Kydonia

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Cydonia in northwest Crete in Roman times

Kydonia or Kydonia ( Mycenaean ???? ku-do-ni-ja / Kudōniā ; ancient Egyptian Kutunaja , Latin Cydonia ) was an important Minoan settlement and later an ancient Greek city-state ( polis ) on the northwestern shore of the island of Crete , on the soil of what is now the Greek city of Chania . At least in classical antiquity, according to Strabo , it was the most powerful city in Crete next to Knossos and Gortyn .

According to Cretan legend, Minos or King Kydon , son of Hermes and Minos daughter Akakallis , was the founder of the city. According to the Arcadian view, however, people from Tegea founded Kydonia, because Kydon was a son of Tegeates . Homer already states that the Kydones were one of the five ancient peoples of Crete and that they settled on both sides of the Iardanos River. The Kydones are also mentioned as good archers in the 12th book of the Aeneid of Virgil .

The history of Kydonia only becomes more tangible in the second half of the 6th century BC. After a failed rebellion against Polykrates , Samians who fled the city founded the city around 520 BC. Chr. New. Five years later, however, the Sami colonists were defeated and enslaved by the united Aiginetes and Cretans in a sea battle; the Aigineten themselves now colonized Kydonia. Since then, the city has been shaped by the Dorians . During the Peloponnesian War in 429 BC At the instigation of the inhabitants of Kydonia's neighboring town Polichna , Athenians who sailed to Crete with 20 ships, the area of ​​Kydonia. Around 342 BC The city was besieged by Phoker Phalaikos , who found his death here.

In Hellenistic times , Kydonia was at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Allied with Aptera . Around 219 BC Kydonia belonged to the Knossischen Bund allied with the Aitolians ; it was besieged by the Polyrrhenians supported by Macedonian and Achaean auxiliaries and was forced to convert from the Knossian to the Polyrrhenian league. Thirty years later, Kydonia waged war against Gortyn and Knossos. 184 BC The Cydonians were induced by the Roman ambassador Appius Claudius Pulcher to give up the area of Phalasarna , where they had established themselves. 171/70 BC They almost lost their city to the Gortynians, against whom they were able to assert themselves with the help of the troops of the Pergamene king Eumenes II . Hardly escaping the danger, they committed a breach of contract by attacking Apollonia, killing the men there and distributing their belongings among themselves.

As part of the third war that the Romans against King Mithridates VI. led by Pontus, Marcus Antonius Creticus , the father of the triumvir Marcus Antonius , fought in 72/71 BC. Not very happy against the Cretans, including probably against units from Kydonia. 69 BC BC Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus won a battle against the Cretans under their general Lasthenes at Kydonia, whereupon Lasthenes fled to Knossos; Kydonia surrendered to Metellus. Octavian, who later became Emperor Augustus , declared the city in 30 BC. For autonomous, because they had supported him against his adversary Mark Antony. In late antiquity , Kydonia was a Christian bishopric.

The exact location of Kydonia was initially only determined based on the historical sources by Robert Pashley , as excavations at the beginning of the 19th century were not yet possible. These were only carried out systematically from the late 1960s, but large parts of prehistoric and ancient Kydonia are largely blocked by the construction of fortifications during the Arab and Turkish rule. To the east of the old port of Chania some Minoan buildings were uncovered and u. a. also linear B discovered documents. There are only minor remains from the Hellenistic and Roman times. Numerous coins minted by the city have also been discovered, dating from the 4th century BC. BC to the beginning of the 3rd century AD. Archaeological finds from Kydonia dating back to the Neolithic are kept in the Archaeological Museum of the city of Chania . Probably the city's most famous son was the sculptor Kresilas .

literature

Web links

Commons : Minoan ruins in Chania  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Gschnitzer : Early Greekism: Historical and Linguistic Contributions . In: Small writings on Greek and Roman antiquity . tape 1 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07805-3 , pp. 142/143 ( books.google.de ).
  2. ^ Strabo: Geographika. 10, 4, 7, p. 476.
  3. ↑ Diodor : Bibliothéke historiké 5, 78, 2; Parish Chronicles 21 f .; Pausanias : Description of Greece. 8, 53, 4.
  4. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 8, 53, 4.
  5. ↑ Homer: Odyssey . 3, 292 and 19, 176.
  6. ↑ Herodotus , Histories 3, 44 and 3, 59.
  7. ^ Strabo: Geographika. 8, 6, 16, p. 376.
  8. ↑ Thucydides : Peloponnesian War. 2, 85, 5 f.
  9. ↑ Diodor: Bibliothéke historiké. 16, 63, 2 ff .; Pausanias: Description of Greece. 10, 2, 7.
  10. ↑ Angelos Chaniotis : The Treaties between Cretan Poleis in the Hellenistic Period. 1996, No. 2.
  11. ↑ Polybios : Historíai. 4, 55, 4.
  12. ↑ Titus Livius : Ab urbe condita. 37, 60.
  13. ↑ Polybios: Historíai. 22, 19.
  14. ↑ Polybios: Historíai. 28, 15.
  15. ↑ Polybios: Historíai. 28, 14; Diodor: Bibliothéke historiké. 30, 13.
  16. ↑ Florus : Epitoma de Tito Livio. 2, 42; Appian : Sikelike. 6, 1.
  17. ↑ Appian: Sikelike. 6, 2; Velleius Paterculus : Historia Romana. 2, 34, 1; Livy: periochae. 98; Florus: Epitoma de Tito Livio. 2, 42; u. a.
  18. ^ Cassius Dio : Roman History. 51, 2, 3.
  19. ^ Pashley, 1837
  20. ↑ Hogan, 2008

Coordinates: 35 ° 31 '2.4 "  N , 24 ° 1' 10.6"  E