Ancient City Amyzon

Amyzon (Ancient Greek: Ἁμυζών) in Caria (now Mazin, Aydın Province between the villages of Akmescit and Gaffarlar, in Aegean Turkey) was an ancient city 30 km south of modern Koçarlı. Under the Seleucids, Amyzon was one of the cities in the Chrysaorian League of Carian cities that lasted at least until 203 BCE, when Antiochus III confirmed the privileges of Amyzon. The League had a form of reciprocal citizenship whereby a citizen of a member city was entitled to certain rights and privileges in any other member city.

The city was dismissed by Strabo as a mere peripolion ('suburb' or 'township') of Alabanda; Amyzon was mentioned by Pliny, Ptolemy and Hierocles. In the wars among the successors of Alexander, in the third century BCE, the city allied with the less immediately threatening power, first with the Ptolemies, then with the Seleucids. In the second city it concluded an alliance with Heracleia under Latmos. On one occasion it sent a delegation to the oracle of Apollo at Clarus. The few coins identified as from the mint at Amyzon are Hellenistic and Imperial Roman.

A stretch of the city wall stands 6 m high (in fact, the terrace wall of the shrine); inside it are a few ruined and unidentifiable buildings, as well as a row of a dozen large vaulted underground chambers, apparently storerooms. There are also Byzantine structures. Outside the city a series of ruined terraces mark the site of the Doric temple of Artemis, which dates from the time of the Hecatomnids: an architrave block has been found bearing a dedication by Idrieus. Numerous other inscriptions abound.

Amyzon was excavated by Louis Robert. Amyzon was mentioned in the Byzantine lists of bishops. No longer a residential diocese, it is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.