# Sestos

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{{Short description|Ancient city in Thrace}}
{{Infobox historic site
| name            = Sestos
| native_name     = Σηστός
| native_language = grc
| image           = Thracian Chersonese.svg
| alt             = 
| caption         = 
| map_type        = Turkey Marmara
| map_alt         = 
| map_relief      = 
| coordinates     = {{coord|40|13|58|N|26|25|21|E|display=inline,title}}
| location        = Akbaş Kalesi, [Çanakkale Province](/source/%C3%87anakkale_Province), [Turkey](/source/Turkey)
| region          = [Thrace](/source/Thrace)
| type            = Settlement
| part_of         = 
| length          = 
| width           = 
| area            = 
| height          = 
| builder         = 
| material        = 
| built           = c. 600 BC
| abandoned       = 
| epochs          = <!-- actually displays as "Periods" -->
| cultures        = 
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| event           = 
| excavations     = 
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| condition       = 
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| public_access   = Restricted
| website         = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
| notes           = 
}}
'''Sestos''' ({{langx|el|Σηστός}}, {{langx|la|Sestus}}) was an ancient city in [Thrace](/source/Thrace). It was located at the [Thracian Chersonese](/source/Gallipoli) peninsula on the European coast of the [Hellespont](/source/Dardanelles), opposite the ancient city of [Abydos](/source/Abydos_(Hellespont)), and near the town of [Eceabat](/source/Eceabat) in [Turkey](/source/Turkey).

In [Greek mythology](/source/Greek_mythology), Sestos is presented in the myth of [Hero and Leander](/source/Hero_and_Leander) as the home of Hero.{{sfnp|Sacks|2014|pp=149-150}}

==History==
===Classical period===
thumb|right|200px|The environs of Sestos in Antiquity
Sestos is first mentioned in [Homer](/source/Homer)'s ''[Iliad](/source/Iliad)'' as a [Thracian](/source/Thracians) settlement,{{sfnp|Isaac|1986|pp=159-160}} and was allied with [Troy](/source/Troy) during the [Trojan War](/source/Trojan_War).{{sfnp|Mackie|Atabay|Körpe|Sagona|2016|p=15}} The city was settled by colonists from [Lesbos](/source/Lesbos) in c. 600 BC.{{sfnp|von Bredow|2006}} In c. 512, Sestos was occupied by the [Achaemenid Empire](/source/Achaemenid_Empire),{{sfnp|Sacks|2014|p=309}} and [Darius I](/source/Darius_I) ferried across from the city to Asia Minor after his [Scythian campaign](/source/European_Scythian_campaign_of_Darius_I).{{sfnp|von Bredow|2006}} Alongside [Byzantium](/source/Byzantium), Sestos was considered to be one of the foremost Achaemenid ports on the European coast of the [Bosphorus](/source/Bosphorus) and the [Hellespont](/source/Hellespont).{{sfnp|Balcer|1990|pp=599-600}} In 480, at the onset of the [Second Persian invasion of Greece](/source/Second_Persian_invasion_of_Greece), [Xerxes I](/source/Xerxes_I) [bridged](/source/Xerxes'_Pontoon_Bridges) the Hellespont near Sestos.{{sfnp|von Bredow|2006}}

In 479 BC, after the Greek victory at the [Battle of Mycale](/source/Battle_of_Mycale),{{sfnp|Balcer|1990|pp=599-600}} Sestos was besieged by [Athenian](/source/Classical_Athens) forces led by [Xanthippus](/source/Xanthippus).{{sfnp|Isaac|1986|p=176}} The Greek siege was resisted by a joint force of Persian soldiers and the city's native inhabitants and endured the whole winter, however, food supplies were inadequate as the siege was unexpected, and the city's garrison suffered from famine.{{sfnp|Isaac|1986|p=176}} The garrison subsequently capitulated and the Persian soldiers were imprisoned.{{sfnp|Isaac|1986|p=176}} [Artayctes](/source/Artayctes), the Persian governor of Sestos, had escaped, but was captured and crucified.{{sfnp|Mackie|Atabay|Körpe|Sagona|2016|pp=9-10}} However, Athenian influence over Sestos lapsed briefly, according to [Plutarch](/source/Plutarch), as [Cimon](/source/Cimon) retook the city in a second campaign at some point between 478 and 471.{{sfnp|Isaac|1986|p=177}}

