Georgios A.

Leveniotis
Assistant Professor in Byzantine History - Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

ABYDOS OF HELLESPONT AND ITS REGION

VANIAS publications, Thessaloniki 2017, 752 pages, ISBN: 978-960-288-342-6

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 Abstract

The book attempts –for the first time in the international

bibliography– a detailed description of the historical life of Abydos
(Άβυδος) of Hellespont, an important ancient and medieval Greek city
situated on the Asiatic shore of Dardanelles, in the surrounding area of the
promontory of Nara (modern Turkey). The monograph also detects the
relations between Abydos and other known settlements in the wider
region of northwestern Asia Minor. Αbydos was founded predominantly as
a colony of Miletos (ca. 680-650 BC) and had a continuous historical life
that lasted about 2.000 years (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD). Its lively
port was used for centuries as a key point for the passage from Europe to
Asia and the cruise from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (and vice
versa) as well as a major customs station (telonion Abydou during the
Roman imperial years, demosion teloneion or kommerkion or dekateuterion
Abydou during the Byzantine years). Byzantine Abydos was also an
important administrative center, a military and naval base and an
ecclesiastical seat (bishopric and later metropolis). However, the long and
turbulent history of Abydos and its region is virtually unknown in modern
years, despite the fact that the city's reputation was particularly
widespread during ancient and medieval times in the Mediterranean
world. Moreover, for many reasons noted in the book, the settlement does
not exist archaeologically in the modern era. For the reconstruction of the
historical life of Abydos and an in-depth analysis of its numerous and
largely unknown institutions, the study relies though on the information
providing by the written (ancient and medieval) texts but also on the
scarce and dispersed epigraphic and the much richer numismatic (the city
minted coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD) and sigillographic data and
other archaeological findings regarding (or deriving from) the city. It also
takes into account all the contemporary related publications.

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 Summary
[Book pages 570-576]

Abydos of Hellespont (Dardanelles) was an important ancient

and medieval Greek city-port with a historical life that lasted about
2000 years (7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD). Ancient and medieval
narrative sources mentioned it as a polis, asty, limen, emporion and
teloneion in the urban, territorial, political and economic sense. The
city situated on the Asiatic coast of Hellespont, in the cape Nara area,
near modern Çanakkale. Its location between two continents (Asia
and Europe) but also at the sea straits that connected the
Mediterranean with the Black Sea region gave Abydos special
geostrategic and economic importance. The city was also widely
known in the Mediterranean world through the popular ancient myth
(love tale) of Hero and Leander (the two lovers are often depicted in
coins struck by the mint of Abydos during the Roman times).
Although many ancient and medieval writers often mention it in their
works, very little is known about the city itself. Moreover, modern
bibliography regarding Abydos is extremely limited, mainly due to
the fact that the city does not exist archaeologically: The ruins of
Abydos have been systematically plundered for building purposes
during the long period of Ottoman control over the area (between the
14th - 19th c. AD). The widening of the local sea strait (Stenon tes
Abydou) has also partially submerged the harbor of the city (for the
latter see below). Finally, the region of the Abydos has been used
during the last centuries as a Turkish military and naval base, where
free access is still prohibited. Consequently, the former urban
location of Abydos, although known, remains still unexcavated and

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the findings from the city (for example the epigraphic data) are very
scarce.

