History

Every summer, millions of Americans flock to the United States’ 63 national parks. Federally protected wilderness areas offer people the chance to explore a wide variety of terrain, from the vibrant canyons of the Southwest to the imposing mountains of the West Coast. Today, these public lands often represent an escape for Americans, 81 percent of whom live in cities. Some may agree with the naturalist John Muir, who believed that “wildness is a necessity” and national parks are “fountains of life.”

When Americans walk through dense forests or descend into gloomy caverns, they might recall explorers of the past who trekked across the country decades before Congress established Yellowstone as the U.S.’s first national park in 1872. Names like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Kit Carson loom large in the popular imagination. But their stories are not the only ones.

The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions

A fascinating new history of America, told through the stories of a diverse cast of ten extraordinary—and often overlooked—adventurers, from Sacagawea to Matthew Henson to Sally Ride, who pushed the boundaries of discovery and determined our national destiny.

Buy

For too long, the public and scholars alike have overlooked American adventurers from diverse backgrounds whose discoveries shaped the nation’s history. The time has come to fully recover their stories and acknowledge their important contributions. Doing so will not only correct the historical record but also support contemporary efforts to welcome people of color in national parks. According to National Park Service (NPS) data, 77 percent of park visitors are white, while just 23 percent are racial minorities. (People of color make up around 44 percent of the U.S.’s population.)

From the earliest days of European settlement, when an estimated 5 million to 15 million Indigenous people populated the lands that would one day form the U.S., people of color have been at the forefront of exploration. In 1527, an enslaved African man named Esteban reached North America as part of a Spanish expedition led by the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez. After stopping on the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, Narváez and his men landed in present-day Florida to search for gold. They soon became enfeebled by disease, and many perished. Native Americans drove those who survived, including Esteban, to the coast, where they set sail for the Gulf of Mexico.

During the years that followed, Esteban explored present-day Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and northwestern Mexico. He learned several Indigenous languages and even served as an interpreter. Esteban was, in the words of biographer Dennis Herrick, “the first person from the Old World of Europe, Africa and Asia to travel across the North American continent and also explore the American Southwest in the 1500s.” Although the circumstances of his death remain mysterious, he most likely perished in the Zuni village of Hawikku in New Mexico in 1539.

Over the next two centuries, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain competed to colonize North America. European settlers seeking economic opportunity arrived by the thousands. Displacing Native Americans from their homelands, they established farms or plantations, built towns, and raised families. Slave traders also forced enslaved Africans onto ships bound for North America, where slaveholders compelled them to work the land. Settlers carried viral diseases like smallpox and measles that decimated Indigenous populations. By the time the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776, just four million Native Americans remained.

Two decades after the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, much remained unknown about the continent’s Western interior. By 1800, around five million Americans lived in the country, but most were concentrated on the East Coast.

On May 21, 1804, 45 men led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed from St. Charles, Missouri, on a two-year journey across North America. Hoping to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean, the Corps of Discovery also sought to gather information about the geography, climate, wildlife and Indigenous peoples of the continent. The group’s mission was funded by Congress and supported by President Thomas Jefferson, who had just facilitated the acquisition of Louisiana Territory in 1803.

York, an African American man enslaved by Clark, played an integral role as the only Black member of the corps. An experienced frontiersman, York knew how to forage for edible plants and hunt wild game. Although most enslaved African Americans were forbidden to possess guns at the time, York wielded a firearm throughout his journey. He killed bison and geese, providing sustenance for the entire group.

York also provided medical aid to those suffering from illness. Stricken with what was likely a gastrointestinal infection, Sergeant Charles Floyd became incapacitated just months into the journey. It was York, principally, who tried to revive him, Clark wrote in his journal. When Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who played a critical role as an interpreter and navigator for the corps, fell ill at Fort Mandan, York gave her stewed fruit and tea at regular intervals.

After reaching the Pacific Ocean in November 1805, the corps prepared to establish a winter camp. When deciding where to build the fort, the group held a vote. It is striking that, in an era when African Americans and women were legally denied the franchise, York cast his ballot alongside the other members of corps, including Sacagawea. This moment may have been the earliest occurrence of an African American person and a woman voting in U.S. history.

Searching for York (full documentary) | Oregon Experience

The corps returned safely to Missouri in 1806. The expedition’s members confirmed that no simple water route across the country existed and retrieved information about at least 178 plants and 122 animals new to science. York was a changed man following his experiences on the frontier. He asked Clark to emancipate him, but the enslaver initially refused. York probably gained his freedom at some point between 1811 and 1815.

Another Black explorer, James Beckwourth, found freedom and opportunity on the Western frontier in the mid-19th century. Born into slavery in Virginia but liberated by his white father, Beckwourth wound up in St. Louis at the height of the fur trade. It was a time when trappers explored the Rocky Mountains in search of lucrative beaver, otter and fox pelts. As a young man, Beckwourth keenly felt the pull of the West. As he later said in his autobiography, he found himself “possessed with a strong desire to see the celebrated Rocky Mountains, and the great Western wilderness so much talked about.”

Two hundred years ago, in the autumn of 1824, Beckwourth set off on a fur trading expedition headed by the frontiersman William Ashley. In the Rocky Mountains, Beckwourth gained critical hunting and navigational skills that enabled him to survive in the wilderness. As time passed, he became a veritable mountain man. In the words of historian Elinor Wilson, Beckwourth and other mountaineers were “pathfinders”; their geographic knowledge of the Rocky Mountains would later aid the Corps of Topographical Engineers and the U.S. Army.

During the years that followed, Beckwourth stayed at the vanguard of exploration. Traveling through Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico, he evinced an entrepreneurial spirit as a trapper and a trader. He made scores of friends, including Sacagawea’s son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, and also some enemies due to his mercurial behavior.

Beckwourth had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. When the California Gold Rush began in 1848, forty-niners flocked to the future state from around the world. In 1849, Beckwourth hitched a ride on the California, the first steamship bound for San Francisco from New York, when it stopped for wood in Monterey. Although he never struck it rich as a prospector in the Mother Lode Country, Beckwourth made a profit selling goods to other miners.

While looking for gold, Beckwourth also found an unknown pass in the Sierra Nevada. He raised funds to construct, and worked to complete, a road suitable for migrants who subsequently crossed over it and headed west toward California’s American Valley. Today, a historical marker stands at Beckwourth Pass, acknowledging the explorer’s discovery of the lowest pass through these mountains.

Esteban, Beckwourth and York are just three of many African Americans who explored America in its nascent years. Their findings contributed to the opening of the frontier. White migrants from the east, formerly enslaved people and impoverished immigrants seeking upward mobility all headed west throughout the 1800s. Tragically, increased settlement also led to the violent displacement of Indigenous people, the further spread of deadly illnesses among Native American populations and environmental destruction.

