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Greek city of
Klazomenai in
Ionia
Bronze 11mm (1.67 grams) Struck circa 380-360 B.C.
Aristobos, magistrate
Reference: Sear 4330 var. (magistrate); SNG München 492-494 var.
(same); SNG Copenhagen 74-84 var. (same)
Head of Athena three-quarter face to right, wearing triple-crested helmet.
Ram walking right; fly before; magistrate’s name, APIΣΤΟΒΟΥ
above.
Situated on the southern shores
of the Gulf of Smyrna, Klazomenai was the birthplace of the philosopher
Anaxagoras.
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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.
Klazomenai (also spelled Clazomenae,
Greek
:
Κλαζομεναί
, modern-day Kilizman in
Urla
near İzmir
in
Turkey
) was an
ancient Greek city of Ionia
and a member of the
Ionian Dodecapolis
(Confederation of Twelve Cities), it was one of the first
cities to issue silver coinage.
//
Map of Aegean side of Anatolia showing the location of Klazomenai
Klazomenai is located in modern Urla (Vourla in Greek) on the western
coast of Anatolia
, on the southern coast of the
Gulf
of İzmir
, at about 20 miles west of İzmir. The city was originally located
on the mainland, but probably during the early fifth-century
Ionian Revolt
from the
Persians
, it was moved to an island just off the coast, which
Alexander the Great
eventually connected to the mainland with a causeway.
The location of the city-around a harbour, backed by a coastal plain and low
hills to the south provided a number of locations for settlement, and as such,
settlements did shift from location to location over time. This can be shown by
the island of Karantina, located to the north of the settlement area-which
became settled at certain points in the history of Klazomenai.
Mythology
The principal god of the city was
Apollo
.
According to myth, swans drew the chariot in which Apollo every year flew south
from his winter home in the land of the
Hyperboreans
. But Klazomenai was also home to large numbers of swans, and it
is thought that the verb klazo was used to describe the call of the wild
birds. The swan on the obverse is both an attribute of
Apollo
and a
pun on the name Klazomenai.
Ancient
times
Though not in existence before the arrival of the
Ionians
in
Asia, its original founders were largely settlers from
Phlius
and
Cleonae
. It
stood originally on the
isthmus
connecting the mainland with the peninsula on which
Erythrae
stood; but the inhabitants, alarmed by the encroachments of the
Persians
, removed to one of the small islands of the bay, and there
established their city. This island was connected with the mainland by
Alexander the Great
by means of a pier, the remains of which are still
visible.
During the 5th century it was for some time subject to the
Athenians
, but
about the middle of the
Peloponnesian War
(412 BC) it revolted. After a brief resistance, however,
it again acknowledged the Athenian supremacy, and repelled a
Lacedaemonian
attack. In 387 BC Klazomenai and other cities in Asia were
taken over by
Persia
, but the city continued to issue its own coins.
Under the Romans Clazomenae was included in the province of Asia, and enjoyed
an immunity from
taxation
.
Klazomenai is today perhaps best-known as the birthplace of the philosopher
Anaxagoras
,
often styled "Anaxagoras of Clazomenae".
Archaeology
The site of Liman Tepe, which lies near an old harbor contains very important
Bronze Age excavations, the most prominent and remarkable of which is the amount
of varying archaic burial sites, as well as evidence of the practises associated
with them close by. One possible explanation for this is that these sites were
used by different social groups within society.
The city was famous for production and exports of olive oil and its painted
terracotta
sarcophagi
, which are the finest monuments of Ionian painting in the 6th
century BC.
It was also prized for its variety of
garum
.
Ancient
olive press
Olive oil extraction
installation (işlik) dating back to the third
quarter of the 6th century BC uncovered in Klazomenai is the only surviving
example of a level and weights press from an ancient Greek city and precedes by
at least two centuries the next securely datable earliest presses found in
Greece. It
was restored and reconstructed in 2004-2005 through collaboration between
Ege
University
, a Turkish olive-oil exporter and a
German
natural building components company, as well as by local artisans, on the basis
of the clearly visible
millstone
with a cylindrical roller and three separation pits. The olive oil obtained
turned out to be quite a success in business terms as well.
Financial
pioneers
In an event noted by
Aristotle
,
Klazomenians also appear as financial pioneers in
economic history
, for having used one
commodity
(olive oil), in an organized manner and on a city-scale, to purchase
another (wheat), with
interests
refundable on the value of the first. Around 350 B.C., suffering
from a shortage of grain and scarcity of funds, the rulers of the city passed a
resolution calling on citizens who had stores of olive oil to lend to the city
at interest. The loan arranged, they hired vessels and sent them to ports of
exportation of grain and bought a
consignment
on the pledged security of the value of the oil.
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