Tripolis on the Meander

Tripolis on the Meander (, Eth. , ) – also Neapolis (), Apollonia (), and Antoniopolis () – was an ancient city on the borders of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia, on the northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander, and on the road leading from Sardes by Philadelphia to Laodicea ad Lycum. (It. Ant. p. 336; Tab. Peut.) It was situated 20 km to the northwest of Hierapolis.

Ruins of it still exist near Yenicekent (formerly Yeniji or Kash Yeniji), a township in the Buldan district of Denizli Province, Turkey. (Arundell, Seven Churches, p. 245; Hamilton, Researches, i. p. 525; Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 287.) The ruins mostly date from the Roman and Byzantine periods and include a theater, baths, city walls, and a necropolis. An ancient church, dating back 1,500 years, has been unearthed in 2013.

Province The earliest mention of Tripolis is by Pliny the Elder (v. 30), who treats it as a Lydian town. Ptolemy (v. 2. § 18) and Stephanus of Byzantium describe it as a Carian town. Hierocles (p. 669) likewise calls it a Lydian town.

William Mitchell Ramsay also places Tripolis within Lydia.William Mitchell Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor (reprint by Cambridge University Press 2010 ), p. 134

The city minted coins in antiquity, some of which bore an image of Leto. Catalogues of coins of Tripolis generally refer to the city as belonging to Lydia.Ancient Coinage of Lydia, TripolisAsia Minor Coins However, one book on coin collecting list Tripolis as part of Lydia on one page, but speaks of it as part of Caria on another.Wayne G. Sayle, Ancient Coin Collecting IV: Roman Provincial Coins (F+W Media, Inc, 1998, ), pp. 146 and 129

A website on which various contributors give news of Turkish archaeology treats Tripolis as part of Phrygia.Tripolis Turkish Archaeological News

Other names Pliny says the city was also called Apollonia (),see also and Stephanus of Byzantium that, in his time, it was called Neapolis ().

Bishopric The city of Tripolis was the seat of an ancient bishopric,Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae; Or the Antiquities of the Christian ..., Volume 3 p105. suffragan to Sardis. Very little is known of the Bishopric, but we retain the names of some bishops, including: Ramsay reports that a bishop of Tripolis in Lydia named Agogius attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325. LeontiusMichel Le Quien, Oriens christianus: in quatuor patriarchatus digestus (Typographia Regia, 1740).p879 Commodus at Council of Chalcedon.Richard Price, Michael Gaddis The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, Volume 1 (Liverpool University Press, 2005) p245. and EphesusRichard Price, Politics and Bishops’ Lists at the First Council of Ephesus Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum 44 (2012), 395-420. Paulus, Joannes, W. M. Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor (Cambridge University Press, 2010) p120. Anastasius Sisinnius

The see is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees,David M. Cheney, Tripolitanus in Lydia at catholic-hierarchy.org. which treats it as part of the late Roman province of Lydia.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 997 Nicolas Fryes de Brisaco, (21 June 1456 Appointed – 17 July 1498)Hierarchia Catholica, Volume 2, Page 256

Tripolis on the Meander

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