According to Homer’s Iliad, Abydos was an ally of the Trojans

against the Greeks. Many centuries later Strabo maintained that after
the Trojan War its area was occupied by Bebrykes from Mysia and
later by Thracians. He also points out though that since then there
have been many changes, implying that the well-known history of the
settlement began with the Greek colonization of the 7th century BC.
Abydos was founded predominantly by Miletos (with the consent of
Gyges, then ruler of the Lydian kingdom) somewhere between 680-
650 BC, in the middle section and (once) the narrowest point of the
Dardanelles. The motivation for the Milesians was basically
economic, while for Gyges was mainly geostrategic. The first known
written mention of the name Ἄβυδος can be traced in Iliad.
Consequently, it is possible that the name pre-existed the city’s
foundation by Greek settlers (see below for the supposed city
founder). This maybe explains the problem of defining with certainty
the etymology of the name Abydos. The theory of the Semitic origin
(through the root ‘bd) is, in our opinion, the most convincing (the
Phoenician presence in the region of the city before the 7th c. AD is
very likely, although it should be stressed that the Greek influence
and presence in the Troas dates well before the colonization in the
same area during the 7th c. BC). The earliest known collective and
individual, but also external and internal uses of the city-ethnic
(Abydos → Abydenos / Abidenos) are from the 5th c. AD. (Herodotus,
Xenophon, Athenian tribute lists, city coinage, epigraphic mentions).

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 The fairly large territory of the city (ca. 200-500 km2) is
attested in the narrative sources as Abydene, Abydenon chora, aktai
kai pedia Abydenon and regia urbe Habidum. Its terrain extended
probably to the west of the watercourse that separated the Valley of
Granicus River from the torrents and smaller streams that flowed
west-ward towards the Hellespont. On the south-west, the territory
of Abydos extended to Dardanos and at least as far as the area of the
old gold mines (chrysorycheia) of Astyra, which was incorporated by
the city during the Late Antiquity. The villages (choria), small coastal
trading posts (emporia), and docks (skalai) of the region (chora,
pedia) and coasts (aktai) of Abydos are also attested in the sources,
though not in detail.

The existing epigraphic, numismatic and narrative sources

report, though fragmentary and usually without many details, the
function of civic, military and other institutions of the Abydos from
the Classical and Hellenistic periods to the years of Roman
sovereignty (tyrannos Abydou, demos Abydenon, ekklesia tou demou
Abydenon, boule, archontes Abydenon, hoplitai, stratiotai, hiereis,
hiereiai, politai, metoikoi, douloi, gymnasion, agonothetai, nauarchos,
hipparhos, hiereus kai strategos). Five men of the city are also
recorded epigraphically as proxenoi of Athens. Abydene Iphiades was
also appointed proxenos by Knidos. An external communal dedication
at Delphi is also recorded (earliest known epigraphic testimony of
demos Abydenon, late 4th or early 3rd c. AD; Aristotle mentions the
same demos in the mid 4th c. AD).

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 Abydos was under the control of tyrant Daphnis in 513 BC and
subject to Persian power. There is a claim that it was one of the cities
destroyed by king Darius I after his ill-fated Scythian expedition. This
information is rather dubious though, since the city took active part
in the Ionian revolt a few years later and was capable to mint coins.
The Persian army of king Xerxes passed through the Straits of Abydos
on its march to attack the mainland Greece in 480 BC. After the
Persian wars, Abydos became a member of the Delian (later
Athenian) League. It belonged to the so-called “Hellespontine”
district of the League and is registered at least 18 times from 454/53
to 418/17 BC, paying a rather large tax (phoros, usually 4-6 talanta).

During the period that followed the failed Persian campaign to

Greece the constitution of Abydos was democratic. The city defected
though from the Athenian alliance in 411 BC. After this major
political change, a Spartan harmostes was established in Abydos,
while the city’s constitution became oligarchic (for these reasons
Demosthenes supported the notion that Abydos was traditionally
hostile to Athens, although some Abydynes were honored by the
latter as euergetes or proxenoi). Τhe efforts of the Athenians to
reoccupy the city failed and Spartan harmostai (Dercylidas,
Anaxibius) remained there until 389/88 BC. At the conclusion of the
Corinthian War, under the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas in 387 BC,
Abydos was annexed to the Persian Empire. Between 411/10 and
until ca. 360 BC the magistrates of the city were still chosen by its
hoplites and demos. Consequently, the internal political situation and
the constitution of Abydos were rather unstable. Then occurred a
period of upheaval (stasiasmos tes choras), during which the