The rise of the conservation movement in the second half of the 19th century led to the creation of America’s system of national parks, many of which were built on Indigenous homelands. Congress passed legislation establishing Yosemite National Park in 1890 and Mount Rainier National Park in 1899, with dozens more to follow. But during the Jim Crow era, African Americans were often refused entry to public spaces within parks or were discriminated against while there. The Interior Department officially desegregated national parks in 1945, but discriminatory practices continued into the civil rights era.

Today, endeavors to make wilderness areas more inclusive are ongoing. In June 2020, the NPS announced its commitment to “lead change and work against racism.” The nonprofit Outdoor Afro “reconnects Black people” to nature through “education, recreation and conservation,” while Black Girls Hike seeks to “inspire others who look like us to be comfortable outdoors,” as a Virginia branch of the organization notes on its website.

The NPS has also taken important steps toward co-managing federal lands with tribal nations. As Charles Sams III, the first tribally enrolled person to serve as the NPS’s director, said in a 2022 statement, the agency is “strengthening the role of tribal communities in federal land management, honoring tribal sovereignty and supporting the priorities of tribal nations.” Today, four national parks have co-management arrangements. In March, the NPS signed a memorandum of understanding giving the Yurok Tribe guardianship of the redwood groves at ‘O Rew in California.

The story of U.S. exploration is a complicated one, with moments of discovery and displacement alongside destruction and preservation. Learning lessons from the past, however, can help our country build a better future where Americans of all backgrounds are able to protect and enjoy its treasured landscapes.

Discover the unique traditions of Greek Carnival!

Milestones of Apokries

Carnival Traditions

Patras

Xanthi

Skyros

Galaxidi

These are just some of the unique traditions observed around the country, but there are many more! Do you have any family traditions celebrated around Apokries, Lent or Easter?

After his inspection tour of the eastern frontier provinces (see here), Hadrian travelled through the Pontic mountains to the Black Sea port of Trapezus (present-day Trabzon), the northernmost end of the Cappadocian limes. Trapezus was one of the furthest points reached by Hadrian, and in the AD 130s, his friend Lucius Flavius Arrianus, as governor of the province of Cappadocia, would report on his visit, following in the footsteps of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries.

We came in the course of our voyage to Trapezus, a Greek city in a maritime situation, a colony from Sinope, as we are informed by Xenophon, the celebrated historian. We surveyed the Euxine sea with the greater pleasure, as we viewed it from the same spot, whence both Xenophon and yourself had formerly observed it.

Xenophon and his later great admirer Arrian both described Trapezus as a Greek city settled on the sea and as a colony of Sinope. Eusebius, who lived in the 4th century AD, dated the foundation of Trebizond as 756 BC but may refer to an early emporium (a place of fishery and commerce) in the territory of Colchis. Settlers from Sinope of Paphlagonia (colonists from Miletus), a Greek city on the southern shore of the Euxine (Black Sea), about 400 kilometres to the west, refounded the city around 630 BC with the aim of trading with an inland tribe, the Mossynoeci (Xenophon, Anabasis 5.5.10), and taking advantage of the rich metal region of the east Euxine trade network (Doonan, 2010).

The city was laid out on a flat rock overlooking the sea and protected on either side by deep ravines, the shape of which occasioned the name of Trapezous, from the Greek word trapeza (“τράπεζα”), signifying a table. The table appears on the reverse of the city’s first coins minted in the 4th century BC, surmounted by a huge bunch of grapes. The obverse bears the head of a young bearded man, thought to represent the god Hermes. The town’s name has varied over the centuries: Trapezous, Trebizond, Trebisonda, Trapezunte, Tarabzundah and Trabzon.

Although the natural harbour facilities were poor, Trapezus benefited from its position on the busy trade route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and hosted many civilisations throughout its history. The Cimmerians, Medes, Persians and Macedonians were among the earlier rulers of the port city. Trapezus grew quickly and was a focal point for the Pontic kings in the Hellenistic period, reaching its zenith under Mithradates VI Eupator (c. 115–63 BC). The annexation of the Pontic kingdom and its incorporation into the Roman Empire gave Trapezus and the Black Sea new prominence.

During the era of Emperor Nero, the city was declared a free city (Pliny, Nat. 6.4) and served as a supply base for the Armenian campaign of Corbulo against Tiridates I (Tacitus, Annals 13.39), who installed Roman garrisons there. Vespasian later developed the area, building new roads linking to the legionary fortress at Satala and ultimately to the upper Euphrates. It became the headquarters of the Pontic fleet (classis Pontica). Inscriptions show that it was garrisoned during the 2nd century AD by vexillations from both the Cappadocian legions, Legio XII Fulminata and Legio XV Apollinaris and assumed increasing importance as a supply port for the Euphrates frontier (CIL 03, 06745 & AE 1975, 0783). With Roman sailors and legionnaires stationed there for over 200 years, Trapezus flourished as a major trading city.

The entire fortification walls of Trabzon, going back as far as the 5th century BC and enlarged and restored in the Ottoman period, stretched from a high hill to the Black Sea coast, dividing the city into three parts: the “lower fortress” (Aşağıhisar), “middle fortress” (Ortahisar) and “upper fortress” (Yukarıhisar). The Romans re-fortified the upper citadel and city enclosure (A & B on the map) at the southern end of the rock. The walls of Roman masonry are still visible today at places around Trabzon Kalesi.

The upper town appears to have occupied the ground around the fourth-century Panagia Chrysokephalos (now the Fatih Mosque), the oldest church in Trapezus founded by Flavius Hannibalianus, nephew of Constantine the Great. Incorporated into the lintel of the inner north door of the church is a monumental Greek dedication to Hadrian. The 2.5m long block of grey marble is considered the largest single inscribed stone in Pontus (Mitford, 1974). Sadly, the block of marble is now entirely covered by an Arabic inscription (see here). Mitford was able to photograph the inscription and the original surface, albeit only a single band surviving at the bottom, 9 cm high, and preserving only four words.

The presence of a dedication to Hadrian may reasonably be associated with the imperial visit. The visit is attested by Arrian, who was charged by the emperor to go on an inspection trip around the Black Sea and check on the progress of construction projects he had initiated in the region. Arrian’s report, known as the Periplus of the Euxine Sea, provides information on Hadrian’s benefactions to Trapezus. In inspecting the city in AD 131, he reported on the recent erection of a local sanctuary that had fallen into disrepair. The sanctuary was devoted to the Greek god Hermes and the imperial cult. It contained a stone temple with a statue of Hermes and Philesios within, two engraved stone altars and an effigy of Hadrian. The dedication could have been associated with these structures (Mitford, 1974).

