Abydos (Hellespont)

[7] In 1675, the site of Abydos was first identified, and was subsequently visited by numerous classicists and travellers, such as Robert Wood, Richard Chandler, and Lord Byron.

[12] After the failed Persian invasion, Abydos became a member of the Athenian-led Delian League,[12] and was part of the Hellespontine district.

[21] Abydos was attacked by the Athenians in the winter of 409/408 BC, but was repelled by a Persian force led by Pharnabazus, satrap (governor) of Hellespontine Phrygia.

[18] At the beginning of the Corinthian War in 394 BC, Agesilaus II, King of Sparta, passed through Abydos into Thrace.

[23] At the conclusion of the Corinthian War, under the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas in 387 BC, Abydos was annexed to the Persian Empire.

[9] Within the Persian Empire, Abydos was administered as part of the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia,[24] and was ruled by the tyrant Philiscus in 368.

[18] Abydos remained under Persian control until it was seized by a Macedonian army led by Parmenion, a general of Philip II, in the spring of 336 BC.

[29] After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Abydos, as part of the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia, came under the control of Leonnatus as a result of the Partition of Babylon.

[31] In 302, during the Fourth War of the Diadochi, Lysimachus, King of Thrace, crossed over into Asia Minor and invaded the kingdom of Antigonus I.

[36] During the Second Macedonian War, Abydos was besieged by Philip V, King of Macedonia, in 200 BC,[37] during which many of its citizens chose to commit suicide rather than surrender.

[38] Marcus Aemilius Lepidus met with Philip V during the siege to deliver an ultimatum on behalf of the Roman senate.

[23] Antiochus III later withdrew from Abydos during the Roman-Seleucid War, thus allowing for the transportation of the Roman army into Asia Minor by October 190 BC.

[42] Dardanus was subsequently liberated from Abydene control,[34] and the Treaty of Apamea of 188 BC returned Abydos to the Kingdom of Pergamon.

[44] Attalus III, King of Pergamon, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome upon his death in 133 BC, and thus Abydos became part of the province of Asia.

[47] It is believed that Abydos, with Sestos and Lampsacus, is referred to as one of the "three large capital cities" of the Roman Empire in Weilüe, a 3rd-century AD Chinese text.

[54] Abydos was sacked by an Arab fleet led by Leo of Tripoli in 904 AD whilst en route to Constantinople.

[54] In 1024, a Rus' raid led by a certain Chrysocheir defeated the local commander at Abydos and proceeded to travel south through the Hellespont.

[62] Abydos' population likely increased at this time as a result of the arrival of refugees from northwestern Anatolia who had fled the advance of the Turks.

[50] Abydos declined in the 13th century, and was eventually abandoned between 1304 and 1310/1318 due to the threat of Turkish tribes and disintegration of Roman control over the region.

The environs of Abydos in Antiquity
Coinage of Abydos around the time of the Persian Wars. ABYΔ-[H]NON, eagle standing left / Facing gorgoneion with protruding tongue, within incuse square. Circa 500-480 BC
Hellenistic tetradrachm of Abydos, with the legend ΑΒΥΔΗΝΩΝ ("of the Abydenes")
View of the straits at Abydos.