The Claros sanctuary, in ancient Greek Κλάρος, was a city and an important oracular sanctuary dedicated to Apollo on the territory of the city of Colophon in Ionia, modern-day Turkey.
Archaeological excavations have revealed various buildings and above all a large number of Greek inscriptions of great historical interest, some of which are still unpublished. Several of these inscriptions shed light on the relations between Rome and the Greek cities, others testify to the functioning of the sanctuary and the oracle’s consultations. Several inscriptions giving the text of oracles returned by Apollo to Claros have been found in other Greek cities, they often date from the 2nd century CE and several of them were intended to fight against a pestilential epidemic. In Claros, oracles were rendered by the Bakids, male priests, as opposed to the oracles of the Sibyls or Pythias, which were all female.
