Apamea Myrlea

Apamea Myrlea, or Apamea Myrleon, was an ancient city on the Sea of Marmara, in Bithynia, Anatolia; the ruins are now found a few kilometers south of Mudanya, Bursa Province in the Asian part of Turkey.

Names

Apamea Myrlea in Greek is Απάμεια Μυρλεανός, also transliterated as Apameia Myrleanos. It was formerly Brylleion and Myrlea (Greek: Μύρλεια, also transliterated as Murleia or Myrleia). In Latin it was Colonia Iulia Concordia and also recorded as Apamena.

Foundation

The city was founded by the Colophonians.^[1] In antiquity Apamea was the port of Prusa (now, Bursa). Philip V of Macedon took the town, as it appears, during the war which he carried on against the king of Pergamon, and he gave the place to King Prusias I of Bithynia, his ally. Prusias, who rebuilt the city around 202 BC, renamed the city after his wife, Apama III.

The place was on the south coast of the Gulf of Erdek, and northwest of Bursa. The Romans made Apamea a colony, apparently not earlier than the time of Augustus, or perhaps Julius Caesar, given the name Colonia Iulia Concordia.^[2] When the governor of Bithynia asked for the advice of Trajan, as to a claim made by the colonia, not to have its accounts of receipts and expenditures examined by the Roman governor. From a passage of Ulpian ^[3] we learn the form "Apamena: est in Bithynia colonia Apamena." ^[4]

Apamea minted its own coins in antiquity: coins during the Greek period (before the Roman dominion) have the epigraph Apameôn Murleanôn; during Roman times, coins were labeled with C.I.C.A (= Colonia Iulia Concordia Apamea).^[5]

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

• Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 52.
• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, "Apameia", London, (1854)
• William Smith, Classical Dictionary, s.v. "Apamea", "Myrlea"
• Stephanus of Byzantium, s. v. Apameia

Notes

1. ^ Pliny v. 32.)
2. ^ Pliny the Younger (Ep. x. 56)
3. ^ Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 11
4. ^ p. 153
5. ^ Asia Minor Coins - ancient coins of Apamea

External links

• Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Apamea"

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed (1854–57). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.