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Sebasteion
In 1979,Professor. Dr. Kenan Erim found a great temple
complex, which was devoted 'S the goddess Aphrodite and the family of the first
Roman Emperor Julius Claudius. we know based on the inscriptions on this
building that it was called Sebasteion. It is the Greek word for the Latin
Augustus, which also means "large". There is no other Sebasteion"
to the west of Rome that is 50 large and so richly
decorated with frescoes. It is on the road, which begins at the North gate and
stops at the theatre. The construction of the culture center began at the time
of the emperor Tiberius (14-37 AD). During the construction, the culture center
was destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt repeatedly. The principal buildings were completed at the time of
Emperor Claudius.
This monument consists of three principal buildings. The
entrance building Propylon towards the road has two levels. The 14-m wide road
of marble ends up in a victory temple on a podium. |
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Three-level Portikos are on every side of the. road. Between the
pillars of the second and third levels of the buildings, there are freely
designed frescores The boards of the second level include mythological scenes,
the boards of the third Level show scenes of Emperors. We learn from the
inscriptions on the architrave on the first level that, most likely, two related
aristocrats constructed the building. The two brothers Menander and Eusebes, and
the wife of Eusebes were the ones who who established the entrance buildings and
the north Poruko. The Nike (victory) temple and the southÂPortiko were
established by the brothers Diogenes and Attalus. By building this monuÂment,
these brothers took advantage of the opportunity to communicate to Rome that
after the death of Zoilos, who was not a noble man, this city, which was always
called Aphrodisias, would again be ruled by the noble to show that they
were still living in this city.
What could have been the reason to bring the Aphrodisiens
to complete such an incomparable and pompous plan? In order to answer to that we
have to go a bit away to the Trojan war. This story is called the "Aeneas saga'
Azra Erhat describes this story in his dictionary of mythology like this:
Aeneas is the son of goddess Aphrodite and the Prince Ankhises of
Troya. Ankhises
and Trojan King Priamos are Cousins from the same genÂeration such as Hektor. As
a son of a goddess he possesses superiority. Nevertheless the war was lost and all Trojans were killed. Aeneas took
his father on the shoulder , his child aby the hand and accompanied by his wife
and with the help of goddess Aphroodite, he fled to the Ida mountain (Kazdagi). Following thousands
of adventures, as in the Odysseus saga and after losing his wife and his
father's death, he reached the Palatinus hill together with his son, this was
the place where Rome was built later. He defeated the Rutullen King Turnust
during a fight and killed him.
More than 70 boards, which were found with the excavations,
are stored in a depot in the garden of the excavation house. These boards, which
will soon be displayed in a new museum, include very abundant subjects.
In addition to mythological subjects such as the three
beauties, Apollon, Achilleus and Pentasilia and Aeneas, Dionisos and Herkules
which fled from Troya, scenes of emperors such as Augustus, Lucius, Gaius Cesar,
Claudius, Nero and its families can also to be seen on the frescoes. |
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