Zela
Zela
- Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton
- and Stephen Mitchell
Extract
Zela (mod. Zile), an ancient temple-state of *Pontus with a large and fertile territory and a considerable population of sacred slaves (*hierodouloi) attached to the land and to the service of Anaitis (*Anahita) and ‘the Persian deities’. Here *Mithradates VI defeated C. *Valerius Triarius in 67 and Caesar *Pharnaces II in 47 bce, the occasion of his famous remark ‘veni, vidi, vici’, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’. Originally ruled by priests, it became one of Pompey's Pontic cities. It was handed over to dynasts by Antony (M. *Antonius(2)) but was reannexed with the rest of the kingdom of *Polemon(1) in ce 64.
Subjects
- Ancient Geography
