Gordion after King Midas: Roman Soldiers, Eastern Wars and a Gothic Invasion
Thu, Oct 17
|Spokane
Professor Andrew L. Goldman, PhD, Professor of History, Gonzaga University
Time & Location
Oct 17, 2024, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Spokane, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201, USA
About the event
Cities of the ancient world are often occupied for thousands of years, and the passing of the millennia can bring dramatic changes to their character and function. Ancient Gordion, located in central Turkey, is one such settlement. It is best known as the Iron Age capital of the Phrygian kingdom, where King Midas ruled in the 8th century BCE and Alexander the Great stopped by to cut the Gordion Knot in 333 BCE. In Roman imperial times, we are told by our surviving literary source (Strabo Geography 12.5.3) that Gordion had been reduced to a mere village alongside the Sakarya river. Yet recent excavations campaigns atop the Citadel Mound (1950-73, 1993-2005) and subsequent analysis of the finds have revealed a story that is much more complicated and deeply interesting. It is now recognized that Gordion served as a minor auxiliary base between ca. 50 – 125 CE, with two subsequent, final reoccupation…