Greek city of Amisos in Pontus Pseudo-Autonomous Issue Time of Hadrian – Roman Emperor: 117-138 A.D. Bronze 17mm (2.60 grams) Struck circa 117-138 A.D. Reference: RPC 1261 (4 specimens) ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ, Helmeted bust of Athena right. ΕΤΟΥϹ ΡΞΕ, River god reclining left.
In mythology, Amisos was believed to be the original settlement of the Amazons. It was originally founded by Greeks from the cities of Phokaia and/or Miletos in circa 560 B.C. It was a flourishing Greek city on the Black Sea coast commanding an important trade route to the south. Amisos was under the control of the Achaemenid Empire, then re-settled by Athenians in the following century and they renamed the place Peiraeus. In subsequent times it played important historical roles as a city of the Kingdom of Bosporus. It was given the status of a free city under the Romans.
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Athena or Athene (Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in Greek mythology. Minerva, Athena’s Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians built the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos). Athena’s cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias (“Athena of the city”). Athens and Athena bear etymologically connected names.
River-gods were represented often on Greek, Greek Imperial (Roman Provincial) and Roman Imperial coins, as a personification of a river that flowed through that area, as it was an important feature of a city. The coins of the Roman Republic do not have any representations of river gods. Some river gods represented on ancient coins were that of the Tiber, Nile, Danube and many more. River gods on ancient Roman coins are most often depicted on Roman provincial issues (another term for Greek Imperial). There are also Greek coins that depicted personifications of river-gods usually as the head of that god. On Greek Imperial coins, the river-god is usually depicted reclining, holding reeds, and leaning on over-turned jug from which water flows.
Samsun is a city in northern Turkey, on the coast of the Black Sea, with a population of over 1 million. It is the capital city of Samsun Province and an important port. Samsun was founded as the colony Amisos (alternative spelling Amisus, Eis Amison – meaning to amisos took the name Samsunta or Samsus (Eis Amison – Samson – Samsounta) as in Greek + ounta “Greek toponomical suffix”. ) by settlers from Miletus in the 7th century BC.
History
Samsun’s original name was Enete (from Hitits.) Samsun’s ideal combination of fertile ground and shallow waters attracted numerous traders. Greek colonists settled in the 6th century BC and established a flourishing trade relationship with the ancient peoples of Anatolia. At that time, Samsun was part of the Greek colony of Amisus. In the 3rd century BC, Samsun came under the expanded rule of the Kingdom of Pontus. The Kingdom of Pontus had been part of the empire of Alexander the Great. However, the empire was fractured soon after Alexander’s death in the 4th century BC. At its height, the kingdom controlled the north of central Anatolia and mercantile towns on the northern Black Sea shores.
The Romans took over in 47 BC, and were replaced by the Byzantines after the fall of Rome. In 1200 Samsun was captured by the Seljuks, to be later taken over by the İlhanlılar. Samsun was incorporated into the network of Genoese trading posts and was taken by the Ottomans in the beginning of the 15th century. Before leaving, the Genoese razed the town.
Atatürk founded the Turkish republic movement at Samsun and it served as its base during the Turkish War of Independence.
For more details on this topic, see Turkish War of Independence.
The city is both an Eastern Orthodox and a Roman Catholic titular see.
Geography
Samsun is situated between two river deltas which jut into the Black Sea. It is located at the end of an ancient route from Cappadocia: the Amisos of antiquity lay on the headland northwest of the modern city. To Samsun’s west, lies the Kızılırmak (“Red River”, the Halys of antiquity), one of the longest rivers in Anatolia and its fertile delta. To the east, lie the Yeşilırmak (“Green River”, the Iris of antiquity) and its delta.
Pontus is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Pontos Euxeinos (“Hospitable Sea”), or simply Pontos. Having originally no specific name, the region east of the river Halys was spoken of as the country Ἐν Πόντῳ En Pontōi, “on the [Euxeinos] Pontos”, and hence it acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon’s Anabasis. The extent of the region varied through the ages but generally extended from the borders of Colchis (modern Georgia) until well into Paphlagonia in the west, with varying amounts of hinterland. Several states and provinces bearing the name of Pontus or variants thereof were established in the region in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, culminating in the late Byzantine Empire of Trebizond. Pontus is sometimes considered as the home of the Amazons, with the name Amazon used not only for a city (Amasya) but for all of Pontus in Greek mythology.
Pontus became important as a bastion of Byzantine Greek and Greek Orthodox civilization and attracted Greeks from all backgrounds (scholars, traders, mercenaries, refugees) from all over Anatolia and the southern Balkans, from the Classical and Hellenistic periods into the Byzantine and Ottoman. These Greeks of Pontus are generally referred to as Pontic Greeks.
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