AMPHIPOLIS Macedonia 168BC Rare Ancient Greek Coin GALLEY Ship Poseidon i24156

Item: i24156

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of Amphipolis in Macedonia
Bronze 18mm (4.16  grams) Struck circa 168-31 B.C.
Laureate head of Poseidon right.
AMФIΠO / AITΩN above and below forepart of galley
right.

* Numismatic Note: Very rare.

Founded by Athenians in 436 B.C. to protect their mining

interests in the north, Amphipolis surrendered to the Spartan general Brasidas

in 424. The city preserved its independence until 357 when it was captured by

Philip II, King of Macedon.

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Poseidon (Greek:

Ποσειδῶν
) was the god of the
sea,
and, as “Earth-Shaker,” of
earthquakes
in
Greek mythology
. The name of the sea-god
Nethuns
in
Etruscan
was adopted in

Latin
for
Neptune
in
Roman mythology
: both were sea gods analogous
to Poseidon. Linear B
tablets show that Poseidon was
venerated at Pylos
and
Thebes
in pre-Olympian
Bronze Age Greece
, but he was integrated into
the
Olympian gods
as the brother of

Zeus and Hades
. Poseidon has many children. There is a
Homeric hymn
to Poseidon, who was the protector
of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for
Athens
to
Athena
.

Amphipolis was an

ancient

Greek

city
in the

region once inhabited by the

Edoni
people in

the present-day

periphery

of

Central

Macedonia
. It was built on a raised plateau overlooking the east bank of the

river

Strymon

where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis, about 3 m. from the

Aegean Sea
.

Founded in 437 BC, the city was finally abandoned in the 8th century AD. The

present municipality Amfipoli, named after the ancient city, occupies the site.

Currently, it is a municipality in the

Serres

Prefecture
,

Central

Macedonia
with a population of 3,623 (2001 census).

 Origins

Archaeology

has uncovered remains at

the site dating to approximately 3000 BC. Due to the strategic location of the

site it was fortified from very early.

Xerxes I

of Persia

passed during his invasion of Greece of 480 BC and buried alive

nine young men and nine maidens as a sacrifice to the river god. Near the later

site of Amphipolis

Alexander I

of Macedon

defeated the remains of Xerxes’ army in 479 BC.

Throughout the 5th century BC,

Athens

sought to consolidate its control over Thrace, which was

strategically important because of its primary materials (the gold and silver of

the

Pangaion hills

and the dense forests essential for naval construction), and

the sea routes vital for Athens’ supply of grain from

Scythia
.

After a first unsuccessful attempt at colonisation in 497 BC by the

Miletian

Tyrant

Histiaeus
,

the Athenians founded a first colony at Ennea-Hodoi (‘Nine Ways’) in 465, but

these first ten thousand colonists were massacred by the

Thracians
.

A second attempt took place in 437 BC on the same site under the guidance of

Hagnon
, son of

Nicias
.

The new settlement took the name of Amphipolis (literally,

“around the city”), a name which is the subject of much debates about

lexicography

.

Thucydides

claims the name comes from the fact that the Strymon flows “around the city” on

two sides;

however a note in the Suda

(also given in the lexicon of

Photius

) offers a different explanation apparently given by

Marsyas
, son

of Periander
:

that a large proportion of the population lived “around the city”. However, a

more probable explanation is the one given by

Julius Pollux

: that the name indicates the vicinity of an

isthmus
.

Furthermore, the

Etymologicum Genuinum

gives the following definition: a city of the

Athenians or of Thrace, which was once called Nine Routes, (so named) because it

is encircled and surrounded by the Strymon river. This description corresponds

to the actual site of the city (see adjacent map), and to the description of

Thucydides.

Amphipolis subsequently became the main power base of the

Athenians in Thrace and, consequently, a target of choice for their

Spartans

adversaries. The Athenian population remained very much in the minority within

the city.

An Athenian rescue expedition led by strategist (and later historian) Thucydides

had to settle for securing

Eion and could not

retake Amphipolis, a failure for which Thucydides was sentenced to exile. A new

Athenian force under the command of

Cleon
failed once

more in 422 BC during a

battle

at which both Cleon

and Brasidas

lost their lives. Brasidas survived long enough to hear of the defeat of the

Athenians and was buried at Amphipolis with impressive pomp. From then on he was

regarded as the founder of the city

and honoured with yearly games and sacrifices. The city itself kept its

independence until the reign of the king

Philip

II
despite several other Athenian attacks, notably because of the government

of

Callistratus

of Aphidnae

.

 Conquest

by the Romans

In 357 BC, Philip removed the block which Amphipolis presented

on the road to Macedonian control over Thrace by conquering the town, which

Athens had tried in vain to recover during the previous years. According the

historian Theopompus

, this conquest came to be the object of a secret accord between

Athens
and

Philip II, who would return the city in exchange for the fortified town of

Pydna
, but the

Macedonian king betrayed the accord, refusing to cede Amphipolis and laying

siege to Pydna.

After the conquest by Philip II, the city was not immediately

incorporated into the kingdom, and for some time preserved its institutions and

a certain degree of autonomy. The border of Macedonia was not moved further

east; however, Philip sent a number of Macedonians governors to Amphipolis, and

in many respects the city was effectively ‘Macedonianized’. Nomenclature, the

calendar and the currency (the

gold stater
,

installed by Philip to capitalise on the gold reserves of the Pangaion hills,

replaced the Amphipolitan

drachma

) were all replaced by Macedonian equivalents. In the reign of

Alexander
,

Amphipolis was an important naval base, and the birthplace of three of the most

famous Macedonian

Admirals

: Nearchus

, Androsthenes^[6]

and

Laomedon

whose burial place is most likely marked by the famous lion of

Amphipolis.