After visiting the site of the temple, Arrian complained about the existing cult statue of Hermes and requested Hadrian to dispatch a new one, specifying that it had to be about five feet tall (1.52 m) to suit the temple’s proportions. In addition, he asked for a smaller statue of Philesios, a local god or divine hero believed to be Hermes’ descendant, to be placed in the temple as synnaos and symbomos (temple-sharing and altar-sharing deity). Philesios was also the epithet of Apollo in Miletus (Pliny NH 34.75), so it might be possible that Hermes was locally associated with Philesios due to the strong Milesian influence in these regions (Trapezus was a colony of Sinope, which in its turn was a colony of Miletus) and inherited the cult of Apollo Philesios from the mother-city. The triad of Hermes, Philesios and Hadrian represented the main cult of the city, at least at that time. 

The temple there is built of squared stone and not unrespectable; but the statue of Hermes is worthy neither of the temple nor the locality itself. Wherefore, if you would think proper, send to me a statue of Hermes of not more than five feet in height, as such a size seems well proportioned to that of the building. I request also a statue of Philesios of four feet in height; for it seems to me reasonable that the latter should have a temple and an altar in common with his ancestor. Periplus 3

During rescue excavations led by the Directorate of Trabzon Museum in 1997 in the district of Tabakhane, a life-sized (c. 1.65 metres tall) bronze statue of a youth, complete with its pedestal, was unearthed. Smashed into several pieces by a fallen column, the statue was meticulously reassembled. The figure is commonly said to be representing Hermes of Trapezus. However, the naked youth has two small horns on his forehead and is crowned with a wreath of grapes, suggesting a connection with Dionysus (see close-up here). It has been suggested that the statue may represent Philesios (Gül, 2014). Its height is close to the dimensions of Arrian’s desired statue. In that case, it would be a 2nd-century AD copy of Apollo Philesios’ original statue, sculpted in bronze by Canachus of Sicyon in the 6th century BC, which had been carried off during the Persian sack and returned by Seleucus I.

Architectural fragments were also found beside the bronze statue (2 column capitals, 4 column bases, 15 broken columns of various thicknesses, 7 pieces of architrave of various sizes, and 3 fragments of broken frieze with reliefs). The Museum Director identified the columns as remains from the Temple of Hermes reported by Arrian, which stood on Tabakhane Hill. Today, they are exhibited in the Garden of the 13th-century Hagia Sophia church. Hermes was supposed to protect all men who travelled upon the earth, so travellers would sacrifice to Hermes and Philesios before leaving on voyages around the Black Sea, as Arrian himself did. To be granted a safe journey, he had an ox slaughtered, then examined the entrails of the animal sacrificed and performed a libation upon them as an offering to the gods.

Trapezus issued imperial coins from Trajan (AD 113/14) to Philip the Arab (AD 244/5), but we have no emissions of Hadrian’s time, and the cult image of Hermes only appears on coins minted under Elagabalus one hundred years later. Hermes is depicted as a nude youth with one foot on a rock, bending over and tying a sandal. This is the Hermes Fastening his Sandal (also called Sandal binder), which exists in several sculptural versions, all Roman marble copies of a lost Greek bronze dating to the 4th century BC, very close to the style of Lysippos. One such sculpture comes from Hadrian’s Villa (see here), but the best-preserved example comes from Hadrian’s Gate in Perge (see here). Could this be the type of Hermes sent by Hadrian to Trapezus? The sculpture’s actual height (1.54 m for the Hermes of Hadrian’s Villa and 1,47 m for the Hermes of Perge) almost exactly matches Arrian’s requirements. The discovery of at least two replicas associated with Hadrian also proves his affinity for this type of statue (Mosch, 2013).

On the altars erected in the Hermes sanctuary, possibly erected as a memorial of Hadrian’s visit, Arrian reported that they were in rough stone and that the Greek inscription was inaccurately carved, as though written by barbarians. He was so dissatisfied with them that he rebuilt them in white stone and had them re-engraved with clearly cut lettering. Arrian goes on to report that the cult statue of Hadrian pointing towards the sea, surely locally produced, was poorly made and not in good likeliness. He was so unimpressed by the emperor’s effigy that he asked Hadrian to send a replacement.

Your statue, which stands there, has merit in the idea of the figure, and of the design, as it represents You pointing towards the sea; but it bears no resemblance to the original, and the execution is in other respects but indifferent. Send therefore a statue worthy to be called Yours, and of a similar design to the one which is there at present, as the situation is well calculated for perpetuating, by these means, the memory of any illustrious person.

Hadrian’s statue is the only one whose height Arrian does not specify, but it must have been the largest standing in the sanctuary (Boatwright, 2000). The pose of the imperial statue pointed towards the sea, and perhaps also to the harbour which Hadrian had built for the classis Pontica, until this time without shelter in bad season and proper anchorage (Peripl. 1). The new harbour project was possibly a result of his inspection of the area in 123.

Here You are constructing a harbour, as there was formerly only an anchorage, where ships might ride in safety during the summer season.

Hadrian’s harbour lay immediately below the lower city. Its ruins were discovered in the 1800s by Scottish historian George Finlay (1799-1875) and French archaeologist Charles Texier (1802-1871), who said they could be seen underwater, locally known as the Molos. Finlay marked on his map ‘ruins of port’ and two moles directly extending the north-south walls of the ancient city (see here). In 1842, English traveller William Francis Ainsworth noted in ‘Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Armenia’ that ‘the Emperor Adrian constructed here an artificial port, the remains of which are visible in the present day’. The moles could still be seen in the 1960s. The coastal road, constructed after 1964, completely destroyed the Molos harbour (Mitford, 2014).

In 2020 and 2021, rescue excavations following ongoing urban transformation projects in the Pazarkapı district of Trabzon revealed structures from the Roman and Byzantine periods, including ancient Roman dock structures, a section of the fortification walls constructed during the reign of Justinian, and a 150-200 metre long defensive structure and waterway from the late Byzantine period. The dock structures are thought to be the remains of the inner harbour walls built by Hadrian, found 4-6 meters below the ground and 500 m inland from the present-day coastline (see video here).

A section of the southeast corner of the city’s first city wall, also dating to the time of Hadrian, was also revealed (see video here). Many roof tiles from the Roman period were unearthed, as well as an inscribed cut stone with two lines of inscription on the short side containing the letters “N DCCXX” on the bottom line, which can be deciphered as number 720. These structures will be presented to the public as part of an open-air museum expected to be completed in 2024.

As the only port in the region, Trabzon preserved its importance throughout its history. Legio I Pontica was based there in the Late Empire (CIL III, 236) to help defend Pontus Polemoniacus, the newly created province. Justinian further reorganised the area in AD 536 and reconstructed most of the churches in Trapezus, and his great inscription above the eastern gate of the city commemorated the reconstruction of the civic walls at his expense following an earthquake (Mitford, 214). He also built the aqueduct and named it after the martyr Eugenios (Procopius, Buildings, 3.7), who was persecuted during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian. The Byzantine period saw the old trade route gain more importance, and in the 8th-10th centuries, Trapezus was a major commercial centre. Trapezus later became the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, established in the 13th century. In 1461, Trebizond fell under Ottoman rule.

