Priene

The city visible on the slopes and escarpment of Mycale was constructed according to plan entirely during the 4th century BCE. The original Priene had been a port city situated at the then mouth of the Maeander River. This location caused insuperable environmental difficulties, due to slow aggradation of the riverbed and progradation in the direction of the Aegean Sea. Typically the harbour would silt over, so that residents were living in pest-ridden swamps and marshes.

The Maeander flows through a slowly subsiding rift valley, creating a drowned coastline. Human use of the previously forested slopes and valley removed trees and exposed soils to erosion. The sediments were progressively deposited in the trough at the mouth of the river, which migrated westward and more than compensated for the subsidence.

Physical remains of the original Priene have not yet been identified. It is believed they are likely to be buried under many feet of sediment. The top is now cultivated as valuable agricultural land. Knowledge of the average rate of progradation is the basis for estimating the location of the city, which was moved closer to the water again every few centuries in order to operate as a port.

The Greek city (there may have been unknown habitations of other ethnicities, as at Miletus) was founded by a colony from the ancient Greek city of Thebes in the vicinity of ancient Aneon at about 1000 BCE. At about 700 BCE a series of earthquakes were the catalyst to move the city to within 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of its 4th century BCE location. At about 500 BCE, the city moved again to the port of Naulochos.[2]

Dedication of Alexander the Great to Athena Polias at Priene. British Museum

At about 350 BCE the Persian-empire satrap, Mausolus (a Carian), planned a magnificent new city on the steep slopes of Mycale. He hoped it could be a permanent deep-water port (similar to the many Greek island cities, located on and up seaside escarpments). Construction had begun when the Macedonians took the region from the Persian Empire, and Alexander the Great personally assumed responsibility for the development. He and Mausolus intended to make Priene a model city. Alexander offered to pay for construction of the Temple of Athena to designs of the noted architect Pytheos, if it would be dedicated by him, which it was, in 323 BCE. The dedicatory inscription is held by the British Museum.[3]The inscription translated to: "King Alexander dedicated the temple to Athena Polias".

The leading citizens were quick to follow suit: most of the public buildings were constructed at private expense and are inscribed with the names of the donors.

The ruins of the city are generally conceded to be the most spectacular surviving example of an entire ancient Greek city; it is intact except for the ravages of time. It has been studied since at least the 18th century. The city was constructed of marble from nearby quarries on Mycale, and wood for such items as roofs and floors. The public area is laid out in a grid pattern up the steep slopes, drained by a system of channels. The water distribution and sewer systems survive. Foundations, paved streets, stairways, partial door frames, monuments, walls, terraces can be seen everywhere among toppled columns and blocks. No wood has survived. The city extends upward to the base of an escarpment projecting from Mycale. A narrow path leads to the acropolis above.

The Temple of Athena with the cliff side of the acropolis in the background.

Despite the expectations, Priene lasted only a few centuries as a deep-water port. In the 2nd century CE Pausanias reports that the Maeander already had silted over the inlet in which Myus stood, and that the population had abandoned it for Miletus.[4] While Miletus apparently still had an open port then, according to recent geoarchaeological research, Priene had already lost the port and open connection to the sea in about the 1st century BCE.[5] Its merchants likely had preceded most residents in relocation to Miletus. By 300 CE the entire Bay of Miletus, except for Lake Bafa, was silted in.

Today Miletus is many miles from the sea. Priene stands at the edge of a fertile plain, now a checkerboard of privately owned fields. A Greek village remained after the population decline. After the 12th century CE, more Turkish people moved into the area. In the 13th century CE Priene was known as Sampson, in Greek, after the biblical hero Samson (Samsun Kale, "Samson's Castle" in Turkish). In 1204, Sabas Asidenos, a local magnate, established himself as the city's ruler, but soon had to recognize the rule of the Empire of Nicaea. The area remained under Byzantine control until the late 13th century.

By 1923 whatever Greek population remained was expelled in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey following World War I. Shortly after, the Turkish population moved to a more favourable location, which they called Güllü Bahçe, "rose garden". The old Greek settlement, partly still in use, is today known as Gelebeç or Kelebeş. The tourist attraction of Priene is accessible from there.

Location of Priene at Maeander River's mouth.

In the 4th century BCE, Priene was a deep-water port with two harbours overlooking the Bay of Miletus[6] and, somewhat further east, the marshes of the Maeander Delta. Between the ocean and steep Mycale, agricultural resources were limited. Priene's territory likely included a part of the Maeander Valley, needed to support the city. Claiming much of Mycale, it had borders on the north with Ephesus and Thebes, a small state on Mycale.

Priene was a small city-state of 6000 persons living in a constrained space of only 15 hectares (37 acres). The walled area had an extent of 20 hectares (49 acres) to 37 hectares (91 acres). The population density of its residential district has been estimated at 166 persons per hectare, living in about 33 homes per hectare (13 per acre) arranged in compact city blocks.[7] The entire space within the walls offered not much more space and privacy: the density was 108 persons per hectare. All the public buildings were within walking distance, except that walking must have been an athletic event due to the vertical components of the distances.

Priene was a wealthy city, as the plenitude of fine urban homes in marble and the private dedications of public buildings suggests. In addition, historical references to the interest of Mausolus and Alexander the Great indicate its standing. One third of the houses had indoor toilets, a rarity in this society. Typically cities had public banks of outdoor seats, side by side, an arrangement for which the flowing robes of the ancients were suitably functional. Indoor plumbing requires more extensive water supply and sewage systems. Priene's location was appropriate in that regard; they captured springs and streams on Mycale, brought the water in by aqueduct to cisterns, and piped or channeled from there to houses and fountains. Most Greek cities, such as Athens, required getting water from the public fountains (which was the work of domestic servants). The upper third of Prienean society had access to indoor water.

The source of Ionian wealth was maritime activity; Ionia had a reputation among the other Greeks for being luxurious. The intellectuals, such as Heraclitus, often railed against their practices.

Bouleuterion

Although the stereotyped equation of wealth with aristocracy may have applied early in Priene's history, in the 4th century BCE the city-state was a democracy. State authority resided in a body called the Πριηνείς (Priēneis), "the Prieneian people", who issued all decrees and other public documents in their name. The coins minted at Priene featured the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and a meander pattern on the reverse; one coin also displayed a dolphin and the legend ΠΡΙΗ for ΠΡΙΗΝΕΩΝ (Priēneōn), "of the Prieneians."[8] These symbols express the Prieneians identification as a maritime democracy aligned with Athens but located in Asia.

The mechanism of democracy was similar to but simpler than that of the Athenians (whose population was much larger.) An assembly of citizens met periodically to render major decisions placed before them. The day-to-day legislative and executive business was conducted by a boulē, or city council, which met in a bouleuterion, a space like a small theatre with a wooden roof. The official head of state was a prytane. He and more specialized magistrates were elected periodically. As at Athens, not all the population was franchised. For example, the property rights and tax responsibilities of a non-Prieneian section of the population living in the countryside, the pedieis, "plainsmen", were defined by law. They were perhaps, an inheritance from the days when Priene was in the valley.