Halicarnassus

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HALICARNASSUS was one of the six Dorian colonies on the coast of Caria. Though excluded from the Dorian confederacy (Hexapolis) on account of some ancient dispute (Herod. i. 144), it was a very important city in respect of politics, commerce, literature, and art. It was one of the States to which the Roman Senate sent letters in favour of the Jews in b.c. 139 ( 1Ma 15:23 ). It must therefore have been a free and self-governing city at that time. The decree of the city passed in the first cent. b.c., granting to the Jews religious liberty and the right to build their proseuchai beside the sea (Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Ant . XIV. x. 23), attests the existence of an early Jewish colony in the city; and this was natural, as Halicarnassus was a considerable centre of trade owing to its favourable position on a bay opposite Cos, on the north-west side of the Ceramic Gulf. The city extended round the hay from promontory to promontory and contained, among other buildings, a famous temple of Aphrodite.

The site of Halicarnassus is now called Bodrum ( i.e . ‘fortress’), from the Castle of St. Peter which was built by the Knights of St. John (whose headquarters were in Rhodes), under their Grand Master de Naillac, a.d. 1404.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hal - i - kar - nas´us ( Ἁλικαρνασσός , Halikarnassós ): The largest and strongest city of the ancient country of Caria in Asia Minor, situated on the shore of a bay, 15 miles from the island of Cos. Its site was beautiful; its climate temperate and even; the soil of the surrounding country was unusually fertile and noted for its abundance of fig, orange, lemon, olive and almond trees. When the ancient country fell into the possession of the Persians, the kings of Caria were still permitted to rule. One of the rulers was the famous queen Artemisia who fought at the battle of Salamis. The most famous of the kings, however, was Maussollos ( Mausōlus ), who ruled from 373 to 353 bc, and the tomb in which he was buried was long considered one of the wonders of the ancient world. Pliny describes the tomb as a circular structure, 140 ft. high, 411 ft. in circumference, and surrounded by 36 columns; it was covered with a pyramidal dome. The ancient writer Vitruvius, in his description of the city, says that the agora was along the shore; back of it was the mausoleum, and still farther away was the temple of Mars. To the right of the agora were the temples of Venus and Mercury, and to the left was the palace of Maussollos. Alexander the Great destroyed the city only after a long siege, but he was unable to take the acropolis. The city never quite recovered, yet it was later distinguished as the supposed birthplace of Herodotus and Dionysius. That a number of Jews lived there is evident from the fact, according to 1 Maccabees 15:23 , that in the year 139 bc, a letter was written by the Roman Senate in their behalf. In the 1st century bc, a decree was issued granting to the Jews in Halicarnassus liberty to worship "according to the Jewish laws, and to make their proseuche at the sea-side, according to the customs of their forefathers" (Josephus, Ant , Xiv , x, 23).

The modern town of Budrun , which represents the ancient Halicarnassus and covers a part of its site, stands a little to the West of the castle of Peter. This castle was erected by the Knights of Rhodes in 1404 ad, partly from the ruins of the mausoleum. Lord Redcliffe, who explored the ruins in 1846, sent many of the sculptured slabs from the castle to the British Museum where they may now be seen. Sir C. Newton conducted excavations there in 1857-58, adding other sculptures to the collection in the British Museum. He discovered the foundation of the Ionic temple of Aphrodite, and the greenstone foundation of the mausoleum upon which modern Turkish houses had been built. He also opened several tombs which were outside the ancient city. The city walls, built by Maussollos about 360 bc, and defining the borders of the ancient city, are still preserved; but the ancient harbor which was protected by a mole, has now disappeared. The ruins may best be reached by boat from the island of Cos.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Α῾λικάρνασσος ), in Caria of Asia Minor, a city of great renown, as being the birthplace of Herodotus and of the later historian Dionysius, and as embellished by the mausoleum erected by Artemisia, but of no Biblical interest except as the residence of a Jewish population in the periods between the Old and New Testament histories. In 1 Maccabees 15:23, this city is specified as containing such a population. The decree in Josephus (Ant. 14, 10, 23), where the Romans direct that the Jews of Halicarnassus shall be allowed their national usage of proseuchoe, or prayer-chapels by the sea-side (τὰς ποσευχὰς ποιεῖσφαι τῇ φαλάσσῃ κατὰ τὸ πάτριον ἔφος); is interesting when compared with Acts 16:13. This city was celebrated for its harbor and for the strength of its fortifications; but. having made a vigorous and protracted defense against Alexander the Great, he was so much enraged that upon gaining at length possession of it, he destroyed it by fire-a calamity from which it never recovered. A plan of the site is given in Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Ilseln, 1, 30 (copied in Smith's Dict. of Class. Geog. s.v.). The sculptures of the. mausoleum are the subject of a paper by Mr. Newton in the Classical Museum, and many of them are now in the British Museum (see also his full work, Discoveries at Halicarniassus, etc., Lond. 1862-3). The modern name of the place is Budrum.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

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 .).