Tavium
TA´VIUM (Ταουίον, Ταύιον) or TAVIA, a town in the central part of eastern Galatia, at some distance from the eastern bank of the river Halys, was the chief town of the Galatian tribe of the Trocmi, and a place of considerable commercial importance, being the point at which five or six of the great roads met. (Plin. Nat. 5.42; Strab. 12. p. 567; Ptol. 5.4.9; Steph. B. s. v. Ἄγκυρα; Hierocl. p. 696; It. Ant. pp. 201, 203.) It contained a temple with a colossal bronze statue of Zeus. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 311) is strongly inclined to believe that Tshorum occupies the site of ancient Tavium; but Hamilton (Researches, 1. p. 379, &c.) and most other geographers, with much more probability, regard the ruins of Boghaz Kieui, 6 leagues to the north-west of Jazgat or Juzghat, as the remains of Tavium. They are situated on the slope of lofty and steep rocks of limestone, some of which are adorned with sculptures in relief. There are also the foundations of an immense building, which are believed to be remains of the temple of Zeus. (Comp. Hamilton in the Journal of the Roy. Geogr. Soc. vol. 7. p. 74, fell.; Cramer, Asia Minor, 2. p. 98.) [L.S].
(Ταουίον). The capital of the Trocmi, in Galatia, stood on the eastern side of the river Halys, but at some distance from the river, and formed the centre of meeting for roads leading to all parts of Asia Minor.
The center of the Trocmian tribe. It is described by Strabo (12.5.2) as a phrourion and minted coins in the 1st c. B.C. but did not become a city, in the Greek sense, until 21-20 B.C. when its era begins. It was always the least considerable of the three cities of Galatia, but owed its importance to its position in the road network of E Asia Minor. It continued to be a place of some importance during the Byzantine period.
The position of Tavium was a subject of considerable dispute until discoveries in 1884 proved beyond question that it lay beside Büyük Nefes köy, some 30 km W of Yozgat. The site is on the S slope of the ridge that forms the watershed of the basin of the Delice Irmak (Cappadox flumen?). Two natural outcrops of rock ca. 1 km W of the modern village carried the original site, and on both a few walls have been exposed by village digging. Sherds indicate that the W mound had been occupied long before the Classical period. The main part of the Roman city lay to the N of these two outcrops under an area of gardens and vineyards belonging to the modern village. Architectural fragments are strewn all over this area and built into field walls, but too little is visible to allow any attempt to reconstruct the plan of the city. There are traces of a Late Roman or Byzantine wall around the site. Remains from Tavium have been carried to Büyük Nefes köy and the surrounding villages and cemeteries.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ.R.S. Sterrett, “An Epigraphical Journey in Asia Minor,” Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens II (1883-84) 308-20; K. Bittel, “Kleinasiatische Studien,” IstMitt 5 (1942) 6-38.
S. MITCHELL