The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India. Getzel M. Cohen

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СКАЧАТЬ Some scholars have suggested that the reference is to Alexander; thus, Leschhorn and Franke, Lexikon AGM 1:321.

      On the other hand, we may consider the evidence from ALEXANDREIA Troas. Mionnet claimed that a coin from that city (Supplément 5:529, no. 214) had the legend COL. AUR. ANTONINIANA. ALEX. On the basis of this coin B. Levick remarked (in Hommages à Marcel Renard 2:431) that during Caracalla’s reign Alexandreia Troas took the titles Aurelia Antoniniana and Alexandreia. However, if the reading is correct it is apparently a hapax: it is the only example I could find of this particular legend on the coinage of Alexandreia Troas; note, in this connection, A. Johnston, who remarked that Mionnet “appears to have . . . invented ANTONINIANA” (Historia [1983] 65 n. 16; see also her salutary warning [60]: “The early numismatic catalogues . . . tend to be inaccurate. It is extremely unwise to use Mionnet [published 1807–37] and Eckhel [published (1792–98] without checking the volumes of the British Museum Catalogue and the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum”). The usual legend—that incorporated ALEX—from the reign of Caracalla is COL ALEX AUG TRO (and occasionally, COL ALEX AUG) and variants thereof (e.g., SNG [von A] 1462–65, 1471–74, 7559–60, 7562–63, 7575). The presence of these legends prompted Bellinger (Troy: The Coins [Princeton, N.J., 1961] 118) to conclude that the name Alexandreia was conferred on the colony by Caracalla (italics mine), probably during his visit in 214 A.D. (the Hellenistic settlement, of course, had been renamed Alexandreia by Lysimachos). If that is the case, it raises the possibility that at Karrhai, COL. MET. ANTONINIANA AUR. ALEX. on the coinage reflects the fact that the name Alexandreia was conferred on or assumed by the colony there. This would reflect the municipal claim (or conceit) that its origins went back to the Macedonian king, a claim that is also found at other Hellenistic settlements in the early third century a.d.; see, for example, discussion and references in OTROUS, n. 2; CAPITOLIAS; GERASA, nn. 2 and 3; SELEUKEIA Abila n. 2.

      3. For the coinage see, for example, WSM 4 off., nos. 1–14 (Antigonos?), 766–82 (Seleukos I); CSE 887–88 (Seleukos I); Houghton and Lorber, Seleucid Coins 1.1: 27–29 and nos. 39–47. The appearance of fish on WSM nos. 12–14 may be related to the sacred fish of Atargatis; on which see HIERAPOLIS Bambyke.

      G. Le Rider and N. Olcay, RN (1988) 47, nos. 180–87 (see also Price, Alexander and Philip nos. 3796, 3803, 3805), also tentatively assigned eight Alexander coins from a hoard buried in 317 or early 316 B.C. to Karrhai (discussion on 50–53). They suggested these particular coins were minted c. 320–317 B.C. and preceded WSM 4 off., nos. 1–14 by a decade. The hoard was found at Akçakale, which is on the Turkish-Syrian frontier, 50 km south of Karrhai. Le Rider and Olcay noted (50 and n. 10) that in antiquity Akçakale, which was on the road from Karrhai to NIKEPHORION, was probably located in the territory of the former.

      There is no extant coinage that can definitely be attributed to the mint at Karrhai under Antiochos I; coins that Newell had attributed to Karrhai under Antiochos I (nos. 783–802) have been reassigned. Thus, Waggoner reattributed WSM nos. 780–83 to SELEUKEIA on the Tigris (ANS MN 15 [1969] 24–25); Kritt reassigned WSM nos. 784–88 ( = Seleucid Coins 1.1: nos. 469–72) to AÏ KHANOUM (Bactria 48–51); Houghton and Lorber reattributed WSM nos. 789–96 to Coele Syria under Antiochos III (Seleucid Coins 1.1:27 and nos. 1089–92).

      4. Dio uses the same term, ἄποικοι, elsewhere (40.13.1) to describe the Greeks and Macedonians in Mesopotamia who welcomed M. Licinius Crassus in 54/3 B.C. (τῶν γὰρ Μακεδóνων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν συστρατευσάντων σφίσιν ‘Eλλήνων ἄποικοι πολλοί . . . ). See also NIKEPHORION.

