@article{article_318450, title={Beiträge zur kleinasiatischen Münzkunde und Geschichte 13-14}, journal={Gephyra}, volume={14}, pages={23–100}, year={2017}, DOI={10.37095/gephyra.318450}, author={Nollé, Johannes}, keywords={Abydos (Çanakkale),Aineias,Büyük İskender,Antandros (Troas),Arrianos (tarihçi),astragaloi,Blücher (Prusyalı general),Caesar,Caracalla,Elaious (Trakya Khersonesos’u),Yunan İmparatorluk sikkeleri,Hellespontos,Hephaistos,Homeros,Iudicium Paridis,Kybele}, abstract={<p class="MsoNormal"> <b> <i>13. Abydos – where
Alexander started his campaign against the Persians </i> </b> </p> <p> <b> </b> </p> <b> </b> <p class="MsoNormal">Between AD 177/8 and the reign of the emperor Maximinus
Thrax (235-238) the city of Abydos in the Troad (modern Çanakkale), situated on
the Asian shore of the Hellespont, minted five emissions of medallions with a
very interesting reverse image. In the centre of this picture, that may have
used a painting as a template, an armoured man is shown with a spear in his
left hand. Surrounded by two other combatants he stands on the deck of a
vessel, whose stem is decorated with the helmeted head of the goddess Athena.
The central male figure waves with his right hand, probably as a command to
other ships to follow him. Another significantly smaller vessel, manned by a
single warrior who represents the whole crew  <i>pars pro toto </i>, is
depicted in front of the commander’s ship. We may conclude that the commander’s
order is obeyed. In the background of the coin image a trumpeter stands on a
tower, obviously giving the signal for departure. </p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The interpretation of this coin image has been long debated.
Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer, guided by the coin legends, which were misread as
ΛOVKOVΛΛΟC, considered that the coin might depict Sulla and Lucullus crossing
the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos in the year 86 BC, but he was finally
unconvinced by this proposal. In 2001 Italo Vecchi, without discussing
Imhoof-Blumer’s interpretation, suggested that the scene on the Abydos
medallions should be interpreted as Alexander the Great crossing the Hellespont
in 334 BC. His proposal was not accepted by Carsten Dahmen, who discussed the Abydos
coin image in his book on Greek and Roman coins depicting Alexander, although
he was unable to refute Vecchi’s interpretation. </p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Arrian of Nikomedeia, our best source for Alexander’s
campaign against the Persians, tells us that Alexander went from Sestos to the
top of the Thracian Chersonesos and crossed over from Elaious to the Asian
shore. This may discourage us from accepting Italo Vecchio’s explanation, but
Arrian’s account includes the observation that different versions of the story
of Alexander crossing the Hellespont circulated, and that the story describing
the crossing from Elaious, which he followed himself, was the version most
commonly adopted by Alexander’s historians. However, other traditions clearly
existed, and we should conclude that one of them related the circumstances
which were depicted on the Abydos medallions.  According to this version
Alexander and his army must have crossed the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos.
After leaving the harbour in Sestos, the expedition sailed southwards to the
tower of Hero, where Strabo writes that the force of the stream directs the
ships to the opposite shore near Abydos. Alexander was the first to land and
threw his spear into Asian soil to claim it as his δορύκτητος χώρα (‘spear-won
territory’). The people of Abydos may have decided to mint these medallions,
illustrating their central role in this tradition, around/on the 500 <sup>th </sup> anniversary
of Alexander’s crossing, in response to the publication of Arrian’s Anabasis. </p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Abydos’ historical link with the start of Alexander’s
Persian campaign in Asia was a very important aspect of the city’s identity.
Other cities of Asia Minor, including Apollonia Mordiaion and Sagalassos, also
claimed a special relationship with the Macedonian king. Especially at times when
Roman emperors led campaigns against the Iranians (Persians?), identifying
themselves as new Alexanders, it was beneficial for a city like Abydos to
accentuate its role as the point of departure for Alexander the Great’s
world-changing campaign. The traditional view of the Hellespont as the border
between Europe and Asia also served to define this military operation as a
historic turning-point. Thus the image on the Abydos medallions should be
interpreted in the same way as paintings depicting Caesar crossing the Rubicon,
Washington crossing the Delaware, Blücher crossing the Rhine, or Napoleon’s
traverse of the Alps and the Neman (Memel). </p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b> <i>14. Antandros,
a city at the southern foothills of Mt. Ida:  a coin illustrating a scene
from Virgil’s Aeneid and the city’s tutelary goddess </i> </b> </p> <p> <b> </b> </p> <b> </b> <p class="MsoNormal">Antandros was a small town in the southern foothills of
Mount Ida in the eastern part of the Troad. The literary tradition about the
city is scarce, and only a few inscriptions have come down to us. We may hope
that the Turkish excavations, which started in 2001, will enhance our
knowledge. However, we can also gain new information about the city by bringing
a nearly unexploited kind of evidence into the discussion, the city’s coins.
This helps to create a sha}, publisher={Nalan Eda AKYÜREK ŞAHİN}