Hamaxitus
Encyclopedia
Hamaxitus was a Greek
city in the south-west of the Troad region of Anatolia
which was considered to mark the boundary between the Troad and Aeolis
. Its surrounding territory was known in Greek
as (Hamaxitia), and included the temple of Apollo Smintheus, the salt pans
at Tragasai
, and the Satnioeis river (modern Tuzla Çay). It has been located on a rise called Beşiktepe near the village of Gülpınar (previously Külâhlı) in the Ayvacık
district of Çanakkale
province, Turkey
.
tribute lists in the 425/4 BC as h hamakʰsiˈtos. However, this spelling reflects the influence of Attic Greek
and is not a reliable guide to how Hamaxitans would have spelt or pronounced the name of their city. Hamaxitus was located in an Aeolic
-speaking area: Aeolic, like other so-called East Greek dialects, was psilotic
and so, unlike Attic Greek, had lost the phoneme
/h/. This retained /h/ is seen in the Attic spelling of Hamaxitus with an eta
, which in Attic unlike other dialects represented h rather than ɛː. Likewise, the use of the digraph
-- (/khs/) for -- (/x/) reflects Attic, not Aeolic usage. The grapheme (xi) originally represented /ks/ ; it was a peculiarity of Attic (consistent with not being psilotic and therefore retaining audibly aspirated
consonants) that /ks/ was pronounced /khs/ and so represented by the grapheme , as here in h. All other literary and epigraphic
sources refer to and legends on the city's own coinage from the 4th century BC read (AMAXI, i.e. , Hamaxi(tos)). The city's name derives from (hamaxa) meaning 'wagon', hence the adjective (hamaxitos), 'traversed by wagons', 'carriage-road', 'high-road'. Remains of an ancient road have been identified leading away up the coast from the sheltered bay immediately below the rise on which the Classical
city was located at Beşiktepe, indicating the name's origin.
were related to the foundation of the nearby temple of Apollo Smintheus. The subject attracted much interest in Antiquity because in the opening of Homer's
Iliad
the Trojan
priest of Apollo
, Chryses
, addresses the god in the vocative
as (Smintheu, 'O, Sminthian') when imploring him to send a plague against the Greeks because Agamemnon
had seized his daughter Chryseis
and refused to ransom her. The epithet
(Sminthos) caused some confusion to Greek
speakers since they did not recognize it as being Greek in origin, and attributed it to the Pelasgian
or Mysian
languages. Certainly, the consonantal string -nth- (also found in place names such as Corinth
) is considered by philologists
to be non-Greek, and possibly Luwian
, in origin. The passage of Homer
gives no indication as to its meaning, and so myths about Apollo Smintheus primarily arose from attempts to aetiologize the epithet.
The earliest tradition comes from Callinus
, an elegiac
poet from Ephesus
who lived in the mid-7th century BC. He relates that Hamaxitus was founded by a band of Teucrian (i.e. Trojan) Cretans
who were told by an oracle
to found a city wherever the 'earth-born' attacked them. When they reached the area of Hamaxitus, a great horde of field mice ate all the leather on their equipment, and so they settled on the spot, interpreting the 'earth-born' of the oracle to have been the mice. This myth thus glosses the term sminthos as 'mouse'. Callinus' aetiology takes into account both Apollo's role as a god of disease and the fact that it was in precisely this role that Chryses had invoked him as 'Sminthian' in the Iliad. However, in discussing the cult, the Augustan
geographer Strabo
noted that the epithets of gods worshipped at several other Greek sanctuaries were also explained by reference to a god bringing an end to a plague of small animals, and so it is not clear how Callinus arrived at this specific explanation of sminthos as 'mouse'. The term appears again as a poetic word for mice several centuries later in a fragment of the early 5th century BC tragedian
Aeschylus
, indicating that by this time Callinus' aetiology of 'Sminthian' had been generalized from an explanation of a particular epithet into an independent lexeme
.
