Germa

1. Location and Name

The city of Germa was in northwestern Galatia, 1 km S of the modern village of Babadat and 14 km NE of Sivrihisar, to the S of the Thymbrius River. The territory of the city occupied the part of the valley of the Karaburhan River defined to the N by Mount Karaçam Dağı and to the S by Mount Didymus and its western lower parts. Apart from the place-name Germa, the Notitiae Episcopatuum also report the name Germocolonea, while Ptolemy calls it Germa Colonea or Therma Colonea. According to numismatic and epigraphic evidence, the city was also called Colonea Julia Augusta Felix Germenorum. Τhe place-names Germa and Therma are of Indo-Germanic origin and are connected with the thermae to the west of the city. Besides, all the compound names including the word “Colonea” are connected with the foundation of the city as a Roman colony (colonia) by Emperor Augustus.1

2. History

Germa is among the 13 colonies founded by Augustus in the Roman province of Galatia. The foundation of the city in 17 BC, on the one hand, served the needs for new lands offered to the veterans of the Roman civil wars, while on the other hand it contributed to the consolidation of the Roman domination over the new province of Galatia.2 The territory of the city, particularly the valley between Babadat and Mülk, was remarkably fertile thanks to a large number of rivers and springs.

Coinage in the city lasted for a period of 40 years, between 183/184 and 218/221 AD. The coins were issued by Emperor Commodus (177-192), M. Opelius Macrinus (217-218), M. Opelius Antoninus Diadumenianus (218) and possibly by Aquilia Severa, wife of Emperor Elagabalus (218‑222). The city was organised as every other colony of the Roman Empire. However, Greek was probably the language used in everyday life, as inferred by a bilingual inscription, in Latin and Greek, found at Babadat.3

3. Archaeological Remains

Germa was a road station along the route from Dorylaeum and Pessinus to Ankara. The few surviving archaeological remains of the settlement are dated after the end of the 2nd c. AD. Germa possibly controlled the fortress at Karacakaya Hill, within 11 km N-NW of Babadat, where architectural remains, a rock-cut tomb as well as Hellenistic and Roman pottery were found.4



1. For the location and the territory of the city, see Mitchell, S., Anatolia. Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor 1: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule (Oxford 1993), p. 87; Waelkens, Μ., Die Kleinasiatischen Türsteine. Typologische und epigraphische Untersuchungen zur kleinasiatischen Grabreliefs mit Scheintür (Mainz am Rhein 1986), p. 280. For the names, see Notit. Episc., 1.51. 278; Ptol., Geogr. 5.4.7. According to the coins, the Latin version of the name is Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Germa; see Zgusta, L., Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (BN 21, Heidelberg 1984), p. 138, no. 204-241. Waelkens, M., “Germa, Germokoloneia et Germia”, Byzantion 49 (1979), p. 449, no. 8, p. 463; Aulock, H. von, “Die römische Kolonie Germa in Galatien und ihre Münzprägung”, IstMitt. 18 (1968), p. 222.

2. Mitchell, S., Anatolia. Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor 1: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule (Oxford 1993), p. 90; Mitchell, S., “Population and Land in Roman Galatia”, ANRW 7. 2 (1980), p. 1067. For the date of foundation, see Waelkens, M., “Germa, Germokoloneia et Germia”, Byzantion 49 (1979), from p. 452 onwards; Mitchell, S., “The Plancii in Asia Minor”, JRS 64 (1974), p. 29; von Aulock, H., “Die römische Kolonie Germa in Galatien und ihre Münzprägung”, IstMitt. 18 (1968), p. 234. According to DNP 4 (1998), p. 954, see entry “Germa” (K. Strobel), the colony was founded in 25/24-21/20 BC, but the bibliography provided by the researcher does not confirm the date.

3. Waelkens, M., Die Kleinasiatischen Türsteine. Typologische und epigraphische Untersuchungen zur kleinasiatischen Grabreliefs mit Scheintür (Mainz am Rhein 1986), p. 280. For the city coinage, see von Aulock, H., “Die römische Kolonie Germa in Galatien und ihre Münzprägung“, IstMitt. 18 (1968), from p. 233 onwards.

4. Belke, K. – Restle, M., Galatien und Lykaonien (TIB 4, Wien 1984), from p. 168 onwards; von Aulock, H., “Die römische Kolonie Germa in Galatien und ihre Münzprägung”, IstMitt. 18 (1968), from p. 227 onwards; Starr, S.F., “Mapping Ancient Roads in Anatolia”, Archaeology 16 (1963), from p. 166 onwards.