—

Arrian seems to imply that Hadrian travelled a little further eastwards to the nearby port town of Hyssus (“as you know” Peripl. 4), 180 stadia east of Trapezus, where an infantry cohort garrison (cohors Apuleia civium Romanorum) was stationed. Trapezus was the starting point of the Pontus-Caucasian defence system extending along the coast of Colchis, a region on the east coast of the Black Sea celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts.

The largest Roman stronghold along the Colchian coast was the fort of Apsarus (Gonio, near Batumi in the southwest of Georgia), established on the left bank of the mouth of the Chorokhi river under Nero and located 1000 stadia from Trapezus (Pliny, NH, 6; Arrian, Peripl. 7). Arrian inspected the fort in the early 130s and recorded the presence of five cohorts (approximately 1,200-1,500 men). Their purpose was to guarantee safe navigation along the coast, protect traffic from pirates, which had been particularly strong on this coast, and keep watch over the coastal tribes.

At this place five cohorts are stationed, to whom we delivered their pay, and inspected their arms, the walls, and the ditch, their sick, and their present stock of provisions. Arrian, Peripl. 7

Tile stamps show that legionaries of the V Macedonica and XV Apollinaris were also part of the 2nd-century garrison of Apsarus (Sakartvelo, 2022), while bronze coins with Legio X counterstamps provide evidence of the presence of the legion in this area. Not only was Apsaros a strong military base, but it was also an important urban point. Development peaked in the reign of Hadrian, and its development is attested by the construction of the praetorium (Headquarters Building), in which a foundation deposit contained three Hadrianic silver cistophori struck in Laodicea ad Lycum (RPC III, 1399) and Ephesus (RPC III, 1332). At a distant location like Apsarus, the cistophori, which had a circulation restricted to the province of Asia, must be considered quite exceptional (Jaworski, 2021). About Apsarus, Procopius of Caesarea, an author of the 6th century AD, noted: “In old times, this city was populous. It was enclosed with many walls and was embellished with a theatre and a hippodrome, as well as other facilities usually making up a large city”.

—

—

After Apsarus, Arrian inspected two other coastal forts and their garrisons: Phasis, known to Pliny as a town of great distinction (HN 6.5) on the estuary of the Phasis River (now Rioni), and Sebastopolis (once Dioscurias), at the furthest end of the Euxine and the limit of Roman dominion below the western Caucasus. He reports that a ‘secure fort with war engines’ was maintained at Phasis with ballista to withstand siege and “was surrounded with a ditch and a double wall, each of them very broad”. It was held by 400 men, almost a cohort in strength (Peripl. 12). In Sebastopolis, he paid the soldiers and inspected their horses and weapons, watched the cavalry leaping upon their horses, visited the sick, checked arrangements for storing corn inside the forts, and examined the defences, walls, and ditches (Peripl. 14).

Arrian’s rigorous inspection may suggest a perceived threat in Colchis, perhaps from the Alans. Four years later, in AD 135, he was to mobilise Legio XV Apollinaris and a vexillatio of XII Fulminata (18,000 soldiers) to confront and neutralise them and write about the confrontation in his Ektaxis kata Alanon (Battle Formations against the Alans).

—

Hadrian’s goal after Trapezus was the neighbouring province of Pontus, where two cities, Neocaesara (Niksar) and Amaseia (Amasya), bore the name of Hadrianopolis, and Nicopolis added the title Hadriane. We cannot follow the emperor’s journey exactly, but stops at Pontic harbours, such as Amisus, Sinope, and Amastris, can be inferred (Birley, 1997). The first city sailing west from Trapezus was Amisus (today’s Samsun), one of the most flourishing Ionian colonies on the north coast of the Euxine (Strabo 12.3.14). Pompey conquered Amisus in c. 71 BC and granted the city its freedom. It had special privileges and was permitted to administer its own laws. Its status was emphasised through the legend ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ (translated as ‘a free Amisus’) on its coinage while Pliny the Younger, governor of the province in AD 110-113, calls it civitas foederata (Ep. 10.92).

Amisus possessed no fine harbour and did not have natural protection, but its lands produced olives, and silver mines in the Pontic mountains attracted numerous traders. It was the most central town on the southern Black Sea coast and had intensive links with central Anatolia thanks to the overland route leading to Tarsus in the Mediterranean region. The city’s population around AD 150 has been estimated at approximately 20,000–25,000 people.

Amisus produced silver coins with Hadrian, Sabina and Antinous’s images from AD 131/2 to 137/8. The city recorded dates on their coins by adding the local era, which began in 32 BC. Coins with many effigies were issued in Amisus, with Zeus, Demeter, Tyche, Athena, Neptune, Dionysus, Helios, Sarapis and Isis for Hadrian and Hermes, Artemis, Hera, Securitas and Aphrodite for Sabina. Amisus also minted a bronze medal showing Antinous on the obverse (deriving his portrait from a type issued at Smyrna) and the river god Thermodon on the reverse, with an inscription bearing the date 133/134. The Thermodon River (today’s Terme River) emptied into the Black Sea near the town of Themiscyra, the legendary capital of the Amazons.

During the reign of Trajan, Pliny sent a letter from Amisus to the emperor regarding the establishment of a charitable society. Trajan granted permission to create this society because the city was free and was consequently allowed to make its own laws (such associations were forbidden in cities governed by Roman law). Trajan expressed, however, that he only granted permission because he trusted that contributions to the society would help the poor and not be used to fund riotous and unlawful assemblies (Ep. 10-92,93).

No proper excavation has been conducted because of modern overbuilding. Traces of old buildings are still visible in the modern infrastructure of the Acropolis. Underground cisterns and tombs have also been registered in other parts of the city. In 1995, a treasure trove of elegant gold jewellery dating from the time of Mithridates VI Eupator (the Amisos Treasure) was uncovered during roadworks in two Hellenistic tumuli with burial chambers, painted and stuccoed.

—

From Amisus, Hadrian’s voyage proceeded further west to the busy harbour town of Sinope, lying on a promontory extending about 25km into the sea. With the only safe, natural roadstead harbour on the north coast of Asia Minor, Sinope ultimately became the most flourishing Greek settlement on the Euxine Sea. Greek Sinope was founded primarily as a Milesian staging ground for the founding of daughter colonies along the Pontic coast from Cytorus to Trapezus and beyond.

