Greek city of Kyzikos (Cyzicus) in Mysia
Bronze 27mm (11.1 grams) Struck circa (2nd-1st centuries) 200-50 B.C.
Reference: Klein 271; SNG von Aulock 1242; Fritze 37
Wreathed head of Kore Soteira to right.
ΚΥΖΙ-ΚΗΝΩΝ Tripod; above, laurel wreath; below, torch; to outer left, monogram.

Kyzikos (Cyzicus), one of the most ancient and powerful of the Greek cities in Asia Minor, stood upon an island of the same name in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara). This island, the earlier name of which was Arctonesus, lay close to the shore of Mysia, to which it was united by two bridges, and afterwards (under Alexander the Great) by a mole, which accumulated to a considerable isthmus. The city of Kyzikos stood on the south side of the island, at the north end of the isthmus, on each side of which it had a port. Tradition ascribed the foundation of the city to Doliones, a tribe of Thessalian Pelasgians, who had been driven from their homes by the Aeolians (people of Aeolis). It was said to have been afterwards colonized by Milesians. It was one of the finest cities of the ancient world, for the beauty of its situation and magnificence of its buildings: it possessed an extensive commerce, and was celebrated for the excellence of its laws and government. Its staters were among the most esteemed gold coins current in Greece. It took no conspicous place in history until about 22 years after the peace of Antalcidas, which it made itself independent of the Achaemenid empire. It preserved its freedom under Alexander and his successors, and was in alliance with the kings of Pergamon, and afterwards with the Romans. Its celebrated resistance against Mithradates the Great, when he besieged it by sea and land (B.C. 75), was of great service to the Romans, and obtained for it the rank of a “libera civitas,” which it lost again under Tiberius. Under Constantine the Great it became the chief city of the new province of Hellespontus. It was greatly injured by an earthquake in 443 A.D., and finally ruined by its conquest by the Arabians in 675.

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Cyzicus or Kyzikos was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula (the classical Arctonnesus), a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic times either by artificial means or an earthquake.

The site of Cyzicus, located on the Erdek and Bandırma roads, is protected by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture.

History

    See also: Siege of Cyzicus

The city was said to have been founded by Pelasgians from Thessaly, according to tradition at the coming of the Argonauts; later it received many colonies from Miletus, allegedly in 756 BC, but its importance began only after the Peloponnesian War, when the decay of Athens and Miletus set in. Alcibiades defeated the Lacedaemonians there (410 BC). Eudoxus of Cnidus had a school at Cyzicus and went with his pupils to Athens, visiting Plato, and then returned to Cyzicus, where he died 355 B.C. The era of Olympiads in Cyzicus was reckoned from 135 or 139.

Owing to its advantageous position it speedily acquired commercial importance, and the gold staters of Cyzicus were a staple currency in the ancient world till they were superseded by those of Philip of Macedon. Its unique and characteristic coin, the cyzicenus, was worth 28 drachmae.

During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) Cyzicus was subject to the Athenians and Lacedaemonians alternately. In the naval Battle of Cyzicus in 410 during the Peloponnesian War, an Athenian fleet routed and completely destroyed a Spartan fleet. At the peace of Antalcidas (387 BC), like the other Greek cities in Asia, it was made over to Persia. Alexander the Great later captured it from the Persians in 334 BC and was later claimed to be responsible for the land bridge connecting the island to the mainland.

The history of the town in Hellenistic times is closely connected with that of the Attalids of Pergamon, with whose extinction it came into direct relations with Rome. Cyzicus was held for the Romans against King Mithridates VI of Pontus who besieged it with 300,000 men in 74 BC, but it withstood him stoutly, and the siege was raised by Lucullus: the loyalty of the city was rewarded by an extension of territory and other privileges. The Romans favored it and recognized its municipal independence. Cyzicus was the leading city of Northern Mysia as far as Troas.

Under Tiberius, it was incorporated into the Roman Empire but remained the capital of Mysia (afterwards, Hellespontus) and became one of the great cities of the ancient world.

Cyzicus was captured temporarily by the Arabs led by Muawiyah I in AD 675. It appears to have been ruined by a series of earthquakes beginning in 443, with the last in 1063. Although its population was transferred to Artake before the 13th century when the peninsula was occupied by the Crusaders, in 1324 the metropolitan of Cyzicus was one of three sees in Anatolia which was able to contribute a temporary annual subsidy to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Following its conquest by the Ottomans it underwent hard times. From a point between 1370 and 1372 until 1387, the metropolitan was empty; Speros Vryonis speculates this was due to financial difficulties. Later in the 14th century, the sees of Chalcedon and certain patriarchal possessions in Bithynia and Hellespont were bestowed on the metropolitan of Cyzicus.

In the Ottoman era, it was part of the kaza of Erdek in the province of Brusa.