View source for Colossae

{{Short description|Ancient city of Phrygia}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox ancient site
 | name                 = Colossae
 | native_name          = {{lang|grc|Κολοσσαί}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|Kolossaí}})
 | alternate_name       = 
 | image                = TR Colossae site asv2020-02 img08.jpg
 | alt                  = Ruins of Colossae
 | caption              = Ruins of Colossae
 | map_type             = Turkey #Asia
 | map_alt              = #Asia
 | map_size             = 275
 | relief               = ye
 | coordinates          = {{coord|37|47|12|N|29|15|36|E|region:TR|display=inline,title}}
 | location             = 
 | region               = [[Phrygia]]
 | type                 = 
 | part_of              = [[West Asia]]
 | length               = 
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 | builder              = 
 | material             = 
 | built                = 
 | abandoned            = 
 | epochs               = 
 | cultures             = 
 | dependency_of        = 
 | occupants            = 
 | event                = 
 | excavations          = 
 | archaeologists       = 
 | condition            = 
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 | public_access        = 
 | website              = {{Official URL}}
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[[File:TR Colossae site asv2020-02 img08.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Ruins of Colossae]]
[[File:TR Colossae site asv2020-02 img05.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Colossae's [[acropolis]]]]

'''Colossae''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|l|ɒ|s|i}}; {{langx|grc|Κολοσσαί}}), sometimes called '''Colosse''',<ref>[[New Living Translation]]</ref> was an ancient city of [[Phrygia]] in southern [[Asia Minor]] (Anatolia), [[Turkey]].

A significant city from the 5th century BC onwards, it had dwindled in importance by the time of Paul, and was notable for the existence of its local angel cult.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Piccardi |first1=Luigi |title=The AD 60 Denizli Basin earthquake and the apparition of Archangel Michael at Colossae (Aegean Turkey) |journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications |date=2007 |volume=273 |issue=1 |pages=95–105 |doi=10.1144/GSL.SP.2007.273.01.08|bibcode=2007GSLSP.273...95P |s2cid=129096978 }}</ref> The [[Epistle to the Colossians]], an early Christian text which identifies its author as [[Paul the Apostle]], is addressed to the church in Colossae. It was part of the Roman and Byzantine province of [[Phrygia Pacatiana]], before being destroyed in 1192/3 and its population relocating to nearby ''Chonae'' (Chonai, modern-day [[Honaz]]).{{cn|date=May 2025}} 

==Location and geography==

Colossae was in [[Phrygia]], in Asia Minor.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5GJaakRvPgC&q=Colossae+was+located+in+Phrygia,+in+Asia+Minor.&pg=PA71 |title=The Uttermost Part of the Earth: A Guide to Places in the Bible |last=Losch |first=Richard R. |date=2005 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=9780802828057}}</ref> It was located {{convert|15|km|abbr=on}} southeast of [[Laodicea on the Lycus|Laodicea]] on the road through the [[Lycus (river of Phrygia)|Lycus]] Valley near the Lycus River at the foot of [[Mt. Cadmus]], the highest mountain in Turkey's western [[Aegean Region]], and between the cities Sardeis and Celaenae, and southeast of the ancient city of [[Hierapolis]].<ref>Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' [[Biblical Archaeology Review]], March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 45.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Brill's New Pauly: encyclopaedia of the ancient world. Antiquity. [CAT-CYP] |date=2002–2010 |publisher=Brill |last1=Cancik |first1=Hubert |last2=Schneider |first2=Helmuth |last3=Salazar |first3=Christine F |last4=Orton |first4=David E. |isbn=9004122664 |location=Leiden |page=579 |oclc=54952013}}</ref>  [[Herodotus]] said that at Colossae "the river Lycos falls into an opening of the earth and disappears from view, and then after an interval of about five furlongs it comes up to view again, and this river also flows into the [[Büyük Menderes River|Meander River]]"<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2456 |title=The History of Herodotus — Volume 2 by Herodotus}}</ref> Colossae has been distinguished in modern research from nearby ''Chonai'' ({{lang|grc|Χῶναι}}), called [[Honaz]] in modern times, with what remains of the buried ruins of Colossae ("the mound")  lying {{convert|3|km|abbr=on}} to the north of Honaz.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Cadwallader, Alan H. |author2=Trainor, Michael |year=2011 |title=Colossae in Space and Time: Linking to an Ancient City |chapter=Colossae in Space and Time: Overcoming Dislocation, Dismemberment and Anachronicity | series = Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus/Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments (NTOA/StUNT), Vol. 94 |editor=Cadwallader, Alan H. |editor2=Trainor, Michael |pages=9–47 |location=Göttingen, GER |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |isbn=978-3647533971 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3525533977 |access-date=17 February 2016}} The case is made exhaustively in this book, over pages 11-37, wherein it states—after dispensing with a further false association of the ancient city with the island of Rhodes the home of The Colossus of Rhodes, which resulted in its being misplaced for hundreds of years (by "almost 200 kilometers to the south-west," p. 18ff)—in summary, that: "Colossae's various positions on early maps confirmed the confusion over identity [opening section title]. Cartographers positioned Colossae to the west (rather than south-east) of Laodicea<sup>7</sup> or, as 'Conos', between Laodicea to the north-west and Hieropolis to the north-east.<sup>8</sup> [p. 11] … 'Chonos' or some other guesttimation of the spelling of Honaz<sup>12</sup> sometimes subsumed Colossae. [p. 13] … The inhabitants of the immediate vicinity of the ancient site [Colossae, which had ceased to exist] were shackled in bureaucratic tabulation for tax purposes to the town of Honaz. [p. 14] … When Frances Arundell's sketch of Honaz appeared in 1834, the town had descended from the mountain heights [it was a mountain fortress, Honazdağ] but it was similarly labelled, albeit after the fashion of Nicetas Choniates: 'Chonas, … anciently Colossae'.<sup>98</sup> [p. 32] … The question was whether Honaz and Colossae were to be equated or separated and whether the contemporary Honaz was the means to pinpoint the ancient… site. [p. 33] … William Hamilton became the one credited with the separation of Colossae from Chonai with the former's location at the mound three kilometers to the north of Honaz.<sup>108</sup> [p. 35] … Two photographs of the 'Ruines de Colossae' and 'Chonas' by Henri Carmignac published toward the endif the nineteenth century finally eliminated the concordant visualisation of the places that had been the legacy of Arundell ''(Fig. 11)''.<sup>113</sup> [p. 37]." For much earlier sources presenting the errant historical opinion, see the next two citations.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Smith, William |year=1854 |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography |chapter=Colossae |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:id=colossae-geo |publisher=Walton & Maberly |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Pétridès, Sophrone |year=1908 |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |chapter=Colossae |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |volume=4 |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04131a.htm}}</ref>