Sinope was a walled town with a huge citadel, and a strong wall defended its seaside. It escaped total Persian domination in the 4th century BC and appears to have maintained its independence from the dominion of Alexander the Great and, with the help of the powerful city of Rhodes, turned back an assault led by Mithridates II of Pontus in 220 BC. But in 183 BC, Pharnaces I, the fifth king of Pontus, took the city. Sinope remained prosperous under the Pontic kings, for whom it served as a capital city and residence. Mithridates VI was born and buried at Sinope, although his grave has yet to be located. The city was also remarkable as the birthplace of several men of eminence, such as the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, the poet and Greek New Comedy Diphilus, and the Christian heretic and founder of Marcionism of the 2nd century AD, Marcion. 

According to mythology, Sinope was a daughter of the Greek river god Asopos, who was abducted to the region by Zeus. Sinope outwitted three gods, Zeus, Apollon and Halys, and preserved her virginity. However, in Strabo’s writings, the Sinopeans link their city’s foundation to Autolycus, one of the companions of Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons. But after having gone astray, Autolycus and his two brothers dwelt at Sinope until they joined the expedition of the Argonauts.

During the Third Mithridatic War in 71 BC, Sinope was besieged by the Roman general Lucullus, who conquered the city but later helped rebuild it. Sinope’s heyday came after Julius Caesar made it a Roman colony in 45 BC, Colonia Iulia Felix Sinope, to harbour his veterans. The title of the city and the foundation date can be inferred from coins and inscriptions. Sinope later became the base of the classis Pontica. In the time of Strabo, Sinope was still a large and well-fortified city, magnificently adorned with an agora, a gymnasium and porticos (Strabo, 12.3.11). Sinope’s population in the Roman period must have ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants.

However, according to Pliny (Plin., Ep. 10.91), the Sinopeans needed a better supply of water, which he tried to solve by a grant from the emperor Trajan to erect an aqueduct conveying water from a source situated 16 Roman miles (24 kilometres) from Sinope. Roman engineers used the layout and the stones of the Hellenistic fortification to construct the aqueduct. 

The fortress of Sinope was strong. Its defensive walls (still standing), which mark the Greek city, follow the coastline north and south of the isthmus. The Southern citadel, used until recently as a prison (known as the Sinop Fortress Prison), covered an area of 9,500 m² while the Northern citadel was built on an area of 16,875 m². There were eleven towers of 22 m in height, of different shapes and orientations, to provide a more effective defence, five of them added during the construction of the inner fortress. In the following centuries, the citadels and walls were expanded, restored and modified by the Romans, the Byzantines and the Seljuks.

Several modern projects have been carried out in the city, including field surveys and excavation campaigns from the Sinop Kale Excavations 2016 and another project coordinated by Prof. Claire Barat from the University of Valenciennes and Hainaut-Cambrésis (UVHC) in France in collaboration with the Sinop Archaeological Museum.

The city of Sinope had a rich religious life, with traditional cults imported from Miletus like Apollo Delphinios and Poseidon Helikonios. There was supposed to be a temple of Serapis in the city and also a famous temple to Zeus Dikaiosynos (IK Sinope 77) near the town. In the reign of Mithridates VI Eupator, Sinope was a mint for the Pontic kingdom. The coins had many divinities on their reverses, including Artemis, Perseus, Eros, Apollo, Zeus, Ares, Athena, Nike, and Dionysus (Barar 2021). Under the Roman Empire, many of these Greek gods can be found in the pantheon of Sinope, but Isis, Nemesis, Asclepius and Marsyas were added. On a coin of the time of Hadrian, we find Serapis -or Zeus Serapris- (RPC III, 1224) and Athena/Roma (RPC III, 1221), Apollo on a coin of Sabina (RPC III, 1227), and the twins Romulus and Remus on the only known Antinous issue (RPC III, 1228).

With its Roman colony status, Sinope issued coins with legends in Latin rather than Greek. On the obverse, the long or short legends with the name and title of Hadrian, similar to imperial coins, were placed. On the reverse was the name of the colony, C(olonia)I(ulia) F(elix) and a year referring to the local chronology of the city. Sinope also issued pseudo-autonomous coins (14 mm, 2–3 g) with the image of Diogenes during the reign of Trajan or Hadrian (RPC III 1230). Placing his image on the coins was associated with a return to the city’s historical tradition.

The city of Sinope was well-known in the Roman Empire thanks to its products (particularly olives) and people. Many of those who left Sinope travelled in the service of the emperor, military or civil. They also participated in athletic contests around the Empire, such as the famous pugilist (boxer) Marcus Iutius Marcianus Rufus. A memorial stone erected in his honour provides us with some evidence for the number of his victories: 150 in twenty-seven sacred games, not only in Italy and Greece but also in the contests sponsored by the provincial commonalties of Bithynia and Asia in the cities of Nicomedia, Nicaea, Smyrna, Pergamon, Ephesus and more (see here). Another well-known Sinopean was Titus Veturius Campester, a priest of the Imperial cult and Mercury. He was sent four times as ambassador on behalf of his city to Rome, once to Hadrian and three times to Antoninus Pius, at his own expense. For all of this, he received the title of conditor patriae (see here).

—

Following the coast from Sinope in a westerly direction, Hadrian must have moored in the harbour of the beautiful city of Amastris (today’s Amasra). Like Sinope and all the other seaside cities in the Paphlagonia Region, Amastris had a long history extending as far back as the period of Milesian colonisation in the Black Sea. It stood on the isthmus of a peninsula projecting into the sea. The Greek city was prominent enough to get a mention in Homer’s Iliad (Il. 2.855).

The earliest Classical city on the site was known as Sesamos but acquired the name of Amastris in the late 3rd century BC when the Persian princess Amastris, the niece of Darius III and wife of the tyrant Dionysius of Heraclea, reorganised the area. Amastris was the first woman in the Mediterranean to be publicly identified as the political, economic, and administrative royal authority and to issue coins in her own name with the reverse legend Basilissês Amastrios (‘of Queen Amastris’). Amastris developed the city, and her urban development program included the construction of a new Acropolis, temples and ports.

Amastris later became part of the Kingdom of Pontus and remained in the Pontic kingdom until its capture by Lucullus in 70 BC. Under Roman rule, the town flourished and was endowed with new amenities, such as a theatre and a colonnaded street. Pliny describes Amastris, in another letter to Trajan (Ep. 10.98), as well laid out and beautiful (civitas elegans et ornata), with a very long open place. However, an exposed sewer running through the main street gave off a filthy odour and posed a health risk. Pliny asked permission to have the sewer covered, and Trajan agreed. The Roman sewer was so good that it lasted until the 20th century when it was destroyed in a storm. Legends placed on the local coins of Trajan emphasize the status of metropolis (ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ) of the city (RPC III 1205-1209).

The Acropolis of the city was situated on the peninsula (today known as Boztepe) and probably housed the temple of Zeus Strategos, the main deity of Amastris. Today, Boztepe is scattered with stretches of ancient fortifications from a Byzantine fortress adapted by the Genoese during the 14th century.

