Solymoi

The Solymoi (Ancient Greek: Σόλυμοι, Sólymoi; Latin: Solymi), also known as the Solymians, were an ancient people or ethnic designation associated with the mountainous interior of southwestern Anatolia. Greek and Roman authors connected them variously with Lycia, Milyas, Pisidia, Cabalis and, most prominently, the city of Termessos on Mount Solymos, now known as Güllük Dağı.

The Solymoi are first attested in Greek epic poetry as opponents of the Lycian hero Bellerophon. Later authors offered differing explanations of their identity. Herodotus associated them with the pre-Lycian inhabitants of Milyas, while Strabo connected the name both with the Milyans and with the inhabitants of Termessos. Pliny the Elder, by contrast, reported that the Pisidians had formerly been called Solymi. These accounts are not fully compatible, and modern scholarship generally treats the Solymoi as an imperfectly documented ancient ethnonym rather than as a securely defined archaeological culture.^[1]^[2]

Name and identification

The name Solymoi appears in several different contexts in ancient literature. It functioned as an ethnic name, but was also associated with Mount Solymos and with the Termessian deity Zeus Solymeus. The relationship between these names is uncertain, and it is not known whether the mountain, the people or the deity supplied the original form of the name.

Ancient sources do not provide a single consistent geographical definition of the Solymoi. They are located broadly within the highlands separating Lycia, Pisidia and Pamphylia, an area whose political and ethnic boundaries changed repeatedly during antiquity. The strongest historical association is with Termessos, whose inhabitants could be described as Solymians in local inscriptions and literary traditions.^[2]

The term therefore may have been used in more than one sense: for a population remembered in early Greek traditions, for communities inhabiting parts of Milyas or Pisidia, and later as an ancestral or poetic designation adopted by the citizens of Termessos.

Ancient literary traditions

Homeric tradition

The earliest surviving references to the Solymoi occur in the Iliad. In the account of Bellerophon's adventures, the Lycian king Iobates sends the hero to fight the Solymoi after Bellerophon survives his encounters with the Chimera and the Solymoi's neighbouring peoples. Homer describes the battle against the Solymoi as the most difficult of Bellerophon's campaigns.^[3]

Later in the same passage, Bellerophon's son Isandros is said to have been killed by Ares while fighting the Solymoi.^[4] Within the Homeric narrative, the Solymoi are distinguished from the Lycians rather than presented as a branch of them. Strabo later drew attention to this distinction when discussing the conflicting traditions concerning the early inhabitants of Lycia.^[5]

The Homeric account is mythological and cannot by itself establish the historical territory, political organisation or ethnic affiliation of the Solymoi. It nevertheless indicates that the name was already connected in Greek tradition with the peoples of southwestern Anatolia.

Herodotus

Herodotus preserves a different origin tradition. According to his account, the land later known as Lycia had originally belonged to the Milyans, who at that time were called Solymoi. A group of migrants from Crete, led by Sarpedon, subsequently settled in the region and became known as the Termilae. The name “Lycians” was said to have been adopted later, following the arrival of the Athenian exile Lycus.^[6]

Herodotus thus treats the Solymoi as the earlier population of the country later occupied by the Termilae or Lycians. His narrative, however, belongs to a wider body of Greek genealogical traditions that explained the origins of peoples through migrations, heroic ancestors and changes of name. It should not be read as a straightforward record of prehistoric population movements.

Strabo and the Roman-period geographers

Strabo records several competing identifications. In his description of southwestern Anatolia, he states that the inhabitants of Cabalis were said to be Solymoi and that the Termessians also called themselves Solymoi. He additionally identifies the mountain overlooking the fortress of Termessos as Solymos.^[7]

Elsewhere, Strabo discusses the disagreement among earlier authors concerning whether the Solymoi should be identified with the ancient Lycians or with the Milyans. He observes that Homer appears to distinguish the Solymoi from the Lycians and ultimately favours their identification with the Milyans.^[5]

Pliny the Elder gives an even broader identification, stating that the Pisidians had formerly been called Solymi.^[8] Pliny's statement may reflect the later association of the Solymian name with the Pisidian city of Termessos, but it does not demonstrate that all Pisidian communities had once shared a single Solymian identity.

