Themisonion (Greek Θεμισώνιον) was a city in SW Phrygia near the limits of Pisidia, so that later it was said to be in that province. The city was named after Themison, a Cypriot and courtier of the Seleucid king Antiochus II in the III century BC., (probably 251- 246) The exact location is unknown. According to the Tabula Peutingeriana, Themisonion was 34 miles from Laodikeia. When the Celts invaded, the inhabitants are said to have taken refuge in a cave about 30 stadiums away as recorded Pausanias:Themisonium above Laodiceia is also inhabited by Phrygians. When the army of the Gauls was laying waste Ionia and the borders of Ionia, the Themisonians say that they were helped by Heracles, Apollo and Hermes, who revealed to their magistrates in dreams a cave, and commanded that in it should be hidden the Themisonians with their wives and children. This is the reason why in front of the cave they have set up small images, called Gods of the Cave, of Heracles, Hermes and Apollo. The cave is some thirty stades distant from the city, and in it are springs of water. There is no entrance to it, the sunlight does not reach very far, and the greater part of the roof lies quite close to the floor1. Themisonion existed until late antiquity. During Roman Imperial times Themisonion minted its own coin,
W. M. Ramsay and other scholars believed to have been situated in Karahüyük.
Sources:
- Pausanias,Description of Greece, Book X, Chapter XXXII, , 4–5
- Tabula Imperii Byzantini - 8. Lycia & Pamphylia. By H. Hellenkemper & F. Hild. (2004) https://archive.org/details/Tabula-imperii-Byzantini/Tabula%20imperii%20Byzantini/TIB/TIB%208_Lykien%20und%20Pamphylien_2
- Themisonium. In: William Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London 1854
- William Mitchell Ramsay: The cities and bishoprics of Phrygia. Band 1. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1895, pp. 260–261
- Getzel M. Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor, University of California Press, 1996
- Eckart Olshausen: Themisonion. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Band 5, Stuttgart 1975, Sp. 677
- Johannes Nollé, Gephyra. 9, Beiträge zur kleinasiatischen Münzkunde und Geschichte 6-9, Gephyra 6, 2009 (2010), 7-99 (mit Essays zu kleinasiatischen Münzen von Selge, Arneai, Antiocheia am Mäander, Eriza und Themisonion).
- http://snible.org/coins/hn/phrygia.html