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As a place where people
have lived continuously for thousands of years Bodrum
has an incredibly rich past. Its position in or near so
many of the great civilization and events of ancient
history also makes Halicarnassus (Bodrum's ancient name)
an important site for historians. Finding one source of
complete historical information on Bodrum is apparently
impossible, so the account that follows is a
distillation from several sources.
The first settlement
in this area which left structural evidence behind
was on the rocky little island where the Castle of
St. Peter now stands (the castle was once
completely surrounded by water). When the Knights
of St. John arrived to build their fortress, they
found the ruins of an older castle, now known to
have been built by the Dorians around 1100 BC.
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Herodotus, the "Father of
History", who lived in the Fifth Century BC and was born
in Halicarnassus, wrote that the Dorians came from
Troezen on the east coast of the Peloponnese. They
called their new island Zephyria and the settlement
Zephyrium.
Historians have little
evidence concerning the foundation of mainland
Halicarnassus. The first known mention of it comes form
the Seventh Century BC. Halicarnassus was one of six
members in the Dorian Confederation of Hexapolis, along
with the mainland city of Cnidos, the island of Cos, and
three cities on Rhodes.
Establishing these cities
was no easy task, as the Dorians were not the first
people to inhabit the area. They had to fend off the
continuous attacks of fierce natives known as Carians.
Homer mentioned the Carians in his Iliad, calling them "barbarous
of speech," (as coincidence linguists note that the
dialect of the region Bodrum is now part of has the
harshest dialect in the West of Turkey). Early
historians credit the Carians with having taught the
Greeks the use of crests on helmets and handles on
shields, which were previously slung over the shoulder.
One small alliance between
the Dorians and the Carians came about when a Greek
opened a tavern around the spring at Salmacis (now
submerged in the western end of Bodrum harbor, in
present day Bardakci). Both Dorians and Carians became
regular patrons, and the Carians eventually adopted a
more orderly way of life from the colonists. Trade
relations were established, and for a while the two
races coexisted in peace.
The waters of the Salmacis
fountain were said to have relaxing properties. Rumor
hat it that the water, though excellent to drink, had
the effect of making men soft and effeminate, sometimes
even impotent. These claims resulted in the legend of
Hermaphrodite.
The teenaged son of
Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty, was said to have spent
a day swimming in a lake formed by the fountain.
Salmacis, the nymph of the lake, fell in love with him
and begged the gods to allow them to live together in a
single body. They granted her wish, creating the half-man
half-woman figure of Hermaphrodite.
Herodotus wrote that
Halicarnassus became increasingly aligned with a group
of inland inhabitants, the Ionians. This upset the other
members of Hexapolis, and the misconduct of a
Halicarnassian is considered a pretext for the city's
expulsion from the league. All six cities competed in
games celebrated annually at Tropium in honor of Apollo.
A. Halicarnassian named Agasides won a bronze trophy one
year and refused to follow the custom of dedicating it
on the spot to Apollo. He instead hung it on the wall of
his house, inciting the wrath of the other Dorian cities
and giving them an excuse to cut off ties with
Halicarnassus.
By the Fifth Century BC
Halicarnassus appeared purely Ionian in character. Both
Herodotus and his uncle Panyasis the epic poet, wrote in
Ionian, and no inscriptions from this period show any
trace of the Doric dialect.
In 546 BC the Persians
overran the Greek cities of the coast, and Halicarnassus
fell with the rest. A series of dynasties then ruled in
the Persians' interest, the most famous of these, that
of Artemisia I, began in 480 BC.
Herodotus gave this
remarkable woman a lot of space in his writings. Of her
unnecessary enlistment in the fighting ranks of Xerxes
navy when he was invading Greece, he wrote, "..... her
manly daring sent her forth to the war ........(her)
participation in the attack upon Greece, notwithstanding
that she was a woman, moves my special wonder." She
commandeered a battleship with such prowess that Xerxes
was said to have remarked, "My men have shown themselves
women and my women, men."
Artemisia's son Psyndalis
succeeded her as ruler of Halicarnassus (as well as Cos
and several other islands). While historians have little
to say about the reign of Psyndalis, his son, Lydamis II,
is remembered as a cruel and oppressive ruler. Herodotus
left his homeland for the island of Samos, unable to
tolerate the whims of this tyrant. In 1856 the
archaeologist Sir Charles Newton found an inscription of
a law enforced by Lydamis II which details his total
intolerance of opposing political views.
We do not know who
succeeded Lydamis II or why the tyrant fell, but great
changes are known to have occurred by the Fourth Century
BC. Sometime during the previous century the harness of
Persian control was thrown off, but soon the "King's
Peace" treaty between Athens and Persia again put the
cities of Asia under Persian control. Persia divided the
region into 'satrapes' and by 377 BC King Mausolus ruled
as Satrap or Governor of Caria and Halicarnassus.
Until Mausolus' rule
Halicarnassus was a fairly small city but Mausolus had a
flair for ambitious projects and he recognized the
area's natural advantages for fortification and commerce.
He transferred his capital there from Mylasa (site of
present-day Milas) and built long lines of massive walls
around Halicarnassus, parts of which still stand today.
To populate the large new area he forcibly transplanted
the residents of six other nearby cities. Mausolus taxed
his subjects heavily to pay for these and other grand
scale projects, and even imposed a levy on hair longer
than shoulder length. One of his projects stands as the
only surviving structure from Classical Age Bodrum, the
Antique Theater. Located on the southern slope of Mt.
Goktepe just above the middle of Bodrum, this theater is
one of the oldest in Anatolia. A Turkish team restored
it in the 1960's and today the people of Bodrum still
use the theater for festivals.
The visitor will find the
theater a comfortable place to sit and contemplate
Bodrum while watching boats leave and enter the harbor.
