ODESSUS
ODESSUS (
Ὀδησσός,
Strab. vii. p.319;
Scymn. 748;
Diod. 19.73,
20.112; Appian,
App. Ill. 30; Arrian,
Per. p. 24; Anon.
Per. p. 13;
Ptol. 3.10.8,
8.11.6;
Steph. B. sub voce Mela, 2.2.5;
Plin. Nat. 4.18; Ovid,
Trist. 1.9. 37: the reading
Ὀδησόπολις, Scyl. p. 29, is simply a corruption for
Ὀδγσός πόλις, for the name was written both with the single and the double o; the latter form occurs on the autonomous coins, the former on those of the Empire:
Ὀδυσσός, Hierocl.; Procop.
de Aed. 4.11; Odissos,
Amm. Marc. 22.8.43), a town on the W. coast of the Euxine, at the mouth of the river Panysus, 24 M. P. (
Anton. Itin.), or 34 M. P. (
Peut. Tab.), from Dionysopolis, and 360 stadia from tie E. termination of Haemus (
Emineh Burnu). Odessus was founded by the Milesians (Strab.
l.c.; Plin.
l.c.), if credit may be given to the author of the poem which goes under the name of Scymnus (
l.c.), as early as the reign of Astyages, or B.C. 594--560. (Clinton,
F. H.; Raoul-Rochette,
Col. Gr. vol. iii. p. 786.) From the inscriptions in Böckh (
Inscr. Nos. 2056, a, b, c), it would seem to have been under a democratic form of government, and to have presided over the union of five Greek cities on this coast, consisting of Odessus, Tomi, Callatis, Mesambria, and Apollonia. When the Bulgarians swept over the Danubian provinces in A.D. 679 they are found occupying
Varna (
Βάρνα, Theophan. p. 298; Niceph. p. 23; Cedren. vol. i. p. 440), which is described as being near Odessus. (St. Martin, ap. Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. xi. p. 447; Schafarik,
Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 217.)
The autonomous coins of Odessus exhibit “types” referring to the worship of Serapis, the god imported by Ptolemy into Alexandreia, from the shores of Pontus.
The series of imperial coins ranges from Trajan to Salonina, the wife of Gallienus. (Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 36; Rasche, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 51; Mionnet,
Descr. des Méd. vol. i. p. 395, Suppl. vol. ii. p. 350.)
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| COIN OF ODESSUS. |
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E.B.J]