Amphipolis became one of the main stops on the Macedonian

royal road (as testified by a border stone found between

Philippos

and Amphipolis giving the distance to the latter), and later on

the ‘Via

Egnatia’, the principal

Roman Road

which crossed the southern Balkans. Apart from the ramparts of

the low town (see photograph), the gymnasium and a set well-preserved frescoes

from a wealthy villa are the only artifacts from this period that remain

visible. Though little is known of the layout of the town, modern knowledge of

its institutions is in considerably better shape thanks to a rich epigraphic

documentation, including a military ordinance of

Philip V

and an

ephebarchic

law from the gymnasium. After the final victory of

Rome

over Macedonia in a

battle
in 168 BC,

Amphipolis became the capital one of the four mini-republics, or ‘merides’,

which were created by the Romans out of the kingdom of the

Antigonids

which

succeeded

Alexander’s Empire in Macedon. These ‘merides’ were gradually

incorporated into the Roman client state, and later province, of

Thracia
.

 Revival

in Late Antiquity

During the period of

Late Antiquity
,

Amphipolis benefited from the increasing economic prosperity of Macedonia, as is

evidenced by the large number of

Christian Churches

that were built. Significantly however, these churches

were built within a restricted area of the town, sheltered by the walls of the

acropolis
.

This has been taken as evidence that the large fortified perimeter of the

ancient town was no longer defendable, and that the population of the city had

considerably diminished.

Nevertheless, the number, size and quality of the churches

constructed between the fifth and sixth centuries are impressive. Four

basilicas

adorned with rich mosaic

floors and elaborate architectural sculptures (such as the ram-headed

column
capitals

– see picture) have been excavated, as well as a church with a hexagonal central

plan which evokes that of the

basilica

of

St. Vitalis

in

Ravenna
. It

is difficult to find reasons for such municipal extravagance in such a small

town. One possible explanation provided by the historian

André Boulanger

is that an increasing ‘willingness’ on the part of the

wealthy upper classes in the late Roman period to spend money on local

gentrification

projects (which he terms ‘’évergétisme’’,

from the Greek verb εύεργετέω,(meaning ‘I do good’) was exploited by the local

church to its advantage, which led to a mass gentrification of the urban centre

and of the agricultural riches of the city’s territory. Amphipolis was also a

diocese
under

the

suffragan

of

Thessaloniki

– the Bishop of Amphipolis is first mentioned in 533 AD.

 From

the reduction of the urban area to the disappearance of the city

The

Slavic invasions

of the late 6th century gradually encroached on the

back-country Amphipolitan lifestyle and led to the decline of the town, during

which period its inhabitants retreated to the area around the acropolis. The

ramparts were maintained to a certain extent, thanks to materials plundered from

the monuments of the lower city, and the large unused cisterns of the upper city

were occupied by small houses and the workshops of artisans. Around the middle

of the 7th century AD, a further reduction of the inhabited area of the city was

followed by an increase in the fortification of the town, with the construction

of a new rampart with pentagonal towers cutting through the middle of the

remaining monuments. The acropolis, the

Roman baths
,

and especially the Episcopal basilica were crossed by this wall.

The city was probably abandoned in the eighth century, as the

last bishop was attested in 787. Its inhabitants probably moved to the

neighbouring site of ancient

Eion, port of

Amphipolis, which had been rebuilt and refortified in the

Byzantine period

under the name “Chrysopolis”.

This small port continued to enjoy some prosperity, before being abandoned

during the

Ottoman period
.

The last recorded sign of activity in the region of Amphipolis was the

construction of a fortified tower to the north in 1367 by

Grand Primicier

Jean and the

Stratopedarque

Alexis to protect the land that they had given to the

monastery of Pantokrator on

Mount

Athos
.

 Archaeology

The site was rediscovered and described by many travellers and

archaeologists during the 19th century, including E. Cousinéry (1831)

(engraver), L. Heuzey (1861), and P. Perdrizet (1894–1899). In 1934, M. Feyel,

of the

École française d’Athènes

, led an

epigraphical

mission
to the site and uncovered the remains of a funeral lion (a

reconstruction was given in the,

a publication of the EfA which is available on line). However, excavations did

not truly begin until after the Second World War. The

Greek Archaeological Society

under D. Lazaridis excavated in 1972 and 1985,

uncovering a necropolis, the rampart of the old town (see photograph), the

basilicas, and the acropolis.

 Amphipolitans

• Demetrius of Amphipolis

  , student of

  Plato’s

• Zoilus

  (400 BC-320 BC), grammarian,

  cynic philosopher

• Pamphilus (painter)

  , head of

  Sicyonian

  school and teacher of

  Apelles

• Aetion

  , sculptor

• Philippus of Amphipolis

  , historian

• Nearchus

  , admiral

• Erigyius

  , general

• Damasias

   ^{[disambiguation}

  needed] of Amphipolis 320 BC

  Stadion

  Olympics

• Hermagoras of Amphipolis

  (c. 225

  BC), stoic philosopher ,follower of

  Persaeus

• Xena
  , the Warrior Princess of Amphipolis.