Abstract

Gagae (map 15) M1 BCE–M1 CE city in eastern Lycia, southwestern Anatolia, 11 km southwest of mod. Kumluca. Like the nearby cities of Rhodiapolis, Corydalla, and Phaselis, Gagae was probably founded by settlers from the island of Rhodes, perhaps in early C7 when Phaselis was allegedly settled. According to a legendary tradition relating to its foundation, the city received its name from the appeal ga, ga (the Doric Greek dialect form used on Rhodes for ge – ‘land’) made by Rhodian settlers seeking land in Lycia from the native Lycians for their new settlement. An alternative explanation for the name was that ga ga was the cry uttered by the crew of a Rhodian ship who sighted a safe landfall on the Lycian coast after being caught in a storm following their battle with sea-pirates. When the English explorer T. A. B. Spratt visited Gagae in 1842, there were still relatively substantial remains of the anc. city, mainly of Roman and mediaeval date. But these have now almost totally disappeared, due to the constant quarrying of them for building materials.