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Dioscurias/Sevastopol

Συγγραφή : Stefanidou Vera (12/9/2001)
Μετάφραση : Velentzas Georgios

Για παραπομπή: Stefanidou Vera, "Dioscurias/Sevastopol",
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11216>
Διοσκουριάς / Σεβαστόπολις - δεν έχει ακόμη εκδοθεί Dioscurias/Sevastopol (23/12/2010 v.1) 
 

1. Identification

Dioscurias (Dioscorias or Dioscuris) is related to the city of Sokhum of Abkhazia, Georgia. A Greek settlement was identified due to the discovery of a Greek funerary stele1 and cremations of the Classical and the Hellenistic periods, found on the outskirts of the modern city.

Some support that Dioscurias is identified with Sokhum, others believe that it is located in its harbour, while others that it has sunk. The city was situated on the estuary of the River Anthemus, to the north of Colchis and to the northwest of the Phasis River. In Antiquity, it was considered as one of the easternmost sites of the Black Sea.2 The city is connected with the Argonauts, since it seems to have been named after the Dioscuri, who participated in the Argonautic expedition. It is possible that there was a local cult of the Dioscuri in the city. Is has also been proposed, though without convincing evidence, that the name of the city is derived from a similar non-Greek local word. Dioscurias was founded by the Milesians (circa 540 BC) and was a key trading centre until the 3rd c. AD. In the Roman and Byzantine periods, the city must have been identified with Sebastoupolis/Sevastoplol.3

2. History

Dioscurias was an ancient Greek colony, perhaps on the site of a much earlier Greek trading centre.4 The city was in full swing in the 3rd c. BC, when clashes broke out between the locals and the Greek population. In the early 1st c. BC, the city was included in the Kingdom of Pontus, while Mithridates VI sought shelter there in his attempt to escape from the Romans (66-65 BC),5 given that Dioscurias was his ally in that war. That was the main reason why the city became so autonomous that it minted its own coins. After the fall of the Mithridatic Kingdom, the Romans ceded Dioscurias and the wider region of Colchis to local rulers. Kings Polemon I and Polemon II, as well as Queen Pythodoris, must have possessed the region until 79 AD. In the early 2nd c. AD it was under Roman control and was renamed Sevastopol (the respectful city) in honor of Emperor Octavian. Possibly Appian, the Roman governor of Cappadocia, controlled the region as far as Dioscurias, which was surrounded by a wall and a moat at least in the years of Emperor Hadrian (117-138).6 The Romans also ruled the nearby semi-wild and semi-autonomous tribes. Dioscurias was founded in the land of the Colchic tribe of the Sanigoi, whose kings drew strength from the Roman Emperor. The city survived in the Byzantine period.

3. Economy

Excavations in settlements around Sokhum brought to light a large number of pottery, utensils, agricultural tools and weapons.

Some of them were manufactured by local workshops. Lots of amphoras bear the inscribed stamp ΔΙΟΣ-ΚΟΥ on their handles, an abbreviation of the word “Dioscurias” (mid-3rd c. BC). The amphoras are clearly influenced by Sinope and Heraclea, and their production is considered as the result of the Greek influence on the economy and art of the eastern Black Sea.

Other archaeological findings include products imported from Athens, Thasos (5th-4th c. BC) and Chios. Greek objects as well as the numismatic evidence indicate the close relations between the city and the Greek mainland. For centuries, the Aegean was supplied by the Black Sea with food, slaves and certain eastern products carried with caravans from Asia to the Black Sea. The mainland route from the Caucasus ended in the cities of Phasis and Dioscurias. However, at the same time, the city was a key trading centre serving the neighboring Caucasian tribes. Its significance as a trading centre for a large number of peoples is evidenced by the seventy languages –or three hundred or, according to others, a hundred and thirty– languages spoken in the city market.7

1. Lordkipanidze, O.D., “Monuments of Graeco-Roman Culture on the Territory of Ancient Georgia”, Archeologia 17 (1966-1967), pp. 52-58. For a later bibliography on the archaeological findings, see Gabelia, A.N., "Dioscurias" in Grammenos, D.V.-Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea, Vol. 2, (Publications of the Archaeological Institute of Northern Greece, Nr. 4, Thessaloniki 2003), p. 1229, n. 64-67.

2. For relevant bibliography and more recent conclusions, see Gabelia, A.N., "Dioscurias" in Grammenos, D.V.-Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea, Vol. 2, (Publications of the Archaeological Institute of Northern Greece, Nr. 4, Thessaloniki 2003), pp.1215-1265.

3. Strabo, 1.3.2, 2.5.25, 11.2.12‑16; Plin., ΗΝ 16; Pomp. Mela, De Chorogr. 1.19.3‑5; Amm. Marc. 22.8.24; Steph. Byz., see entry “Διοσκουριάς”; Arr., Eux. 10.4; Head, B.V. – Hill, G.F. – MacDonald, G. – Wroth, W., Historia Numorum, A Manual of Greek Numesmatics2 (Oxford 1911), pp. 495-496; Lordkipanidze, O.D., “Colchis in Antiquity”, Archeologia – Rocznik Institutu Historii Kulturu Materialnej Polskiej 19 (1968), p. 35, n. 53.

4. Strabo, 9.2.16‑7; Plin., HN 6.5.

5. Ins. Delos 1572; OGIS 371-372, 529; Strabo, 11.2.17-18, 12.3.1, 12.3.28. App., Mithrid., 15, 101; IGR ΙΙΙ.112, ΙΙΙ.115.

6. IGR ΙΙΙ.3; Arr., Eux. 14-15.

7. Strabo, 11.5.6.
     
 
 
 
 
 

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