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oligarchy was replaced by a new tyrannical regime. The city lands
were left uncultivated and the foreign residents (metoikoi) of Abydos
refused to make new loans to the citizens (politai). A new decree
allowed anyone who wished to provide loans to the Abydene
farmers; the latter were to repay their creditors through their first
crops. In the mid-4th century ΒC strong military men like Philiskos
and Iphiades, often in charge of hetaireiai functioning within the
demos of Abydos, acted essentially as tyrants of the city and
developed relations with local Persian satraps. Alexander the Great
though restored the democratic government in Abydos and almost all
Greek cities of western Asia Minor. Later, the Hellenistic kings
exercised strong political influence in the areas of Troas and
Hellespont, but usually recognized officially the external freedom
(eleutheria) and self-government (autonomia) of the cities.

In the final years of 4th c. BC Abydos became a member of the

new congress that united the major cities of Hellespont and Troas,
with the city of Ilion and its sanctuary of Athena Ilias as its federal
and religious center (Koinon Ilieon or Koinon ton poleon Athenas
Iliados or Synedrion ton ennea demon); Abydos participated actively
in its activities during the centuries that followed (especially the
Panathenaia festival). Besides the worship of Athena Ilias and city-
state patron gods as Artemis and Apollon, many Abydenes were
initiated and participated also in the Cabirian mysteries (Abydenoi
mystai eusebeis).

In 200 BC Abydos suffered a major blow, as it was besieged and

conquered by Philip V. Many Abydenes chose then to commit suicide

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rather than surrender. In the spring of 196 BC, Abydos was briefly
seized by Antiochos III and some years later by the Romans. As a
result of the above developments, the city was substantially
depopulated and partially ruined in 188 BC. Τhis explains the fact
that the surviving decrees of the Koinon of Athena Ilias don’t mention
any Abydenes (agonothetes at the festivals or others) during this
period. Abydos and its area passed into the control of Pergamos after
188 BC (a strategos of the areas of Hellespont is mentioned). The
beneficial policy of the Attalids allowed the city to recover quickly, a
fact that demos of Abydos recognized officially honoring an Attalid
commander. Αfter 129/26 BC Abydos and its area became a part of
the new Roman provincia (of) Asia and (from the 1st c. BC) one of the
settlements that constituted the (judicial and fiscal) conventus
iuridicus Adramytteum.

The ancient (and one of the oldest known) mint of Abydos

functioned continuously from the 6th c. BC to the mid-3rd c. AD.
producing at different times and under various political regimes
electrum (according to some researchers, doubtfully attributed to
Abydos in certain cases, ca. 500 BC), gold (especially after 411 BC),
silver (on Lydo-Milesian standard from late 6th c. until 480 BC and
Persian between ca. 480-450 BC) and bronze civic, Hellenistic royal
(Alexander the Great had established a royal mint in Abydos) and
Roman imperial coins (staters, sigloi, tetradrachms, drachms,
hemidrachms, tritemoria, tetartemoria, tetrobols, triobols, diobols,
obols, hemiobols, alexanders, kistophoroi, Greek imperials etc.).
Besides the information of the texts and the relatively high known tax
that Abydos contributed to the Athenian alliance (according to the

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epigraphic data), this is another indication of the economic vitality
and significance of the city. The financing and securing of medals for
the minting activity were possible through the control and
exploitation of nearby gold and other mines (Astyra, Kremaste etc.)
and the high revenues of the city’s harbor (see below).

