Everything about Colophon totally explained
Colophon (
Greek Κολοφών) was a city in the region of
Lydia in antiquity dating from about the turn of the first millennium-BC. It was likely one the oldest of the twelve
Ionian League cities, between
Lebedos (120
stadia to the west) and
Ephesus (to its south) and its ruins are in the eponymously named modern region of
Ionia.
The city's name comes from the word κολοφών, 'summit', which is the origin of the bibliographic term '
colophon', in the metaphorical sense of a 'crowning touch', as it was sited along a ridgeline. The term "
colophony" for
rosin comes from the term
colophonia resina, that is, resin from the pine trees of Colophon, which was highly valued for the strings of musical instruments.
The ruins of the city are at the
Castro of Ghiaour-Keui, a minor village in the
vilayet of
Smyrna,
kaza of
Kuşadası.
Antiquity
In Greek antiquity two sons of
Codrus,
king of Athens, established a colony there. It was the birthplace of the philosopher
Xenophanes and the poet
Mimnermus.
The cavalry of Colophon was renowned. In the third century-BC, it was destroyed by
Lysimachus—a
Macedonian officer, one of the successors (
diadochus) of
Alexander the Great, later a king (306 BCE) in
Thrace and
Asia Minor, during the same era when he nearly destroyed (and did depopulate by forced expulsion) the neighboring Ionian League city of
Lebedos.
Notium served as the port, and in the neighbourhood was the village of
Clarus, with its famous temple and oracle of
Apollo Clarius, where
Calchas vied with
Mopsus in divinatory science.
In
Roman times, after
Lysimachus' conquest, Colophon failed to recover (unlike
Lebedos) and lost its importance; in actual fact, the name was transferred to the site of the port village of
Notium, and the latter name disappeared between the
Peloponnesian War and the time of
Cicero (late
400s BC to
1st century BC).
Additionally, the city, as a major location on the Ionic mainland, was cited as a possible home or birthplace for
Homer. In his
True History,
Lucian lists it as a possible birthplace along with the island of
Khios and the city of Smyrna, though Lucian's Homer claims to be from
Babylon.
Ecclesiastical history
The "
Notitiae Episcopatuum" mentions Colophon or Colophone, as late as the twelfth or thirteenth century, as a suffragan of Ephesus.
Lequien (I, 723) gives the names of only four Bishops:
- St. Sosthenes (I Cor., i, 1) and St. Tychicus (Tit., iii, 12) are merely legendary
- Euthalius was present at the Council of Ephesus in 431
- Alexander was alive in 451.
It is a
titular see of
Asia Minor.
Sources
Loeb Classical Library, vol. 3/8 of Lucian's works
, with facing Greek text
Works of Lucian of Samostata at sacred-texts.com
Herodotus Project: Colophon
Further Information
Get more info on 'Colophon'.
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