Antinopolis
Encyclopedia
Antinopolis (Greek
: , Coptic
Ansena, modern Sheikh 'Ibada) was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman
emperor Hadrian
to commemorate his deified young beloved, Antinous
, on the east bank of the Nile
, not far from the site in Upper Egypt
where Antinous
drowned in 130
AD. Antinopolis was a little to the south of the Egypt
ian village of Besa , named after the goddess and oracle of Besa, which was consulted occasionally even as late as the age of Constantine I
. Antinopolis was built at the foot of the hill upon which Besa was seated. The city is located nearly opposite of Hermopolis Magna.
, the city was the location of Ramesses II
's great temple, dedicated to the gods of Khmun
and Heliopolis
. The city of Antinopolis exhibited the Graeco-Roman architecture of Trajan
's age in immediate contrast with the Egyptian style
. The city was the center of the official cult of Antinous
. It first belonged to the Heptanomis
, but under Diocletian
(286
AD) Antinopolis became the capital of the nome
of the Thebaid
. As a cultural center, it was the native city of the fourth-century mathematician Serenus of Antinopolis. Antinopolis was still a "most illustrious' city in a surviving divorce decree of 569
AD. The city was abandoned around the 10th century AD. It continued to host a massive Greco-Roman temple until the 19th century, when it was destroyed to feed a cement works.
, but to that of the prefect of the Thebaid
. Divine honours were paid in the Antinoeion to Antinous
as a local deity, and games and chariot-races were annually exhibited in commemoration of his death and of Hadrian
's sorrow. (Dictionary of Antiquities, s. v. .)
, when Bes
and Hathor
were important deities (ref. Princeton). A grotto, once inhabited by Christian
anchorite
s, probably marks the seat of the shrine and oracle, and Grecian
tombs with inscriptions point to the necropolis
of Antinopolis. The ruins of Antinopolis attest, by the area which they fill, the ancient grandeur of the city. The direction of the principal streets may still be traced. One at least of them, which ran from north to south, had on either side of it a corridor supported by columns for the convenience of foot-passengers. The walls of the theatre near the southern gate, and those of the hippodrome without the walls to the east, are still extant. At the north-western extremity of the city was a portico, of which four columns remain, inscribed to Good Fortune, and bearing the date of the 14th and last year of the reign of Alexander Severus
, 235
.
As far as can be ascertained from the space covered with mounds of masonry, Antinopolis was about a mile and a half in length, and nearly half a mile broad. Near the Hippodrome are a well and tanks appertaining to an ancient road, which leads from the eastern gate to a valley behind the town, ascends the mountains, and, passing through the desert by the Wádee Tarfa, joins the roads to the quarries of the Mons Porphyrites. (Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 382.)
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Napoleonic surveys were made, a theater, many temples, a triumphal arch, two streets with double colonnades, illustrated in Description de l'Egypte
, a circus, and a hippodrome nearby were still to be seen. Today there is little left: blocks of stone were rebuilt into the new sugar factories at El-Rodah (ref. Princeton). Some excavations wrere undertaken by the University of Rome
, 1965-68. Papyri
from the site were edited and translated by J. W. B. Barns and H. Zilliacus.
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: , Coptic
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
Ansena, modern Sheikh 'Ibada) was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
emperor Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
to commemorate his deified young beloved, Antinous
Antinous
Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...
, on the east bank of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, not far from the site in Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
where Antinous
Antinous
Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...
drowned in 130
130
Year 130 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Catullinus and Aper...
AD. Antinopolis was a little to the south of the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian village of Besa , named after the goddess and oracle of Besa, which was consulted occasionally even as late as the age of Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
. Antinopolis was built at the foot of the hill upon which Besa was seated. The city is located nearly opposite of Hermopolis Magna.
History
During the New KingdomNew Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
, the city was the location of Ramesses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
's great temple, dedicated to the gods of Khmun
Hermopolis
Hermopolis Magna or simply Hermopolis or Hermopolis Megale or Hermupolis is the site of ancient Khmun, and is located near the modern Egyptian town of El Ashmunein in Al Minya governorate.-Etymology:Khmun, the Ancient Egyptian name of the city, means "eight-town", after the Ogdoad, a group of...
and Heliopolis
Heliopolis (ancient)
Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
. The city of Antinopolis exhibited the Graeco-Roman architecture of Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
's age in immediate contrast with the Egyptian style
Ancient Egyptian architecture
The Nile valley has been the site of one of the most influential civilizations which developed a vast array of diverse structures encompassing ancient Egyptian architecture...
