View source for Telmessos

{{short description|Ancient city in Lycia}}
{{about|Telmessos in Lycia (modern Fethiye)|the town in ancient Caria|Telmessos (Caria)}}
{{Infobox ancient site
|name                    = Telmessos
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|map_type                = Turkey#Near East#Mediterranean east
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|coordinates             = {{coord|36|37|6|N|29|7|4|E|display=inline,title}}
|location                = [[Fethiye, Muğla Province]], Turkey
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|built                   = Pre-10th millennium BCE
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[[File:Luigi Mayer Ancient Telmessus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Painting of Telmessos by [[Luigi Mayer]]]]

'''Telmessos''' or '''Telmessus''' ([[Hittite language|Hittite]]: 𒆪𒉿𒆷𒉺𒀸𒊭 ''Kuwalapašša'', [[Lycian language|Lycian]]: 𐊗𐊁𐊍𐊁𐊂𐊁𐊛𐊆 ''Telebehi'', {{langx|grc|Τελμησσός}}), also '''Telmissus''' ({{langx|grc|Τελμισσός}}),<ref>Michel Lequien, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0agp0mJFG_sC ''Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus''], Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 971–972</ref> later '''Anastasiopolis''' ({{langx|grc|Αναστασιούπολις}}), then '''Makri''' or '''Macre''' ({{langx|el|Μάκρη}}), was the largest city in [[Lycia]], near the [[Caria]]n border, and is sometimes confused with [[Telmessos (Caria)|Telmessos in Caria]]. It was called Telebehi in the [[Lycian language]]. The well-protected harbor of Telmessos is separated from the [[Gulf of Fethiye|Gulf of Telmessos]] by an island.

The name of the modern town on the site is [[Fethiye]].

== History ==
===Late Bronze Age===
The Hittite name was '''Kuwalapašša''', while the Lycian name was '''Telebehi'''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lebrun |first=René |url=https://www.meretsegerbooks.com/pages/books/M5267/alp-sedat-in-honor-of/sedat-alpa-armagan-festschrift-fur-sedat-alp-hittite-and-other-anatolian-and-near-eastern-studies |title=Sedat Alp'e Armağan, Festschrift für Sedat Alp: Hittite and other Anatolian and Near Eastern Studies in Honour of Sedat Alp |publisher=Türk Tarih Kumru Basımevi |year=1992 |location=Ankara |pages=392 |chapter=De quelques cultes lyciens et pamphyliens}}</ref> 

In the 13th century BC, the Annals of [[Ḫattušili III|Hattusili III]] mentions the city as a part of Lukka (Lycia) and conquered by the Hittites. Another Hittite document mentions the cities of Kuwalapašša and [[Tlos|Dalawa]] sent aid to Hittites during the war against Iyalanda.<ref>{{cite thesis |type=MSc |last=Seçer |first=Sezer |url=https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/TezGoster?key=RYan9_S-Z7Eir3xdWGXBiIStSahuwo_-xlD8zI0LZyugYuQPWnEq7Gcw58omoWSA |title=Yazılı Belgeler Işığında Lukka, Pedassa ve Walma Ülkelerinin Tarihi ve Tarihi Coğrafyası |publisher=İstanbul Üniversitesi |page=91-92}}</ref>

===Iron Age===
Telmessos was a flourishing city in the west of Lycia, on the [[Gulf of Fethiye]]. It was famed for its school of diviners, consulted among others by the Lydian king [[Croesus]], prior to declaring war against [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]].

Telmessos was a member of the [[Delian League]] in the 5th century BC. It was taken by [[Alexander the Great]] in 334 BC, when he came to the town after the siege of [[Halicarnassus]].

===Middle Ages===
Telmessos was renamed Anastasiopolis in the 8th century AD, apparently in honour of Emperor [[Anastasios II]], but this name did not persist. The city came to be called ''Makri'', after the name of the island at the entrance to the harbor. This name is attested for the first time in 879 AD.

However, an inscription of the 7th century found in Gibraltar and bearing the ethnonym "Makriotes" (from Makri) may indicate an earlier existence of name ''Makri''.<ref>[http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1996/110pdf/110290.pdf Jaime B. Curbera (1996) "Two Greek Christian Inscriptions from Spain". ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' 110 (1996) 290–292.]</ref>

Its ruins are located at [[Fethiye]].

== Church history ==

[[Michel Le Quien|Le Quien]] (''Oriens christianus'', I, 971) mentions two bishops of Telmessus: Hilary (370) and Zenodotus, at the [[Council of Chalcedon]] (451). The latter is called "Bishop of the Metropolis of Telmessaei and the Isle of Macra". The ''[[Notitiae Episcopatuum]]'' mentions Telmessus among the suffragans of [[Myra]] until the 10th century, when it is no longer called Macra; in 1316 mention is made of the See of "Macra and Lybysium". [[Lybysium]] or Levissi, about four miles south-west of Makri, had in the early 20th century 3000 inhabitants, nearly all Greeks.

The see is included, under the name Telmissus, in the [[Catholic Church]]'s list of [[titular see]]s.<ref>''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 985</ref> The historically important former Bishop of Montreal, [[Ignace Bourget]]'s first epsicopal title was as bishop of the Catholic [[titular see]] of Telmessos.<ref>Léon Pouliot, ''Monseigneur Bourget et son temps,'' (Editions Bellamarin, 1972), p. 9.</ref>  In the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], Telmessos is also a titular episcopal see of the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]].  The current holder of the see, [[Archbishop]] Job, is primate of the [[Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe]], based in Paris.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.orthodoxie.com/actualites/larchimandrite-job-getcha-a-ete-canoniquement-elu-ce-matin-par-le-saint-synode-du-patriarcat-de-constantinople
 |title       = L'archimandrite Job (Getcha) a été canoniquement élu ce matin par le Saint-Synode du Patriarcat de Constantinople
 |date        = 2 November 2013
 |website     = www.orthodoxie.com - L'information orthodoxe sur Internet
 |language    = fr
 |trans-title = Archimandrite Job (Getcha) has been canonically elected this morning by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople
 |access-date  = 2 November 2013
 }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Aristander of Telmessus]], seer to [[Alexander the Great]]
* ''[[Birds Without Wings]]'' 2004 novel by [[Louis de Bernières]] set in the early 1900s in a fictional Anatolian village called Eskibahçe where Telmessos is the nearest town.
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== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{CathEncy|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14478c.htm|title=Telmessus}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061105043915/http://www.archaeology-classic.com/turkey/Telmessos.html Archaeological World]
* Clive Foss, "The Lycian Coast in the Byzantine Age", ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'' '''48''':1-52 (1994). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291721 at JSTOR]
* {{Catholic|wstitle=Telmessus}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Telmessos}}

{{Lycian League}}
{{Ancient settlements in Turkey}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey]]
[[Category:History of Muğla Province]]
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Lycia]]
[[Category:Catholic titular sees in Asia|Telmissus]]
[[Category:Fethiye District]]
[[Category:Members of the Delian League]]