Last modified: 2016-10-23 by ivan sache
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Flag of Dinar - Image by Jens Pattke, 23 February 2013
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The flag of Dinar (photo) is white with the municipality's emblem in the middle. "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".
The emblem of the municipality features two columns representing from the neighbouring ancient towns of Celaenae and Apameia.
Celaenae
Herodotus speaks of Celaenae in describing the march of Xerxes to Sardis (B.C. 481). He says (7.26) that the sources of the Maeander are here, and those of a stream not less than the Maeander: it is named Catarrhactes, and, rising in the Agora of Celaenae, flows into the Maeander. Xenophon, in describing the march of Cyrus (Anab. 1.2.7), says that Cyrus had a palace at Celaenae, and a large park, full of wild animals; the Maeander flowed through the park, and also through the city, its source being in the palace. There was also a palace of the Persian king at Celaenae, a strong place, at the source of the Marsyas, under the acropolis; and the Marsyas also flows through the city, and joins the Maeander. The sources of the Marsyas were in a cave, and the width of the river was 25 feet; within Celaenae perhaps he means. The Catarrhactes of Herodotus is clearly the Marsyas of Xenophon, and the stream which Hamilton describes, who adds, “it appeared as if it had formerly risen in the centre of a great cavern, and that the surrounding rocks had fallen in from the cliffs above.” The descriptions of Herodotus and Xenophon, though not the same, are perhaps not inconsistent. The town, palaces, acropolis, and parks of Celaenae must have occupied a large surface. In Livy's description (38.13), the Maeander rises in the acropolis of Celaenae, and runs through the middle of the city; and the Marsyas, which rises not far from the sources of the Maeander, joins the Maeander. When the people of Celaenae were removed to the neighboring site of Apameia Cibotus, they probably took the materials of the old town with them. Strabo's description of the position of Apameia is not free from difficulty. Leake thinks that it clearly appears from Strabo that both the rivers (Marsyas and Maeander) ran through Celaenae, and that they united in the suburb, which afterwards became the new city Apameia. It is certain that Celaenae was near Apameia, the site of which is well fixed.
[W. Smith (Ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)]Apameia
Strabo says, that “the town lies at the source (ἐκβολαῖς) of the Marsyas, and the river flows through the middle of the city, having its origin in the city, and being carried down to the suburbs with a violent and precipitous current it joins the Maeander.” This passage may not be free from corruption, but it is not improved by Groskurd's emendation (German Transl. of Strabo, vol. ii. p. 531). Strabo observes that the Maeander receives, before its junction with the Marsyas, a stream called Orgas, which flows gently through a level country. This rapid stream is called Catarrhactes by Herodotus (7.26). The site of Apameia is now fixed at Denair, where there is a river corresponding to Strabo's description (Hamilton,Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 499). Leake (Asia Minor, p. 156, &c.) has collected the ancient testimonies as to Apameia. Arundell (Discoveries, &c., vol. i. p. 201) was the first who clearly saw that Apameia must be at Denair; and his conclusions are confirmed by a Latin inscription which he found on the fragment of a white marble, which recorded the erection of some monument at Apameia by the negotiatores resident there. Hamilton copied several Greek inscriptions at Denair(Appendix, vol. ii.). The name Cibotus appears on some coins of Apameia, and it has been conjectured that it was so called from the wealth that was collected in this great emporium; forκιβωτός is a chest or coffer. Pliny (5.29) says that it was first Celaenae, then Cibotus, and then Apameia; which cannot be quite correct, because Celaenae was a different place from Apameia, though near it. But there may have been a place on the site of Apameia, which was called Cibotus. There are the remains of a theatre and other ancient ruins at Denair.
When Strabo wrote Apameia was a place of great trade in the Roman province of Asia, next in importance to Ephesus. Its commerce was owing to its position on the great road to Cappadocia, and it was also the centre of other roads. When Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia, B.C. 51, Apameia was within his jurisdiction (ad Fam. 13.67), but the dioecesis, or conventus, of Apameia was afterwards attached to the province of Asia. Pliny enumerates six towns which belonged to the conventus of Apameia, and he observes that there were nine others of little note.
[W. Smith (Ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)]
The emblem also represents river Büyük Menderes (548 km), which rises its spring near Dinar and drains into the Aegean Sea. The river was known to the ancient Greek as Maiandros and to the Romans as Maender. The modern term "meander" was derived from the sinuous watercourse of that river.
The building featured on the emblem must be the town's landmark (photo).
Tomislav Šipek & Ivan Sache, 28 February 2016