Guide
The district town of Akhisar, on the İzmir-İstanbul road, is built over the ancient city of Thyateira, whose history goes back to the Early Bronze Age. In antiquity it was a weaving centre, and because it stood where the roads of the region crossed it mattered militarily and commercially as well. It is visited today as the site of the church of Thyateira, one of the seven churches of early Christianity, and the site is also known locally as Tepe Mezarlığı.
Thyateira was the scene of a battle under the Roman empire. In AD 366 Procopius, a commander from Cilicia who had risen in revolt for the Roman throne and taken the offensive with the legions that joined him, met the forces loyal to Valens, brother of the heir to the throne Valentinian I, at Thyateira. The battle of Thyateira ended in victory for Valens's forces, and Procopius was captured and executed. The site is in the centre of Akhisar.