==Origin and etymology of place name==

The medieval poet [[Manuel Philes]] incorrectly said that the name ''Colossae'' was connected to the [[Colossus of Rhodes]].<ref name="Cad-Train">Cadwallader, Alan H., and Michael Trainor (2011). "Colossae in Space and Time: Overcoming Dislocation, Dismemberment and Anachronicity". In Cadwallader and Trainor, eds. ''Colossae in Space and Time: Linding to an Ancient City.'' Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 18–19.</ref> More recently, in an interpretation that ties Colossae to an Indo-European root that happens to be shared with the word ''kolossos'', Jean-Pierre Vernant has connected the name to the idea of setting up a sacred space or shrine.<ref>Vernant, Jean-Pierre (2006) [1965]. ''Myth and Thought Among the Greeks''. Third edition of a translation from the French originally published in 1983, from a French work published in 1965. Zone Books. p. 321.</ref> Another proposal relates the name to the Greek ''kolazo'' 'to punish'.<ref name="Cad-Train" /> Others have said the name derives from its  manufacture of dyed wool, or ''colossinus''.<ref name="autogenerated47">Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' [[Biblical Archaeology Review]], March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 47.</ref>

==History==
{{expand section | a cohesive account of the history of the municipality and its peoples and cultures, as appear in many texts on the subject | small = no |date=February 2016}}

===Late Bronze Age===
The first mention of the city may be in a 17th-century BC [[Hittite language|Hittite]] inscription, which speaks of a city called Huwalušija, which some archeologists believe is a reference to early Colossae.{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}}

===Classical Age===
====Persian period====
The 5th-century geographer [[Herodotus]] first mentions Colossae by name and said it was a "great city in Phrygia", which accommodates the Persian king [[Xerxes I]] while en route to wage war against the Greeks in the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], showing the city had already reached a certain level of wealth and size by this time.<ref>Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'', March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 46.</ref> 
Writing in the 5th century BC, [[Xenophon]] said Colossae was "a populous city, wealthy and of considerable magnitude".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22003|title=The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis|last=Watson|first=J. S.|publisher=Project Gutenberg|year=2007|page=6}}</ref>  [[Strabo]] said the city drew great revenue from its sheep, and that the wool of Colossae gave its name to a colour, ''colossinus''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44885|title=The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3) by Strabo|page=334|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 396 BC Colossae was the site of the execution of the rebellious Persian satrap [[Tissaphernes]], who was lured there and slain by an agent of the party of [[Cyrus the Younger]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Tissaphernes |volume= 26 |short=x}}</ref>

====Hellenistic period====
During the [[Hellenistic]] period, the town was of some mercantile importance.

