Euromos
Town in Caria, 13 km NW of Milâs. It figures in the Athenian tribute lists as Hyromos or Kyromos, with a tribute of 2500 drachmae, raised in 425 B.C., no doubt unrealistically, to 5 talents. In Herodotos (8.133-35) the Carian Mys is described as a man of Europos, and Stephanos also records a Carian city of Europos; in these and other cases Euromos seems certainly to be meant. The place was occupied by Philip V during his Carian campaign, but in 196 B.C. he was required by the Senate to withdraw his garrison. When Mylasa revolted in 167 against Rhodian suzerainty, she began by seizing the cities in Euromos; from this expression of Polybios it appears that Euromos controlled a considerable area. By the end of the 2d c. we find Euromos in a sympolity with Mylasa which, however, was not of long duration; quarrels arose and the Euromans found it necessary to turn to the Romans and Rhodians. About this time an inscription records an alliance with Iasos. After this the city is barely mentioned; Strabo calls it a peripolion of Mylasa, and Pliny lists it in the form Eurome. A coin of the late 5th c. B.C. inscribed ΥΡΩ, with the head of Zeus, seems clearly to belong to Euromos; otherwise the coinage begins in the 2d c. B.C. after the liberation from Rhodes, and continues to the 1st c. A.D.
The city stood on flat ground, encircled by a wall which also enclosed the lower slopes of the hills to the E. The wall is of good ashlar masonry, apparently of Classical date, with towers at intervals; it is best preserved on the hillside. On the same hillside was a good-sized theater facing W, but only a few rows of seats and some fragments of the stage building survive. On the level ground is the agora, surrounded by a stoa with one or two columns still standing. But the most striking monument is the temple, just outside the city wall on the S and visible from the present road—one of the best preserved temples in Asia Minor. It had a peristyle of 11 by 6 columns in the Corinthian order, 16 of which are standing complete with architrave; all but four are fluted, and 12 of them carry a panel with an inscription recording their presentation by individual citizens. Recent excavations have brought to light an altar in the usual position on the E, and a decree of Hellenistic date revealing that the temple was dedicated to Zeus Lepsynos (known at Miletos) and was not the first temple erected to him here; in its present form it dates from the 2d c. A.D. Close to the temple on the SW is a group of underground tomb chambers solidly built and roofed with large blocks in the Carian manner.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. Chandler, Travels in Asia Minor (3d ed. 1817) 226-27 (repr. 1971) 119-20I; C. Fellows, Asia Minor (1839) 261-62I; L. Robert, Villes d'Asie Mineure (1935) 59; A. Laumonier, Cultes Indig&ènes en Carie (1958) 164-74 (with more complete bibl.); G. E. Bean, Turkey beyond the Maeander (1971) 45-48.
G. E. BEAN