Pinara

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This article is about the ancient Lycian city named Pinara, for other ancient cities named Pinara, see Pinara (disambiguation)

Pinara (Greek: τὰ Πίναρα; Lycian: Pilleñni) – formerly Artymnesus or Artymnesos – was a large ancient city of Lycia (in Asia Minor), at the foot of Mount Cragus, and not far from the western bank of the river Xanthos (Xanthus), where the Lycian hero Pandarus was worshipped. (Strabo xiv. 665; Steph. B. s. v.; Arrian, Anab. i. 24; Plin. v. 28; Ptol. v. 3. § 5; Hierocl. p. 684.) The site in near the modern town of Minare, Muğla Province, Turkey.

The city, though it is not often mentioned by ancient writers, appears from its vast and beautiful ruins, to have been, as Strabo asserts, one of the largest towns of the country. According to the Lycian history of Menecrates, quoted by Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. Ἀρτύμνησος), the town was a colony of Xanthos, and originally bore the name of Artymnesus, afterwards changed into Pinara, which, in the Lycian language, signified a round hill, the town being situated on such an eminence. Its ruins were discovered by Sir Charles Fellows, near the modern village of Minare (Minara). From amidst the ancient city, he says (Lycia, p. 139), rises a singular round rocky cliff (the pinara of the Lycians), literally specked all over with tombs. Beneath this cliff lie the ruins of the extensive and splendid city. The theater is in a very perfect state; all the seats are remaining, with the slanting sides towards the proscenium, as well as several of its doorways. The walls and several of the buildings are of the Cyclopean style, with massive gateways, formed of three immense stones. The tombs are innumerable, and the inscriptions are in the Lycian characters, but Greek also occurs often on the same tombs. Some of these rock-tombs are adorned with fine and rich sculptures.

Pinara was a member of the Lycian League, in which it held three votes. Pinara surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BC. After Alexander's death, the city fell to the kingdom of Pergamum. Pinara became a Roman city when Pergamum was merged willed to Rome by king Attalus III in 133 BC. The city enjoyed prosperity during Roman rule, but was badly damaged by earthquakes in 141 AD and 240 AD.

Pinara was Christianized early. Five bishops are known: Eustathius, who signed the formula of Acacius of Cæsarea at the Council of Seleucia in 359; Heliodorus, who signed the letter from the bishops of Lycia to the Emperor Leo (458); Zenas, present at the Trullan Council (692); Theodore, at the Second Council of Nicaea (787); Athanasius, at the synod that reinstated Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople (the Photian Council) in 879. Under repeated pressure from invading forces, the city became uninhabited in the ninth century.