View source for Satala

{{Short description|Location in Turkey}}
{{Other uses}}
{{about||the town of ancient Lydia|Satala in Lydia|the town in American Samoa|Satala, American Samoa}}
{{Infobox Turkey place
| type                 = village
| province             = Gümüşhane
| district             = Kelkit
| name                 = Sadak
| other_name           = Satala
| population_total     = 348
| population_as_of     = 2022
| coordinates          = {{coord|40|1|34|N|39|35|41|E|display=it}}
| image_skyline        = Satala Aphrodite Yerevan 2025.jpg
| image_caption        = [[Satala Aphrodite]] as displayed in the British Museum
}}
Located in [[Turkey]], the settlement of '''Satala''' ({{langx|xcl|Սատաղ}} ''Satał'', {{langx|grc|Σάταλα}}<ref>[https://topostext.org/work/241#S557.2 Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §S557.2]</ref>), according to the ancient geographers, was situated in a valley surrounded by mountains, a little north of the [[Euphrates]], where the road from [[Trabzon|Trapezus]] to [[Samosata]] crossed the boundary of the [[Roman Empire]], when it was a bishopric, which remains a Latin Catholic [[titular see]]. Later it was connected with [[Nicopolis (Armenia)|Nicopolis]] by two highways. Satala is now '''Sadak''', a village of 348 inhabitants (2022), in the [[Kelkit District]] of [[Gümüşhane Province]] in [[Turkey]].<ref>[https://www.e-icisleri.gov.tr/Anasayfa/MulkiIdariBolumleri.aspx Köy], Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 1 March 2023.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports|url=https://biruni.tuik.gov.tr/medas/?kn=95&locale=en |access-date=13 March 2023|publisher=[[TÜİK]]|language=en|format=XLS}}</ref>

== History ==
This site must have been occupied as early as the annexation of [[Lesser Armenia]] under [[Vespasian]]. [[Trajan]] visited it in 115 and received the homage of the princes of the Caucasus and the Euxine. Probably it was Trajan who placed there the [[Legio XV Apollinaris|Legio XV ''Apollinaris'']] and began the construction of the great ''castra stativa'' (permanent camp) which it was to occupy till the 5th century.<ref name=PECS>{{Cite PECS|satala|Satala}}</ref> The town must have sprung up around this camp; in the time of [[Ptolemy]] it was already important. In 530 the Persians [[Battle of Satala (530)|were defeated by the Byzantine Empire]] under its walls. [[Justinian I]] constructed more powerful fortifications there, but these did not prevent Satala from being captured in 607-8 by the Persians.

In the Middle Ages and Ottoman period an important east-west route between [[Erzurum]] and [[Sivas]] or [[Tokat]] ran past Satala; however by that time Satala had ceased being an important settlement.<ref>T. A. Sinclair, "Eastern Turkey, an Architectural and Archeological Survey", volume 2 p327.</ref>

== Ecclesiastical history ==
In the Late [[Roman province]] of [[Armenia Prima]],<ref>[http://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/satala  Titular see in Armenia Prima].</ref> Satala was a suffragan of its capital [[Sebasteia|Sebaste]]'s Metropolitan Archbishop.

The Christians were already numerous in the time of [[Diocletian]]. [[Le Quien]] seven of its bishops:<ref name="Le Quien">{{Oriens Christianus|volume=1|article=Ecclesia Satalorum|at=cols. 431–434}}</ref>
*Euethius, at Nicaea, 325<ref>Heinrich Gelzer, Patrum Nicaenorum nomina Latine, Graece, Coptice, Syriace, Arabice, *Armeniace: adiecta est tabula geographica (In aedibus B.G. Teubneri, 1995) p27.</ref><ref>John Anthony Cramer, A geographical description of Asia Minor Vol1,(The University Press, 1832) p455.</ref>
*Elpidius, 360
*Poemenius, about 378
*Anatolius, 451<ref>Richard Price, Michael Gaddis, The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, Volume 1 (Liverpool University Press, 2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=6IUaOOT1G3UC&q=+Satala&pg=RA2-PA157  p126].</ref>
*Epiphanius, 458
*Gregory, 692
*Philip, 879.

The see is mentioned in the ''[[Notitiae episcopatuum]]'' until the thirteenth century; the name of the bishop in 1256 is recorded as Cosmas.

=== Titular see ===
In the 18th century, the diocese was nominally restored as [[Titular bishopric]] of '''Satala'''.
As such it had the following incumbents, all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :
* Isaac Soffiali (1785.01.07 – ?)
* Ignacy Bardziński (1809.03.27 – 1813.12.15)
* Nikodem Puzyna (1814.09.26 – 1819.10.22)
* Gianfrancesco Guglielmo Tippmann (1832.12.17 – 1857.06.20)
* Vital-Justin Grandin, [[Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate]] (O.M.I.) (1857.12.11 – 1871.09.22)
* Tommaso Teofilo Kulinski (1872.02.23 – 1883.03.15)
* Lazzaro Mladenoff, [[Lazarists]] (C.M.) (1883.06.12 – 1918.03.04)

In 1933 it was renamed '''Satala in Armenia'''. It is vacant, having had as such the following incumbents, so far also all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :
* François-Joseph Dantin, [[Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette]] (M.S.) (1918.08.24 – 1941.07.05)
* Salvador Herrera y Pinto, [[Friars Minor]] (O.F.M.) (1948.04.05 – 1977.01.26)

== Its rediscovery ==
Satala, then called Sadagh or Suddak, was visited by J. G. Taylor in 1868: he copied a damaged Latin inscription mentioning [[Domitian]] found on a Roman votive altar; found a large figurative mosaic fragment, a "magnificent specimen", being reused as the base of a fireplace; found more and larger mosaic fragments scattered about the village (all of them having been dug out of the top of a hill overlooking the village); and reported the existence of Byzantine epitaph inscriptions.<ref>Taylor, "Journey of a Tour in Armenia", Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, volume 38, 1868.</ref><ref>Vincent Yorke, "A Journey in the Valley of the Upper Euphrates" in Geographical Journal, Vol VIII, 1896.</ref> Taylor reported that cut stones had been removed from the site to construct government buildings at [[Erzincan]].

