Cremna

{{short description|Ancient city in Pisidia, Asia Minor}}

File:Kremna ruins vista May 2013.jpg

{{for|the genus of butterly|Napaea (butterfly)}}

Cremna or Kremna ({{langx|grc|Κρῆμνα}}), was an ancient town in Pisidia. It is situated in the district of Bucak. It stands in a remote valley on a high plateau dominating the ancient Cestrus River (today Aksu), with limited access and good defensive features.Princeton Encyclopedia, "Kremna".

It was first taken by Amyntas, commander of the Galatian auxiliary army of Brutus and Cassius, who became king of Galatia and Pisidia on going over to the side of Mark Antony. Octavian allowed him to remain king until his death in 25 BC.Strabo, Geographia, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+12.7.1 xii. 7.] After this, it became a Roman colony, as Strabo says; and there are imperial coins with the epigraph COL. IVL. AVG. CREMNA, which stands for Colonia Iulia Augusta [Felix] Cremnena. Its first coins appear to have been minted under Hadrian. Ptolemy mentions the Cremna Colonia, and according to him it is in the same longitude as Sagalassus.Ptolemy, Geographia, v. 5.

Its water supply posed particular problems and the aqueduct had to include complex and novel solutions. Owens, E. J. “The Kremna Aqueduct and Water Supply in Roman Cities.” Greece & Rome, vol. 38, no. 1, 1991, pp. 41–58. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/643107.

The donatio given by the emperor Aurelian (270–275) promised a period of great prosperity for Cremna; but in 276, the town was taken by an Isaurian robber, named Lydius, who used it as a base for looting the region,Zosimus, Historia Nova, [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/zosimus01_book1.htm i. 69.] giving rise to the only visit of a Roman Emperor to the region, that of Marcus Claudius Tacitus.[https://books.google.com/books?id=TrCmAwAAQBAJ&dq=Grainger+Pamphylia+Goths+Cremna&pg=PT170 John D. Grainger, The Cities of Pamphylia] (Oxbow Books 2009 {{ISBN|978-1-78297295-2}}) Later, the town was inserted in the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda. The name of only one of its bishops is known: Theodorus, present at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.Michel Lequien, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0agp0mJFG_sC Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus], Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 1025-1026Raymond Janin, v. Cremna, in [http://booksnow.scholarsportal.info/ebooks/oca2/4/dictionnairedhis13bauduoft/dictionnairedhis13bauduoft.pdf Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques], vol. XIII, Paris 1956, col. 1019 No longer a residential bishopric, Cremna is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 876

At some time in the high Middle Ages, the ancient site of the town was abandoned, the population transferring itself to the present village of Çamlık.

The ancient site was identified in 1874 and excavations began in 1970.