Nagidos was an ancient city of Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...

 near modern Bozyazı

Bozyazi

Bozyazı is a town and district of Mersin Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, west of the city of Mersin.-Geography:Bozyazı is a remote coastal district with the Taurus Mountains as a backdrop; The roads over the mountains or along the coast from either direction are very difficult to...

, at the mouth of the Sini Cay (Bozyazı Dere), ca. 20 km east of Anamur

Anamur

Anamur is a town and district of the province of Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, between Antalya and the city of Mersin.Anamur is Turkey's southernmost point, a coastal resort famous for its bananas and peanuts.-Etymology:...

 in Mersin Province

Mersin Province

The Mersin Province is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital is the city of Mersin and the other major town is Tarsus, birthplace of St Paul...

 in south Turkey. The site was discovered by Rudolf Heberdey and Adolf Wilhelm. In the 1930s a Swedish expedition carried out explorations. In 1986 the museum of Anamur discovered 24 graves, the oldest dating back to the fifth century BC. Nagidos, like Kelenderis, was a colony of Samos

Samoš

Samoš is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Kovačica municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 1,247 people .-See also:...

. In 333 it was conquered by Alexander the Great.

From the end of the fifth century BC, the town minted stater

Stater

The stater was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece.-History:The stater is mostly of Macedonian origin. Celtic tribes brought it in to Europe after using it as mercenaries in north Greece. It circulated from the 8th century BC to 50 AD...

s that had both 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...

 and Aramaic

Aramaic language

Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...

 inscriptions, one of which bears the name of the Persian satrap

Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....

 Pharnabazus. The Nagidos mint used a grape cluster as a symbol 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...

.

The small island of Nagidoussa is opposite Nagidos; on it are the ruins of an 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...

fortress.

Literature

• C. P. Jones/J. Russell, "Two New Inscriptions from Nagidos in Cilicia." Phoenix 47/ 4, 1993, 293-304.
• R. Heberdey/A. Wilhelm, Reisen in Kilikien 1891-1892 (Wien 1896, Denkschriften Wien 44/6), 158-159.
• W. Ruge, "Nagidos." RE 16.1, 1935, 1582-83.
• Ph. Lederer, "Die Staterprägung der Stadt Nagidos." Zeitschrift für Numismatik 41, 1931, 153-276.