Sestos became a member of the Athenian-led [Delian League](/source/Delian_League), and was part of the [Hellespontine district](/source/Members_of_the_Delian_League).{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}} The city contributed a ''[phoros](/source/phoros)'' of 500 [drachmas](/source/Ancient_drachma) annually from 446/445 to 435/434, after which Sestos provided 1000 drachmas until 421/420.{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}} At Sestos, a 10 per cent tax was levied on westbound, non-Athenian, merchant grain ships.{{sfnp|Sacks|2014|pp=149-150}} The city served as a base for the Athenian fleet until it was occupied by [Sparta](/source/Sparta)n forces led by [Lysander](/source/Lysander) in 404, during the [Peloponnesian War](/source/Peloponnesian_War).{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}} Sestos' population was briefly expelled and replaced by Spartan settlers, but the city's native inhabitants were permitted to return to the city soon after.{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}}

During the [Corinthian War](/source/Corinthian_War), Sestos was occupied by Athenian forces led by [Conon](/source/Conon) in 393, and the city came under the control of [Ariobarzanes](/source/Ariobarzanes_of_Phrygia), Satrap of [Phrygia](/source/Phrygia).{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}} In 365, an attack on Sestos by [Cotys I](/source/Cotys_I_(Odrysian)), King of [Thrace](/source/Odrysian_kingdom), was repelled with the aid of [Timotheus](/source/Timotheus_(general)), for which Athens was awarded with Sestos and [Krithotai](/source/Krithotai) in the same year.{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}} A [cleruchy](/source/cleruchy) was established at Sestos in 364,{{sfnp|Fine|1983|p=601}} but the city was conquered by Cotys I after a surprise attack in 360, and a Thracian garrison was established.{{sfnp|Fine|1983|p=599}} The Athenian general [Chares](/source/Chares_of_Athens) seized Sestos in 353 and carried out ''[andrapodismos](/source/Ethnic_cleansing)'' whereby the male population was killed and women and children were enslaved; the city was repopulated by Athenian cleruchs.{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}}

===Hellenistic period===
[[File:Sestusdecree-BM.JPG|thumb|right|Decree from Sestos during the Hellenistic period in the [British Museum](/source/British_Museum)]]
Sestos remained under Athenian control until the [Peace of 337](/source/Expansion_of_Macedonia_under_Philip_II) and dissolution of the [Second Athenian League](/source/Second_Athenian_League), after which Sestos joined the [Macedonian](/source/Macedonia_(ancient_kingdom))-led [League of Corinth](/source/League_of_Corinth).{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|p=902}} [Alexander the Great](/source/Alexander_the_Great), King of Macedonia, crossed over from Sestos to Asia Minor in 334 BC.{{sfnp|Sacks|2014|p=309}} After the death of Alexander the Great in 323, the city, alongside other Macedonian dependencies in Thrace, was allocated to [Lysimachus](/source/Lysimachus) as a result of the [Partition of Babylon](/source/Partition_of_Babylon).{{sfnp|Braund|2008|p=22}} The mint of Sestos was established in c. 300 BC.{{sfnp|Loukopoulou|2004|pp=909-910}} Lysimachus retained control of the city until his death at the [battle of Corupedium](/source/battle_of_Corupedium) in 281.{{sfnp|Braund|2008|p=33}}

The city was seized by [Philip V](/source/Philip_V_of_Macedon), King of Macedonia, in 200 BC,{{sfnp|Walbank|2013|p=133}} and remained under Macedonian control until the conclusion of the [Second Macedonian War](/source/Second_Macedonian_War) in 196 with the Peace of Flamininus, which proclaimed Sestos a free city.{{sfnp|Walbank|2013|p=179}} In 196 BC, during the [Roman–Seleucid War](/source/Roman%E2%80%93Seleucid_War), Sestos surrendered to [Antiochus III](/source/Antiochus_III_the_Great), ''[Megas Basileus](/source/Basileus)'' of the [Seleucid Empire](/source/Seleucid_Empire), who refortified the city in 191 in preparation for a Roman attack, only for the city to surrender to [Gaius Livius Salinator](/source/Gaius_Livius_Salinator) in 190.{{sfnp|Grainger|1997|p=779}} At the end of the war, the [Treaty of Apamea](/source/Treaty_of_Apamea) of 188 awarded Sestos to the [Kingdom of Pergamon](/source/Attalid_dynasty).{{sfnp|Delev|2015|p=66}} By the end of the Hellenistic period, the offices of ''[gymnasiarch](/source/gymnasiarch)'' and of ''ephebarch'', with responsibility for the ''neoi'' (young) and ''[epheboi](/source/Ephebos)'' (adolescents), are attested at Sestos.{{sfnp|Krauss|1980|pp=14-63}}{{sfnp|Dmitriev|2005|pp=31-32}}

