Perseus Digital Library: Alinda". Princeton University.

  • George E. Bean (1971). Turkey beyond the Maeander ISBN 0-87471-038-3. Frederick A. Praeger, London. templatestyles stripmarker in |title= at position 28 (help)
  • J. Garstang, The Hittite Empire (University Press, Edinburgh, 1930), p. 179.
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