Tripolis (Phrygia)

Tripolis (Greek: Τρίπολις, "Eth." Τριπολίτης) – also Neapolis, Apollonia, and Antoninopolis – was an ancient city of Phrygia (also attributed to Caria and Lydia, on the northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander, and on the road leading from Sardes by Philadelphia to Laodicea ad Lycum. (It. Ant. p. 336; Tab. Peut.) It was situated 20 km to the northwest of Hierapolis, and is not mentioned by any writer before the time of Pliny (v. 30), who treats it as a Lydian town, and says that it was washed by the Maeander. Ptolemy (v. 2. § 18) and Stephanus of Byzantium describe it as a Carian town, and the latter (s. v.) adds that in his time it was called Neapolis. Hierocles (p. 669) likewise calls it a Lydian town. Pliny also states that Apollonia was an alternate name for the city. The city minted coins in antiquity which bore the head of Leto.

Ruins of it still exist near Yenicekent (formerly Yeniji or Kash Yeniji), Denizli Province, Turkey. (Arundell, "Seven Churches", p. 245; Hamilton, "Researches", i. p. 525; Fellows, "Asia Minor", p. 287.) The ruins mostly date from the Roman and Byzantine periods and include a theater, baths, city walls, and a necropolis.

It remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church, "Tripolitanus in Lydia"; the seat is now vacant. [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d3t86.html]

References

*SmithDGRG

External links

* [http://www.kulturturizm.gov.tr/portal/arkeoloji_en.asp?belgeno=2719 "Tripolis" at the Turkish Ministry of Culture]
* [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0358.html Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Tripolis"]