Stephen Mitchell is an internationally-recognised authority
on the archaeology of Asia Minor. He is the author of Anatolia.
Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor (OUP, 2 vols., 1995).
Cremna, a ruined city of southern Turkey, has one of the most spectacular
sites in Asia Minor, high in the Taurus mountains. For a long time
a stronghold of hellenised Pisidians, Cremna was refounded as a
veteran colony by the emperor Augustus. From the age of Hadrian
until the early third century AD the colony enjoyed a boom in public
buildings, whose remains still adorn the site. Disaster struck in
the late third century when Cremna became a centre for a regional
insurrection against Roman rule. Roman forces staged a major siege
of the city, and recaptured it in AD 278. A bishopric in Late Antiquity,
Cremna was abandoned in the sixth or seventh century. This book
gives a detailed reconstruction of Cremna's life and history, based
on an intensive survey of the archaeological remains between 1985
and 1987. There is a lively account of the survey itself. The book
also traces the story of the rediscovery of the site in 1833 and
the contribution of early travellers and archaeologists. There is
a full study of the public building programme of Cremna from the
first century BC to the third century AD; of the aqueduct, water
supply and domestic housing; and of the church building in Late
Antiquity. The highlight of the archaeological survey was the discovery
of numerous remains of the Roman siege of AD 278. The siege of Cremna
demonstrates classical techniques of Roman siege warfare, which
hitherto were best known from Josephus' account of the Jewish Revolt
in AD 66-73. Cremna in Pisidia is written in a style accessible
to general readers as well as to specialists. It is not only a definitive
account of an important city of the Roman East. It is also a case-study
exploring many of the common characteristics of civic life in the
Roman world.
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