Editing Colossae (section)

===Before the Pauline period===

{{expand section | a cohesive account of the history of the municipality and its peoples and cultures, as appear in many texts on the subject | small = no |date=February 2016}}

The first mention of the city may be in a 17th-century BC [[Hittite language|Hittite]] inscription, which speaks of a city called Huwalušija, which some archeologists believe is a reference to early Colossae. The 5th-century geographer [[Herodotus]] first mentions Colossae by name and said it was a "great city in Phrygia", which accommodates the Persian king [[Xerxes I]] while en route to wage war against the Greeks in the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], showing the city had already reached a certain level of wealth and size by this time.<ref>Trainor, Michael, ''Colossae - Colossal In Name Only?'' ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'', March/April 2019, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 46.</ref> 
Writing in the 5th century BC, [[Xenophon]] said Colossae was "a populous city, wealthy and of considerable magnitude".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22003|title=The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis|last=Watson|first=J. S.|publisher=Project Gutenberg|year=2007|page=6}}</ref>  [[Strabo]] said the city drew great revenue from its sheep, and that the wool of Colossae gave its name to a colour, ''colossinus''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44885|title=The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3) by Strabo|page=334|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 396 BC Colossae was the site of the execution of the rebellious Persian satrap [[Tissaphernes]], who was lured there and slain by an agent of the party of [[Cyrus the Younger]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Tissaphernes |volume= 26 |short=x}}</ref>