Apollonia ad Rhyndacum is one of many ancient Greek cities that bear the name of
Apollo. Inhabitants of Apollonia believed that their original colony had been founded by
Miletus under the auspices of
Apollo of
Didyma, so
Apollo was its
archegetes. The city experienced prosperity under the
Attalids during Hellenistic times. It is thought that the neighbouring islet known today as Kız Ada was a sacred area of Apollo during antiquity. After the construction of the temple in the name of preservative God of the city, head of Apollo, kithara, plectron and Apollo Sauroctonus figure in the temple were used from Hellenistic Era to the late Roman Empire Period. Usage of crawfish figure continued its prevalence while depiction of Gorgon head gradually decreased. Coins minted in the town display various deities, next to the eponymous Apollo other deities such as
Zeus or
Demeter during the
Hellenistic period and
Artemis during later Roman times. A necropolis outside the town contains graves from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine period. The city became later part of the
Byzantine Empire and was a suffragan bishopric under the jurisdiction of the
metropolitan of
Nicomedia. After the Turkmen invasion of Anatolia in the 1070s, a Turkmen warlord named Elchanes took control of Apollonia and of nearby
Kyzikos around the year 1084. The Byzantine Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos sent twice expeditions against Elchanes and the second expedition under
Constantinos Opos was successful in persuading the warlord by generous payments to give up his holdings. In 1113 a
Seljuk army from Iran, that numbered around 40,000–50,000 men, devastated Apollonia and the neighbouring regions. The town came under
Ottoman control in 1342. After the
fall of the Ottoman Empire, the town was renamed to
Gölyazı in the
new republic. ==See also==