In 334/33 BCE the city opened its doors to Alexander the Great; after the War of Korupedion with Ptolemy Philadelphos in 281 BCE, the city passed to Egyptian sovereignty for nearly hundred years and took the name of the king's wife Arsinoe. The Seleucids' sovereignty, which began in 197 BCE, continued until the Treaty of Apameia, signed in 189/88 BCE, following the Battle of Magnesia, which was lost against the Romans. Allied to the Romans, the Lykian resistance struggle for liberation against the rule of Rhodos/Rhodes reached its goal in 168/67 BC; with the establishment of the Lycian Union. The Roman Senate recognized the independence of Lycia. Patara, which Livius described as 'caput gentis lyciae, 'head of the Lycian lineage,' became 'the capital of Lycia'. Such names as Mithridates Eupator, Sulla, Caesar and Brutus  have been associated with Patara, as a strategically important harbor, which developed substantially in the first century BCE.

In 43 AD, Lycia was converted into a Roman state by order of the Emperor Claudius. The capital of  both provinces, of new 'Lycia Province', as well as 'Lycia et Pamphylia' created by Emperor Vespasianus in 74 AD was Patara. In the process of Pax Romana, the people of Patara in 131 AD hosted the Emperor Hadrian and his wife Sabina. With its high standard of living derived from from trade and as prophesied by the Apollo, Patara became one of the largest and richest cities of Lycia. In the time of the Emperor Constantinople (AD 312 -337), who laid the foundations of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) based in Constantinople, Patara was separated from Lykia Pamphylia, and became a single state.

Patara, especially with its port continued to be indispensable to the new imperial capital of Constantinople, within the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, lying as it did on the Aegean sea route.

Patara has a very privileged position in the history of Christianity. Notable are the martyr St. Methodius, the first bishop of Lycia, and the Father Christmas of the modern world, St. Nicholas, who was born, grew up and developed all his religious teaching in Patara in the 4th century AD.

The tomb and the church of the Patriarch Bishop II Eudemos, who represented Lykia in the Council of Constantinople in AD 381, are also located in this city. The plague epidemic in AD 541 led to a decrease in population; in the 7th and 8th centuries, due to the continued Arab invasions, the people began to withdraw to the mountainous Lycian inland. Nevertheless, the city was still the base of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 10th century AD. In the 12th century Patara was transformed into a medieval port village which had been enclosed by a thick wall surrounding the plain in the south of the harbor. In 1140 AD, the Icelandic pilgrim Nicholas von Pvera described his visit to the Seminary of St. Nicholas.

With the Battle of Myriokephalon MS 1176, Lykia was also in the process of Turkishization and Islamization. This period is represented now with small hammam and with the repaired walls in the city. In 1478 AD. Cem Sultan went to Patara to make a deal with the Rhodians over the sovereignty of his father Fatih Sultan Mehmet. From the 16th century AD, the sands carried by the Eşen river silted up the harbor entrance so that even small boats could not reach the harbor; when the harbor that owed its birth to the sea turned into an inner lake, the doors of Patara city were closed to history.

The scientific excavations in Patara were started in 1988 by Prof. Dr. Fahri IŞIK of Akdeniz University.

ARCH OF METTIUS MODESTUS

This triumphal arch has become the symbol of Patara, representing the 'entrance to the city' and 'welcoming' the visitors on their way to the city center. The isodomic masonry walls of the arch were constructed with local limestone blocks not completely morphed into marble. This massive structure with a length of 19 m and a height of 10 m is composed of four massive piers connected by three arches. The span of the side arches is 2.50 m, while the middle arch has a span measuring 3.60 m. The upper sections of the middle piers have niches on both northern and southern facades. The facades are also elaborated through consoles, two on both sides of the middle piers and one on the side piers. It is believed that the niches once contained statues and the consoles were built to bear busts. There is an opening in the middle of the upper section of the arch. The upper capstone of this opening is decorated with a large altar relief. The upper row of the arch is emphasized by metopes and trigiyphs as well as a cornice. There is a row of earthenware pipes passing through the western half of the arch. The eastern pier of the arch connects with a wall - remained under the modern road today -extending from the east. Unlike the dead wall at the western facade, the western facade has a gargoyle at the elevation of 15.52 m and the terra cotta pipe row is still found in situ. At the foot of the western pier of the arch, beneath this gargoyle is a pool (5.50 x 7.77 m) whose floor is covered with a special mortar. It has double-hulled walls as thick as 1.00 - 1.25 m and its floor was covered with insulation mortar containing small stones and made watertight. The organic tie between this pool and the structure evidences that the arch also functioned as a part of the aqueduct that brought water to Patara starting from the first construction time.

An inscription found on the cornice of the northern cornice reads 'the People of Patara, Capital of Lycian Nation'. Furthermore, the inscription on the consoles of northern and southern facades reveal that the people of Patara, capital of the Lycian League and Lycian Nation built this arch in honor of Mettius Rufus, his mother Honorata, his deity Mettius Modestus as well as the local benefactors of Patara. Mettius Modestus was in Patara around 100 AD as the governor of the emperor Trajan. In front of the arch, the 23-meter-wide street leading to the city center is bordered by porticos on the eastern and western sides.