Together, these sources show that the name remained familiar in the Roman period, but also that its precise ethnic and geographical meaning was already disputed in antiquity.

Geography

The regions associated with the Solymoi lay within the rugged highlands north and west of the coastal plains of Pamphylia. Ancient authors variously situated them in or near:

Milyas, the mountainous region north of central Lycia;
the borderlands between Lycia and Pisidia;
Cabalis, north of the Lycian heartland;
the territory of Termessos in southern Pisidia.

The borders of Milyas itself were described differently by ancient authors and changed according to period and political context. Archaeological evidence from the region demonstrates close interaction among Lycian, Pisidian, Pamphylian and other Anatolian communities, making it difficult to assign the archaeological remains of the highlands to a single ethnic population.^[9]

The most concrete geographical connection is Mount Solymos and Termessos, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of modern Antalya. The city occupied a naturally defensible position high on Güllük Dağı. Greek inscriptions from Termessos occasionally employed the name “Solymians” as a poetic or ancestral designation for the city's population.^[2]

This local identification does not necessarily prove that Termessos was founded by the same population described in Homer. It does, however, show that the city cultivated a Solymian identity during the historical period.

Language

Strabo provides the principal ancient evidence for a distinct Solymian language. In his description of the Cibyran federation, he states that four languages were spoken among its population: Pisidian, Solymian, Greek and Lydian.^[7] His wording distinguishes Solymian from neighbouring Pisidian, although the character of the language is otherwise unknown.

No substantial corpus of inscriptions has been securely identified as written in Solymian. The surviving public inscriptions from Termessos are predominantly Greek, with Latin appearing under Roman administration. Indigenous personal names and local naming traditions continued to appear in the city's Greek inscriptions, but these provide only limited evidence for the structure of the earlier language.^[2]

The Solymoi have sometimes been placed within the wider cultural and linguistic environment of the Luwic-speaking populations of southern Anatolia. A direct classification of Solymian as Luwic, however, remains unproven because of the absence of identifiable texts. It is also uncertain whether the “Solymian” mentioned by Strabo represented a separate language, a regional dialect or a traditional name for the speech of a particular highland community.^[1]

Association with Termessos

Solymian identity

Termessos was an important Pisidian city situated on Mount Solymos. Although its inhabitants participated in the Greek civic and cultural world, they continued to invoke a local Solymian ancestry. Several poetic inscriptions from the city refer to Termessians as Solymians, demonstrating that the name remained part of the city's public identity during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.^[2]

The evidence from Termessos is therefore central to modern interpretations of the Solymoi. Rather than proving the uninterrupted survival of an unchanged prehistoric tribe, the inscriptions demonstrate the preservation or reconstruction of a local ancestral identity within a Greek-speaking city.

Alexander the Great

During his campaign through southern Anatolia in 333 BC, Alexander the Great approached the territory of Termessos while travelling north from the Pamphylian coast. According to Arrian, the route passed through a narrow defile controlled by the Termessians. They occupied the heights overlooking the road in an effort to prevent the Macedonian army from advancing.^[10]

Alexander succeeded in driving the defenders from the pass and camped near the city. He nevertheless chose not to attempt its capture, judging that an assault on its strongly defended position would require excessive time and effort. He instead continued towards Sagalassos.^[10]

Termessos is consequently often described as a city that Alexander failed to conquer. Arrian's account more precisely indicates that Alexander forced passage through its territory but decided against undertaking a lengthy attack on the city itself.

Alcetas

Termessos again appears in the historical record after the death of Alexander. In 319 BC, the Macedonian commander Alcetas, a brother of Perdiccas, sought refuge in the city while being pursued by Antigonus I Monophthalmus. According to Diodorus Siculus, the younger citizens of Termessos wished to protect Alcetas, while the city's elders feared destruction at the hands of Antigonus.^[11]

The elders secretly arranged to surrender Alcetas. After discovering the plan, Alcetas killed himself rather than be captured alive. Diodorus states that the younger Termessians later recovered his body and gave it an honourable burial. A monumental tomb at Termessos has traditionally been associated with Alcetas, although the identification is not certain.

Relations with Rome

Termessos maintained a privileged relationship with the Roman Republic. A surviving bronze inscription, conventionally known as the Lex Antonia Cornelia de Termessibus, records a Roman law or agreement concerning the status of the Termessians. Its precise date is debated, but it is generally assigned to the early first century BC.

