Sigeion
Encyclopedia
Sigeion was a Greek
city in the north-west of the Troad region of Anatolia
located at the mouth of the Scamander
(the modern Karamenderes River
). Sigeion commanded a ridge between the Aegean Sea
and the Scamander which is now known as Yenişehir and is a part of the Çanakkale
district in Çanakkale
province, Turkey
. The surrounding region was referred to as the Sigean Promonotory, which was frequently used as a point of reference by ancient geographers since it marked the mouth of the Hellespont. The outline of this promontory is no longer visible due to the alluvial activity of the Karamenderes which has filled in the embayment east of Yenişehir. The name 'Sigeion' means 'silent place' and is derived from Ancient Greek
(sigē), 'silence'; in Classical Antiquity
, the name was assumed to be antiphrastic
, i.e. indicating a characteristic of the place contrary to reality, since the seas in this region are known for their fierce storms.
from nearby Lesbos in the 8th or 7th century BC. Towards the end of the 7th century BC, the Athenians
sent the Olympic victor Phrynon to conquer Sigeion. According to tradition, Phrynon and the Mytilenaean aristocrat Pittacus fought a duel in which Pittacus won by outwitting his opponent by using a net. During this war the aristocrat and poet Alcaeus of Mytilene wrote several poems about the conflict in which he related how he had fled from battle, lost his shield, and endured the shame of the Athenians hanging it up as a trophy in their temple to Athena
. Most of these poems are lost except for a few lines, and it is thought that they constituted the major source of information about the conflict for writers in Classical Antiquity
.
The Athenians appealed to the Corinthian
tyrant Periander
to arbitrate between the two sides as to who should rightfully control Sigeion. Periander found in favour of Athens, accepting their argument that whereas they had taken part in the Trojan Wars and helped destroy nearby Ilion
, the Mytilenaeans were Aeolians
and so had only arrived in the region at a later date and therefore did not have the prior claim to the land. Two inscriptions written in Attic Greek
, dating to c. 575-550 BC, and attributed to Sigeion indicate that Athenians continued to live at Sigeion for the next half century. Archaeological remains at the Mytilenaean fort of Achilleion
7-8 km south of Sigeion indicate that throughout this period the Mytilenaeans maintained a hostile presence nearby, and in the 540s this resulted in Mytilene's recapture of Sigeion. The Athenian tyrant Peisistratus responded by recapturing Sigeion and making his illegitimate son Hegesistratus tyrant of the city. Sigeion remained important to the Peisistratids. after Peisistratos' son, Hippias, was banished from Athens in 510/9 BC, he spent his exile at Sigeion and minted coins which displayed the Athenian symbol of the owl and his own name as the legend.
period. The Sigeans were loyal allies whom we find praised by the Athenians in an inscription from either 451/0 and 418/17 BC, and throughout the 5th century Sigeion was a member of the Athenian run Delian League
. In the tribute assessments Sigeion belonged to the Hellespontine District, and in the tribute lists which survive Sigeion appears a total of 15 times between 450/49 and 418/17 BC; at the beginning of this period its tribute was a modest 1,000 drachmas, but by the end its tribute assessment had risen to 1 talent. According to the contemporary historian Theopompus
of Chios
, Sigeion was the favourite residence of the Athenian general Chares
, who spent time there in the late 340s and late 330s BC. The 4th century BC coinage of Sigeion may belong to the period of his rule (335-334 BC). Continuing links with Athens, indicated by Chares' relationship with Sigeion, are also evident from the iconography of this coinage, which displayed a head of Athena
on the obverse and an owl on the reverse. At some point in the 4th century BC (Aristotle
simply says , 'recently'), Sigeion became embroiled in a land dispute with the nearby island of Tenedos
to the south, although we know no further details.
took Sigeion by force when it refused to come over willingly from the side of Antigonus I Monophthalmus
. In 168 BC Sigeion sheltered the Macedonian fleet of Antigonus' descendant Perseus of Macedon
. At some point after this, Sigeion was abandoned: in the latter part of Augustus'
reign, the geographer Strabo
described Sigeion as , 'a city which has been torn down', and in the mid 1st century AD both Pomponius Mela
and Pliny the Elder
likewise referred to Sigeion as abandoned. However, references in later sources indicate that the promontory continued to be known as 'Sigeion' for many centuries to come.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
city in the north-west of the Troad region of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
located at the mouth of the Scamander
Scamander
In Greek mythology, Scamander was a river god, son of Oceanus and Tethys according to Hesiod. Scamander is also thought of as the river god, son of Zeus. By Idaea, he fathered King Teucer....
(the modern Karamenderes River
Karamenderes River
Karamenderes is the modern name of the river Scamander, along the lower course of which, according to the Iliad, the battles of the Trojan War were fought. It flows entirely within the Turkish province of Çanakkale....
). Sigeion commanded a ridge between the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
and the Scamander which is now known as Yenişehir and is a part of the Çanakkale
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....
district in Çanakkale
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....
province, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. The surrounding region was referred to as the Sigean Promonotory, which was frequently used as a point of reference by ancient geographers since it marked the mouth of the Hellespont. The outline of this promontory is no longer visible due to the alluvial activity of the Karamenderes which has filled in the embayment east of Yenişehir. The name 'Sigeion' means 'silent place' and is derived from Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
(sigē), 'silence'; in Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
, the name was assumed to be antiphrastic
Antiphrasis
An antiphrasis is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used to mean the opposite of its usual sense, especially ironically....
, i.e. indicating a characteristic of the place contrary to reality, since the seas in this region are known for their fierce storms.
