town or village

Attalia

• Today Antalya

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History

Attalia, today Antalya in southern Turkey, stands on cliffs above a small natural harbour on the Gulf of Antalya, at the western edge of the Pamphylian plain. Strabo says that the city was named after its founder, Attalus II Philadelphus, king of Pergamum (159–138 BC), who also sent colonists to the small neighbouring town of Corycus and enclosed it with a larger wall. Attalia gave the kings of Pergamum a port on the southern coast of Asia Minor.

The last king of Pergamum left his kingdom to Rome in 133 BC, and Attalia later came under Roman rule. In 48 BC, fleeing by sea after his defeat at Pharsalus, Pompey entered Attalia in Pamphylia before any other city; there triremes from Cilicia met him, soldiers were gathered for him, and sixty senators joined him.

At the end of their first journey Paul and Barnabas came back from Pisidia into Pamphylia. When they had preached the word in Perga they went down to Attalia, the nearest port, and sailed from there to Antioch in Syria, where they had first been sent out for the work. This is the only time the city is named in the Bible.

Under the empire Attalia remained a busy harbour town. A marble gate with three arches in its walls honours the emperor Hadrian, who toured the eastern provinces about AD 130, and a round tower of the Roman period, the Hıdırlık Tower, still stands on the cliff above the sea. Attalia outlasted its neighbours: when Perga and the other cities of the plain declined after antiquity, it remained the main port of the coast and kept its name, as Adalia and then Antalya.

Scripture: Acts 13:1–3; Acts 14:24–26

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (2)

Acts 14:25

And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia:

Acts 14:26

And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.

King James Version

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