Who Founded Paphos in Cyprus? Too Many ktistai/oikistai for a Double City
Who Founded Paphos in Cyprus? Too Many ktistai/oikistai for a Double City
Author(s): Claire BalandierSubject(s): History, Ancient World
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: ktistes; oikistes; Paphos; Palaepaphos; Nea Paphos; city foundation; mythical and historical founders and refounders; Aerias; Kinyras; Agapenor; Nikokles; Ptolemy I Sôter; Ptolemy VI Philometor; Ptolemy VIII Evergetes II; Augustus; Vespasianus
Summary/Abstract: The city of Paphos is famous to have been the seat of the main sanctuary of Aphrodite in Cyprus and the capitale of the kingdom of Paphos in the Southwest part of Cyprus since the 8th to the 4th century BC. Written sources refer to four different ktistes as founders of the city: Paphos, Aerias, Kinyras and Agapenor as well as Kinyras. Then a new Paphos was built 15 km to the North-Ouest of the first city: scholars still debate about its ktistes/oikistes: was it Nikokles, last king of Paphos or Ptolemy, satrapus and then king of Egypt? The question of the ktistes of Paphos is a complex issue. We will try to see if there are not other candidates for the real creation of the new harbour city with its grid plan and its civic monuments in the Hellenistic period as well as for its revival after its destruction by severe earthquake at the beginning of the Roman Empire.
Journal: Electrum. Studia z historii starożytnej
- Issue Year: 2025
- Issue No: 32
- Page Range: 177-193
- Page Count: 17
- Language: English
