City
Zela
Zile
Listen to the story
Zela, now Zile in Turkey, grew up on a rocky mound in a fertile plain, a hill so regular that one ancient account thought it looked man-made. It began as a temple state of the Iranian goddess Anaitis, home to many priests and temple servants, until Pompey enlarged it into a proper city after defeating Mithridates. The plain beside it saw two famous battles. In 67 BC Mithridates beat the Roman commander Triarius here, and in 47 BC Julius Caesar crushed Pharnaces, the victory behind his words 'I came, I saw, I conquered'. Steps of a Roman theatre still survive at the foot of the citadel.