====Roman period====
By the 1st century it had dwindled greatly in size and significance.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pAwqB33cr_wC&q=Colossae+first+century&pg=PA174|title=Colossae in Space and Time: Linking to an Ancient City|last1=Cadwallader|first1=Alan H.|last2=Trainor|first2=Michael|date=2011-12-07|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|isbn=9783647533971|language=en}}</ref> The city was decimated by an earthquake in the 60s AD, and was rebuilt independent of the support of Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theologyofwork.org/new-testament/colossians-philemon/introduction-to-colossians-and-philemon/background-on-colossae-and-the-colossians|title=Background on Colossae and the Colossians {{!}} Bible Commentary {{!}} Theology of Work|website=www.theologyofwork.org|access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref>

'''Christanity'''. [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]]'s letter to the Colossians points to the existence of an early Christian community. Colossae was home to the miracle near the Archangel church, where a sacristan named Archipos witnessed, how the Archangel Michael thwarted a plan by the heathens to destroy the church by flooding it with the waters of near-by mountain rivers. The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] commemorates this feast on 6(19) September.

[[File:Michael_Miracle_Icon_Sinai_12th_century.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The apparition of Archangel [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]] in the Springs of Colossae, depicted in the 12th century icon from the [[St. Catherine's Monastery]].]]
The canonical biblical text [[Epistle to the Colossians]] is addressed to the Christian community in Colossae. The epistle has traditionally been attributed to [[Paul the Apostle]] due to its autobiographical salutation and style,<ref>{{cite book |author=Beale, G.K. |year=2019 |title=Colossians and Philemon |series=Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament |editor1=Yarbrough, Robert W |editor2=Jipp, Joshua W |pages=5–8 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-0-8010-2667-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians+1&version=NIV| title = Colossians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ}}</ref> but some modern critical scholars now believe it to be written by another author some time after Paul's death.<ref name="ODCC self">{{Citation | contribution = Colossians, Epistle to the | editor-last = Cross | editor-first = F.L. | title = The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2005}}.</ref> It is believed that one aim of the letter was to address the challenges that the Colossian community faced in its context of the syncretistic Gnostic religions that were developing in Asia Minor.<ref name="BruceNTH69">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RyJAAAAMAAJ|title=New Testament History|author=Bruce, Frederick Fyvie |publisher=Galilee/Doubleday|year=1980|isbn=0385025335|location=New York|pages=415f|quote=[Quoting:] Those churches which claimed an apostolic foundation attached great importance to the maintenance of the teaching which they had originally received. There were powerful forces at work in many of them which militated against the maintenance of that teaching; chief among these were those tendencies which in a few decades blossomed forth in the elaborate systems of the various schools of Gnosticism. One form of incipient Gnosticism is the syncretistic angel-cult of nonconformist Jewish foundation and pagan superstructure attacked in the Epistle to the Colossians.|access-date=17 February 2016|orig-year=1969}}</ref>

According to the Epistle to the Colossians, [[Epaphras]] seems to have been a person of some importance in the Christian community in Colossae,<ref>({{bibleverse||Col.|1:7|NSRV}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Col.|4:12|NSRV}})</ref> and tradition presents him as its first bishop.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pétridès, Sophrone |year=1908 |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |chapter=Colossae |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04131a.htm |quote=Colossæ was the home of...Onesimus and Epaphras, who probably founded the Church of Colossæ.}}</ref> The epistle also seems to imply that [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] had never visited the city, because it only speaks of him having "heard" of the Colossians' faith,<ref>{{bibleverse||Col.|1:4|NSRV}}</ref> and in the [[Epistle to Philemon]] Paul tells [[Philemon of Colossae|Philemon]] of his hope to visit Colossae upon being freed from prison.<ref>[[Philemon 1:22]]</ref> Tradition also gives Philemon as the second bishop of the see.

The Apostolic Constitutions list Philemon as a bishop of Colossae.<ref>{{cite book |translator=James Donaldson |year=1886 |title=Apostolic Constitutions. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. |chapter=(Book VII) Section 4 |location=Buffalo, NY |publisher=Christian Literature Publishing Co. |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07157.htm |access-date=2018-12-28 |quote=Of Colossæ, Philemon.}}</ref> On the other hand, the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' considers Philemon doubtful.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pétridès, Sophrone |year=1908 |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |chapter=Colossae |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04131a.htm |access-date=2018-12-28 |quote=Besides St. Epaphras... Archippus and Philemon, especially the latter, are very doubtful.}}</ref>

