Hellenistic period Termessos by budapest8
In the Hellenistic period, Termessos gradually "Hellenized," adapting Greek culture, language and even becoming a democracy. The impressive theatre was built during this period, no doubt serving as both entertainment venue and political meeting place. Throughout the period, Termessos was engaged in frequent warfare with its neighbors, often taking on more than one. For its help in his campaign against Selge (c. 158 BC), Attalus II of Pergamum erected the city's elegant stoa (porch).
Termessos passed easily into Roman friendship and later empire. The city received considerable autonomy for its role against King Mithridates. It guarded its privileges jealously; remarkably, its coinage never included either image or title of the Emperors. (This is the source of the tour-guide story that Termessos was never conquered by Alexander or the Romans!) Most of the city's buildings were erected in this period, including a temple to the Emperor Hadrian. At some point the city Christianized, and bishops from Termessos participated in the early church councils, but the city was abandoned between the 5?7 centuries. (Remoteness and earthquakes may have both played their part.) Except for the occasional nomad it lay empty after that, which explains its relatively pristine state.
Termessus today
Termessus was rediscovered by British naturalist Edward Forbes in 1842. The picturesque ruins date mostly from the Roman era, and include a theater, gymnasium, council chamber (bouleterion) and a stoa (donated by Attalus II of Pergamon). Seven temples subsist in various states of disrepair, including temples to Artemis, Zeus Solymeus and the Emperor Hadrian, and the site include an expansive necropolis of rock-cut tombs and sarcophagi in the Lycian style. One of the sarcophagi has been identified as that of Alexander's general Alcetas, driven to suicide by Antigonus in 319, during the wars of the Successors