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PRIENE (mod. Samsun kale)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 316 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRIENE (mod. See also:Samsun kale) , an See also:ancient See also:city of See also:Ionia on the See also:foot-hills of Mycale, about 6 m. N. of the Maeander. It wasformerly on the See also:sea See also:coast, but now lies some See also:miles inland. It is said to have been founded by See also:Ionians under Aegyptus, a son of See also:Neleus. Sacked by Ardys of See also:Lydia, it revived and attained See also:great prosperity under its " See also:sage," See also:Bias, in the See also:middle of the 6th See also:century. See also:Cyrus captured it in 545; but it was able to send twelve See also:ships to join the Ionian revolt (500-494). Disputes with See also:Samos, and the troubles after See also:Alexander's See also:death, brought Priene See also:low, and See also:Rome had to See also:save it from the See also:kings of See also:Pergamum and See also:Cappadocia in 155. Orophernes, the rebellious See also:brother of the Cappadocian See also:king, who had deposited a treasure there and recovered it by See also:Roman intervention, restored the See also:temple of See also:Athena as a thankoffering. Under Roman and See also:Byzantine dominion Priene had a prosperous See also:history. It passed into Moslem hands See also:late in the 13th century. The ruins, which See also:lie on successive terraces, were the See also:object of See also:missions sent out by the See also:English Society of Dilettanti in 1765 and 1868, and have been thoroughly laid open by Dr Th.

Wiegand (1895-1899) for the See also:

Berlin Museum. The city, as rebuilt in the 4th and 3rd centuries, was laid out on a rectangular See also:scheme. It faced See also:south, its See also:acropolis rising nearly 700 ft. behind it. The whole See also:area was enclosed by a See also:wall 7 ft. thick with towers at intervals and three See also:principal See also:gates. On the See also:lower slopes of the acropolis was a See also:shrine of See also:Demeter. The See also:town had six See also:main streets, about 20 ft. wide, See also:running See also:east and See also:west and fifteen streets about 10 ft. wide See also:crossing at right angles, all being evenly spaced; and it was thus divided into about 8o insulae. Private houses were apportioned four to an insula. The systems of See also:water-See also:supply and drainage can easily be discerned. The houses See also:present many analogies with the earliest Pompeian. In the western See also:half of the city, on a high See also:terrace See also:north of the main See also:street and approached by a See also:fine stairway, was the temple of Athena Polias, a See also:hexastyle peripterial Ionic structure built by Pythias, the architect of the See also:Mausoleum. Under the basis of the statue of Athena were found in 187o See also:silver tetradrachms of Orophernes, and some See also:jewelry, probably deposited at the See also:time of the Cappadocian restoration. Fronting the main street is a See also:series of halls, and on the other See also:side is the fine See also:market See also:place.

The municipal buildings, Roman gymnasium, and well preserved See also:

theatre lie to the north, but, like all the other public structures, in the centre of the See also:plan. Temples of See also:Isis and Asclepius have been laid See also:bare. At the lowest point on the south, within the walls, was the large See also:stadium, connected with a gymnasium of Hellenistic times. See Society of Dilettanti, Ionian Antiquities (1821), vol. ii.; Th. Wiegand and H. See also:Schrader, Priene (1904); on See also:inscriptions (36o) see See also:Hiller von Gartringen, Inschriften von Priene (Berlin, 1907), with collection of ancient references to the city. (D. G.

End of Article: PRIENE (mod. Samsun kale)

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