Gordus (Lydia)

Gordus or Gordos (Ancient Greek: Γόρδος),[1] also known as Julia Gordus or Iulia Gordos, and possibly also known as Porotta,[2][3] was an ancient Greek city located in eastern Lydia (modern western Turkey). It was a strategically important town founded by the Seleucid Kings. The Julio-Claudian emperors of the Roman Empire renamed the city Julia Gordos in the 1st century and the city minted its own coins.[4][5][6]

Julia Gordos among the cities of Lydia (ca. 50 AD)

The city achieved the full status of a polis under the Flavian emperors.[7]

It was the home to Appolophanes the physician,[8] and there is epigraphical evidence of both pagans[9] and Christians in the town.[10]

Three bishops of the town are known: Isidor attended Third Council of Constantinople, Neophytus attended the Second Council of Nicaea and Stephen attended the Photian Council of 870. No longer the seat of a residential bishop, it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.[11]

Its site is located near Eski Gördes in Asiatic Turkey.[2][3]

References

1. Hierocles. Synecdemus. p. 671.
2. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 56, and directory notes accompanying.
3. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
4. Getzel M. Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor (University of California Press, 2 Nov. 1996)p209.
5. Gordos-Julia in Lydia, Trajan, Coins.
6. Coin of Julia Gordos under Antoninus Pius.
7. Getzel M. Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor (University of California Press, 2 Nov. 1996)p210.
8. Vivian Nutton, Ancient Medicine (Routledge, 2012) p409.
9. H. Malay, Great Antiochose Basic Apollophanes A Adjusted To Zeus Around Gordos.
10. Peter Thonemann, Inscriptions from Hadrianopolis, Tieion, Iulia Gordos and Toriaion, P H I L I A - International Journal of Ancient Mediterranean Studies Volume 1 • 2015 p82-83.
11. Catholic Hierarchy