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. 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 south­Portiko were established by the brothers Diogenes and Attalus. By building this monu­ment, 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 gen­eration 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.