      5. Location. Karrhai was located at the site of modern Harran, approximately 40 km southwest of EDESSA; see Bernard in Topoi Supplément 1 (1997) 186 n. 181. On Harran see, for example, Sinclair, Eastern Turkey 4:29–43.

      KIRKESION

      Both Bar Hebraeus (Chronography 38, trans. Wallis Budge) and Michael the Syrian (5.6 [78]) claimed that Seleukos II Kallinikos founded Kirkesion. There are no other extant sources supporting this claim. Kirkesion was located in Mesopotamia at al-Baseira, where the Khabur River flows into the Euphrates.¹

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      In general see Weissbach, RE s.v. “Kirkesion”; Musil, Middle Euphrates 334–37; Wiesehöfer, EIr s.v. “Circesium”; J.-Y. Monchambert, Ktema 24 (1999) 236 (map on 235).

      1. For the location see, for example, TAVO 19.

      MAKEDONOUPOLIS

      The evidence for Makedonoupolis is late. The Greek and Latin lists of those attending the Council of Nikaia mention a Mareas of Makedonoupolis. The Syriac lists refer to a Mareas of Birtha.¹ The Latin list for the Council of Chalcedon records a Daniel of Makedonoupolis; Michael the Syrian records a Daniel of Birtha in the Syriac list.² In each case we are undoubtedly dealing with one and the same person and, therefore, the same town. The toponym obviously suggests a connection with or a recollection of Macedon. Birtha was located at modern Birecik.³

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      In general see Gelzer in Festschrift Kiepert 59–60; Cumont, Ét. syr. 145–47; Tcherikover, HS 84–85; Dussaud, Topographie 449.

      1. For Mareas (Marius) of Makedonoupolis in the Greek and Latin lists of the Council of Nikaia see Patr. Nicaen. Nom. p. 64 (XI.81: Greek), pp. 22–23 (IX.81, 82; XI.77, 80: Latin); for Mar(e)as of Birtha in the Syriac lists see Patr. Nicaen. Nom. p. 103 (IX.81); and Cumont, Ét. syr. 145. For Birtha see also The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite 91 (p. 71, trans./ed. Wright).

      2. For Daniel of Makedonoupolis/Daniel of Birtha at the Council of Chalcedon see Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum 7:403; Michael the Syrian 2:62 (trans. Chabot), XVI.113; and Cumont, Ét. syr. 147. Cf. the identification of HERAKLEIA in Phoenicia with Arka and ANTHEMOUSIAS Charax Sidou with Marcopolis.

      3. For the location see Cumont, Ét. syr. 144–47. The Syriac chronicle of Joshua (507 A.D.) describes Birtha as “situated beside us on the River Euphrates” (The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite 91 [p. 71, ed./trans. Wright]). Wright noted that this description suggested the identification of Birtha and Birecik. The identification of Birtha and Birecik was securely made by Cumont on the basis of the discovery of a Syriac inscription in the fortress of Birecik dated to 6 A.D. that contained the epitaph of Zarbian, the “commandant of Birtha” (M. A. Kugener, Rivista degli studi orientali 1 [1908] 587–94). See also Kennedy in Zeugma 54.

      Ammianus (20.7.17) mentions a “Virta” in Mesopotamia that he describes as a very old fortress built by Alexander the Macedonian. Cumont reasonably suggested (Ét. syr. 146f.) that this city was in fact the Birtha that was renamed Makedonoupolis. The Virta of Ammianus is the κάστρον Βίρθας mentioned by George of Cyprus (937; and H. Gelzer’s note in his edition, p. 164). Prior to Cumont, Birecik was believed to be the site of SELEUKEIA on the Euphrates/Zeugma. On Birecik in the Achaemenid period see Fuensanta and Charvat in Briant and Boucharlat, L’archéologie de l’empire achéménide 151–58. For the location of Seleukeia at the site of modern Belkis (10 km from Birecik) see SELEUKEIA on the Euphrates, n. 7.

      On “birtha” (stronghold) see, for example, PCZ 59003.3,13 ( = CPJ 1), ἐν Βίρται τῆς’Αμμανίτιδος; and E. Will, Syria 64 (1987) 253f.

      NIKATORIS

      According to Stephanos (s.v. “Nikatoris”), who is our sole source of information, Nikatoris was a πóλις Συρίας πρòς τῇ Εὐρώπῳ, κτίσμα Σελεύκου τοῦ СКАЧАТЬ