Halicarnassus

Halicarnassus
Halicarnassian, Halicarnassean, adj.
/hal'euh kahr nas"euhs/, n.
an ancient city of Caria, in SW Asia Minor: site of the Mausoleum, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

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Ancient Greek city, western Anatolia.

Located in modern Turkey on a peninsula in the Aegean Sea, it became the capital of Caria (с 370 BC) under the Persian satrap Mausolus, who built a great wall, public buildings, and a secret dockyard and canal. His widow erected (с 350 BC) a great tomb (the Mausoleum) in his memory. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and its remains are now in the British Museum. Halicarnassus was the birthplace of the Greek historian Herodotus. It came under Roman rule in 129 BC, and in early Christian times was a bishopric. The ruins of the castle of the Knights of St. John, founded с AD 1400, dominate the ancient site.

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▪ ancient city, Turkey
      ancient Greek city of Caria, situated on the Gulf of Cerameicus. According to tradition, it was founded by Dorian Troezen in the Peloponnese. Herodotus, a Halicarnassian, relates that in early times the city participated in the Dorian festival of Apollo at Triopion, but its literature and culture appear thoroughly Ionic. The city, with its large sheltered harbour and key position on the sea routes, became the capital of the small despotate, the most famous ruler of which was a woman, Artemisia, who served under Xerxes in the invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Under Mausolus, when it was the capital of Caria (c. 370 BC), it received a great wall circuit, public buildings, and a secret dockyard and canal, while its population was swollen by the enforced transference of the neighbouring Lelegians. On the death of Mausolus in 353/352, a monumental tomb, the Mausoleum, considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was built by his widow in the city.

      Under Memnon of Rhodes, a commander in Persian service, the city resisted Alexander the Great in 334 BC. It was subject to Antigonus I (311), Lysimachus (after 301), and the Ptolemies (281–197), but thereafter was independent until 129 BC, when it came under Roman rule. In early Christian times it was a bishopric.

      The site, extensively excavated in 1856–57 and 1865, retains much of its great wall, remnants of the gymnasium, a late colonnade, a temple platform, and rock-cut tombs. The ancient remains are somewhat overshadowed by the spectacular pile of the castle of the Knights of St. John, founded about AD 1400. The site is occupied by the modern town of Bodrum, Tur.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

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  • Halicarnassus — [hal΄ə kär nas′əs] ancient city in SW Asia Minor, on the Aegean: site of the MAUSOLEUM …   English World dictionary

  • Halicarnassus — Infobox Settlement official name = Halicarnassus(Ἁλικαρνασσός) other name = (Bodrum) native name = Ancient Carian City in Turkey imagesize = 280px image caption = The ruins of the Mausoleum of Maussollos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient… …   Wikipedia

  • Halicarnassus — noun an ancient Greek city on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor in what is now Turkey; site of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus • Instance Hypernyms: ↑city, ↑metropolis, ↑urban center • Part Holonyms: ↑Turkey, ↑Republic of Turkey …   Useful english dictionary

  • Halicarnassus (Titularbistum) — Halicarnassus (ital.: Alicarnasso) ist ein Titularbistum der römisch katholischen Kirche. Es geht zurück auf einen untergegangenen Bischofssitz in der antiken Stadt Halikarnassos in der kleinasiatischen Landschaft Karien. Der Bischofssitz war der …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Halicarnassus, Mausoleum of — ▪ ancient monument, Halicarnassus, Turkey  one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The monument was the tomb of Mausolus, the tyrant of Caria in southwestern Asia Minor, and was built between about 353 and 351 BC by Mausolus sister and widow,… …   Universalium

  • Halicarnassus — geographical name ancient city SW Asia Minor in SW Caria on Aegean Sea …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Halicarnassus — noun /ˌhælɪkɑrˈnæsəs/ ancient Greek city on the southwest coast of Caria, Anatolia …   Wiktionary

  • HALICARNASSUS —    a Greek city, and the chief of Caria, in Asia Minor, on the sea coast opposite the island of Cos, the birthplace of Herodotus; celebrated for the tomb of Mausolus, called the MAUSOLEUM (q.v.) …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

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