Tabae

TABAE(Τάβαι: Eth. Ταβηνός), a town which, according to Strabo (12. p. 570), was situated on the confines between Phrygia and Caria, and which, in another passage (p. 576), he evidently includes in Phrygia. The country was situated in a plain which derived from the town the name of Πεδίον Ταβηνόν. (Strab. 12. p. 576.) Stephanus Byz. (s. v.) on the other hand calls Tabae a Lydian town, though he at the same time mentions another in Caria; but it is highly probable that not only both are one and the same town, but also the same as the one assigned by Strabo to Phrygia, and that in point of fact the town was in Caria near the confines of Phrygia. Mythically the name of the place was derived from a hero Tabus, while others connected it with an Asiatic term τάβα, which signified a rock. (Steph. B. l. c.) The latter etymology is not inconsistent with Strabo's account, for though the town is described as being in a plain, it, or at least a part of it, may have been built on a rock. The plain contained several other little towns besides Tabae. Livy (Liv. 38.13), in his account of the expedition of Manlius, states that he marched in three days from Gordiutichos to Tabae. It must then have been a considerable place, for, having provoked the hostility of the Romans, it was ordered to pay 20 talents of silver and furnish 10,000 medimni of wheat. Livy remarks that it stood on the borders of Pisidia towards the shore of the Pamphylian sea. There can be no doubt that D'Anville is correct in identifying the modern Thaousor Davas, a place of some note north-east of Moglah, with the ancient Tabae. Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 153), relying too implicitly on Strabo, looks too far east for its site; for Hierocles (p. 689) distinctly enumerates it among the Carian towns. Davasis a large and well-built town, and the capital of a considerable district; the governor's residence stands on a height overlooking the town, and commanding a most magnificent view. (Richter, Wallfahrten, p. 543; Franz, Fünf Inschriften, p. 30.)
It should be observed that Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.27) mentions another town in Cilicia of the name of Tabae, of which, however, nothing is known. COIN OF TABAE.
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