City
Satala
Sadak · Sadağ
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Satala, near the village of Sadağ in north-eastern Turkey, held a vital crossroads where the road from Trebizond to Antioch met the route from Ankara into Armenia. From Trajan's time it was the base of the Fifteenth Legion Apollinaris, and Trajan himself came here during his war against Armenia and Parthia. The Persians took it around AD 256 and were beaten here in 297. Justinian later rebuilt its walls, and their remains still stand. The map slips slightly, since the town really lay south of its neighbour Domana. Its most famous find is a bronze head of Anahita, the Persian goddess of water and fertility, now in the British Museum.