Sebaste
- a city in Samaria, Plin. 5, 13, 14, § 69; Hier. in Epit. Paul. 6.
SEBASTE(Σεβαστή).
1.A town in a small island off the coast of Cilicia, built by Archelaus king of Cappadocia, to whom the Romans had given Cilicia Aspera. (Strab. 14. p. 671.) It seems to have received its name Sebaste in honour of Augustus; for, until his time, both the island and the town were called Eleusa, Elaeusa, or Elaeussa (J. AJ, Bell. 1.23.4; comp. Ptol. 5.8.4; Hierocl. p. 704; Stadiasm. Mar. Magn. § 172, where it is called Ἐλεοῦς;Steph. B. s. vv.Σεβαστήand Ἐλαιοῦσσα), a name which Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.22) still applies to the town, though he erroneously places it in the interior of Caria. Stephanus, in one of the passages above referred to, calls Sebaste or Elaeussa an island, and in the other a peninsula, which may be accounted for by the fact that the narrow channel between the island and the mainland was at an early period filled up with sand, as it is at the present,--for the place no longer exists as an island. Sebaste was situated between Corycus and the mouth of the river Lamus, from which it was only a few miles distant. Some interesting remains of the town of Sebaste still exist on the peninsula near Ayash, consisting of a temple of the composite order, which appears to have been overthrown by an earthquake, a theatre, and three aqueducts, one of which conveyed water into the town from a considerable distance. (Comp. Beaufort, Karamania, p. 250, foll.; Leake, Asia Minor, p. 213.)
2.A town in Phrygia Pacatiana, between Alydda and Eumenia, is noticed only by Hierocles, (p. 667) and in the Acts of the Council of Constantinople (3. p. 674); but its site has been identified with that of the modern Segikler, where inscriptions and coins of the town have been found. The ancient name of the place is still preserved in that of the neighbouring stream, Sebasli Su. (Comp. Hamilton's Researches, 1. p. 121, &c.; Arundell, Discoveries, 1. p. 136, who erroneously takes the remains at Seyiklerfor those of the ancient Eucarpia.)
3.[CABIRAVol. 1. p. 462.] [L.S]
SEBASTE[SAMARIA]
in Latin, Augusta. (1) Now Ayash, a city on the coast of Cilicia Aspera.
(2) Now Segikler, a city of Phrygia, northwest of Eumenia.
(3) A city in Pontus, also called Cabira. (See Cabira.)
(4) See Samaria.
One of the 12 important cities in Phrygia, 35 km S of Uşak (Temenothyrae). The site is at the foot of Mt. Bulkaz, in the plain of the Banaz çayi (the ancient Senaros river). Sebaste was one of the cities founded during the Romanization of Asia Minor. It lies midway between Acmonia (Ahat köy) on the Royal Road and Eumenia in the Maeander valley. Augustus founded the city in 20 B.C. at the suggestion of the oracle of Apollo, on the site of several earlier Anatolian settlements. Imperial coinage runs from the time of Augustus until after Gordian III. The main types are: obverse, head of Dionysos, Men, young Herakles; reverse, Zeus, Kybele, Perseus slaying Gorgo, Caracalla on horseback, and a river god. Inscriptions with the words polis, strategos, and agoranomos indicate the city's importance. In the Byzantine period it became a bishopric.
The remains include Early Bronze Age mounds not yet explored, and three Lydian tumuli (5th c. B.C.) with funerary chambers. One of them has marble masonry of high quality.
Roman remains are inscriptions (historical, funerary, votive), including one with the name of Sebaste reused in a Byzantine church wall; foundations of a Roman building under a Byzantine church; a marble votive statue of Zeus now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum; many fragments of architraves, columns, capitals, sarcophagi, and Phrygian door-stelai scattered over the site.
There are also Byzantine buildings, especially of the 6th and 10th c. A.D.: a complex of churches, including the remains of two large basilicas and several chapels within a surrounding wall. Marble iconostases with colored glass inlays are in the Selçikler museum depot and the Uşak Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHYW. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia II (1897) 5; Head, Hist. Num. 684; J. Keil & A. von Premerstein, Bericht uber eine zweite Reise in Lydien (1911) no. 265; G. Mendel, Catalogue des Sculptures. . . Istanbul Museum) III (1914) no. 813; Ruge, RE III A (1921) 209; D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950) I, 472ff; II, 1334 n. 14; N. Firatli, CahArch 19 (1969) 151-66; id., TurkArkDerg 19, 2 (1970) 109-60; Ü. İzmirligil, TurkArkDerg 21, 1 (1974).
N. FIRATLI