city state · Anatolia and the Levant

Phaselis

690 BCE – 77 BCE (approx.) · capital Phaselis

Phaselis, a Rhodian colony with three harbours on the Lycian coast, a trading city later held by pirates and taken by Rome.

Origins

Colonists from Lindos on Rhodes founded Phaselis, traditionally in 690 BCE, on a peninsula at the border of Lycia and Pamphylia. Its position on the coastal route between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean made it a natural port of call.

Rule and society

Phaselis was a Greek city governed by its citizens and a member of the Delian League. It traded timber, rose oil and other goods and had a share in the Hellenion at Naukratis in Egypt. Alexander of the Macedonian Empire stayed there in the winter of 334/333 BCE.

Decline and legacy

In the 1st century BCE the pirate leader Zenicetes held Phaselis. The Roman general Publius Servilius Isauricus captured it in 77 BCE, and the city was then absorbed into the Roman world, later joining the Lycian League.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Phaselis. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/phaselis
MLA
“Phaselis.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/phaselis. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Phaselis.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/phaselis.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Phaselis’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/phaselis (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