The first detailed investigation of the site was by [[Alfred Biliotti]], the British vice-consul at [[Trabzon|Trebizond]]. He visited Satala in September 1874 as a response to the finding of bronze statue fragments including the piece now known as the [[Satala Aphrodite]], producing a description of the site and a plan of the ruins. Lightfoot considers Biliotti's account to be "by far the most accurate and valuable description of the remains at Satala". Although Sadagh was assumed by Taylor to be the site of Satala, and indicated as such by [[Heinrich Kiepert|Kiepert]] in his maps,<ref>Vincent Yorke, "A Journey in the Valley of the Upper Euphrates" in Geographical Journal, Vol VIII, 1896, p461.</ref> the site's identification as Satala was not conclusively established until 1894 when two British scholars, Vincent Yorke and D. G. Hogarth, found several tiles at the site bearing the stamp of Legio XV Apollinaris.<ref>C.S. Lightfoot, "Survey work at Satala", in R. Matthews (ed.), Ancient Anatolia, pp. 275, Oxford, 1998.</ref> 
Yorke described Satala in 1894 as a Turkish village of about 150 houses, constructed mostly from reused stone blocks. Yorke identified as an aqueduct a 5-arched structure that Biliotti had identified as part of a basilica church and Taylor as part of a bathhouse, a misidentification that continued into the 1990s.

== Archaeological remains ==
Some remains of the walls of the rectangular legionary fortress survive, though much ruined. Their line can be traced in part on all four sides of the fortress that encompassed an area of 15.7 ha (smaller than most legionary fortresses). These walls probably date from the 6th century AD when, according to [[Procopius]], Satala's fortifications were extensively rebuilt by Justinian, but in places they reuse the foundations of earlier walls. Within the walls little remains, and ruined structures noted by Biliotti have been demolished. The legionary base had a civilian settlement to the north of the north wall, but no traces of any substantial buildings survive. A ruinous structure consisting of a row of arches stands at some distance to the southeast of the fortress. Biliotti described it as a basilica, but since then it was frequently regarded as the remains of an aqueduct leading to an as yet unidentified lower city. This theory is now considered obsolete and the ruin has been reconfirmed as that of a basilica church. Lightfoot speculates that it might have been a martyrium church dedicated to the patron saint of Satala, St. Eugenius.<ref>C.S. Lightfoot, “Survey work at Satala,” in R. Matthews (ed.), Ancient Anatolia, pp. 273-84, Oxford, 1998.</ref>

The famous [[Satala Aphrodite]], a larger than life-size head from an ancient Hellenistic bronze statue, was found in a field outside Sadak in 1872. It is now on display in the [[British Museum]].<ref name=bm>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?place=34535&plaA=34535-3-1 British Museum Collection]</ref>

In November 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 1400 year-old Byzantine sarcophagus in Sadak in Satala. According to researchers, there were [[Greek inscriptions]] on the cover saying "Blessed Kandes sleeps here". According to [[Gümüşhane Province|Gümüşhane]] Museum Director Gamze Demir, the broken part of the sarcophagus, which is considered to be 2.5 meters long is believed to be under the ground.<ref>{{Cite web|last=sabah|first=daily|date=2017-11-03|title=Construction workers find ancient sarcophagus cover in Turkey's Gümüşhane|url=https://www.dailysabah.com/history/2017/11/03/construction-workers-find-ancient-sarcophagus-cover-in-turkeys-gumushane|access-date=2021-03-05|website=Daily Sabah|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Byzantine Sarcophagus Cover Unearthed in Turkey - Archaeology Magazine|url=https://www.archaeology.org/news/6070-171103-turkey-byzantine-sarcophagus|access-date=2021-03-05|website=www.archaeology.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-11-02|title=Trafoyu Yenilerken Bin 600 Yıllık Lahit Buldular|url=https://www.haberler.com/trafoyu-yenilerken-bin-600-yillik-lahit-buldular-10200674-haberi/|access-date=2021-03-05|website=Haberler.com|language=tr}}</ref> 

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Sources and external links==
* [https://www.livius.org/sao-sd/satala/satala.html Livius.org: Satala] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121128073630/http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/satala/satala.html |date=2012-11-28 }}
* [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t1519.htm GCatholic with titular incumbent bio links]
* {{cite web |url=http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/874684 |title=Places: 874684 (Satala) |author1=Kroll, S.|author2-link=Michael Roaf|author2=M. Roaf|author3=St J. Simpson|author4=T. Sinclair|author5=R. Talbert|author6=T. Elliott|author7=S. Gillies |date=8 June 2018 |access-date=March 8, 2012 <!-- 2:11 pm -->  |publisher=Pleiades}}

{{Catholic|wstitle=Satala}}
{{Former settlements in Turkey}}
{{Kelkit District}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Populated places in Armenia Minor]]
[[Category:Roman legionary fortresses in Turkey]]
[[Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Roman towns and cities in Turkey]]
[[Category:Villages in Kelkit District]]
[[Category:Roman fortifications in Cappadocia]]
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Cappadocia]]
[[Category:Catholic titular sees in Asia]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey]]