In 1993, four headless statues were unearthed during rescue excavations conducted by the Amasra Museum, including a cuirassed torso of Hadrian, part of an over-life-size statue of the emperor dressed in a decorated cuirass of the so-called “Eastern Hadrianic Breastplate Type” (Gergel, 2004), a type very common in the Greek-speaking eastern part of the Empire characterised by the representation of Victories flanking a statue of Athena (or Palladium) standing on the back of the she-wolf with nursing twins (see here). The statue could have been set up on the occasion of Hadrian’s visit to Amastris in AD 123.

Although headless, the statue from Amastris has been identified as a variation of the well-known Hierapytna type, named after the provenance of the most famous and complete of the twenty works representing statues of Hadrian with the eastern breastplate. The torso, carved from a grained, greyish marble, is preserved to a height of 140 cm, but when the statue was complete, it was larger-than-life-size, probably standing more than 2 m high. The missing head was made separately and attached to the body (Aydın, Buccino and Summerer, 2015).

Hadrian is dressed in full military regalia in this over-life-size headless portrait statue. His torso is covered with a muscle cuirass and a skirt of leather strap, with the customary military cloak (paludamentum) draping over the missing right shoulder. His armour is worn over a long tunic and a leather, vest-like garment with tasselled straps over the shoulders fastened to the breastplate with a lion-headed attachment device. The upper ends of the pteryges (hanging flaps) feature relief motifs, including the heads of Medusa, a lion, Zeus Ammon, a satyr and a ram, and a full figure of an eagle.

The cuirass is decorated with a statue of Athena at the centre, who wears a double-girded chiton and probably a Corinthian helmet. She holds a spear in her right hand, with the tip pointing downwards, and her left hand has a shield. On either side of her is a winged Victory carrying crowns. Athena stands on the back of the she-wolf, suckling Romulus and Remus. The decoration of the cuirass is topped by a gorgoneion (Medusa head). The elaboration of the cuirass decoration on the torso from Amastris has been considered provincial and simplified (Aydın, Buccino and Summerer, 2015). When complete, the statue showed Hadrian standing in the attitude of a victorious general with his right arm raised, probably holding a spear or sword.

The torso was discovered among three other headless statues (see here), all buried in a pit covered by a 10–15 cm thick layer of soil and large flat stone slabs in the Bedesten area of ​​Amasra where the Plateia, the broad street decorated with colonnades and mentioned by Pliny the Younger as a particularly elegant feature of the city, was probably located. The Bedesten itself is an Early Imperial construction of brick-built walls and opus reticulatum, enclosing an area of 5,000 m2 (see here) and variously described as a market, imperial palace and warehouse (horreum).

More recent excavations in the same area have unearthed a statue of a water nymph (or Aphrodite?) in unusually complete condition. The statue is missing only the left side of its nose and right hand. Archaeologists estimate that the statue dates to the 2nd century AD. The statue was put on display at the Amasra Museum after the restoration work on 18 October 2023 (see video below). Another excavation project that started in 2022 has uncovered the remains of a monumental structure with marble column capitals and 350 artefacts, 250 of which are coins (see here).

Geçtiğimiz ay Bedesten kazımızda ortaya çıkan Su Perimizi görücüye çıkardık. Amasra’ya gelmek için bir neden daha #bizçalışıyoruzamasragüzelleşiyor pic.twitter.com/cBBadZIAMw

— Recai ÇAKIR (@AmasraChpRecai) October 18, 2023

Until the beginning of the Imperial period, the Pontic cities on the Black Sea coast were probably still connected only by sea. The earliest evidence of road-building dates to the reign of Claudius, when Gaius Julius Aquila, proconsul of Bithynia and Pontus between AD 41 and 54, cut a new road through the mountainside along the coast. Aquila dedicated the work to Claudius and built a monument carved in relief into the rockface. The roadside monument, known today as Kuşkayası Yol Anıtı (literally bird rock road monument in Turkish), features a niche with a life-size relief of a male figure wearing a himation (likely representing the governor Aquila), flanked by an eagle perched on a tall column. Both have lost their heads, probably due to Christian mutilation in Late Antiquity (Silvia, 2021). 

Two inscriptions (tabula ansata), one above the niche written wholly in Greek and one bilingual to its left, give the cursus honorum of the governor and state that he had this monument set up at his own expense to the glory of the emperor and to foster the Pax Augusta. The bilingual inscription (CIL III, 321) is better preserved and records that Aquila had served twice as prefectus fabrum (in charge of construction projects) during the consulships of Aulus Gabinius Secundus and Titus Statilius Taurus and built a road at his own expense.

After Amastris, Hadrian would reach Bithynia proper and spend the winter of 123/4 at Nicomedia, the hometown of his friend Arrian, who may have been his host. During his stay in the Bithynian province, visits to a few cities can be inferred or are attested, including Heraclea Pontica, Claudiopolis (former Bythinium), the birthplace of his Antinous, who would later become the imperial favourite (Paus. 8.9.7), Prusias ad Hypium and Nicaea.

—

Sources & references:

• Birley, Anthony R. (1997). Hadrian. The restless emperor, Routledge London New York pp. 155-161.
• Periplus of the Euxine Sea by Arrian of Nicomedia, translated by William Falconer (1744-1826)(Oxford 1805) link
• Pliny the Younger: Letters – Book 10 link
• Mitford, T.B. (1974). Some inscriptions from the Cappadocian Limes, Journal of Roman Studies 64: 160–75
• Mitford, T. B. (2018). East of Asia Minor. Rome’s Hidden Frontier, Oxford.
• Mitford, T. B. (1998). The Roman frontier on the Upper Euphrates, R. MATTHEWS (ed.), Ancient Anatolia, Fifty years’ work by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, Londra 1998, ss. 255-272.
• Doonan, Owen. (2010). Sinop Landscapes: Towards an Archaeology of Community in the Hinterland of a Black Sea Port. Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia. 16. (PDF).
• Boatwrıght, Mary T. (2000). Hadrian and The Cities of The Roman Empire, OUP, Oxford, p. 119, 137, 139-140.
• H.-Chr. von Mosch, Hadrians „Sandalenlöser“. Der Hermes des Lysipp (?) auf Münzen von Trapezous, Amastris und Markianopolis, JNG 63, 2013, 93-149. 101 M 1 mit Abb. und Abb. 3 (dieses Stück, mit Lit.).
• Elmas Kaya, “Trabzon Ġl Merkezinde Kurtarma Kazısında Ortaya Çıkan Buluntular”, IX. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri, Ankara 1999, s. 321-334.
• Kılıç, S., Demirel, S., Çalışkan Akgül, H. “NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON ANCIENT TRABZON: “HADRIAN PORT””.Journal of Black Sea Studies 15 (2021): 387-428
• Sakartvelo, S. M. (2022). Pontos Limes: Romans in Eastern Black Sea Region. TSU-TI — THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.55804/TSU-ti-1/Mamuladze
• Jaworski, P., Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, R., and Mamuladze, S. (2021). The rise and fall of the Roman fort in Apsaros: recent numismatic evidence. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 30/2, 289–306. https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.2083-537X.pam30.2.11
• Yılmaz, C. “Tarihi Sinop Kalesi Cezaevi”, Eastern Geographical Review, Vol.14-22, pp.1-16
• Barat, Claire. (2021). Cults in Ancient Sinope: Originality and Standardisation. link
• Barat, C. 2011. La Colonia Iulia Felix Sinope, un exemple de fondation coloniale au nord de l’Anatolie. In Barrandon, N., & Kirbihler, F. (Eds.), Les gouverneurs et les provinciaux sous la République romaine. Presses universitaires de Rennes. link
• Buccino, L., Summerer L., Aydin B. (2015). Honoured, beheaded, buried. A new deposit of statues from Amastris, in: Landscape Dynamics and Settlement Patterns in Northern Anatolia (Stuttgart 2015) 219-238. (link)
• Silvia. D. (2021). Decapitation and Dynamite: The Mutilated Mountainside Monument of Gaius Julius Aquila on the Coast of Bithynia et Pontus, in: Vol. 7 (2021): CLARA: Classical Art and Archaeology (link)

