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Apollonia () in
Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...
(modern
Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
) was founded by Greek colonists and became a significant commercial centre in the southern
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
. It served as the harbour of Cyrene, to the southwest. Apollonia became autonomous from Cyrene at latest by the time the area came within the power of
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, when it was one of the five cities of the Libyan
Pentapolis A pentapolis (from Ancient Greek, Greek ''penta-'', 'five' and ''polis'', 'city') is a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities. Cities in the ancient world probably formed such groups for political, commercial and military rea ...
, growing in power until, in the 6th century AD, it became the capital of the
Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...
of
Libya Superior Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...
or Libya Pentapolitana. The city became known as Sozusa, which explains the modern name of Marsa Susa or
Susa Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh River, Karkheh and Dez River, Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital o ...
, which grew up long after the cessation of urban life in the ancient city after the Arab occupation of AD 643. Sozusa was an episcopal see and is included in the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
's list of
titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...
s.


Ruins

The early foundation levels of the city of Apollonia are below sea level due to submergence in earthquakes, while the upper strata of the later Byzantine Christian periods are several meters above sea level, built on the accumulated deposits of previous periods. The existence of buildings in the sea was noted by Beechey (1827), with some rough drawings, and Goodchild (1950s) and
André Laronde file:André Laronde-1993.jpg, 300px, André Laronde in Cyrene, Libya, Cyrene, 1973 André Laronde (19 June 1940, in Grenoble – 1 February 2011, in Paris) was a French historian and archaeology, archaeologist. He was a specialist of Greek colonisa ...
also published archaeological surveys of the site. In 1958 and 1959 Nicholas Flemming, then an undergraduate at Cambridge University, led teams of undergraduates trained in scuba diving and underwater surveying to map the large sector of the city beneath the sea. The results of this work were published, complete with maps and diagrams of underwater buildings in the references cited below. Carlo Beltrame and colleagues have recently made an underwater photographic survey of some of the buildings. The Crete earthquake and tsunami of 21 July 365 AD apparently caused extensive damage to the city and harbor. The Apollonia (Susa) Museum houses many artifacts found on the ancient site.


The ancient port

The remains of the ancient port in Apollonia are extremely well preserved because they are underwater. The difference in sea level, indeed, was estimated to be around 3.70-3.80 m. The port is relatively early in date, dating from the 6th/7th Century BC, and this makes it unique as no other complete port is this old.


Palace

The Palace of the Dux was excavated by Goodchild between 1959 and 1962. It was last used as the Byzantine Duke's Palace and contains over 100 rooms. A marble inscription testifies to its use as a Roman military commander's house, however the identification of the name and status of the man who built the palace is problematic.The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology, Volume 1, Finney


Theatre

The well-preserved Greek theatre stands facing the sea outside the old city walls. This monument dates to the 3rd century BC and is therefore one of the oldest sites in Apollonia. The structure was modified under Domitian, suggesting its use as an arena for gladiatorial fights.livius.org The 5th century saw the abandonment of the theatre and the re-use of the columns from the stage as spolia in the eastern basilica. The
cavea The ''cavea'' (Latin language, Latin for "enclosure") are the seating sections of Theatre of ancient Greece, Greek and Roman theatre (structure), Roman theatres and Roman amphitheatre, amphitheatres. In Roman theatres, the ''cavea'' is tradition ...
has 28 seat levels.


See also

* Barca * Ptolemais, Cyrenaica *
List of ancient Greek cities This is an incomplete list of ancient Greek cities, including colonies outside Greece, and including settlements that were not sovereign '' poleis''. Many colonies outside Greece were soon assimilated to some other language but a city is included h ...


References


LookLex
* Beechey, F.W. 1827. ''Proceedings of an Expedition to Explore the North African coast''. John Murray, London. * Flemming, N.C. 1959. "Underwater adventure in Apollonia". ''Geographical Magazine'', v. 31, pp. 497–508. * Flemming, N.C. 1971. ''Cities in the Sea''. Doubleday, New York, 222 pp; New English Library, London, 222pp. * Flemming, N.C. and Webb, C.O, 1986. "Tectonic and eustatic coastal changes during the last 10,000 years derived from archaeological data". ''Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie''. December, Suppl – Bd62, p. 1 29.
The ancient port of Apollonia
is an archaeological treasure to be preserved. {{Greek Pentapolis Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Libya Jabal al Akhdar Populated places in ancient Cyrenaica Sozusa in Libya Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Greek colonies in Libya Crete and Cyrenaica