Patara

Early History

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  Natural harbor in Lycia at the mouth of the river Xanthus; the town with the same name lies ten kilometers upstream
• Town already inhabited in the Bronze Age: Patar in Hittite texts. Pttara in Lycian.
• Considered to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis; the sanctuary of Leto (the Letoon) was on the opposite bank of the river
• Oracle of Apollo^note[Herodotus, Histories 1.182.]
• Meeting place of the Lycian League; subject to the Persians, to Maussolus,

Hellenistic Age

• 333 BCE: Surrenders to Alexander the Great
• Diadochs: Antigonus I Monophthalmus uses it as naval base; his son Demetrius I Poliorcetes uses it during the siege of Rhodes (304 BCE); later, it is Ptolemaic:
• Ptolemy II Philadelphus acquired the town and renamed it Arsinoe, after his queen Arsinoe II
• Fifth Syrian War: Patara becomes Seleucid in 197 BCE
• 188 BCE: After the Syrian War, place where the Romans destroyed the Seleucid fleet; city handed over to the Rhodians,
• 167 BCE: Lycian League regains its independence
• 88 BCE: Mithridates VI of Pontus cannot capture the city during the Third Mithridatic War
• 42 BCE: During the Roman civil wars, Brutus captures Patara and Xanthus

Patara, Arch of Mettius Modestus

Patara, Basilica

Patara, Lycian tombs

Patara, Theater

Roman Empire

• 43 CE: Annexation by the emperor Claudius; capital of the province of Lycia and Pamphylia
• The apostle Paul changed ships in Patara when he was on his way to Jerusalem
• Birthplace of Nicholas, bishop of nearby Myra
• Christian basilica; this was an important way-point for pilgrims to the Holy Land
• The harbor silted up in the Byzantine age
• The ruins, standing in an arc, indicate where the port once must have been

Patara, Sarcophagus of the champion Theronides

Patara, bottle

Patara, Figurine of a man and a herm

Patara, Roman sarcophagus