Salmydessus orSalmydessos (Ancient Greek:Σαλμυδησσός), alsoHalmydessus orHalmydissos (Ἁλμυδισσός),[1][2][3] was a town on theEuxine Sea inancient Thrace, about 97 kilometres (60 mi) northwest of the entrance of theBosporus, near present dayKıyıköy inEuropean Turkey.[4][5] The eastern offshoots of theHaemus Mountains come very close to the shore here, which they divide from the valley of theHebrus.
Little is known of the history of Salmydessus. Herodotus writes that “...before he [Darius the Great] came to theIster, he first took theGetae, who pretend to be immortal. The Thracians of Salmydessus and of the country above the towns of Apollonia and Mesambria, who are called Cyrmianae and Nipsaei, surrendered without a fight to Darius; but theGetae resisted stubbornly, and were enslaved at once, the bravest and most just Thracians of all.”[6] During the reign ofSeuthes II (c. 405 - 387 BCE)Xenophon and the remnants of hisTen Thousand took the town for the Thracian ruler. Xenophon writes that “...after subduing the country in this neighborhood,” he and the remains of theTen Thousand “set out upon their return.”[7] In theDictionary of Greek and Roman Geography it is said that “...the earlier writers appear to speak of Salmydessus as a district only, but in later authors, as Apollodorus, Pliny, and Mela, it is mentioned as a town.”[8]
Xenophon describes the coast of theEuxine Sea along Salmydessus as having numerousshoals, making it a dangerous port for sailors.[9]Strabo says Salmydessus is “a desert and stony beach, harborless and wide open to the north winds, and in length extends as far as theCyaneae, a distance of about seven hundredstadia [110 km or 68 mi); and all who are cast ashore on this beach are plundered by theAstae, a Thracian tribe who are situated above it.”[10] Aeschylus says it is “[a] rugged jaw, evil host of mariners, step-mother of ships.”[11] Xenophon goes on to add that the Thracians “who dwell on this coast have boundary stones set up and each group of them plunder the ships that are wrecked within their own limits,” an arrangement made because “in earlier days, before they fixed the boundaries, it was said that in the course of their plundering many of them used to be killed by one another.”[12]
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41°38′14″N28°05′28″E / 41.637244°N 28.091144°E /41.637244; 28.091144