αἱ Κολωναί | |
  Kolonai Shown within Turkey | |
| Location | Alemşah,Çanakkale Province,Turkey |
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| Region | Troad |
| Coordinates | 39°41′23″N26°9′48″E / 39.68972°N 26.16333°E /39.68972; 26.16333 |
| History | |
| Founded | 7th century BC |
Kolonai (Ancient Greek:αἱ Κολωναί,romanized: hai Kolōnai;Latin:Colonae) was anancient Greek city in the south-west of theTroad region ofAnatolia. It has been located on a hill by the coast known as Beşiktepe ('cradle hill'), about equidistant betweenLarisa to the south andAlexandreia Troas to the north. It is 3.3 km east of the modern village of Alemşah in theEzine district ofÇanakkale Province,Turkey.[1] Its name inAncient Greek is theplural form ofκολώνη (kolōnē), 'hill, mound', a common name for promontories with hills on them in the Eastern Mediterranean.[2] It is not to be confused withLampsaceneKolonai, a settlement situated in the hills aboveLampsacus in the north-east of the Troad.[3]
Pottery finds suggest that Kolonai was inhabited in prehistoric times, but it is unknown whether there was any continuity between these period of its settlement and the Greek period.[4] Greek ceramic material appears on the site from the 7th century BC, marking its foundation as a Greek settlement.[5] At the period in which Daës of Kolonai was writing (probably the 4th century BC), the inhabitants of Kolonai thought they had been founded byAeolian Greeks.[6] Given thatLesbos was also ethnicallyAeolian and Kolonai was one of the so-calledActaean cities whichAthens took fromMytilene following the end of theMytilenean revolt in 427 BC, it is likely that Mytilene founded Kolonai and subsequently controlled it.[7] A corrupt passage of the geographerStrabo suggests instead that Kolonai belonged to theperaia ofTenedos, but there is now a consensus among consensus that the manuscripts should refer to it belonging to the peraia ofLesbos.[8]
References to Kolonai in written sources fromClassical Antiquity are extremely rare. TheSpartan generalPausanias may have fled fromByzantium to Kolonai in 478 BC if it is this Kolonai rather than 'Lampsacene' Kolonai which is meant byThucydides.[9] Following the end of Mytilenaean control in 427 BC, it became part of theDelian League, and in 425/424 BC is recorded as paying a tribute of 1,000drachmas, relatively small compared to the 3talents which its neighbourLarisa paid in the same year.[10]
In 399 BC, Kolonai was forcibly reincorporated into thePersian Empire by the local dynastMania, but in the following year it was freed again by theSpartan generalDercyllidas.[11] During the 4th century BC the city minted coins depicting a head ofAthena on theobverse. Its relationship with neighbouringLarisa is unclear throughout theClassical period, but appears to be one of semi-dependence.[12] In c. 310 BC Kolonai is thought to have been part of thesynoecism withAntigoneia Troas, at which point the settlement is presumed to have been abandoned.[13]
The obscure local historian Daes of Kolonai (Δάης ὁ Κολωναεύς) is the only literary figure from Kolonai who is known. As a writer of local history he can date no earlier than the late 5th century BC, and as a citizen of Kolonai he must date before c. 310 BC when Kolonai becamesynoecized withAlexandreia Troas; hisfloruit is therefore likely to have been in the 4th century BC.[14] TheAugustan geographerStrabo provides the only information on Daës in a brief quotation from his work on the history of Kolonai: "Daës of Kolonai says that the temple of Apollo Killaios was first founded in Kolonai by the Aeolians who sailed from Greece".[15] The cult of Apollo Killaios was local to the southernTroad andLesbos and is first mentioned inHomer'sIliad.[16] The reference to the foundation of Kolonai byAeolians indicates both that the inhabitants of Kolonai in the 4th century BC considered themselves to be ethnically Aeolian and that Daës' work dealt with the early history of hispolis. The Aeolian identity of 4th-century BC Kolonai is independently confirmed by the legends on their coins which were spelt in theAeolic Greek dialect.[17]
InGreek mythology, the king of Kolonai during theTrojan War wasCycnus. He was killed on the first day of the Trojan Wars byAchilles. This story does not appear in theIliad, but does in theCypria, which is thought to have been composed slightly later than theIliad in the latter half of the 7th century BC.[18] Cycnus appears on two separate occasions inPindar, suggesting that by the early 5th century BC the myth had some currency.[19] The mid-1st century BC historianDiodorus Siculus related a story about Cycnus which he attributed to the inhabitants ofTenedos, an island not far north of Kolonai, in which Cycnus' sonTennes founded Tenedos and gave it has name.[20] A similar connection between the mythical king of Kolonai and the foundation ofTenedos was made two centuries later by the travel writerPausanias.[21]
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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