Callinus' version predominated in Classical Antiquity and is reflected in the local traditions of Hamaxitus. Coins minted by the city in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC feature Apollo Smintheus, and after Hamaxitus was synoecized
, coins depicting Apollo Smintheus continued to be produced by the mint
of Alexandreia Troas
until the reign of the Empreror Gallienus
(AD 260–268). In the early 1st century AD, Strabo described the sanctuary of Apollo Smintheus as having a statue of Apollo with his foot on a mouse created by the sculptor Scopas of Paros (c. 395 – c. 350 BC), while the Roman
scholar Aelian
(c. AD 175 – c. 235) related that mice were kept at public expense in the sanctuary and nested beneath the altar. The extensive remains of the Hellenistic temple can now be seen on the northern outskirts of the modern village of Gülpınar. The most recent Turkish excavations indicate that the Hellenistic temple was constructed c. 150–125 BC, and therefore at about the same time that the main festival of Alexandreia Troas changed from being the (Pythia en Troadi, 'the Pythia in the Troad') to the (Sminthia, 'the Sminthia'). The cult spread to the island of Rhodes
, where a month was named (Sminthios) and a festival known as the Sminthia was held which the scholar Philomnestus discussed in On the Sminthia at Rhodes.
in the 8th or 7th centuries BC; however, insufficient excavation has been done at the site to prove this definitively. It was one of the Actaean cities in the Troad which Athens
took from Mytilene
following the end of the Mytilenean revolt
in 427 BC and appears in tribute assessments for 425/4 and 422/1 BC. In 425/4 BC it had an assessment of 4 talents, a relatively high figure compared to other cities in the Troad; a large part of this wealth would have been derived from the salt pans
at nearby Tragasai
, which records from the Ottoman
period indicate could be highly productive. A fragment of the so-called Standards Decree, which dates to the 420s BC and imposed the use of Athenian weights, measures, and coins on members of the Delian League
, was found at the nearby village of Gülpınar.
Following the defeat of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War
in 403 BC, Hamaxitus enjoyed a brief period of freedom from outside interference. In 399 BC it was forcibly re-incorporated into the Persian Empire
before being freed once more by the Spartan Dercylidas
in 398 BC. In the 4th century BC Hamaxitus began minting its own coinage, which depicted a head of Apollo
on the obverse
, and either a lyre
(a symbol of Apollo) or Apollo Smintheus with the legend (see above) on the reverse
. This imagery was a reference to the famous sanctuary of Apollo Smintheus in the territory of Hamaxitus, and examples of the coinage have been found widely distributed across the Troad. Apart from the salt pans at Tragasai, Hamaxitus was also enriched by its excellent harbour in this period. Finds of Chian
and Thasian
wine amphorae
from this period at Beşiktepe indicate Hamaxitus' involvement in Aegean
trade, while an inscription dating to the mid-4th century BC honours a merchant from Cius
in Bithynia
with the right to import and export goods from Hamaxitus tax-free by both land and sea.
BC Antigonus Monophthalmus, one of Alexander's Successors
, created the new city of Antigoneia Troas
by synoecizing
several communities in the Troad. Scholars are divided as to whether Hamaxitus was synoecized immediately or at a later date, but the most recent research (based on a reappraisal of the numismatic, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence) suggests that Hamaxitus was not synoecized until c. 188 - c. 171 BC. In the early Hellenistic period, Hamaxitus continued to promote its link with Apollo Smintheus, introducing a second and more elaborate series of coins advertising its link with the shrine. As the popularity of the cult of Apollo Smintheus grew in the Hellenistic period (see above), the convenient proximity of its port to the god's shrine meant Hamaxitus benefited from an increasing number of pilgrims passing through the city's harbour. The continuing profitability of the salt pans at Tragasai is clear from King Lysimachus
' attempt to tax them c. 301-281 BC, while the importance of this income to Hamaxitus is indicated by their strident (and successful) lobbying of Lysimachus for tax exemption on the salt pans. In the last decade of the 4th century BC we hear of Hamaxitus honouring a friend of Antigonus Monophthalmus, Nicomedes of Kos
, and c. 230-220 BC it appeared along the route of the Delphic
thearodokoi.
