KEBREN in TROAS 400BC Satrap Zenis Monogram Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i52413

Item: i52413

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of

Troas
Bronze 8mm (0.67 grams) Struck circa 400-350 B.C.
Reference: Sear 4068; B.M.C.17.44,18-22
Youthful head of satrap (possibly Zenis) left, wearing traditional head-dress
and wreathed with laurel.
Large KE monogram.

An inland town, between Ilion and Antandros, Kebren was
abandoned at the end of the fourth century when its population was removed to
Alexandria Troas.

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Authenticity.

Cebrene (Ancient Greek:
Κεβρήνη), also spelled Cebren (Ancient Greek:
Κεβρήν), was a
ancient Greek
city in the middle
Skamander
valley in the
Troad
region of
Anatolia
. According to some scholars, the
city’s name was changed to Antiocheia in the Troad (Ancient Greek:
Ἀντιόχεια τῆς Τρωάδος) for a period
during the 3rd century BCE (see below). Its archaeological remains have been
located on Çal Dağ in the forested foothills of
Mount Ida
(modern Kaz Dağı), approximately 7 km
to the south of the course of the Skamander. The site was first identified by
the English amateur archaeologist
Frank Calvert
in 1860.

History

Foundation

The earliest Greek archaeological remains found at Cebren date to the mid-7th
and early 6th century BCE and were found together with indigenous pottery,
suggesting that to begin with the city was a mixed Greco-Anatolian community.
Writing in the early 4th century BCE,
Xenophon
implies that the population of Cebren
ca. 400 BCE still consisted of both Greek and Anatolian elements, indicating
that the two ethnic groups co-existed long after the period of
Greek colonization
. Sources dating to the
mid-4th century BCE considered the city an
Aeolian
Greek foundation, and the historian
Ephorus
of
Cyme
claimed that its founders were in fact
from his own city, although this statement needs to be treated with some
caution, since Ephorus was notorious in antiquity for exaggerating his
hometown’s importance. While we cannot ascertain the truth of Ephorus’
statement, we can be sure that the early settlers were Aeolians, since a grave
inscription for a citizen of Kebren written in the
Aeolic dialect
has been found at nearby
Gergis
.

Classical Period

In the 5th century BCE Cebren was a member of the
Delian League
and is listed in the
Hellespontine district paying a tribute to Athens of 3
Talents
from 454/3 down to 425/4, except in
450/49 when it only paid 8,700
drachmas
. Following the defeat of Athens at the
end of the
Peloponnesian War
in 404 BCE, Cebren came under
the control of Zenis, the tyrant of
Dardanus
, and his wife Mania who together
controlled the Troad on behalf of the Persian
satrap

Pharnabazos
. Cebren was captured by the
Spartan
commander
Dercylidas
in 399 BCE, but soon after returned
to Persian control. In 360/59, the Greek mercenary commander
Charidemus
briefly captured the city before
being repelled by the Persian satrap
Artabazos
. At some point in the 4th century BCE
Cebren produced coinage depicting a satrap’s head as the obverse type,
indicating the city’s close relationship with its Persian overlords. Cebren
ceased to exist as an independent city ca. 310 when
Antigonus I Monophthalmus
founded
Antigonia Troas
(after 301 BCE renamed
Alexandria Troas) and included Cebren in the
synoecism
.

Antiocheia in the
Troad

A rare series of bronze coins display the obverse and reverse types of Cebren
(ram’s head/head of Apollo), but bear the legend
Ἀντιοχέων (Antiocheōn, ‘(coin of the) Antiocheis’). On the basis
of these coins it has been argued, most notably by the French epigrapher
Louis Robert
, that Cebren was refounded by
Antiochus I Soter
as Antiocheia in the Troad
following Antiochus’ victory over
Lysimachus
at the
Battle of Corupedium
in 281 BCE, after which
most of western
Asia Minor
came under his control. Moreover,
Robert noted that some of these coins bore the letters B and K and included a
club beside the ram’s head: since the club is the typical symbol of the coinage
of
Birytis
, an unlocated city in the Troad, Robert
argued that these letters referred to B(irytis) and K(ebren) and were evidence
of a synoecism
or
sympoliteia
between the two communities
which had produced the new foundation of Antiocheia in the Troad. Robert’s
arguments have been repeatedly criticized by the archaeologist John Cook, who
could discern no archaeological or
numismatic
evidence for occupation in the
Hellenistic period at the site of Çal Dağ. It should be noted, however, that
Cook based these claims on only two days of
surface survey
at Çal Dağ, and as such
definitive answers regarding the settlement history of the site in the 3rd
century BCE will have to await a full excavation.