Archaic
Sigeion was founded by the MytilenaeansMytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
from nearby Lesbos in the 8th or 7th century BC. Towards the end of the 7th century BC, the Athenians
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
sent the Olympic victor Phrynon to conquer Sigeion. According to tradition, Phrynon and the Mytilenaean aristocrat Pittacus fought a duel in which Pittacus won by outwitting his opponent by using a net. During this war the aristocrat and poet Alcaeus of Mytilene wrote several poems about the conflict in which he related how he had fled from battle, lost his shield, and endured the shame of the Athenians hanging it up as a trophy in their temple to Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
. Most of these poems are lost except for a few lines, and it is thought that they constituted the major source of information about the conflict for writers in Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
The Athenians appealed to the Corinthian
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
tyrant Periander
Periander
Periander was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC. He died in 585 BC....
to arbitrate between the two sides as to who should rightfully control Sigeion. Periander found in favour of Athens, accepting their argument that whereas they had taken part in the Trojan Wars and helped destroy nearby Ilion
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
, the Mytilenaeans were Aeolians
Aeolian
Aeolian or Eolian may refer to:* things related to Aeolus, the Greek God of wind or the patriarch of Greeks of Aeolia* Aeolian harp, a harp that is played by the wind* Aeolian processes, wind generated geologic processes...
and so had only arrived in the region at a later date and therefore did not have the prior claim to the land. Two inscriptions written in Attic Greek
Attic Greek
Attic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek". It is sometimes included in Ionic.- Origin and range...
, dating to c. 575-550 BC, and attributed to Sigeion indicate that Athenians continued to live at Sigeion for the next half century. Archaeological remains at the Mytilenaean fort of Achilleion
Achilleion (Troad)
Achilleion was a Greek city in the south-west of the Troad region of Anatolia. It has been located on a promontory known as Beşika Burnu about 8 km south of Sigeion. Beşika Burnu is 2 km south of the modern village of Yeniköy in the Ezine district of Çanakkale province, Turkey...
7-8 km south of Sigeion indicate that throughout this period the Mytilenaeans maintained a hostile presence nearby, and in the 540s this resulted in Mytilene's recapture of Sigeion. The Athenian tyrant Peisistratus responded by recapturing Sigeion and making his illegitimate son Hegesistratus tyrant of the city. Sigeion remained important to the Peisistratids. after Peisistratos' son, Hippias, was banished from Athens in 510/9 BC, he spent his exile at Sigeion and minted coins which displayed the Athenian symbol of the owl and his own name as the legend.
Classical
Sigeion maintained close relations with Athens throughout the ClassicalClassical Greece
Classical Greece was a 200 year period in Greek culture lasting from the 5th through 4th centuries BC. This classical period had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly influenced the foundation of Western civilizations. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, such as...
period. The Sigeans were loyal allies whom we find praised by the Athenians in an inscription from either 451/0 and 418/17 BC, and throughout the 5th century Sigeion was a member of the Athenian run Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
. In the tribute assessments Sigeion belonged to the Hellespontine District, and in the tribute lists which survive Sigeion appears a total of 15 times between 450/49 and 418/17 BC; at the beginning of this period its tribute was a modest 1,000 drachmas, but by the end its tribute assessment had risen to 1 talent. According to the contemporary historian Theopompus
Theopompus
Theopompus was a Greek historian and rhetorician- Biography :Theopompus was born on Chios. In early youth he seems to have spent some time at Athens, along with his father, who had been exiled on account of his Laconian sympathies...
of Chios
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
, Sigeion was the favourite residence of the Athenian general Chares
Chares of Athens
Chares and was an Athenian general, who for a number of years was a key commander of Athenian forces.-First campaigns:Chares, an Athenian general, is first mentioned in historical records in 367 BC, when he was sent to the aid of the city of Phlius. The city was hard pressed by the Arcadians and...
, who spent time there in the late 340s and late 330s BC. The 4th century BC coinage of Sigeion may belong to the period of his rule (335-334 BC). Continuing links with Athens, indicated by Chares' relationship with Sigeion, are also evident from the iconography of this coinage, which displayed a head of Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
on the obverse and an owl on the reverse. At some point in the 4th century BC (Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
simply says , 'recently'), Sigeion became embroiled in a land dispute with the nearby island of Tenedos
Tenedos
Tenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...
to the south, although we know no further details.
Hellenistic and Roman
In 302 BC King LysimachusLysimachus
Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.-Early Life & Career:...
took Sigeion by force when it refused to come over willingly from the side of Antigonus I Monophthalmus
Antigonus I Monophthalmus
Antigonus I Monophthalmus , son of Philip from Elimeia, was a Macedonian nobleman, general, and satrap under Alexander the Great. During his early life he served under Philip II, and he was a major figure in the Wars of the Diadochi after Alexander's death, declaring himself king in 306 BC and...
. In 168 BC Sigeion sheltered the Macedonian fleet of Antigonus' descendant Perseus of Macedon
Perseus of Macedon
Perseus was the last king of the Antigonid dynasty, who ruled the successor state in Macedon created upon the death of Alexander the Great...
. At some point after this, Sigeion was abandoned: in the latter part of Augustus'
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
reign, the geographer Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
described Sigeion as , 'a city which has been torn down', and in the mid 1st century AD both Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera and died c. AD 45.His short work occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print. It is laconic in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
likewise referred to Sigeion as abandoned. However, references in later sources indicate that the promontory continued to be known as 'Sigeion' for many centuries to come.