The settlement at Hamaxitus appears to have survived at least until the early Roman period following its synoecism with Alexandreia Troas (the city had been renamed from Antigoneia Troas following the death of Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus
in 301 BC). The fame of Apollo Smintheus only increased following the synoecism, which rebuilt the temple, created a new festival in the god's honour, and featured Apollo Smintheus on its coins until the mid-3rd century AD. The Smintheum continued to appear on Roman and early mediaeval
itineraries such as the Tabula Peutingeriana
(4th or 5th century AD) and the Ravenna Cosmography
(7th or 8th century AD). It is therefore likely that the port at Beşiktepe was still used by pilgrims, even if the settlement of Hamaxitus had long since declined.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
city in the south-west of the Troad region of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
which was considered to mark the boundary between the Troad and Aeolis
Aeolis
Aeolis or Aeolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands , where the Aeolian Greek city-states were located...
. Its surrounding territory was known in Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
as (Hamaxitia), and included the temple of Apollo Smintheus, the salt pans
Salt pan (geology)
Natural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds.A salt pan is formed where water pools...
at Tragasai
Tragasus
In Greek mythology, Tragasus was the father of Philonome, the deceitful wife of Cycnus, King of Colonae in the Troad. The name Tragasus may be connected with the Tragasaean salt-pan near Hamaxitus, mentioned by Strabo, which was located south of Troy....
, and the Satnioeis river (modern Tuzla Çay). It has been located on a rise called Beşiktepe near the village of Gülpınar (previously Külâhlı) in the Ayvacık
Ayvacik
Ayvacık is a town and district of Çanakkale Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. According to the 2007 census, population of the district is 30.027 of which 7,457 live in the town of Ayvacık. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of .-External links:* * * *...
district of Çanakkale
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....
province, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
Name
Hamaxitus first appears in the AthenianClassical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...
tribute lists in the 425/4 BC as h hamakʰsiˈtos. However, this spelling reflects the influence of Attic Greek
Attic Greek
Attic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek". It is sometimes included in Ionic.- Origin and range...
and is not a reliable guide to how Hamaxitans would have spelt or pronounced the name of their city. Hamaxitus was located in an Aeolic
Aeolic Greek
Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia , Thessaly, and in the Aegean island of Lesbos and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor ....
-speaking area: Aeolic, like other so-called East Greek dialects, was psilotic
Psilosis
Psilosis is the sound change in which Greek lost the consonant sound /h/ during antiquity. The term comes from the Greek psílōsis and is related to the name of the smooth breathing , the sign for the absence of initial in a word...
and so, unlike Attic Greek, had lost the phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
/h/. This retained /h/ is seen in the Attic spelling of Hamaxitus with an eta
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
, which in Attic unlike other dialects represented h rather than ɛː. Likewise, the use of the digraph
Digraph
Digraph may refer to:* Digraph , a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "sh" in English* Typographical ligature, the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as "æ"...
-- (/khs/) for -- (/x/) reflects Attic, not Aeolic usage. The grapheme (xi) originally represented /ks/ ; it was a peculiarity of Attic (consistent with not being psilotic and therefore retaining audibly aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
consonants) that /ks/ was pronounced /khs/ and so represented by the grapheme , as here in h. All other literary and epigraphic
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
sources refer to and legends on the city's own coinage from the 4th century BC read (AMAXI, i.e. , Hamaxi(tos)). The city's name derives from (hamaxa) meaning 'wagon', hence the adjective (hamaxitos), 'traversed by wagons', 'carriage-road', 'high-road'. Remains of an ancient road have been identified leading away up the coast from the sheltered bay immediately below the rise on which the Classical
Classical Greece
Classical Greece was a 200 year period in Greek culture lasting from the 5th through 4th centuries BC. This classical period had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly influenced the foundation of Western civilizations. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, such as...
city was located at Beşiktepe, indicating the name's origin.
