The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов

The Herodotus Encyclopedia

son, named Lysicles, and Themistocles’ daughter Sybaris (cf. Plut. Them. 32).

SEE ALSO: Athens; Messengers; Polyas; Sybaris

REFERENCE

1 Lang, Mabel L. 1990. The Athenian Agora. Vol. XXV, Ostraka. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

ABYDOS ( Ἄβυδος, ἡ)

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

REFERENCE

1 Leaf, Walter. 1923. Strabo on the Troad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

ACANTHUS ( Ἄκανθος, ὁ)

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

City near the narrowest point of the ATHOS (Acte) peninsula of Chalcidice (BA 51 B4). Acanthus was a seventh‐century BCE colony of ANDROS and quickly developed into an important city in the northern AEGEAN region (Tiverios 2008, 52–60).

After subjecting THASOS and MACEDONIA with a large force in 492, the Persian general MARDONIUS briefly rested at Acanthus. Setting out from here, his fleet lost 300 ships in a storm while rounding Mt. Athos (6.43–44). When XERXES launched his expedition against Greece a decade later, recalling Mardonius’ DISASTER, he appointed two Persians, BUBARES and ARTACHAEES, to oversee the digging of a CANAL near Acanthus (7.22–23). Upon his arrival at Acanthus in 480, Xerxes declared the inhabitants his guest‐friends and provided them with gifts of Median clothing, praising them for their work on the canal (7.116). Artachaees died during this visit, much to Xerxes’ dismay, and Herodotus reports that the Acanthians in his day still offered the canal‐overseer cult honors (7.117). After the PERSIAN WARS, Acanthus became a member of the DELIAN LEAGUE, loyal to ATHENS until 424 BCE (Thuc. 4.84–88).

SEE ALSO: Chalcidians in Thrace; Dress; Guest‐friendship; Heroes and Hero Cult

REFERENCE

1 Tiverios, Michalis. 2008. “Greek Colonisation of the Northern Aegean.” In Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, edited by Gocha R. Tsetskhladze. Vol. 2, 1–154. Leiden: Brill.

ACARNANIA (Ἀκαρνανίη, ἡ)

MARGARET FOSTER

Indiana University

A northwestern region of the Greek mainland, located along the IONIAN GULF (BA 54 D4). In the Histories, Acarnania is noteworthy for its river, the ACHELOUS, as an origin of seers, and for the presence of LIONS. In Book 2, while describing the land of EGYPT as largely the product of the NILE’s extensive alluvial deposits, Herodotus compares this natural effect to the silting up of the Achelous River in Acarnania. As Herodotus reports, though a smaller river than the great Nile, the Achelous has nevertheless caused already half of the ECHINADES ISLANDS to connect to the Greek mainland through its own alluvial deposits (2.10.3). Herodotus’ account of the Achelous is noteworthy for attending solely to this topographic phenomenon while eschewing any reference to the popular mythographic tradition concerning Acarnania and the Achelous. By contrast, THUCYDIDES does include a version of this MYTH in his own description of Acarnania (2.102.5–6; see also Apollod. Bibl. 3.7.5; Paus. 8.24.8‐9). The Histories suggests that an association obtained between Acarnania and seers, an association also found in other sources. Herodotus identifies both the chrēsmologos (“oracle‐monger”) AMPHILYTUS (1.62) and the Spartans’ seer at THERMOPYLAE, MEGISTIAS (7.221), as Acarnanian. According to Pausanias (9.31.5), the BOEOTIANS assert that the Acarnanians taught HESIOD seercraft. The founder of Acarnania, Alcmaeon, was the son of the seer AMPHIARAUS (e.g., Hom. Od. 15.244–48). Herodotus also briefly describes the Achelous in Acarnania as the westernmost boundary of the territory inhabited by lions (7.126).

SEE ALSO: Analogy; Geology; Divination; Rivers

The Herodotus Encyclopedia. Группа авторов