Greek city in Mysia - Quasi-Autonomous Issue under the Romans
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Bronze 16mm (2.5 grams) Struck circa 60-150 A.D.
Youthful draped bust of the Roman Senate right.
Draped bust of Artemis right, bow and quiver at shoulder.
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Mysia (Greek:
Μυσία) was a region in the northwest of
ancient Asia Minor or
Anatolia
(part of modern
Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the
Sea
of Marmara. It was bounded by
Bithynia on
the east, Phrygia
on the southeast,
Lydia on the south,
Aeolis on the
southwest, Troad
on the west and by the
Propontis on the north. In ancient times it was inhabited by the
Mysians,
Phrygians,
Aeolian Greeks,
and other groups.
Geography
The precise limits of Mysia are difficult to assign. The Phrygian frontier
was fluctuating, while in the northwest the
Troad was only
sometimes included in Mysia. The northern portion was known as Lesser Phrygia
or Phrygia Minor (Greek:
μικρὰ Φρυγία) or , while the southern was
called Major or Pergamene. Mysia was in later times also known as
Phrygia Hellespontica (Ἑλλησποντιακὴ
Φρυγία, "Hellespontine
Phrygia") or Phrygia Epictetus (ἐπίκτητος
Φρυγία, "acquired Phrygia"), named so by the
Attalids when they annexed the region to the
Kingdom of Pergamon.[1]
Land
and elevation
The chief physical features of Mysia are the two
mountains—Mount
Olympus at (7600 ft) in the north and Mount Temnus in the south, which for
some distance separates Mysia from
Lydia and is
afterwards prolonged through Mysia to the neighbourhood of the Gulf of
Adramyttium. The major rivers in the northern part of the province are the
Macestus and its tributary, the Rhyndacus, both of which rise in
Phrygia, and,
after diverging widely through Mysia, unite their waters below the lake of
Apolloniatis about 15 miles (24 km) from the Propontis. The
Caïcus in the south rises in Temnus, and from thence flows westward to the
Aegean Sea,
passing within a few miles of
Pergamon.
In the northern portion of the province are two considerable lakes, Artynia, or
Apolloniatis (Abulliont Geul), and Aphnitis (Maniyas Geul), which discharge
their waters into the Macestus from the east and west respectively.
Cities
in Mysia
The most important cities were Pergamon in the valley of the Caïcus, and
Cyzicus on
the Propontis. The whole sea-coast was studded with Greek towns, several of
which were places of considerable importance; thus the northern portion included
Parium,
Lampsacus
and
Abydos, and the southern
Assos,
Adramyttium. Further south, on the Eleatic Gulf, were
Elaea,
Myrina and
Cyme.
History
A minor episode in the
Trojan War
cycle in
Greek mythology has the Greek fleet land at Mysia, mistaking it for
Troy.
Achilles
wounds their king,
Telephus,
after he slays a Greek; Telephus later pleads with
Achilles to
heal the wound. This coastal region ruled by Telephus is alternatively named
Teuthrania in Greek mythology, and was previously ruled by a King Teuthras. In
the Iliad,
Homer represents
the Mysians as allies of Troy, with the Mysian forces led by
Ennomus (a
prophet) and
Chromius, sons of Arsinous. Homeric Mysia appears to have been much smaller
in extent than historical Mysia, and did not extend north to the Hellespont or
the Propontis. Homer does not mention any cities or landmarks in Mysia, and it
is not clear exactly where Homeric Mysia was situated, although it was probably
located somewhere between the
Troad (to the
northwest of Mysia) and Lydia/Maeonia (to its south).
There are a number of Mysian inscriptions in a dialect of the
Phrygian language, in a variant of the
Phrygian alphabet. There are also a small number of references to a
Lutescan language indigenous to Mysia in
Aeolic
Greek sources[2].
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