The most common depictions in the coinage of Abydos were

the bust of Artemis and the Laureate head of Apollo (city protectors)
but also the image of an eagle, usually standing (probably an official
symbol). Other depictions include dolphins, Gorgoneion or a Nike in
the obverses and incuse squares at the obverses of the earliest coins.
The names of the city magistrates, that were probably responsible for
the minting of coins, also appear quite often, along with the mention
/ legend of demos (ΑΒΥΔΗΝΩΝ). In other cases though is rather
difficult to attribute definitely some coins to Abydos, since its mint
often shared common die cuts with other cities (for example with the
mints of Lampsakos and Sestos). The last autonomous silver coins of
Abydos (on the Attico-Alexandrine standard) were probably cut
between ca. 168-70 BC.

Some coins and medals that Abydos struck during the Roman
imperial period depicted a supposedly homonymous hero and city
founder (ΑΒΥΔΟC). The existence (or the previous belief of it) of a
person with the above name is not attested though in ancient Greek
mythology and historiography. Τhe use and projection of it, perhaps
for the purpose of some special occasions, was probably aimed at
displaying and enhancing the historical significance, the community
cohesion, the general prestige, the autonomy and, in general, the

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place of the city in Greek history and within the limits of the Roman
state.

Abydos’ location made its port the most vital point for the
passage from Europe to Asia and vice versa. Τhis factor, combined
with the existence of a well protected natural harbor, gave Abydos
special geostrategic and economic importance, that lasted until the
13th c. AD. The additional capabilities provided by the primary and
secondary sector of economy, benefited by the exploitation of rich
natural resources and especially the local gold mines (see above),
ensured the sustained prosperity of the city. It is noteworthy that
Abydos and its area repeatedly recovered quickly after many enemy
attacks, brief hostile occupations and (at least) partial catastrophes
(in 513 BC from the Persians, in 200 BC from Philip V of Macedonia,
in 190 BC from the Romans and possibly –but far from certain– from
the Arabs during 717/18 AD). Abydos was a walled and well
protected ancient and medieval settlement (Antiochos III had
refortified the city in 192/91 BC and Manuel I Komnenos probably
repaired its old fortifications in the mid 12th c. AD). Its harbor had
major importance, not only for the control of navigation in the Straits
and the communication between the Black Sea and Mediterranean,
but also for the grain supply of ancient Athens. Much later, its control
was vital for the security and the strategic defense of the capital of
the Byzantine state (Constantinople) and the Eastern Roman
Empire’s economy and revenues.

The highly busy port (limen or emporion) of Abydos had indeed

a continuous and large commercial activity. The city served as a toll

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station since the classical period. According to the lex portorii Asiae
(62 AD), Abydos was one of the telonia / stationes of the Roman
province of Asia. From the later 5th c. A.D., Abydos served as the
headquarters of an archon or komes ton Stenon. This official stopped
illegal transport of weapons, checked travel documents and, most of
all, made inspections to the cargos of the ships that transferred each
year the annona civica and other basic foodstuffs for the needs of
population of the capital and, maybe, for the imperial army (annona
militaris).

The so-called “Edict of Abydos”, probably a decree of emperor

Anastasios I, determined the earlier, variant small amounts for the
inspections (gnosis synetheion, probably fees for the local officials)
and the fines that would be imposed, if the necessary inspections
were not made. Some years later though Justinian I established there
a more organized customs station (demosion teloneion or
dekateuterion or kommerkion Abydou) at the beginnings of his reign
(ca. 527/28 AD). The toll and its new appointed commander (komes
Abydou) levied larger than before duties on the movement of all
products and imposed sales taxes on commercial transactions and
import / export taxes on shipping trade going to and from the
Byzantine capital by sea. From there on, the port of Abydos
constituted one of the two boundaries of the special economic zone
of Constantinople (the other was Hieron on Bosporus). Between
those limits applied a different tax regime for Byzantine and foreign
merchants and products carriers. Consequently, the customs station
of Abydos provided an important source of revenues to the Empire
(the tax known as kommerkion or dekaton or dekateia amounted to

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10% of commercial goods value). An imperial apotheke (with a
kommerkiarios in charge), seated in Abydos, covered the area of
Hellespont between mid. 7th - early / mid. 8th c. AD. The Venetian
merchants were granted by Byzantine Emperors special commercial
and tax privileges in the port and custom station of Abydos in 992
and 1081 AD.

