Loryma (Ancient Greek: τὰ Λόρυμα or Λώρυμα) was an ancient town and episcopal see of ancient Caria, in Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian Turkey). It is now listed as a titular see.[1] Loryma was a fortified place with a port, close to Cape Cynossema, on the westernmost point of the Rhodian Chersonesus, in Caria. Its harbour was about 20 Roman miles distant from Rhodes[2][3][4][5][6][7] and was belonging to the Rhodians.[8] Strabo applies the name Loryma to the whole of the rocky district, without mentioning the town.[9] The Larumna of Pomponius Mela[10] and the Lorimna of the Tabula Peutingeriana perhaps refer to Loryma, although it is also possible that they may be identical with a place called Larymna mentioned by Pliny in the same district.

Location

Loryma was a small fortified town and harbour on the coast of Caria, not far from Cape Cynossema, at the western extremity of the peninsula known as Rhodian Chersonesus, opposite to and twenty Roman miles from Rhodes island.[11] It was a fortified and was belonging to the Rhodians.[8]

Its ruins, west of Port Aplothiki, with towers, tombs and ramparts are described by William Martin Leake (Asia Minor, 223).[12]

Above the bay of Loryma (modern Bozuk Bükü) lie the ruins of a curtain wall surrounding the top of the hill. Constructed from large blocks of stone shaped in-situ, the remaining walls (up to several metres high on the outside) retain very precise corners and sheer faces.

Ecclesiastical history

Up to the 12th and 13th centuries, the Notitiæ episcopatuum mention Loryma as one of the suffragan sees of the Stauropolis, the metropolitan see of Caria. Le Quien names three bishops of Loryma:[13]

The see also exists as a titular see in the Catholic Church. Its bishops are:[14]

  • Antonio Laghi, O.F.M. † (1715, appointed – 1727)
  • Francesco Saraceni, O.F.M. † (1728, appointed – 1742)
  • Jan Krasiński † (1748, appointed – 1760)
  • Jan Szemiot † (1760, appointed – 1762)
  • Anthony Coyle † (1777, appointed – 1782)
  • Jan Nepomucen Kossakowski † (1793, appointed – 1794)
  • Georgius Połubiński † (1796, appointed – 1801)
  • Luis Gregorio López Castillo † (1815, appointed – 1825)
  • Vitaliano Provenzano † (1839, appointed – 1857)
  • Valentino Baranowski † (1857, appointed – 1871)
  • Stefano Pribék de Ville † (1872, appointed – 1902)
  • Francisco García y López † (1903, appointed – 1909)
  • George William Mundelein † (1909, appointed – 1915)
  • Adolf Józef Jełowicki † (1918, appointed – 1937)
  • Eugène Curien † (1937, appointed – 1947)
  • Vittorio Longo † (1956, appointed – 1974)

Literary reference

The British traveler and writer Freya Stark visited Loryma and wrote concerning the historical significance of its sheltered harbor:

In the stillness of Loryma we spent the night. The wind could be heard howling outside, against the hills that enclosed our sheltered water as if it were a mountain tarn. Only a fanning ripple touched the centre. The sound of the wind, inarticulate and busy like the world’s voice, gave an illusion of safety, of an unassailable peace. If it could penetrate, how many sleeping echoes would it waken? Athenians from Samos, dodging the Dorian Cnidus, picking up ship’s tackle at Syme, sheltering at Loryma; Conon, before the battle, with his ninety ships; the Roman fleet that dared not face Hannibal in the offing; Cassius, gathering forces against Rhodes, twenty miles away. Each in their turn passed through the narrow opening and felt the sudden calm. In these places, the natural features have remained unaltered; the moments that visit them, fashioned to one pattern by nature itself, drop like beads on a string, through long pauses, one after the other, into the same silence.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 918
  2. ↑ Livy. Ab urbe condita Libri [History of Rome]. Vol. 37.17, 45.10.
  3. ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.
  4. ↑ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 5.29.
  5. ↑ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 5.2.11.
  6. ↑ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 8.43.
  7. ↑ Seneca, Quaest. Nat. 3.19; Appian. The Civil Wars (B.C.). Vol. 4.72.
  8. 1 2 Appian, Civil Wars, §4.9.72
  9. ↑ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. xiv. p.652. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  10. ↑ Pomponius Mela. De situ orbis. Vol. 1.16.
  11. ↑ Sophrone Pétridès, "Loryma" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1910)
  12. ↑ William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)
  13. ↑ Le Quien, Michel (1740). "Ecclesia Lorymorum". Oriens Christianus, in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus: quo exhibentur ecclesiæ, patriarchæ, cæterique præsules totius Orientis. Tomus primus: tres magnas complectens diœceses Ponti, Asiæ & Thraciæ, Patriarchatui Constantinopolitano subjectas (in Latin). Paris: Ex Typographia Regia. cols. 915–916. OCLC 955922585.
  14. ↑ Loryma (Titular See)
  15. ↑ Freya Stark, The Lycian Shore (Tauris Parks Paperbacks 2011), pp. 100–101 (originally published in 1956) ISBN 978-1-84885-312-6

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Loryma". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

36°33′58″N 28°00′55″E / 36.56611°N 28.01528°E / 36.56611; 28.01528

Loryma Ancient City

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