Apollo Smintheus
All foundation myths about Hamaxitus in Classical AntiquityClassical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
were related to the foundation of the nearby temple of Apollo Smintheus. The subject attracted much interest in Antiquity because in the opening of Homer's
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
the Trojan
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
priest of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
, Chryses
Chryses
In Greek mythology, Chryses was a priest of Apollo at Chryse, near the city of Troy.According to a tradition mentioned by Eustathius of Thessalonica, Chryses and Briseus were brothers, sons of a man named Ardys .During the Trojan War ,...
, addresses the god in the vocative
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
as (Smintheu, 'O, Sminthian') when imploring him to send a plague against the Greeks because Agamemnon
Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...
had seized his daughter Chryseis
Chryseis
In Greek mythology, Chryseis was a Trojan woman, the daughter of Chryses. Chryseis, her apparent name in the Iliad, means simply "Chryses' daughter"; later writers give her real name as Astynome ....
and refused to ransom her. The epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
(Sminthos) caused some confusion to Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
speakers since they did not recognize it as being Greek in origin, and attributed it to the Pelasgian
Pelasgians
The name Pelasgians was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to populations that were either the ancestors of the Greeks or who preceded the Greeks in Greece, "a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably indigenous people in the Greek world." In general, "Pelasgian" has come...
or Mysian
Mysia
Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...
languages. Certainly, the consonantal string -nth- (also found in place names such as Corinth
Ancient Corinth
Corinth, or Korinth was a city-state on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta. The modern town of Corinth is located approximately northeast of the ancient ruins...
) is considered by philologists
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
to be non-Greek, and possibly Luwian
Luwian language
Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, and was among the languages spoken during the second and first millennia BC by population groups in central and western Anatolia and northern Syria...
, in origin. The passage of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
gives no indication as to its meaning, and so myths about Apollo Smintheus primarily arose from attempts to aetiologize the epithet.
The earliest tradition comes from Callinus
Callinus
Callinus was a poet who lived in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus in Asia Minor in the mid-7th century BC. He is the earliest known Greek elegiac poet. Very little is known about his life....
, an elegiac
Elegiac
Elegiac refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. The Classical elegiac meter has two lines, making it a couplet: a line of dactylic hexameter, followed by a line of dactylic pentameter...
poet from Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
who lived in the mid-7th century BC. He relates that Hamaxitus was founded by a band of Teucrian (i.e. Trojan) Cretans
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
who were told by an oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
to found a city wherever the 'earth-born' attacked them. When they reached the area of Hamaxitus, a great horde of field mice ate all the leather on their equipment, and so they settled on the spot, interpreting the 'earth-born' of the oracle to have been the mice. This myth thus glosses the term sminthos as 'mouse'. Callinus' aetiology takes into account both Apollo's role as a god of disease and the fact that it was in precisely this role that Chryses had invoked him as 'Sminthian' in the Iliad. However, in discussing the cult, the Augustan
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
geographer Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
noted that the epithets of gods worshipped at several other Greek sanctuaries were also explained by reference to a god bringing an end to a plague of small animals, and so it is not clear how Callinus arrived at this specific explanation of sminthos as 'mouse'. The term appears again as a poetic word for mice several centuries later in a fragment of the early 5th century BC tragedian
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
, indicating that by this time Callinus' aetiology of 'Sminthian' had been generalized from an explanation of a particular epithet into an independent lexeme
Lexeme
A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN...
.