The first historically documented bishop is Epiphanius,{{when|date=February 2016}} who was not personally at the [[Council of Chalcedon]], but whose metropolitan bishop Nunechius of [[Laodicea on the Lycus|Laodicea]], the capital of the [[Roman province]] of [[Phrygia Pacatiana]], signed the acts on his behalf.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}

===Middle Ages===
====Byzantine period and decline====
{{expand section | with SOURCED material relevant to its destruction by the Saracens and the Turks | small = no|date=February 2016}}
The city's fame and renowned status continued into the Byzantine period, and in 858, it was distinguished as a Metropolitan See. The Byzantines also built the church of St. Michael in the vicinity of Colossae, one of the largest church buildings in the Middle East. Nevertheless, sources suggest that the town may have decreased in size or may even been completely abandoned due to Arab invasions in the seventh and eighth centuries, forcing the population to flee to resettle in the nearby city of Chonai (modern day [[Honaz]]).<ref name="autogenerated47"/>

Colossae's church was destroyed in 1192/3 during the Byzantine civil wars. It was a suffragan diocese of Laodicea in Phyrigia Pacatiana but was replaced in the Byzantine period by the Chonae settlement on higher ground.<ref name=":0" />

==Modern study and archeology==
{{expand section | with SOURCED material relevant to the history of its mapping and historical and literary discussion (see further reading), and on plans for its excavation | small = no|date=February 2016}}
Most archeological attention has been focused on nearby Laodicea and Hierapolis.<ref name="autogenerated48">Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' [[Biblical Archaeology Review]], March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 48.</ref> Excavations of Colossae began in 2021 led by Bariş Yener of Pammukale University in Denizli.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Borges |first=Jason |date=2022-09-06 |title=Excavations at Colossae |url=https://www.biblicalturkey.org/post/excavations-at-colossae |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Biblical Turkey |language=en}}</ref> The first several years involve surface surveys to analyze pottery and survey the landscape. They hope to start digging in 2023–24.

The site exhibits a biconical [[acropolis]] almost {{convert|100|ft|m}} high, and encompasses an area of almost {{convert|22|acre}}. On the eastern slope there sits a theater which probably seated around 5,000 people, suggesting a total population of 25,000–30,000 people. The theater was probably built during the Roman period, and may be near an agora that abuts the ''[[cardo maximus]]'', or the city's main north–south road. Ceramic finds around the theater confirm the city's early occupation in the third and second millennia BC. Northeast of the [[tell (archaeology)|tell]], and most likely outside the city walls, a [[necropolis]] displays [[Hellenistic]] tombs with two main styles of burial: one with an antecedent room connected to an inner chamber, and [[tumulus|tumuli]], or underground chambers accessed by stairs leading to the entrance. Outside the tell, there are also remains of sections of columns that may have marked a processional way, or the ''cardo''. Today, the remains of one column marks the location where locals believe a church once stood, possibly that of St. Michael.<ref name="autogenerated48" /> Near the Lycus River, there is evidence that water channels had been cut out of the rock with a complex of pipes and sluice gates to divert water for bathing and for agricultural and industrial purposes.<ref>Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' [[Biblical Archaeology Review]], March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 49.</ref>

===Modern legacy===
The holiness and healing properties associated with the waters of Colossae during the Byzantine era continue to this day, particularly at a pool fed by the Lycus River at the Göz picnic grounds west of Colossae at the foot of Mt. Cadmus. Locals consider the water to be therapeutic.<ref>Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' [[Biblical Archaeology Review]], March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 50.</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of ancient Greek cities]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}
{{EBD|wstitle=Colossae}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |author=Bruce, Frederick Fyvie |year=1980 |orig-year=1969 |title=New Testament History |location=New York |publisher=Galilee/Doubleday |isbn=0-38502533-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RyJAAAAMAAJ |access-date=17 February 2016}}
* {{EBD|wstitle=Colossae}}{{Update inline|date=February 2016}}
* Bennett, Andrew Lloyd. "Archaeology From Art: Investigating Colossae and the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Kona." ''Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin'' 50 (2005):15–26.

==External links==
*[http://holylandphotos.org/browse.asp?s=1,3,7,23,62 Map and pictures of ruins]
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Colossae|volume=6|pages=725–726|short=1}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Epistle to the Colossians}}
{{Ancient settlements in Turkey}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Colossae| ]]
[[Category:1192 disestablishments]]
[[Category:1193 disestablishments]]
[[Category:12th-century disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Populated places disestablished in the 12th century]]
[[Category:Roman towns and cities in Turkey]]
[[Category:Pauline churches]]
[[Category:New Testament cities]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Turkey]]
[[Category:Populated places in Phrygia]]
[[Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Catholic titular sees in Asia]]
[[Category:History of Denizli Province]]
[[Category:Honaz District]]