According to the variant testimonies of the sources, the

Byzantine officials and other state employees appointed in Abydos
were as follows: An archon or komes ton Stenon with his subordinate
klassikoi served there between ca. 3rd - 5th c. AD and a komes Abydou
between ca. late 5th / early 6th - 8th c. AD. In the later period (ca. 7th -
9th c. AD) the sphragistic data mention the kommerkiarios apothekes
(ca. mid. 7th - early 8th c. AD) and again an archon (late 8th - early 9th c.
AD). Paraphylakes (governors of the city’s fort and harbor) and
subordinate to them stratores (military commanders) and kentarchoi
(naval commanders), limenarchoi (?) and many lower officials, as
phorologoi and simple kommerkiarioi, chartoularioi, abydikoi,
abyditikoi and abydarioi (?) (the last three served mainly in
Thessaloniki’s port, mentioned in the seals as abydos, and other
imperial harbors, perhaps in Abydos also), vikarioi (?), epeiktai,
hypologioi and metretai, notarioi parathalassioi, xylokalamoi,
taboularioi, grapheis and simple notarioi also served in the customs
station, the port or the fort of Abydos (ca. 7th - 11th AD). The komes or
archon Abydou was probably a subordinate of the droungarios tou
ploimou; his military command and control were restricted within
the limits of the city-port, the local strait and (at most) the nearby
coasts, whereas the inland area of the city was a part of Opsikion

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theme until the 12th c. (a single province Opsikiou kai Aigaiou was
created during the second part of the 12th c. AD). Finally, the later
higher officials based in Abydos were as follows: strategos, possibly
with subordinates kentarchoi and tourmarhai (late 10th or early to
mid 11th c. AD), katepano (late 11th c. AD) and doukas (early 13th c.
AD).

The creation of a distinct “Abydos theme” (as an administrative

unit) after the end of the 10th c. AD is rather doubtful (it is not
supported from the known sigillographic data). The strategic
importance of the city increased though even further during the 11th
and 12th centuries AD, mainly due the external Turkish threat.
Consequently, some Byzantine emperors sought to secure the control
of Abydos, mainly through the appointment of high-ranking military
commanders (see above) and the reinforcement of its guard and
fortifications (see below).

The bishopric of Abydos (episkopi Abydou), suffragan of the

metropolis of Cyzicus, is attested from 451 AD. It became a
metropolitan see without suffragans at the beginning of the reign of
Alexios I Komnenos (1082 AD). The population of the city had
probably increased by then with refugees from the areas of
northwestern Asia Minor seeking refuge from the Turks (epoikoi).
The same emperor appointed also a katepano as a military governor
of the city with a strong guard and granted special privileges to
Venetians, in order to strengthen its defense and protect it against
the Turks. Contrary to widespread belief, emir Tzachas was unable to
capture the city during the last years of the 11th c. AD. In 1222, during

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the brief Latin occupation of the Hellespontine area after the Fourth
Crusade, the ecclesiastical sees of Abydos and Madytos were united
by the legatus of Pope of Rome Giovanni Colonna.

The geostrategic and economic significance of Abydos declined

for various reasons during the 13th c. AD. The importance of the local
strait between Abydos and Sestos had downgraded to the benefit of
the nearby strait between Lampsakos and Kallipolis (the importance
of the latter had probably started to increase during the 12th c. AD).
The city of Abydos was abandoned by its population and ceased
permanently to exist as an inhabited settlement somewhere between
1304-1310/18 AD, after the collapse of Byzantine military control
over Troas and the local threat of Turkish tribes. The place name
Abydenoi is attested though in the Propontic coast of the
southeastern Thrace ca. 1326/27 AD, probably deriving from a local
settlement or a temporary presence of Abydene refugees.

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