Callinus' version predominated in Classical Antiquity and is reflected in the local traditions of Hamaxitus. Coins minted by the city in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC feature Apollo Smintheus, and after Hamaxitus was synoecized
Synoecism
Synoecism or synecism , also spelled synoikism , was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Hellas into poleis, or city-states. Etymologically the word means "dwelling together in the same house ." Subsequently any act of civic union between polities of any size was described by the...
, coins depicting Apollo Smintheus continued to be produced by the mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
of Alexandreia Troas
Alexandria Troas
Alexandria Troas is an ancient Greek city situated on the Aegean Sea near the northern tip of Turkey's western coast, a little south of Tenedos . It is located in the modern Turkish province of Çanakkale...
until the reign of the Empreror Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...
(AD 260–268). In the early 1st century AD, Strabo described the sanctuary of Apollo Smintheus as having a statue of Apollo with his foot on a mouse created by the sculptor Scopas of Paros (c. 395 – c. 350 BC), while the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
scholar Aelian
Claudius Aelianus
Claudius Aelianus , often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222...
(c. AD 175 – c. 235) related that mice were kept at public expense in the sanctuary and nested beneath the altar. The extensive remains of the Hellenistic temple can now be seen on the northern outskirts of the modern village of Gülpınar. The most recent Turkish excavations indicate that the Hellenistic temple was constructed c. 150–125 BC, and therefore at about the same time that the main festival of Alexandreia Troas changed from being the (Pythia en Troadi, 'the Pythia in the Troad') to the (Sminthia, 'the Sminthia'). The cult spread to the island of Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, where a month was named (Sminthios) and a festival known as the Sminthia was held which the scholar Philomnestus discussed in On the Sminthia at Rhodes.
Archaic and Classical
Hamaxitus is believed to have first been settled by MytilenaeansMytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
in the 8th or 7th centuries BC; however, insufficient excavation has been done at the site to prove this definitively. It was one of the Actaean cities in the Troad which Athens
Classical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...
took from Mytilene
Mytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
following the end of the Mytilenean revolt
Mytilenean revolt
The Mytilenean revolt was an incident in the Peloponnesian War in which the city of Mytilene attempted to unify the island of Lesbos under its control and revolt from the Athenian Empire...
in 427 BC and appears in tribute assessments for 425/4 and 422/1 BC. In 425/4 BC it had an assessment of 4 talents, a relatively high figure compared to other cities in the Troad; a large part of this wealth would have been derived from the salt pans
Salt pan (geology)
Natural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds.A salt pan is formed where water pools...
at nearby Tragasai
Tragasus
In Greek mythology, Tragasus was the father of Philonome, the deceitful wife of Cycnus, King of Colonae in the Troad. The name Tragasus may be connected with the Tragasaean salt-pan near Hamaxitus, mentioned by Strabo, which was located south of Troy....
, which records from the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
period indicate could be highly productive. A fragment of the so-called Standards Decree, which dates to the 420s BC and imposed the use of Athenian weights, measures, and coins on members of the Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
, was found at the nearby village of Gülpınar.
Following the defeat of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...
in 403 BC, Hamaxitus enjoyed a brief period of freedom from outside interference. In 399 BC it was forcibly re-incorporated into the Persian Empire
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
before being freed once more by the Spartan Dercylidas
Dercylidas
Dercylidas was a Spartan commander during the 4th century BC. For his cunning and inventiveness, he was nicknamed Sisyphus. In 411 he was harmost at Abydos. From 399 to 397 BC, Dercylidas superseded Thibron and led the Spartans through Thrace to the west coast of Asia, where he plundered...
in 398 BC. In the 4th century BC Hamaxitus began minting its own coinage, which depicted a head of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
on the obverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
, and either a lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
(a symbol of Apollo) or Apollo Smintheus with the legend (see above) on the reverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
. This imagery was a reference to the famous sanctuary of Apollo Smintheus in the territory of Hamaxitus, and examples of the coinage have been found widely distributed across the Troad. Apart from the salt pans at Tragasai, Hamaxitus was also enriched by its excellent harbour in this period. Finds of Chian
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
and Thasian
Thasos
Thasos or Thassos is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos but geographically part of Macedonia. It is the northernmost Greek island, and 12th largest by area...
