Pontica Magazine

This paper presents an analysis of the use of the word ἠϊών in Greek literature from Homer to Byzantine time. The author reviews the many meanings of the word in various contexts and sets out the most important meaning of this in relation to low-lying seacoasts, sandbanks and peninsulas of the northern Black Sea.

The aim of this contribution is to present a synthetic but detailed exposition of the little historical evidence regarding the kingdoms of Hellenistic Thrace. The principal kingdoms attested in Thrace during the Hellenistic period are: the Celtic kingdom with capital at Tylis (Tyle), the Odrysian residual kingdom around Seuthopolis, the kingdom of Cabyle also probably related to the Odrysian, the principality of king Sadalas, the principality of Diegylis. The evidence concerning these kingdoms is very scanty. A special focus will be made on the most important epigraphical sources related to these events: the great Seuthopolis inscription, a fragmentary decree from Apollonia Pontica in which is mentioned Cotys, the Mesembrian decree for Sadalas that is an inscription whose date remains debatable. Also interesting are the relations in this period between Thrace and the most important Hellenistic kingdoms. Military campaigns were made in Thrace by the Seleucid kings, Antiochus II Theos and Antiochus III the Great. Also very intense was the military activity in Thrace of the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy III Evergetes. Later at the end of the third century BC the decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom under Ptolemy IV made possible an intervention policy of the Antigonid king Philip V in the area. Ample space will also be reserved to the analysis of the relations between Thracian kingdoms and the Hellenistic kingdom of Bithynia. Also in this case the evidence is quite small, but are really interesting the figures of Cavarus, king of the Celtic kingdom of Thrace, who acts as a mediator in the war between Prusias I and Byzantium and of Diegylis, Thracian chieftain who helps Prusias II in the civil war against his son Nicomedes II.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: one the one hand, it presents the results of a new systematic archaeological excavation that has been taking place since 2016 near the village of Neo Rysio, about 17 km south-southeast of Thessaloniki. The site, called “Trapeza of Neo Rysio – Kardia”, has until now yielded architectural remains and finds of several categories belonging to a settlement that was in use in Early Iron Age and the Archaic period. On the other hand, it attempts an approach to the well-known question of the time during which the regions to the East of the Axios River passed under Macedonian control. The reason for the latter is that the abandonment of the specific settlement, according to its finds so far, and the coming of the area under Macedonian control, according to the recent research, appear to have taken place in the same period.

The Karian dynast Olympichos was formerly said to be of Alinda, though more likely hailed from Mylasa. He entered the historical stage by expelling Ptolemaic garrisons from Mylasa around 244 BC. He acted as an official of Seleukos II (246–225), even though the king was distant and fighting to re-establish his own royal authority in Syria. Olympichos probably acknowledged Antiochos Hierax as king, when Seleukos ceded his brother the Anatolian territories in 242. As of 227, he began to cooperate with Antigonos Doson (229–222), when this one took over Karia. Olympichos maintained his pre-eminence also under Philip V (222–179). Soon after 220, we lose his traces in the historical record, except for a recently discovered inscription, which proves that he was still honoured in the later 2nd century BC. Besides his military and economic resources, his diplomatic skills permitted him to navigate smoothly between the demands of the (not always powerful) kings and queens on the one hand and the needs of the populace on the other. The purchase of estates from queen Laodike, the wife of Antiochos Hierax, probably around 242 and the grant of part of it to the sanctuary of Zeus Osogoa of Labraunda exemplify how he succeeded in establishing bonds of loyalty with the upper and lower levels.

This contribution presents some new artifacts produced in the Scythian animal style together with a casting mold that were found at Olbia Pontica. The items were used mainly as a decoration of a horse bridle and the details of armament in the late Archaic – early Classical time. The stylistic peculiarities demonstrate the usual images of Scythian origin and a specific combination of Ionian artistic tradition. A question of artisans and customers that used these items is discussed. The authors join the scholars who suggest their common use as armament decorations both by Olbian residents and barbarians and defend a point of view that some of them could be produced in the polis’ workshops by local, Ionian artists.

