Greek city of Illyria-Dyrrhachium -
Silver 'Drachm' 17mm (2.6 grams)
Meniskos (Moneyer),
Dionysiou (Magistrate),
Class D5
Struck circa 208-48 B.C.
Obverse:
MENIΣKOΣ,
Cow right, calf left, eagle flying right above, dot
border.
Reverse:
ΔΥΡ-ΔIO-NY-ΣIOΥ, Straight,
double-stellate pattern, vertical single device line, tadpole device lines,
triple dots, line border.
The majority of the silver coins of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium
have a cow and suckling calf on the obverse and a double stellate pattern on the
reverse taken from Corcyrean prototypes. The cow/calf fertility symbol is of
Euboean origin. The symmetrical geometrical pattern is most probably a schematic
representation of the two stars of the Dioscuri.
Epidamnos, a colony of Corcyra founded c. 623 B.C., was the chief town of the
Dyrrhachii, in whose name its coins were issued. The Romans changed the name of
the place to Dyrrhachium, and it became the main port of arrival in Greece for
ships from Brundisium, in Italy.
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Authenticity.
The city was founded as Epidamnos in the ancient
region of Illyria
in
627 BC by
Greek[3]
colonists from
Corinth and
Corcyra. Its geographical position was highly advantageous, being situated
around a natural rocky harbour which was surrounded by inland swamps and high
cliffs on the seaward side, making the city very difficult to attack from either
land or sea. Epidamnos was noted for being a politically advanced society,
prompting the ancient philosopher
Aristotle[4]
to praise its political system in handling the barbarians. However,
Corinth and
Corcyra quarrelled over the city, helping to precipitate the
Peloponnesian War in
431 BC.Epidamnos
was seized by
Glaukias, a
Illyrian king, in
312 BC with the
help of the Greek
oligarchy.[5]
Later
Queen Teuta of Issa attacked
Epidamnus but withdrew when the Romans arrived the same year
229 BC and
expelled the Illyrian garrison from the city including it thereafter in their
protectorate. The Romans setup a Greek[6],
Demetrius of Pharos to rule over Teuta's kingdom but as client of Rome.[7]
He lost his kingdom in
219 BC at the
Second Illyrian War including Epidamnus to the Romans.In the
Third Illyrian War Epidamnus was attacked by
Gentius but
he was defeated by the Romans[8]
at the same year. The general vicinity of Epidamus was called Epidamnia.[9]
Roman
and Byzantine rule
After the
Illyrian Wars with the
Roman Republic in
229 BC ended in
a decisive defeat for the Illyrians the city passed to Roman rule, under which
it was developed as a major military and naval base. The Romans renamed it
Dyrrachium (Greek:
Δυρράχιον / Dyrrhachion). They considered the name Epidamnos to be
inauspicious because of its wholly coincidental similarities with the Latin word
damnum, meaning "loss" or "harm". The meaning of Dyrrachium ("bad
spine" or "difficult ridge" in Greek) is unclear but it has been suggested that
it refers to the imposing cliffs near the city.
Julius Caesar's rival
Pompey made a
stand there in 48 BC before fleeing south to
Greece. Under
Roman rule, Dyrrachium prospered; it became the western end of the
Via
Egnatia, the great
Roman road that led to
Thessalonica and on to
Constantinople. Another lesser road led south to the city of Buthrotum,
the modern
Butrint. The Roman emperor
Caesar Augustus
made the city a colony for veterans of his
legions
following the
Battle of Actium, proclaiming it a
civitas libera (free town).
In the 4th century AD, Dyrrachium was made the capital of the
Roman province of
Epirus nova. It was the birthplace of the emperor
Anastasius I in circa 430. Some time later that century, Dyrrachium
was struck by a powerful earthquake which destroyed the city's defences.
Anastasius I rebuilt and strengthened the city walls, thus creating the
strongest fortifications in the western Balkans. The 12m (36 ft)-high walls were
so thick that, according to the Byzantine historian
Anna
Komnene, four horsemen could ride abreast on them. Significant portions of
the ancient city defences still remain, although they have been much reduced
over the centuries.
Like much of the rest of the
Balkans,
Dyrrachium and the surrounding Dyrraciensis provinciae suffered
considerably from
barbarian
incursions during the
Migrations Period. It was besieged in 481 by
Theodoric the Great, king of the
Ostrogoths, and in subsequent centuries had to fend off frequent attacks by
the
Bulgarians. Unaffected by the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city continued under the
Byzantine Empire as an important port and a major link between the Empire
and western Europe.
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