Tyriaeum

Not to be confused with Toriaeum.

Tyriaeum or Tyriaion, also spelled Tyraion, was a Roman and Byzantine era civitas in the Roman Province of Pisidia,^[1] located ten parasangs from Iconium^[2] It was mentioned by Xenophon, and Pliny and Strabo tell us it was between Philomelium (Akshehr) and Laodicea Combusta.^[3][4] It is thought to be near modern Ilgın.^[5]

History

Cyrus the Younger reviewed his troops for the Cilician queen^[6] at Tyriaeum in Phrygia.^[7] The town was recognized as a polis by Eumenes II of Pergamon in a set of royal letters found inscribed in the schoolyard of Mahmuthisar village south of Ilgin.^[8] It then formed part of the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire.

During the 11th century, had a substantial Christian population and was so well fortified that even after the defeat at Mantzikert 1071 the Turks were unable to capture it.^[9]

The town was taken by Suleiman the Magnificent and Tamerlane.^[10] In 1308 during the Crusades there was a massacre of refugees from Ephesus in this town by Sultan Abu Zayyan I.^[11]

Bishopric

The city was the seat of an ancient Bishopric. Bishop Theotececnus^[12] cast a vote at the Council of Chalcedon. No longer a residential bishopric, it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.^[13] Tyriaeum was long mistaken as the site of Thyatira of the Apocalypse.