Telmessos

This article is about Telmessos in Lycia (modern Fethiye), not to be confused with Telmessos in Caria.

Paintings of Telmessos by Luigi Mayer

Telmessos or Telmessus (Ancient Greek: Τελμησσός), also Telmissus (Ancient Greek: Τελμισσός),^[1] later Anastasiopolis, then Makri or Macre, was the largest city in Lycia, near the Carian border, and is sometimes confused with Telmessos in Caria. The well-protected harbor of Telmessos is separated from the Gulf of Telmessos by an island.

The name of the modern town on the site is Fethiye.

History

Lycian Tomb of Telmessus

Telmessos was a flourishing city in the west of Lycia, on the Gulf of Fethiye. It was famed for its school of diviners, consulted among others by the Lydian king Croesus, prior to declaring war against Cyrus, and by Alexander the Great, when he came to the town after the siege of Halicarnassus.

The sign on site says one statue has been destroyed by water seepage and two others damaged. August 2011

Telmessos was a member of the Delian League in the 5th century BC. It was taken by Alexander in 334 BC.

Telmessos was renamed Anastasiopolis in the 8th century AD, apparently in honour of Emperor Anastasios II, but this name did not persist. The city came to be called Makri, after the name of the island at the entrance to the harbor. This name is attested for the first time in 879 AD.

The tombs date from about 400BC and reflect the wooden architecture of Lycia. August 2011

However, an inscription of the 7th century found in Gibraltar and bearing the ethnonym "Makriotes" (from Makri) may indicate an earlier existence of name Makri.^[2]

Its ruins are located at Fethiye.

Church history

Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 971) mentions two bishops of Telmessus: Hilary (370) and Zenodotus, at the Council of Chalcedon (451). The latter is called "Bishop of the Metropolis of Telmessaei and the Isle of Macra". The Notitiae Episcopatuum mentions Telmessus among the suffragans of Myra until the 10th century, when it is no longer called Macra; in 1316 mention is made of the See of "Macra and Lybysium". Lybysium or Levissi, about four miles south-west of Makri, had in the early 20th century 3000 inhabitants, nearly all Greeks.

The see is included, under the name Telmissus, in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.^[3] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Telmessos is also a titular episcopal see of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The current holder of the see, Archbishop Job, is primate of the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, based in Paris.^[4]

See also

• Aristander of Telmessus, seer to Alexander the Great
• Birds Without Wings 2004 novel by Louis de Bernières set in the early 1900s in a fictional Anatolian village called Eskibahçe where Telmessos is the nearest town.

References

1. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 971–972
2. Jaime B. Curbera (1996) "Two Greek Christian Inscriptions from Spain". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 110 (1996) 290–292.
3. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 985
4. "L'archimandrite Job (Getcha) a été canoniquement élu ce matin par le Saint-Synode du Patriarcat de Constantinople" [Archimandrite Job (Getcha) has been canonically elected this morning by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople]. www.orthodoxie.com - L'information orthodoxe sur Internet (in French). 2 November 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.

Sources

•  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Telmessus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Archaeological World
• Clive Foss, "The Lycian Coast in the Byzantine Age", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 48:1-52 (1994). at JSTOR
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Telmessus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.

Coordinates: 36°37′21.3″N 29°06′41.4″E / 36.622583°N 29.111500°E