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Modern Description: About 14 km NW of Xanthos, high up on Mt. Cragus. First mentioned in the 1st c. B.C. (by Alexander Polyhistor). No Lycian inscription has been found there; and the extant remains are of the Roman period. The name, however, appears ancient, and there are some indications of an earlier city on the site. The ruins lie in a valley at the foot of a steep hill, at whose base is a stretch of 'cyclopean'; wall containing a gate; this appears to have defended a city on the hill, though the summit now carries nothing beyond the remnants of a Byzantine fortification. The known coinage seems to be confined to a single specimen of League type (2d-1st c. B.C.). The city flourished in a modest way under the Empire, but was never important. It is related that when the emperor Marcian, then still only a simple soldier, was at Sidyma, a portent revealed his future elevation to the purple. Later, the bishop of Sidyma ranked tenth under the metropolitan of Myra.
The ruins include a number of buildings of good Roman work, among them a small Temple of the Augusti and a columned stoa, but none stands to any considerable height. The theater mentioned by Fellows is now in wretched condition. The inscriptions record a gymnasium and baths, but these have not been identified. Nothing is known of games at Sidyma, nor does the city possess a stadium. Tombs are numerous, including 'Gothic'; sarcophagi, temple tombs and other built tombs, and some plain rock-cut chamber tombs. The more impressive Lycian rock tombs familiar on other sites are totally lacking.
The port of Sidyma, named apparently Calabatia, lay on the coast to the W at the foot of a steep valley which seems to be that called by Strabo (665) 'the valley Chimaira,'; associated with the legend of Bellerophon. (O. E. BEAN)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidyma
Wikidata ID: Q2282045
Trismegistos Geo: 16439

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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