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Dascylium, Dascyleium, or Daskyleion, also
known as Dascylus, was a town in Anatolia some 30 kilometres (19 mi) inland
from the coast of the Propontis, at modern Ergili, Turkey. Its site was
rediscovered in 1952 and has since been excavated.
History:
Excavations have shown that the site was inhabited in the Bronze Age. Phrygians
settled there before 750. It came under the control of Lydia. It was then said
to be named after Dascylus, the father of Gyges After the Conquests of Cyrus
the Great in 547 , Dascylium was chosen as the seat of the Persian satrapy of
Hellespontine Phrygia, comprising lands of the Troad, Mysia and Bithynia.
Pharnabazus was satrap of Darius III there, until Alexander the Great appointed
Calas, who was replaced by Arrhidaeus in the Treaty of Triparadisus. According
to Strabo, Hellespontine Phrygia and Phrygia Epictetus comprised Lesser Phrygia
(Mysia). Others geographers arranged it differently. It was a member of the
Delian League. When Alexander of Macedon invaded Asia in 334 , the first of the
major battles by which he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire was fought at the
Granicus river on his way to Dascylium from Abydos on the coast. As the
satrap's capital it was a good target and battles were fought nearby.
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Dascylium, situated to the southeast of Lake
Dascylitis on a bank of a river, was rediscovered in 1952 and has been
excavated in 1954-1960 and since 1988. These excavations have shown that the
town was already settled in the Bronze Age, which confirms reports by Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, who mentions the town at the time of the Trojan War,note, and
by Strabo, who says that Dascylium was settled by Aeolian colonists after that
war.note In the first quarter of the first millennium, Phrygians conquered
Dascylium; from this period, walls and the foundations of a temple of Cybele
have come to light. Later, the city was under Lydian suzerainty. According to
legend, it was named after one Dascylus, who was the father of king Gyges. When
the Persians took over the Lydian Empire (an event usually dated to 547 BCE),
the town became the capital of the Persian satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia and
the residence of the Pharnacid dynasty (Artabazus, Pharnabazus, Pharnaces,
Pharnabazus, Ariobarzanes, and Artabazus). Dascylium, acropolis, terrace wall
The architectural remains from this age are not very monumental - Dascylium is
not a major tourist site - although a terrace wall was found that is similar to
the retaining walls of the citadel of Pasargadae and the terrace walls of
Persepolis. In 395, the Persian city was captured by the Spartan king
Agesilaus, who was waging war against the Persians in Asia Minor. During the
Corinthian War, it became Persian again, until it was captured by Parmenion, a
general of Alexander the Great, after the battle of the Granicus (334).note The
town appears to have been assigned to Cyzicus. The town is famous for several
fifth-century reliefs, showing a/o Persian Magians performing sacrifices. Two
stelas, one with an Aramaic inscription, show how funerary gifts are brought to
a tomb.
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