EUROMOS
(Ayakli) Turkey.
Town in Caria,
13 km NW of Milâs. It figures in the Athenian tribute
lists as Hyromos or Kyromos, with a tribute of 2500
drachmae, raised in 425 B.C., no doubt unrealistically,
to 5 talents. In Herodotos (
8.133-35) the Carian Mys is
described as a man of Europos, and Stephanos also records a Carian city of Europos; in these and other cases
Euromos seems certainly to be meant. The place was
occupied by Philip V during his Carian campaign, but
in 196 B.C. he was required by the Senate to withdraw
his garrison. When Mylasa revolted in 167 against Rhodian suzerainty, she began by seizing the cities in Euromos; from this expression of Polybios it appears that
Euromos controlled a considerable area. By the end of
the 2d c. we find Euromos in a sympolity with Mylasa
which, however, was not of long duration; quarrels arose
and the Euromans found it necessary to turn to the
Romans and Rhodians. About this time an inscription
records an alliance with Iasos. After this the city is
barely mentioned; Strabo calls it a peripolion of Mylasa,
and Pliny lists it in the form Eurome. A coin of the
late 5th c. B.C. inscribed
ΥΡΩ, with the head of Zeus,
seems clearly to belong to Euromos; otherwise the coinage begins in the 2d c. B.C. after the liberation from
Rhodes, and continues to the 1st c. A.D.
The city stood on flat ground, encircled by a wall
which also enclosed the lower slopes of the hills to the E.
The wall is of good ashlar masonry, apparently of Classical date, with towers at intervals; it is best preserved on
the hillside. On the same hillside was a good-sized theater facing W, but only a few rows of seats and some
fragments of the stage building survive. On the level
ground is the agora, surrounded by a stoa with one or
two columns still standing. But the most striking monument is the temple, just outside the city wall on the S
and visible from the present road—one of the best preserved temples in Asia Minor. It had a peristyle of 11 by
6 columns in the Corinthian order, 16 of which are standing complete with architrave; all but four are fluted, and
12 of them carry a panel with an inscription recording
their presentation by individual citizens. Recent excavations have brought to light an altar in the usual position
on the E, and a decree of Hellenistic date revealing that
the temple was dedicated to Zeus Lepsynos (known at
Miletos) and was not the first temple erected to him
here; in its present form it dates from the 2d c. A.D. Close
to the temple on the SW is a group of underground tomb
chambers solidly built and roofed with large blocks in
the Carian manner.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Chandler,
Travels in Asia Minor (3d
ed. 1817) 226-27 (repr. 1971) 119-20
I; C. Fellows,
Asia
Minor (1839) 261-62
I; L. Robert,
Villes d'Asie Mineure
(1935) 59; A. Laumonier,
Cultes Indig&ènes en Carie
(1958) 164-74 (with more complete bibl.); G. E. Bean,
Turkey beyond the Maeander (1971) 45-48.
G. E. BEAN
