Cremna, Pisidia

"Cremna" redirects here. This was also a genus of metalmark butterflies, now a junior synonym of Napaea (butterfly).

Cremna (in Greek Κρῆμνα) was a town in Pisidia. It was first taken by Amyntas, commander of the Galatian auxiliary army of Brutus and Cassius, who became king of Galatia and Pisidia on going over to the side of Mark Antony. Octavian allowed him to remain king until his death in 25 BC.^[1] After this it became a Roman colony, as Strabo says; and there are imperial coins with the epigraph COL. IVL. AVG. CREMNA, which stands for Colonia Iulia Augusta [Felix] Cremnena. Its first coins appear to have been minted under Hadrian. Ptolemy mentions the Cremna Colonia, and according to him it is in the same longitude as Sagalassus.^[2]

The donatio given by the emperor Aurelian (270–275) promised a period of great prosperity for Cremna; but in 276 the town was taken by an Isaurian robber, named Lydius, who used it as a base for looting the region.^[3] Later, the town was inserted in the Roman province of Pamphylia, of which it was a capital, and long remain inhabited, as attested by its bishops present at the ecumenical councils. At some time in the high Middle Ages the ancient site of the town was abandoned, the population transferring itself to the present village of Çamlik.

The ancient site of Cremna has been identified in the district of Bucak in 1874, and excavations have been started in 1970. It stands on a hill dominating the ancient Cestrus River (today Aksu); very few of the site's old building are still standing, generally consisting of heaps of stone.^[4]

References

• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, "Cremna", London, (1854)
• Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister (editors); The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, "Kremna", Princeton, (1976)

Notes

1. ^ Strabo, Geographia, xii. 7
2. ^ Ptolemy, Geographia, v. 5
3. ^ Zosimus, Historia Nova, i. 69
4. ^ Princeton Encyclopedia, "Kremna"

Coordinates: 37°30′00.50″N 30°41′27.96″E / 37.500139°N 30.6911°E / 37.500139; 30.6911