6. Priene

In the mid-4th century bc, the small Greek city of Priene was founded in the Maeander river valley in western Asia Minor. It flourished for around 250 years, before the city’s harbours were sealed by silt from the Maeander. Most of the known Greek inscriptions and public documents (civic decrees, honorific statue-bases, letters from Hellenistic kings) from Priene date from the 1st century bc or earlier and provide an exceptionally clear and vivid picture of life in the Hellenistic city. ‘Priene’ focuses on this perfectly preserved example of an ordinary small Hellenistic town. It outlines the planning of the city, the relationship that the citizens had with the Hellenistic kings, and the changing patterns of social change.