During recent excavation at Labraunda (Milas, Turkey) three fragmentary decorated lamps were discovered in two of the excavated sectors, East Bath and Water Pool. Although fragmentary, the lamps are among the few such finds on the site and thus far the only ones preserving decorations. Two of the pieces depict two different types of gladiators, while the third bears the head of Athena Promachos. Neither the types of lamps, nor the decorations are unique or uncommon in the Roman world, but they are for the site and its surroundings, raising a series of questions about the trade and use of lighting devices at Labraunda and its neighboring cities.

A small ivory rod decorated with geometrical patterns was unearthed during older excavations at Istros and it was published in 1989 by R. Florescu and I. Miclea as an „ivory hand for scratching”. This paper aims to reassess the role of this object which fits into the category of instrumenta domestica being a specific type of distaff known as “Fingerkunkeln”, “ring distaff” or under the more common name of “finger distaff”. On the basis of both the archaeological rich evidence of similar artefacts and the iconographic representations of such tools on the funerary reliefs in the ancient Roman world, it is hypothesised that finger distaffs were strongly connected in a symbolical way with spinning, being an indication of the high status and virtuosity of their owners, which were often buried with them.

The partial results of the GIS application developed for the archaeological site Histria are presented as introduction. The application comprises also a spatial data base of the tumular necropolis that is surrounding the area around the Greek and Roman site. A complete excavation report (2015) concerning one of the tumuli, named N-1-413, is also presented. This tumulus was situated in the center of the northern area of the Histrian tumular necropolis and the excavation of this mound is presented in extenso. The determined type of cremation is bustum, very spread at this time (2nd – 3rd c. AD) in Dobroudja, and the material discovered is typical for the tumuli with the same dating as those excavated in Histria and in the whole region.

There are many nagging questions in the field of Greco-Roman epigraphy. For perfectly good reasons, the question of what was written on the Trojan Horse is not, and never has been, one of them. While this may not be great loss in the academic pursuit of advancing actual historical knowledge, brief consideration, however, of this – admittedly seemingly absurd – question may prove to be of some interest in terms of our understanding of both Greco-Roman (!) epigraphic habits and cross-cultural translation(s).

Cet article reconsidère les procédures de contrôle des compétences à travers les exemples fournis par les missions diplomatiques, les médecins, enseignants, artistes et architectes ; avec toutes les précautions d’usage, il propose en outre une nouvelle interprétation pour le décret SIG 707

The significance of this dossier of Callatian inscriptions is not limited to the long period over which we can follow this Dionysian association. The synthesis of what these documents reveal or suggest, in their contexts, opens up a series of reflections that allow us to open up our horizons, to go beyond the known and repeated patterns, to inflect our interpretative reflexes: whether it be on the masculine rituality of the trietericfestivals, on the Bacchic initiation practiced by and for men, on the inflection of a divine component, which passes from epiclesis to autonomous figure – yet under the patronage of a Dionysus bearing another epiclesis -, on the very varied referents that underlie the Bacchic caves, between ephemeral airiness and permanence and monumentality with funerary referential, on the sharing of civic ritual tasks with an association, the thiasites of Callatis represent a crucial dossier that stimulates and opens up the research horizon.

În această lucrare, autorii își îndreaptă atenția asupra unei cetăți edificate în apropierea unuia dintre locurile importante de trecere a Dunării, din sud-estul României de astăzi. Aceasta a fost construită pe locul unei foste cetăți romane (numită Carsium), din a cărei suprafață suprapunea doar zona cea mai înaltă și bine fortificată natural. Ridicarea ei s-a făcut în contextul revenirii administrației bizantine în teritoriul delimitat pe trei părți de apele Dunării și Mării Negre, cunoscut cu numele de Dobrogea, după evenimentele din 971, lucrarea noastră aducând dovezi arheologice în acest sens. Mica fortificație bizantină, numită și „incinta mică”, avea rolul de a supraveghea teritoriile de peste Dunăre pentru a preîntâmpina pericolul potențialilor atacatori, precum și navigația și comerțul pe fluviu, constituind totodată, prin vadul din apropiere, „poarta” de intrare în Dobrogea.