wine amphorae
Amphora
An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...
from this period at Beşiktepe indicate Hamaxitus' involvement in Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
trade, while an inscription dating to the mid-4th century BC honours a merchant from Cius
Cius
Cius or Kios , later renamed Prusias ad Mare after king Prusias I of Bithynia, was an ancient Greek city bordering the Propontis , in Bithynia , and had a long history, being mentioned by Aristotle, and Strabo. It was colonized by the Milesians and became a place of much commercial importance...
in Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
with the right to import and export goods from Hamaxitus tax-free by both land and sea.
Hellenistic and Roman
In c. 310310
Year 310 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Andronicus and Probus...
BC Antigonus Monophthalmus, one of Alexander's Successors
Diadochi
The Diadochi were the rival generals, family and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for the control of Alexander's empire after his death in 323 BC...
, created the new city of Antigoneia Troas
Alexandria Troas
Alexandria Troas is an ancient Greek city situated on the Aegean Sea near the northern tip of Turkey's western coast, a little south of Tenedos . It is located in the modern Turkish province of Çanakkale...
by synoecizing
Synoecism
Synoecism or synecism , also spelled synoikism , was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Hellas into poleis, or city-states. Etymologically the word means "dwelling together in the same house ." Subsequently any act of civic union between polities of any size was described by the...
several communities in the Troad. Scholars are divided as to whether Hamaxitus was synoecized immediately or at a later date, but the most recent research (based on a reappraisal of the numismatic, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence) suggests that Hamaxitus was not synoecized until c. 188 - c. 171 BC. In the early Hellenistic period, Hamaxitus continued to promote its link with Apollo Smintheus, introducing a second and more elaborate series of coins advertising its link with the shrine. As the popularity of the cult of Apollo Smintheus grew in the Hellenistic period (see above), the convenient proximity of its port to the god's shrine meant Hamaxitus benefited from an increasing number of pilgrims passing through the city's harbour. The continuing profitability of the salt pans at Tragasai is clear from King Lysimachus
Lysimachus
Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.-Early Life & Career:...
' attempt to tax them c. 301-281 BC, while the importance of this income to Hamaxitus is indicated by their strident (and successful) lobbying of Lysimachus for tax exemption on the salt pans. In the last decade of the 4th century BC we hear of Hamaxitus honouring a friend of Antigonus Monophthalmus, Nicomedes of Kos
Kos
Kos or Cos is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. It measures by , and is from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Kos peripheral unit, which is...
, and c. 230-220 BC it appeared along the route of the Delphic
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
thearodokoi.
The settlement at Hamaxitus appears to have survived at least until the early Roman period following its synoecism with Alexandreia Troas (the city had been renamed from Antigoneia Troas following the death of Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus
Battle of Ipsus
The Battle of Ipsus was fought between some of the Diadochi in 301 BC near the village of that name in Phrygia...
in 301 BC). The fame of Apollo Smintheus only increased following the synoecism, which rebuilt the temple, created a new festival in the god's honour, and featured Apollo Smintheus on its coins until the mid-3rd century AD. The Smintheum continued to appear on Roman and early mediaeval
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
itineraries such as the Tabula Peutingeriana
Tabula Peutingeriana
The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...
(4th or 5th century AD) and the Ravenna Cosmography
Ravenna Cosmography
The Ravenna Cosmography was compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around AD 700. It consists of a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland. Textual evidence indicates that the author frequently used maps as his source....
(7th or 8th century AD). It is therefore likely that the port at Beşiktepe was still used by pilgrims, even if the settlement of Hamaxitus had long since declined.
External links
- Smintheum at Livius.org