Syedra
SYEDRA (Σύεδρα: Eth. Συεδρεύς), a coast-town in the west of Cilicia, between Coracesium and Selinus (Strab. 14. p. 669, where the common but erroneous reading is Arsinoe Steph. B. s. v.;Ptol. 5.8.1; Hierocl. p. 683; Lucan (Luc. 8.259; Flor. 4.2.) It should, however, be observed that Stephanus B. calls it a town of Isauria, and that Hierocles assigns it to Pamphylia. Beaufort (Karamania, p. 178) observed some ruins on a steep hill in that district, which he thinks may mark the site of Syedra; and Mr. Hamilton, in his map of Asia Minor, also marks the ruins of Sydre on the same spot, a little to the south-east of Alaya, the ancient Coracesium.
[L.S]Site in Cilicia Aspera near Demirtaş, 15 km SE of Alanya; the hill itself is called Asar Tepe. The ancient name survives in the neighboring Sedra and Sedra Çayi. The city is mentioned by Lucan (Phars. 8.259), and is listed in Ptolemy, Hierokles, and the Notitiae, but has no other history. (The conjectural emendation of Arsinoe to Syedra in Strabo 669 is to be rejected.) The coinage runs from Tiberius to Gallienus.
The ruins are extensive but overgrown. The city wall, of large squared blocks, is well preserved, especially on the SE, but the other remains seem all to be later. On the E slope are the foundations of a temple, roughly constructed of reused stones and originally veneered. A tower on the summit, a large church, and numerous other walls and buildings may be seen among the overgrowth, and many inscriptions are built into them; over a dozen of these record agonistic victories. The necropolis lay to the S, between city and sea, but it has been destroyed.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. Heberdey & A. Wilhelm, Reisen in Kilikien (1896) 141ff; G. E. Bean & T. B. Mitford, AnatSt 12 (1962) 191-94; id., Journeys in Rough Cilicia in 1962 and 1963 (1965) 21-24; id., Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964-1968 (1970) 106-7; L. Robert, Documents de l'Asie Mineure Méridionale (1966) 91-100.
G. E. BEAN