Lysimachia (Thrace)

Lysimachia ( _el. Λυσιμάχια or Λυσιμάχεια) was an important hellenistic Greek town on the north-western extremity of the Thracian Chersonese (the modern Gallipoli peninsula) in what is now the European part of Turkey, not far from the bay of Melas (the modern Gulf of Saros).

History

The city was built by Lysimachus in 309 BCE, when he was preparing for the last struggle with his rivals; for the new city, being situated on the isthmus, commanded the road from Sestos to the north and the mainland of Thrace. In order to obtain inhabitants for his new city, Lysimachus destroyed the neighbouring town of Cardia, the birthplace of the historian Hieronymus, [Strabo, "Geography", [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239&query=section%3D%23194&chunk=section ii. 5] , [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239&query=page%3D%23539&chunk=section vii. 52] , [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239&query=7%3Afragments%3A54&chunk=section 54] ; Pausanias, "Description of Greece", [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160&query=1%3A9%3A10&chunk=section i. 9] ; Diodorus Siculus, "Bibliotheca", xx. 29; Polybius, "Histories", [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0234&layout=&loc=5.34 v. 34] ; Pliny, "Natural History", [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&layout=&loc=4.18 iv. 18] .] and settled the inhabitants of it and other Chersonesean cities here. [John Freely (1998). "Turkey around the Marmara." SEV Matbaalıcık ve Yayıncılık, A.Ş. İstanbul. p.104.] Lysimachus no doubt made Lysimachia the capital of his kingdom, and it must have rapidly risen to great splendour and prosperity.

After his death the city fell under the dominion of Syria, and during the wars between Seleucus Callinicus and Ptolemy Euergetes it passed from the hands of the Seleucids into those of the Ptolemies. Whether these latter set the town free, or whether it emancipated itself, is uncertain; at any rate it entered into the relation of sympolity with the Aetolian League. In 277 BCE near Lysimachia the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas defeated the Celtic invasion. The same year an earthquake destroyed Lysimachia. As the Aetolians were not able to afford the town the necessary protection, it was destroyed again in 197 BCE by the Thracians during the war of the Romans against Philip of Macedonia. Antiochus the Great restored the place, collected the scattered and enslaved inhabitants, and attracted colonists from all parts by generous promises. [Livy, "History of Rome", [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Liv5His.sgm&
] , [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Liv5His.sgm&
] ; Appian, "The Foreign Wars", "The Syrian Wars", [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0230&query=text%3DSyr.&chunk=section 1] .] This restoration, however, appears to have been unsuccessful, and under the dominion of Rome it decayed more and more.

The last time the place is mentioned under its ancient name, is in a passage of Ammianus Marcellinus. [Ammianus Marcellinus, "Histoire de Rome", [http://agoraclass.fltr.ucl.ac.be/concordances/Ammien_histXXII/lecture/8.htm xxii. 8] .] The emperor Justinian (527–565) restored it and surrounded it with strong fortifications, [Procopius, "De aedificiis", [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Procopius/Buildings/4C*.html iv. 10] .] and after that time it is spoken of only under the name of Hexamilion. [Symeon Metaphrastes, "Chronicon".] The place now occupying the site of Lysimachia, Eksemil, derives its name from the Justinianian fortress, though the ruins of the ancient city are more numerous in the neighbouring village of Ortaköy.

References

*William Smith (editor). [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064&layout=&loc=lysimachia "Lysimachia"] , " [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography] ", London (1854).

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