===Roman period===
Upon the death of [Attalus III](/source/Attalus_III), King of Pergamon, in 133 BC, Sestos was annexed to the [Roman Republic](/source/Roman_Republic) after [Aristonicus](/source/Eumenes_III), a pretender to the throne, had been defeated.{{sfnp|Krauss|1980|pp=22-24}} The city was mentioned in [Ptolemy](/source/Ptolemy)'s ''Canon Urbium Insignium''.{{sfnp|Bevan|Lehoux|Talbert |2013|p=225}} The mint of Sestos ceased to function in c. 250 AD.{{sfnp|Bäbler|2013|p=155}} It is believed that Sestos, with Abydos and [Lampsacus](/source/Lampsacus), is referred to as one of the "three large capital cities" of the Roman Empire in ''[Weilüe](/source/Weil%C3%BCe)'', a 3rd-century AD Chinese text.{{sfnp|Leslie|Gardiner|1995|p=67}} [Gaius Julius Solinus](/source/Gaius_Julius_Solinus) in ''Collectanea rerum memorabilium'' also makes reference to the city.{{sfnp|Brodersen|2011|p=83}}

By [late antiquity](/source/late_antiquity), the harbour of Sestos had silted up.{{sfnp|Londey|2016|p=492}} In 447 AD, Sestos was sacked by the [Huns](/source/Huns).{{sfnp|Kelly|2011|p=104}} The city was damaged by an earthquake during the reign of Emperor [Zeno](/source/Zeno_(emperor)) in 478 AD.{{sfnp|Whitby|1985|p=571}} In the 6th century, according to [Procopius](/source/Procopius)' ''De Aedificiis'', Emperor [Justinian I](/source/Justinian_I) refortified Sestos.{{sfnp|von Bredow|2006}}

===Medieval period===
It is believed that Sestos is referred to as Ṣāṣah in the ''Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes'', an 11th-century Arabic treatise.{{sfnp|Kahlaoui|2017|p=138}} By the 13th century AD, the crossing from Lampsacus to [Kallipolis](/source/Gelibolu) had become more common and largely replaced the crossing from Sestos to Abydos.{{sfnp|Kazhdan|1991|pp=1094–1095}} The fortress on the site of Sestos was later named Choiridokastron (pig castle), and was captured by [Ottoman Turks](/source/Ottoman_Empire) led by [Süleyman Pasha](/source/S%C3%BCleyman_Pasha_(son_of_Orhan)) in 1355.{{sfnp|Türker|2014|pp=3-5}} According to [Enveri](/source/Enveri)'s ''Dusturname'', Choiridokastron was the first settlement in Europe to be conquered by the Ottoman Turks, whereas [Aşıkpaşazade](/source/A%C5%9F%C4%B1kpa%C5%9Fazade) recorded that the fortress was attacked by Ottoman forces, after the fall of [Tzympe](/source/%C3%87impe_Castle).{{sfnp|Inalcik|1990|p=233}}