The relief of the strategoi discovered in the Greek town of Mesambria on the west coast of the Euxeinos Pontos, IGBulg V 5103, has raised a number of questions. In this article, I take up the iconographic analysis of the scene in relation to the inscrip – tion engraved on the marble. I propose an identification of the ghostly figure, Hérotimos, also a strategos, mentioned in the inscription, but whose physical representation is missing. I put forward the hypothesis that he could be Heros Sosipolis, the dedicatee. The inscription on the relief could illustrate a decree discovered at Thasos, published by Jean Pouilloux in 1954, which stipulates that soldiers who died on the battlefield should be mentioned alongside the names of the polemarchs.

Der Aufsatz behandelt die seltenen Fälle von Gesandtschaften griechischer Städte an Statthalter anderer Provinzen als der eigenen. Betroffen sind die Statthalter der Provinzen Niedermoesien und Thrakien, bzw. Städte in der Provinz Pontus et Bithynia wie Byzantion, Herakleia Pontike und Kyzikos.

Olbia Pontica, together with slightly remote Berezan island settlement, is an unique city in the ancient Greek world: there are nearly 33 graffiti written in verse on table pottery (mainly shards) from the 6th–2nd centuries BC, which is a lager quantity than Athens has. Among them 26 inscriptions pertain to the 6th–5th centuries, and 7 other to the Hellenistic time. The used poetic meters are: 9 hexameters, 7 ionics, 3 paeans, one by one bacchius, iambic trimeter, trochaic tetrameter, dactylic tetrameter. The Olbians have strongly loved great poet Homer and his poems, owing to it the hexameter was prevailing. The themes of the verses are different, amongst them prevailing the drinking and love motifs – 12 graffiti, half of the total quantity. Among the other content types there are 3 comic verses, 2 theatre and choric actions, one by one dedicatory, sacral, obscene, gift inscriptions. The most important of all the ancient Greek written in verse graffiti is hymn of the 6th century to the sacral Olbian zone Hylaea and its gods, which includes 12 hexameter lines.

Dans l’abondant mobilier recueilli en 2017–2018 sur la péninsule de Constanţa, l’antique Tomis, ont récemment été reconnus quelques fragments inscrits appartenant au même vase ; il s’agit d’une kylix (or coupe-skyphos) à figures noires du groupe stylistique de Haimon, datable de 490–470 av. J.-C. Diverses parties du vase sont occupées par graffiti distincts. Ces graffiti varient par leurs contenus et comportent des informations utiles sur le vase-même aussi bien que sur ses manipulateurs, que ce soit le commerçant et le propriétaire, ou d’autres. Ils montrent donc une situation très rare et apportent de nouvelles données sur la distribution des vases attiques à Tomis et aussi sur la communauté grecque locale à une époque précoce de son existence.

This article focuses on an early Classical grave stele in the Sinop Archaeological Museum since 2013. The monument features a partially preserved figured scene in low relief and an inscription. The scene represents a seated figure interacting with a standing companion. The inscription records the passing of Mitris, the only son of Myndies, who died ‘unfairly’ during the grape harvest season. This temporal reference hints at the importance of viniculture in the socio-economic life of Sinope. Not only is this stele a valuable addition to the corpus of funerary monuments from Sinope, it also contributes to a broader discussion on the ambiguity of inscriptions and figured scenes on grave monuments.

Four inscriptions dating from the 4th century BC, found in Pantikapaion, Phanagoria, and Olbia, represent a small corpus attesting to the existence of contacts between Arkadia and the Greek cities on the North Pontic coast. The one found in Pantikapaion in 1829 – a fragmentary honorary decree of the Arkadians for Leukon I – was amply discussed in modern literature, whereas the others were only briefly examined in relation to it. Two main conflicting interpretations were advanced: either one or more bands of Arkadian mercenaries served Leukon I and honored him by erecting the inscription from Pantikapaion, or the Arkadian League that functioned in the 360s BC developed political and commercial ties with the Bosporan Kingdom and Olbia, probably centred on obtaining better conditions for the grain trade, which might explain the enactment of the honorary decree. A few additional epigraphic and historical remarks included in the present paper support the mercenary hypothesis. However, the wider perspective on the recruitment of foreign troops in the 4th century BC shows that the military ties between Bosporos and Arkadia could have been doubled by commercial ones, too.