Пессинус: Древний город и имперский культ в Баллыхисаре

Ancient name for the modern Turkish village of Ballıhisar

Pessinus (Πεσσινούς or Πισσινούς) was an Ancient city and archbishopric in Asia Minor, a geographical area roughly covering modern Anatolia (Asian Turkey). The site of the city is now the modern Turkish village of Ballıhisar, in a tributary valley of the Sakarya River on the high Anatolian plateau at 950 m above sea level, 13 km from the small town of Sivrihisar. Pessinus remains a Catholic (formerly double) titular see.

As yet, the temple area, which was excavated between 1967 and 1972, is the only well studied area of Pessinus. It was studied thoroughly by M. Waelkens (current director of Sagalassos excavations) in the 1980s and between 2006 and 2012 by Verlinde (Ghent University), who built on the findings of the former to analyze and reconstruct the architecture of the Corinthian peripteral temple, of which only the massive foundations remain. Investigations led to several observations, such as the Tiberian date (25 35 AD) of the cult building and its identification as a temple of the imperial cult (Sebasteion). As such, it was finally established that the excavated temple could not be identified as the Temple of Cybele, as explorer Charles Texier had done when he 'discovered' the foundations of the temple in 1834. Verlinde discovered that the building was designed on the basis of a grid, and that the governing module, determining the intervals and height of the columns, was equal to the lower diameter of the columns (0.76 m). Each intercolumnar space was equal to two modules (1.52 m), which designates the temple as a 'systyle.' Furthermore, the extraordinarily large stepped podium seems to have been influenced by Hellenistic and early Imperial pseudodipteroi. Although the temple was Tiberian, the decorative sculpture was fashioned in a conservative Augustan manner, which suggests that the building may have been design in the late Augustan period (ca. 15 AD). The temple towered over the back of a theatre, which combined a central staircase with two cavea wings for spectators. It was claimed by Verlinde that this theatrical area was ritual and used for gladiatorial fights, as the theatre contained raised seats with a protective parapet, which was typical for gladiatorial theatres in the Greek east. Given that such gladiatorial combat was as a rule intertwined with the imperial cult, Verlinde argued that the epigraphically attested cult of the emperor, was once again confirmed. He also observed that there is a consistency of such theatre temples, which were influenced by late Republican sanctuaries in Italy (e. g. the sanctuary of Hercules Victor at Tivoli), being associated with the imperial cult. The sanctuary of Augustus at Stratonicea, which was a theatre temple as well, may have served as a model for the sanctuary in Pessinus.

The colonnaded square in front of the stairway theatre was thought to have been part of the imperial complex. However, this was rejected by Verlinde who dated the complex to the late 2nd century BC. The architecture of the limestone complex (covered with stucco lustro) emanates the style of Hellenistic palaestrae such as the Gymnasion of Eudemos at Miletus (late 3rd century BC). Being quite similar to the latter complex, the Pessinuntian square was reconstructed by Verlinde as a 'quadriporticus' with a Rhodian peristyle, that is with a high (Ionic) colonnade to the north, and three lower wings with Doric columns. The quadriporticus was an annex of the Hellenistic citadel on the promontory to the east, which preceded the early imperial temple. The combination of a Hellenistic palace and a gymnasium (school) was a typical phenomenon of the Greek world during the Hellenistic age. Carbondating and ceramological analysis indicates that the palaestra (sports gym) was destroyed by a fire during the late Hellenistic age, suggesting that the colonnaded square as a functional entity was short lived. After the quadriporticus was destroyed, it was not rebuilt during the early Roman period, as the area may have been used as an unpaved arena for the gladiatorial fights of the temple. In the 3rd century AD, the area was monumentalized with a new ellipse shaped theatre and a vast marble square with a monumental funerary crypt (a funerary Heroon). the earliest part of which dates from the Augustan age. It was meant to retain and carry away the waters of the Gallos, the seasonal river which traverses Pessinus and which was the main north south artery (cardo maximus) of the city. From the 1st to the 3rd century AD the canal was continuously expanded until it finally reached a length of ca. 500 m and a width of 11 to 13 m. It is not known when exactly the large theatre, of which is preserved only the emplacement of the cavea where the spectators were seated, was constructed, but it was repaired or embellished by Hadrian. Other monumental buildings, erected under the reign of Tiberius, included the marble peripteros temple of the provincial Imperial cult, a Sebasteion, on a hill at the north western end of the canal, a stairway combined with a theatre in front (with an orchestra where religious and other performances such as gladiator fights took place). The colonnaded square lower down the valley was reconstructed by Verlinde. In the past, this structure was wrongly situated in the Tiberian era, but it was shown that it was a monument of the Hellenistic age (late 2nd early 1st century BC), and contemporary with the citadel that preceded the temple complex.