Interesting features of the theater include a stone
altar once used before plays for sacrifices to Dionyus,
and several holes cut through some of the seats,
probably used for sun shades. Allowing 40 cm of space
per person, the theater could seat 13.000. A short climb
further up Goktepe brings one to several rock-cut tombs.
Dating from the Roman and Hellenistic period, these
excavated tombs once carried several sarcophagi, as well
as mementos buried with the dead (some which are on
display in the Castle Museum).
One type of memento found
in several graves were small 'tearcups'. These thimble-sized
cups were to collect tears from mourners, then left in
the tomb at burial. The more cups a person had, the more
popular he was. Mausolus died in 353 BC, succeeded by
his wife-sister, Artemisia II.
She ruled for only three
years, but she managed to accomplish two memorable feats.
The first was to continue construction of one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Tomb of King
Mausolus (from which we derived our word 'mausoleum').
The second was a brilliant battle success rivaling that
of Artemisia I.
Pliny and other ancient
writers agreed that the mausoleum was a true wonder to
behold. Easily visible from a good distance at sea, it
stood about as high as a 20-story building. Visitors to
the mausoleum site today will have to use their
imagination to recreate its splendor. Although it stood
intact for at least 1500 years, an earthquake finally
reduced it to ruins. Then the Knights of St. John
arrived and used the remains to construct parts of their
castle.
The generally agreed upon
appearance of the mausoleum has it as oblong shaped and
comprised of four parts; first, a solid base, then above
this a colonnade of 36 columns, then a pyramid with 24
steps on top of which rested an immense chariot occupied
by statues of Mausolus and Artemisia and drawn by four
horses. All four sides were full of sculptured friezes
by the finest artists of the day, and it was mostly the
abundance and magnificence of these works which made the
mausoleum such a spectacular sight. Fragments of them
were shipped to the British Museum in the Castle's
Museum, but otherwise little more than a few blocks and
column bases remain (many of which are visible in the
Castle's walls).
Artemisia's second
memorable feat was the capture of Rhodes. The Rhodians
considered dealing with a woman Carian ruler an
indignity (as well as, perhaps, an opportunity), so they
sent a fleet out to overthrow her. Artemisia received
word of this plan and hid her own forces in a secret
harbor near the main harbor. When the Rhodians landed
and went ashore, Artemisia had her own men sail the
Rhodian ships back out to sea. The Rhodian soldiers were
surrounded and slaughtered in the marketplace while the
Carians used their ships to sail to Rhodes. The Rhodians,
thinking their men were returning victorious, welcomed
the enemy soldiers and soon their city fell into Carian
hands. Artemisia was followed by a series of less than
noteworthy successors.
Alexander the Great began
plundering Anatolia with remarkable speed and by the
time he reached Halicarnassus in 334 BC the Queen
Orontabatis, Satrap of Caria, was ready for him. This
city was the last chance for the Persians to make a
stand against Alexander in the Aegean area, so
Orontabatis had assembled a large Persian force,
bolstered by Greek mercenaries. Historians Diodius and
Arrian note that both sides fought fiercely, with the
Halicarnassians putting up an obstinate resistance much
resented by Alexander. His forces finally penetrated the
city's walls and he ordered it sacked and burned (though
he spared the inhabitants) as punishment for such
bothersome resistance.
The imported citizens of
the six inland cities were sent back to their original
homes, while Orontabatis and her Persian partner, Memnon,
held on in castles at Salmacis and Zephysia on the east
and west ends of the main harbor. They maintained these
positions for about a year, with the remainder of their
navy occupying Cos. When they fell Alexander restored
power to Ada, a former Satrap who had previously been
overthrown.
Halicarnassus never
regained its stature after Alexander's conquest. The
history becomes less detailed for a while, but we know
that in the Third Century BC it came under control of
Ptolemy II of Egypt, who had warships built there. When
Rome conquered it in 190 BC Halicarnassus became a free
city. This independence lasted until 129 BC when Rome
included Caria in its reorganization of Asia.
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By 400 AD, with the
fall of Rome and the rise of Christianity,
Halicarnassus had developed into a Diocese connected
to the Archbishopric of Aphrodisias. Meanwhile the
Byzantine Empire prospered with its capital,
Constantinople, located where Istanbul now stands.
This sprawling empire soon included North Africa,
Italy and Spain, but the days of global prominence
were over for the Bodrum area. Historians make
little note of it again until the 11th Century, when
the Turks took over the region. The Byzantines
captured it during the first Crusade in 1096, but
the Turks retook it three years later.
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Towards the end of the 13th
Century the region known as Caria became the Province of
Menteshe and was annexed to the Ottoman Empire by Sultan
Beyazit in 1392. Meanwhile the Knights of St. John had
their castle at Symira (present-day Izmir) destroyed by
the Mongol leader Tamerlane in 1402 and demanded land
from Turkish Sultan Mehmet Celebi as compensation. They
were given Halicarnassus, built a new castle there, and
controlled the town (which they called Mesy) for over a
Century.
In 1523 the 'greatest of
all the Sultans', Suleyman the Magnificent, expelled the
Knights. The Ottoman Empire flourished during Suleyman's
40 year reign but a long period of internal crisis and
decline followed.
Bodrum itself suffered a
shelling by the Russian Navy in 1770 and it was used as
a Turkish Naval Base during the Greek revolt of 1824.
During the First World War the French battleship "Duplex"
fired on Bodrum and tried to make a landing, but the
feisty inhabitants prevented this. The Ottoman Empire
lost the Bodrum area to Italy, however, and Italian
forces occupied the town in 1919. The imminent success
of the Turkish war of independence drove the Italians
out by 1922 and Bodrum finally became what its beautiful
surroundings seem meant for, a place to relax and enjoy
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