. The city was the center of the official cult of Antinous
Antinous
Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...
. It first belonged to the Heptanomis
Heptanomis
Heptanomis , the modern Mlesr-Wostani of the Arabian geographers, or Middle Egypt, may be described generally as the district which separates the Thebaïd from the Delta.Inasmuch, however, as the appellation of the Seven Nomes...
, but under Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
(286
286
Year 286 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Aquilinus...
AD) Antinopolis became the capital of the nome
Nome (Egypt)
A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic period. Fascinated with Egypt, Greeks created many historical records about the country...
of the Thebaid
Thebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes....
. As a cultural center, it was the native city of the fourth-century mathematician Serenus of Antinopolis. Antinopolis was still a "most illustrious' city in a surviving divorce decree of 569
569
Year 569 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 569 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* The King of the Garamantes signs...
AD. The city was abandoned around the 10th century AD. It continued to host a massive Greco-Roman temple until the 19th century, when it was destroyed to feed a cement works.
Structure and Organization
The city of Antinopolis was governed by its own senate and prytaneus or president. The senate was chosen from the members of the wards , of which we learn the name of one – – from inscriptions (Orelli, No. 4705); and its decrees, as well as those of the prytaneus, were not, as usual, subject to the revision of the nomarchNome (Egypt)
A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic period. Fascinated with Egypt, Greeks created many historical records about the country...
, but to that of the prefect of the Thebaid
Thebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes....
. Divine honours were paid in the Antinoeion to Antinous
Antinous
Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...
as a local deity, and games and chariot-races were annually exhibited in commemoration of his death and of Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
's sorrow. (Dictionary of Antiquities, s. v. .)
Archeological Finds
The earliest finds at the site date to the New KingdomNew Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
, when Bes
Bes
Bes was an Egyptian deity worshipped in the later periods of dynastic history as a protector of households and in particular mothers and children. In time he would be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad...
and Hathor
Hathor
Hathor , is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...
were important deities (ref. Princeton). A grotto, once inhabited by Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
anchorite
Anchorite
Anchorite denotes someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, and—circumstances permitting—Eucharist-focused life...
s, probably marks the seat of the shrine and oracle, and Grecian
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
tombs with inscriptions point to the necropolis
Necropolis
A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...
of Antinopolis. The ruins of Antinopolis attest, by the area which they fill, the ancient grandeur of the city. The direction of the principal streets may still be traced. One at least of them, which ran from north to south, had on either side of it a corridor supported by columns for the convenience of foot-passengers. The walls of the theatre near the southern gate, and those of the hippodrome without the walls to the east, are still extant. At the north-western extremity of the city was a portico, of which four columns remain, inscribed to Good Fortune, and bearing the date of the 14th and last year of the reign of Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...
, 235
235
Year 235 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Quintianus...
.
As far as can be ascertained from the space covered with mounds of masonry, Antinopolis was about a mile and a half in length, and nearly half a mile broad. Near the Hippodrome are a well and tanks appertaining to an ancient road, which leads from the eastern gate to a valley behind the town, ascends the mountains, and, passing through the desert by the Wádee Tarfa, joins the roads to the quarries of the Mons Porphyrites. (Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 382.)
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Napoleonic surveys were made, a theater, many temples, a triumphal arch, two streets with double colonnades, illustrated in Description de l'Egypte
Description de l'Egypte
Description de l'Égypte is the title of several books.* Description de l'Égypte - Description de l'Égypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française Pub; First Edition , L'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1809-1813; l'Imprimerie...
, a circus, and a hippodrome nearby were still to be seen. Today there is little left: blocks of stone were rebuilt into the new sugar factories at El-Rodah (ref. Princeton). Some excavations wrere undertaken by the University of Rome
University of Rome La Sapienza
The Sapienza University of Rome, officially Sapienza – Università di Roma, formerly known as Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy...
, 1965-68. Papyri
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
from the site were edited and translated by J. W. B. Barns and H. Zilliacus.