Related

In May 1951, Representative Peter F. Mack was in his southern Illinois district on what promised to be an unremarkable listening tour among his constituents. Amid the usual glad-handing and baby-kissing, Mack received a surprising challenge from his friend John W. Hobbs, an automobile parts manufacturer.

Hobbs noted how scary things looked worldwide: Europe was still a mess after World War II, the Soviet Union had recently gotten the bomb, conflicts were raging in Korea and French Indochina, and anti-Western protests had begun in Iran. Conventional diplomacy had failed at the mighty task of bringing peace, Hobbs argued, in large part because U.S. diplomats rarely tried to communicate with ordinary citizens in other countries.

“Our top brass just talks to the top brass of other countries,” Hobbs told Mack. “They never get down to the level of the people themselves.” Hobbs had a novel suggestion for solving the problem. “Why don’t you fly to some of these countries and talk to the people?” he asked his friend. Hobbs knew the 34-year-old Mack had a deep passion for helping others—as well as a passion for flying.

So Mack and Hobbs worked out an idea for an unusual global goodwill tour, starting and ending in Springfield, Illinois. Mack would fly around the world alone, serving as both daring pilot and unofficial ambassador as he represented the people of his district and extended their wishes for peace.

When Mack returned to Washington, D.C. for that spring’s congressional session, he discussed the idea of the globe-trotting tour with his friend Paul Garber, curator of the Smithsonian’s National Air Museum (now the National Air and Space Museum). Garber had recently acquired an airplane that was perfect for the journey: a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, which racing pilot Bill Odom had used in 1949 to set a world record for nonstop long distance in a light plane, flying 4,957 miles from Honolulu to Teterboro, New Jersey. The Bonanza’s extra gas tanks on the wingtips and in the cabin would serve Mack’s mission well. But now the Bonanza was in storage. Not in the habit of loaning out artifacts, the Smithsonian temporarily gave custody of the airplane back to the Beech company. Mack paid Beech $3,200 to have the airplane reconditioned, and the company agreed to let him use it for the flight.

Mack and Hobbs budgeted $10,000 for the trip, largely raised through $5 and $10 donations from constituents. Once Congress went into recess, on October 7, 1951, Mack set off on his adventure. On the way, he became one of the very first humans to complete a solo flight around the world, and the first to cross the Pacific Ocean alone in a light airplane. Today, his unique and perhaps quixotic quest stands for a simple but powerful notion: the potential each person has to make the world a better place. As Mack said at the time, “Goodwill is everyone’s job, and I am thoroughly convinced that it is the responsibility of every American citizen.”

Mack was born in rural Carlinville, Illinois, in 1916, and from a young age he worked in coal mines and in the family business—the local Ford dealership. A devout Catholic, Mack “was always interested in others and what he could do for them,” recalls Mona Mack Melampy, one of his two daughters. His passion for aviation started early, and after a first ride at age 13 in an old World War I trainer, Mack was hooked. He served in the Navy in World War II as a flight instructor, though he never flew overseas in combat.

Once peace was declared, Mack found another way to serve. He was elected to Congress in 1948, gaining acclaim for his promise to provide underprivileged children a free trip to Washington, D.C. to see Congress in action—at his own expense. (It was a promise he kept throughout his congressional career, ultimately bringing more than 1,200 kids.) He also gained fame for campaigning by air throughout his district, with “Mack for Congress” splashed on the side of the plane he owned at the time.

Ahead of the 1951 flight, Mack rechristened the Bonanza the Friendship Flame and painted “The Abraham Lincoln Goodwill Tour” on the side. (Lincoln’s name then, as now, was known around the world, and Mack’s district was home to Lincoln’s longtime residence.) At Springfield airport on October 7, Governor Adlai Stevenson, Hobbs, Mack’s parents and some 2,000 well-wishers bade him goodbye. As Mack later recalled in a speech following his flight, “I climbed into the smallest airplane ever to attempt to make a solo flight around the world.” At the controls, he felt galvanized: “filled with enthusiasm, and with the determination to carry out the idea of the citizens of this area—to express their friendship to people throughout the world.”

What faced him, though, was an entirely new challenge. Mack had never flown across oceans or deserts and, for the next 113 days, would face extreme tests of his endurance and concentration as pilot, navigator and goodwill ambassador. The airplane cabin was cramped with the extra gas tank. There was no room to stretch, and little for any luggage. He’d packed only a couple of suits, several small knives, a flashlight, some cash, a parachute and a small movie camera.

Mack made brief stops in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., before heading to a U.S. naval base in Newfoundland. Well-fed on lobster, he headed out over the Atlantic, first to the Azores islands to refuel. “Hurricane-inspired tail winds carried me along at speeds up to 210 miles per hour” before he reached the Azores, he later wrote in Collier’s Weekly. At his next stop, Lisbon, he found a large crowd waiting, as he also did in Madrid, Amsterdam, Oslo and Helsinki. Unable to gain entry to the Soviet Union, Mack then zipped off to the epicenter of the Cold War: West Berlin. He noted wryly that the ordinary Germans with whom he spoke displayed a newfound appreciation for the United States, thanks to the Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift of 1948-49: When Mack met a retired Berlin schoolteacher, he later wrote, the teacher “ostentatiously announced, ‘I take off my hat to you!’”—and promptly did.

Mack’s tour of Europe also included London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Paris, Luxembourg, Bonn, Geneva, Nice, Rome and Athens. At each stop, his routine was the same: check into a local hotel, deliver a “friendship scroll” to the mayor from the people of his district, and then head into the streets and shops, speaking to anyone who would talk to him.