Christianity reached the area in the 3rd century, and at the end of the 4th century, the temple of Augustus was decommissioned. Perhaps as a sign of the rise of Christianity in Pessinus, Emperor Julian the Apostate made a pilgrimage to Pessinus and wrote an angry letter concerning the disrespect shown to the sanctuary of Cybele. In ca. 398, Pessinus was established as the capital of the newly established province of Galatia Salutaris (in the civil Diocese of Pontus), and became the seat of a Metropolitan Archbishop. The region later became part of the Byzantine Anatolic Theme. In late 715 AD, the city of Pessinus was destroyed by an Arab raid, along with the neighboring city Orkistos. The area remained under Byzantine control until lost to the Seljuk Turks in the latter 11th century, after which Pessinus became an inconspicuous mountain village at 900m height, gradually getting depopulated since it was fully protected.

Circa AD 398, Pessinus was established as the capital of the newly established Roman province of Galatia Salutaris (=Secunda), and became the seat of a Metropolitan Archdiocese, under the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Despite the Arab sack of the city in the 7th century, it had archbishops at least until the 11th century, but ultimately the see was suppressed, being truly in partibus infidelium under Turkish (Seljuk, later Ottoman) Muslim rule. It was nominally revived in the early 20th century, both in a Latin (extant) and in an Armenian Catholic (short lived) line of apostolic succession.

The Notitia Episcopatuum of pseudo Epifanius, edited under the Byzantine emperor Heraclius I (circa 640), ranks the see of Pessinus 18th amongst the Metropolitans in the Patriarchate of Constantinople and has seven suffragans: Amorium, Claneus (has been made a titular bishopric), Eudoxias (a titular bishopric), Petinessus (a titular bishopric), Trocmades (also titular bishopric; nicknamed (P)lotinus after its patron saint], not the philosopher, 'Germocolonia' (i. e. Germa in Galatia) and 'Palia' (sic; cfr. Spalea below?). The Notitia Episcopatuum under the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise or the Philosopher (866–912) ranks Pessinus as the 19th Metropolitanate, but with a greatly altered set of seven suffragans: again 'Germocolonia', again '(P)Lotinus' (= above Trocmades), again Petinessus, 'Synodium' (sic, unidentified, perhaps an error), 'Sant'Agapeto' (i. e. Myrica, a titular see), Orcistus (titular see) and 'Spalea', plausibly Justinianopolis in Galatia (titular see).

In 1905 Pessinus of the Armenians was established as the Armenian Catholic Metropolitan Titular archbishopric of Pessinus (Italian: Pessinonte (Curiate Italiano), Latin: Pessinuntin(us) Armenorum). In 1915 it was suppressed, having had a singular incumbent, of the Metropolitan (highest) rank:
Isaac Hagian (5 June 1905 – 1908?) as emeritate, formerly first Archbishop of Sebaste of the Armenians (1892 – 1905).

The temple area at Pessinus was rediscovered in 1834 by the French architect and archaeologist Charles Texier in the south of the village along the Gallos river, and was excavated under the auspices of Ghent University in 1967–1973 under the directorship of Pieter Lambrechts and in 1987–2008 under the directorship of John Devreker. Angelo Verlinde's 2012 PhD dissertation, published in 2015, is on the temple. As yet, the temple area (sector B) is the only thoroughly investigated area of the city, with the exception of the so called Acropolis (sector I) near the northern entrance of the Ballıhisar valley. Since 2009, the city has been investigated by a team from the University of Melbourne, led by Gocha Tsetskhladze.