The 262 Southwest Anatolia earthquake devastated the Roman city of

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

along with cities along the west and south coasts of

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

in year 262, or possibly 261. The epicenter was likely located in the southern

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

. Reports note that many cities were flooded by the sea, presumably due to a tsunami.

Nicholas Ambraseys Nicholas Neocles Ambraseys FICE FREng (Greek: Νικόλαος Αμβράζης του Νεοκλή, 19 January 1929 – 28 December 2012) was a Greek engineering seismologist. He was emeritus professor of engineering seismology and senior rese ...

, who performed the most comprehensive assessment of ancient earthquakes in the Mediterranean, traces the original source of most literary references to this quake to an account in the ''

Augustan History The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...

'' purportedly written by Trebellius Pollio. This source is problematic, as the veracity of much of its supposed biographical details is doubtful. However, there is some reason to give credence to the history's accounts of natural disasters. Trebellius's account also reports the southwest Anatolia earthquake in conjunction with one that hit

Cyrene, Libya Cyrene ( ) or Kyrene ( ; grc, Κυρήνη, Kyrḗnē, arb, شحات, Shaḥāt), was an ancient Greek and later Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya. It was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities, known as the pentapolei ...

the same year. The two events appears to have been unrelated, but it has been difficult for historians to disentangle the exact effects of each based on the classical sources.

Tectonic setting

There are many faults in the Aegean Sea and the adjacent coastal areas of Anatolia, caused by the

African Plate The African Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes much of the continent of Africa (except for its easternmost part) and the adjacent oceanic crust to the west and south. It is bounded by the North American Plate and South American Plat ...

being subducted beneath the

Aegean Sea Plate The Aegean Sea Plate (also called the Hellenic Plate or Aegean Plate) is a small tectonic plate located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey. Its southern edge is the Hellenic subduction zone south of Crete, ...

. These faults result in frequent earthquakes. Ephesus, which sustained considerable damage in the 262 AD earthquake, was also struck by earthquakes in

AD 17 __NOTOC__ AD 17 (XVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Flaccus and Rufus (or, less frequently, year 770 ''Ab urbe co ...

, sometime before AD 30, c. AD 42, c. AD 46–47, c. 150–155, 358–366, 614, and the tenth or eleventh century. One fault in the southern part of the region stretches from the island of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

in present-day Greece northeastwards to

Burdur Burdur is a city in southwestern Turkey. The seat of Burdur Province, it is located on the shore of Lake Burdur. Its estimated 2010 population is 78,389. History Ancient history Whilst there is evidence of habitation in the province dating b ...

in present-day Turkey.

Damage

Trebellius wrote that the cities of

Roman Asia The Asia ( grc, Ἀσία) was a Roman province covering most of western Anatolia, which was created following the Roman Republic's annexation of the Attalid Kingdom in 133 BC. After the establishment of the Roman Empire by Augustus, it was th ...

reported the worst damage from the earthquake: "In many places the earth yawned open, and salt water appeared in the fissures. Many cities were even overwhelmed by the sea." He records that this damage occurred took place during the consulship of

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...

and Fausianus. The latter appears to be

Lucius Mummius Faustianus Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...

who was a consul in the year 262. Much of the

Library of Celsus The Library of Celsus ( el, Βιβλιοθήκη του Κέλσου) is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selçuk, Turkey. The building was commissioned in the 110s A.D. by a consul, Gaius Julius Aquila, as a funerary m ...

at Ephesus (including all the books) were destroyed by fire in or around 262. The cause of the fire has been attributed either to this earthquake or to an invasion by the

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

(sometimes incorrectly identified as

Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved f ...

). Ephesus's

Temple of Artemis The Temple of Artemis or Artemision ( gr, Ἀρτεμίσιον; tr, Artemis Tapınağı), also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, local form of the goddess Artemis (identified with Diana, a Roman god ...

, one of the

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...

, was also destroyed around the same date, although some sources attribute this to a Gothic invasion in 267 or 268. There is some archeological evidence at Ephesus supporting the date implied by Trebellius's account. Stefan Karwiese of the

Austrian Archaeological Institute at Athens The Austrian Archaeological Institute at Athens (german: Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut (ÖAI) Athen; el, Αυστριακό Αρχαιολογικό Ινστιτούτο Αθηνών) is one of the 19 foreign archaeological institut ...

reports that ceramics found near the library and temple can be dated to the second half of the third century. A study of geological processes in Roman cities concludes that 11 major buildings at Ephesus required rebuilding after the 262 earthquake: the terrace houses, Temple of Serapis (Serapeion),

Stoa A stoa (; plural, stoas,"stoa", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989 stoai, or stoae ), in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usually ...

of Damianus, Harbor Baths (also known as the Great Baths or Baths of Constantius), Baths of Varius and Scholastica Baths, Magnesian Gate, Medusa Gate, Lower Agora (also known as the Tetragonos Agora),

, theatre and stadium.

Account by "Trebellius Pollio"

The ''Augustan History'' contains a biography of

titled "The Two Gallieni" and ascribed to Trebellius Pollio, likely a pseudonym. The writer appears to have been aiming to retrospectively malign the character of Gallienus. Among the descriptions of his frivolity and military defeats is a section that relates several natural disasters of the time. Romans frequently saw these as omens and it was not unusual to conflate several events from the same year.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Southwest Anatolia 262 262 260s in the Roman Empire 3rd-century earthquakes Lydia Caria Lycia 3rd-century natural disasters 0262 Southwest Anatolia Tsunamis in Turkey Earthquakes in the Roman Empire

Tectonic setting

Damage

Account by "Trebellius Pollio"

See also

References

Sources