Nisa (Lycia)

Not to be confused with Nysa on the Maeander or Nyssa (Cappadocia).

Nisa Theatre

Nisa (Ancient Greek: Νίσα or Νίσσα), also Nyssa (Νύσσα) or Nysa (Νύσα) or Neisa (Νείσα),[1] was a town in ancient Lycia near the source of the River Xanthus.[2][3][4][5][6]

Location

Its site is identified in the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire as Akörü Yayla, near Sütleğen, about 25 kilometres north of Kaş in Antalya Province, Turkey.[7] The Annuario Pontifico gives its location as Küçükahuriyala,[8] also near Sütleğen.

Site

The ruins are plentiful but in a poor state. They include part of the well-built city wall, a theatre, a stadium, a paved agora with stoa and some bases bearing inscriptions. The necropolis to the west includes sarcophagi and constructed tombs.[9]

History

Apart from its mention by Ptolemy[10] and by Hierocles in the Synecdemus (ca. 535 AD), where it is misspelled "Misae" (Μίσαι),[11] and in the Notitiae Episcopatuum, nothing is known of the town's history. The only known coin that it issued is of a type that does not show membership of the Lycian League.[9]

Bishopric

A Christian bishopric was established in Nisa, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Myra. The only bishop of the see whose name is preserved in extant documents is Georgius, who took part in the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.[12][13][14]

No longer a residential bishopric, Nisa in Lycia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[8]

References

1. Sencer Şahin; Mustafa Adak (2007). Stadiasmus Patarensis (in German). Antalya. p. 136. ISBN 9789758071791.
2. Harwicke, Philip Yorke; Yorke, Charles (1810). Athenian Letters. London: Cadell and Davies. p. xl.
3. MacBean, Alexander; Johnson, Samuel (1773). A Dictionary of Ancient Geography. G. Robinson.
4. Brandt, Hartwin; Kolb, Frank (2005). Lycia et Pamphylia. Von Zabern. pp. 29, 114. ISBN 9783805334709. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
5. Susini, G.C. (1961). Lycia et Pamphylia. Treccani. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
6. Smith, William. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)". Retrieved 29 January 2015. calls the town Nysa and speaks of it as being in Pisidia, but the other sources cited distinguish between Nisa (in Lycia) and Nysa (elsewhere).
7. University of Gothenburg (ed.). "Nisa, Akörü Yayla". Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
8. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 941
9. Bean, G.E. "The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (1976)". Perseus. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
10. v. 3. § 7
11. Parthey, Gustav (1866). Hieroclis Synecdemus et Notitiae Graecae Episcopatuum. Berlin: Fridericus Nicolaus. p. 31. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
12. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 987-988
13. Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 450
14. Jean Darrouzès, Listes épiscopales du concile de Nicée (787), in: Revue des études byzantines, 33 (1975), p. 44.

36°26′29″N 29°37′35″E