Event #2917: Earthquake at Apamea

Text #4032

HTML URL: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Rom...

And, among the other cities, Apamea was often shaken by earthquakes before the expedition of King Mithridates who, when he went over to that country and saw that the city was in ruins, gave a hundred talents for its restoration.

Text #8738

Nicolas of Damascus, in the one hundred and fourth book of his Histories, says that “near the Phrygian Apameia,during the Mithridatic wars, earthquakes occurred which brought to light in the Apameian country lakes never existent before; rivers also and springs besides were opened by the upheaval, while many, again, disappeared; and such a quantity of other water, of a brackish and blue sort, gushed forth in their land, that in spite of its being a great distance from the sea, the neighbouring region was filled with shellfish and all the other fishes which the sea nurtures.”

Text #4033

A destructive earthquake in Phrygia, Asia Minor. The earthquake happened before the expedition of Mithridates VI (89-87 BC), who, when he arrived at Apameia (Kibotos) during his invasion of Phrygia, found the city ruined by an earthquake. Besides destroying Apameia the earthquake caused ground deformations, the appearance of new lakes and the disappearance of rivers and springs. Mithridates gave funds for reconstruction to Apameia and to other towns, which had been damaged by the earthquake. In places water gushed out and spread over the country, carrying to the surface sea fish and shells.

From palaeoseismicity data Altunel et al. (1999) suggest that the event, which they date 80 BC, was associated with surface faulting of the Dinar Zone.