The text recognised the Termessians as free people, friends and allies of Rome, and confirmed their right to retain their own laws and territory.^[12] The agreement illustrates the continuing political importance of Termessos but does not mention an independent Solymian state. By this period, “Solymian” primarily appears to have functioned as a traditional, religious or civic designation within the Termessian community.

Religion

The principal local deity of Termessos was Zeus Solymeus, whose epithet was derived from the Solymian name or from Mount Solymos. He occupied a prominent position in the city's religious and civic institutions. The cult combined the Greek figure of Zeus with the traditions of a local mountain deity, although the date and process by which this identification developed are uncertain.

The importance of Zeus Solymeus is demonstrated by inscriptions from Termessos. Two Roman-period funerary inscriptions published in 2022 stipulated that anyone violating the associated tombs was to pay a fine of 1,000 drachmas to the temple treasury of Zeus Solymeus.^[13] Comparable penalties occur in other Termessian epitaphs, indicating that the sanctuary possessed recognised financial and legal functions within the city.

The continued prominence of Zeus Solymeus shows how the Solymian name survived within Termessian religious life long after Greek had become the city's principal written language. The cult should not necessarily be interpreted as evidence that a politically or linguistically distinct Solymian people continued unchanged into the Roman period.

Historical interpretation

Knowledge of the Solymoi is derived from several different types of evidence:

mythological narratives preserved in Greek epic;
Greek and Roman geographical and ethnographic writings;
place names associated with Mount Solymos;
inscriptions and religious institutions at Termessos;
archaeological evidence from Milyas and the Pisidian–Lycian borderlands.

These sources belong to widely separated periods and do not describe an unbroken history. Homer presents the Solymoi as heroic-age enemies of Bellerophon, Herodotus incorporates them into a migration account concerning the origins of the Lycians, and Roman-period writers attempt to reconcile them with the known populations of Milyas and Pisidia. Termessian inscriptions, meanwhile, demonstrate the later use of the name as an element of civic memory.^[14]

For this reason, modern historians generally avoid assigning the Solymoi a precise territory, language family or continuous political history. They may represent the literary memory of one or more indigenous highland populations that preceded the expansion of historically documented Lycian and Pisidian communities. Alternatively, the name may have been preserved and reinterpreted by Termessos as an ancestral identity that enhanced the city's local prestige.

There is no securely established date at which the Solymoi “disappeared”. Greek language and civic institutions became dominant at Termessos, but Solymian terminology continued in poetry, religion and local identity. The gradual adoption of Greek and Roman cultural forms therefore did not necessarily involve the immediate disappearance of all local traditions.

References

1 2 Bryce, Trevor R.; Zahle, Jan (1986). The Lycians: A Study of Lycian History and Civilisation to the Conquest of Alexander the Great. Volume I: The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 20–22. ISBN 8772890231.
1 2 3 4 5 Bean, George E. (1976). "Termessos". In Stillwell, Richard; MacDonald, William L.; McAllister, Marian Holland (eds.). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press.
↑ Homer. Iliad. 6.184–190.
↑ Homer. Iliad. 6.196–205.
1 2 Strabo. Geographica. 14.3.9–10.
↑ Herodotus. Histories. 1.173.
1 2 Strabo. Geographica. 13.4.16–17.
↑ Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 5.94.
↑ Işık, Fahri (2015). "Arkeolojik bulgular ışığında Milyas". Anadolu (in Turkish) (41): 187–237. doi:10.1501/Andl_0000000426.
1 2 Arrian. Anabasis of Alexander. 1.27–28.
↑ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. 18.45–47.
↑ Sherk, Robert K. (1984). Rome and the Greek East to the Death of Augustus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9780521271233.
↑ Arslan, Murat; Tüner Önen, Nihal (2022). "Two New Epitaphs from Termessos". LIBRI. 8: 203–208. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7493808.
↑ van Nijf, Onno M. (2000). "Inscriptions and Civic Memory in the Roman East". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 44 (S75): 21–36. doi:10.1111/j.2041-5370.2000.tb01962.x.

This page was redesigned at the edge.

A page that knows where it met you.