Gordus (Lydia)

Gordus or Gordos (Ancient Greek: Γόρδος),^[1] also known as Julia Gordus or Iulia Gordos, and possibly also known as Porotta,^[2][3] was an ancient Greek city located in eastern Lydia (modern western Turkey). It was a strategically important town founded by the Seleucid Kings. The Julio-Claudian emperors of the Roman Empire renamed the city Julia Gordos in the 1st century and the city minted its own coins.^[4][5][6]

Julia Gordos among the cities of Lydia (ca. 50 AD)

The city achieved the full status of a polis under the Flavian emperors.^[7]

It was the home to Appolophanes the physician,^[8] and there is epigraphical evidence of both pagans^[9] and Christians in the town.^[10]

Three bishops of the town are known: Isidor attended Third Council of Constantinople, Neophytus attended the Second Council of Nicaea and Stephen attended the Photian Council of 870. No longer the seat of a residential bishop, it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.^[11]

Its site is located near Eski Gördes in Asiatic Turkey.^[2][3]