==See also==
*[List of ancient Greek cities](/source/List_of_ancient_Greek_cities)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Bäbler| first1 =Balbina|date=2013|chapter=Thracian Chersonese|title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, ed. Nigel Wilson| pages = 155–156|publisher=Routledge}}
* {{Encyclopaedia Iranica | article = BYZANTIUM | last = Balcer | first = Jack Martin | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/byzantium-byzantion-contact-with-the-achaemenids-ca | volume = 4 | fascicle = 6 | pages = 599–600 }}
* {{cite journal| last1 =Bevan| first1 =George | first2=Daryn |last2 =Lehoux |first3=Richard |last3=Talbert|date=2013|title=Reflectance Transformation Imaging of a 'Byzantine' Portable Sundial|journal= Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik |volume=187|pages= 221–229}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Braund| first1 =David|date=2008|chapter=The Emergence of the Hellenistic World|title=A Companion to the Hellenistic World, ed. Andrew Erskine| pages =19–35|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell}}
* {{cite journal| last1 =Brodersen| first1 =Kai|date=2011|title=Mapping Pliny's World: The Achievement of Solinus|journal= Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies |volume=54 |issue=1|publisher=Wiley|pages=63–88| doi =10.1111/j.2041-5370.2011.00017.x}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Delev| first1 =Peter|date=2015|chapter=From Koroupedion to the Beginning of the Third Mithridatic War|title=A Companion to Ancient Thrace|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=59–75}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Dmitriev| first1 =Sviatoslav|date=2005|title=City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Fine| first1 =John Van Antwerp |date=1983|title=The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History| url =https://archive.org/details/ancientgreeks00john| url-access =registration|publisher=Harvard University Press}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Grainger | first1 =John D.|date=1997|title=A Seleukid Prosopography and Gazetteer|publisher=BRILL}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Inalcik | first1 =Halil|date=1990|chapter=The Ottoman Turks and the Crusades, 1329-1451|title=A History of the Crusades, vol. 6: The Impact of the Crusades on Europe| pages = 222–276|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Isaac| first1 =Benjamin H. |date=1986|title=The Greek Settlements in Thrace Until the Macedonian Conquest|publisher=BRILL}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Kahlaoui| first1 =Tarek|date=2017|title=Creating the Mediterranean: Maps and the Islamic Imagination|publisher=BRILL}}
* {{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|title=Kallipolis|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-2725|first=Alexander|last=Kazhdan|pages=1094–1095}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Kelly| first1 =Christopher|date=2011|title=Attila The Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire|publisher=Random House}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Krauss| first1 =Johannes|date=1980|title=Die Inschriften von Sestos und der thrakischen Chersones|publisher=Rudolf Habelt|ISBN=3-7749-1750-7}}
* {{cite journal| last1 =Leslie| first1 =D. D.| first2=K. J. H. |last2 =Gardiner|date=1995|title=All Roads Lead to Rome: Chinese Knowledge of the Roman Empire|journal= Journal of Asian History |volume=29 |issue=1|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|pages=61–81}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Londey| first1 =Peter|date=2016|chapter=Sestos|title=Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome: The Definitive Political, Social, and Military Encyclopedia|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=492}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Loukopoulou| first1 =Louisa|date=2004|chapter=Thracian Chersonesos|title=An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, ed. Mogens Herman Hansen And Thomas Heine Nielsen|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Mackie| first1 =C. J.|first2=Mithat|last2=Atabay|first3=Reyhan|last3=Körpe|first4=Antonio|last4=Sagona|date=2016|chapter=Boundary and Divide: The Antiquity of the Dardanelles|title=Anzac Battlefield: A Gallipoli Landscape of War and Memory| pages =4–24|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Sacks| first1 =David |date=2014|title=Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World|publisher=Infobase Publishing}}
* {{cite journal| last1 =Türker| first1 =Ayşe Çaylak|date=2014|title=THE BYZANTINE CASTLE IN AKBAŞ ON THRACIAN CHERSONESSOS|journal=Turkish Studies |volume=9|issue=8|url=http://www.turkishstudies.net/Makaleler/1456086165_1%C3%87aylakT%C3%BCrkerAy%C5%9Fe-sos_S-1-11.pdf|pages=1–11}}
* {{cite encyclopedia|article=Sestus|last=von Bredow|first=Iris|encyclopedia=Brill's New Pauly|publisher=Brill|year=2006|editor1=Hubert Cancik|editor2=Helmuth Schneider|editor3=Christine F. Salazar|editor4=Manfred Landfester|editor5=Francis G. Gentry}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Walbank| first1 =F. W. |date=2013|title=Philip V of Macedon|publisher=Cambridge University Press|author-link =F. W. Walbank}}
* {{cite journal| last1 =Whitby| first1 =Michael|date=1985|title=The Long Walls of Constantinople|journal= Byzantion |volume=55 |issue= 2|publisher=Peeters Publishers|pages=560–583|author-link =Michael Whitby}}
{{div col end}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Sestos}}

{{Ancient settlements in Turkey}}
{{Authority control}}

Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Category:Greek colonies in the Thracian Chersonese
Category:Aeolian colonies
Category:Former populated places in Turkey
Category:Geography of Çanakkale Province
Category:History of Çanakkale Province
Category:Members of the Delian League
Category:Achaemenid ports
Category:Places in the Iliad
Category:Populated places established in the 7th century BC
Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire
Category:Roman towns and cities in Turkey

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sestos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestos) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestos?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.