Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 38

MEHMET FATIH YAVUZ

Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University

A Greek POLIS at the narrowest point of the HELLESPONT on the Asian shore opposite SESTOS, near modern Çanakkale. Abydos was a natural crossing point between EUROPE and ASIA (7.33–36; Strabo 13.1.22/C591). The city had an excellent HARBOR (now Nagara Limanı) protected from the main current of the straits by Cape Nagara, and a fertile territory (Polyb. 16.29) extending to DARDANUS on the southwest (Hdt. 7.43.2). Abydos also possessed GOLD mines, though these were exhausted by the first century BCE (Xen. Hell. 4.8.37; Callisthenes BNJ 124 F54; Strabo 14.5.28/C680)

Abydos was founded by MILETUS (Thuc. 8.61.1) in the first half of the seventh century with the permission of the Lydian king GYGES (Strabo 13.1.22/C590). The city came under Persian rule after the fall of LYDIA c. 545 BCE When the Persian king DARIUS I invaded SCYTHIA (c. 513), DAPHNIS, the tyrant of Abydos, and several other Hellespontine TYRANTS installed or supported by the Persians were ordered to sail to the mouth of the ISTER (Danube) and were assigned to guard the bridge over the river (Hdt. 4.138.1). When news of the Persian failure in Scythia reached the Hellespontine region, Abydos and several Greek poleis threw off Persian rule. Darius returned to Asia via the Hellespont (4.143.1; 5.11.1) and punished Abydos (Strabo 13.1.22/C591). The city joined the IONIAN REVOLT in 499 but was captured by the Persian general DAURISES in 496 (Hdt. 5.117).

XERXES assembled his army and navy at Abydos to cross the Hellespont in 480. Sitting on a throne of white marble made by the people of Abydos, Xerxes surveyed his army “that filled the coast and the plains of Abydos” (7.44–45). Xerxes built two pontoon BRIDGES between Abydos and Sestos (7.33–36) and crossed to Europe. The citizens of Abydos did not join the expedition and remained at home to guard the bridges (7.95.2). After the defeat of the Persian navy at SALAMIS, Xerxes and his army were ferried to Abydos since the bridges had been damaged by a storm (8.117, 130). Following the Greek victory at MYCALE in 479, Abydos was captured by the Greek ALLIES who were anxious to secure the crossing point and the bridges (9.114).

After the PERSIAN WARS, the city joined the DELIAN LEAGUE but revolted against ATHENS and became a Spartan ally in 411 (Thuc. 8.62). By the King’s Peace in 386 Abydos returned to Persian rule, which ended after the Macedonian king Alexander III’s victory at Granicus in 334. Although badly damaged by the siege of Philip V of Macedon in 200 BCE (Polyb. 16.31–34), Abydos prospered in the Roman and Byzantine periods as it served as an important customs station on the Hellespont (Leaf 1923, 130–31).

SEE ALSO: Chersonese (Hellespontine); Viewing