In Belgium, he visited a coal mine similar to those he’d worked in back in Carlinville. He descended 4,500 feet into the earth, talking with miners as they toiled in sweltering heat. When he resurfaced, a huge crowd had gathered to marvel: Local officials had never bothered to make the descent. “They welcomed me to their village and had a reception in the city hall.”

Mack had his first close calls in the air during the European leg. While flying from Madrid to Amsterdam, he was terrified to find he’d fallen asleep at the controls. “The towering Pyrenees were below me, and every time I nodded, the plane’s nose headed toward them. I dozed, fought my way back to consciousness, dozed … drank black coffee, dozed and caught myself again,” he recalled. More troubling, Mack narrowly avoided death when the engine quit over the unforgiving Alps—because he had forgotten to reroute the fuel from depleted tanks to full ones; he adjusted just in time. He had to contend with dangerous icing while flying from Dublin to Paris, not to mention a bouncy landing in Switzerland “in a cow-pasture airport so rough that I’ll bet even the cows couldn’t keep their feet.”

Throughout the journey, Mack shot footage with his movie camera—the canals of Amsterdam, palm trees in Lisbon, and bustling streets in Madrid and Helsinki. Moving on to the Middle Eastern leg of the trip, he filmed the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as he flew down into Baghdad.

Flying south, Mack filmed the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, where he made a brief refueling stop at the Dhahran Air Force Base. He then skipped due east across the Persian Gulf and, hugging the coastline of southern Iran, made his way to India and Pakistan in early December. The countries were still reeling from partition in 1947, which had led to war and millions of displaced Muslims and Hindus on either side of the border. Yet Mack saw each country’s vibrant, bustling streets and schoolchildren playing and “was impressed with the enthusiasm and vitality of these new nations,” he later recalled. Still, he recorded: “The poverty was awe-inspiring. … I got the impression that if Russia wanted to move into any part of South Asia east of Turkey, it would be like walking through a paper bag.”

Mack made brief stops in Rangoon and Bangkok before arriving in Saigon. The First Indochina War had been raging since 1946 between France and the Communist army of Ho Chi Minh. Given China’s intensifying involvement in Korea on the side of the North, there was growing fear China might offer similar aid to Vietnamese Communists. But Mack also found hostility against the U.S. One man he met on the street in Hanoi was a nationalist who told the congressman: “We don’t like the United States because you forget your own struggle for independence and do not support ours.”

Although Mack found a warm welcome in the Philippines, “The physical strain of the trip had caught up with me, and as I stepped from my plane, my knees buckled,” he recalled. “A doctor in Manila had warned me that I was near collapse, so I spent the rest of that day in bed.” But the following day was Christmas Eve, so despite his fatigue, Mack pressed on. He attended midnight Mass in a little church in Taipei, then flew 900 miles into the Korean battle zone on Christmas Day. He landed at a U.S. Navy base in terrible weather and had Christmas dinner on the base with two constituents who happened to be stationed there. “I didn’t expect you to come halfway around the world to hear a constituent’s complaints,” one of them joked.

Mack spent around a week in Japan, and although he filmed the busy streets of Tokyo and the devastation of Hiroshima, the goodwill portion of the journey was over. Mack transitioned to preparing himself and the Friendship Flame for the most challenging part of the trip—the trans-Pacific leg. He would have to navigate with absolute precision in order to find tiny islands—mere specks in the vast ocean—where he would rest and refuel.

On January 8, 1952, Mack started for his first trans-Pacific stop, Iwo Jima, and encountered turbulence and rain squalls “all of the 660 miles.” He landed on the little island in the dark, grateful for his high-functioning instruments.

That luck didn’t hold. The next day, Mack set out for Wake Island. Soon, his artificial horizon—an instrument that tracks the airplane’s orientation to the earth’s horizon—failed, and even after he spent ten and a half hours using other instruments to keep the plane level, the tiny atoll was nowhere in sight. “It was then that I thought for the first time of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance near this same area of the Pacific,” he recalled. “I could hear other airplanes calling to me by radio, but I could not get through to them—and I couldn’t find the tiny island. I never felt so lonely in my life.” After another torturous 30 minutes, Wake came into view. Mack pointed the movie camera out the window as he circled before landing—grateful to be alive.

The rest of the trans-Pacific leg was exacting but uneventful: Midway, then Hawaii, where he stayed for a week for repairs and well-deserved rest. On January 21, after flying 2,400 miles from Hawaii, Mack landed in San Francisco—completing the world’s first solo crossing of the Pacific in a light plane. After stops in Tucson and Dallas, he returned to Springfield on January 27, 1952. He had flown 33,000 miles, and visited 45 cities and 35 countries. This time, Stevenson, Hobbs and Mack’s parents awaited him—along with 10,000 joyful citizens. Mack returned the airplane to the Smithsonian and himself to Congress, where he served until early 1963.

Mack himself could be surprisingly diffident, especially by the standards of a politician, and he never really exploited the trip for personal gain. He wrote two articles about the adventure and gave a few talks, but he sought no further publicity or notice. As his daughter Melampy told me, “Once he had done something, he moved on.” Put a different way, “He was a workhorse, not a show horse,” says Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski, who represents Mack’s Springfield area today.

Reflecting later on what he’d accomplished in his article for Collier’s, Mack recorded how the long hours in the air had given him a new perspective—and hopes for peace. “From where I sat, I could see no international boundaries and no squabbles among nations,” he wrote. “During those lonely hours, I thought more and more of peace and of the folly of man fighting man, and wherever I went I found people echoing my sentiments.”

Written by Natasha Marinopoulos

Perhaps the most instantly recognisable element of Greek Easter, red eggs (kokkina avga) are rich in symbolism and have been a Greek cultural tradition for centuries. Many Greeks will remember dyeing red eggs with their mothers and grandmothers, shining the eggs with olive oil, and cracking them on Easter Sunday with family. These bright eggs also feature in the centre of the sweet Greek Easter bread, tsoureki.

The symbolism of eggs

Why are the eggs dyed red?

Tsougrisma

After sailing along the southern Black Sea coast, possibly visiting the Pontic towns of Amisus, Sinope and Amastris (see here), Hadrian is thought to have spent the winter of 123/4 in Nicomedia or possibly Byzantium. Nicomedia was the capital of the dual province of Pontus et Bithynia in what is now Izmit in northern Turkey. It was also the hometown of his lifelong friend Arrian, who may have been his host on this occasion, like in 117/8 (see here). Arrian was a Stoic philosopher and a student of Epictetus at Nicopolis in Epirus, where the pair probably met. About 12 years younger than Hadrian, Arrian shared many of Hadrian’s passions, including his enthusiasm for hunting.

During his stay in the Bithynian province, the Emperor probably visited several major cities, including Heraclea Pontica, Claudiopolis (former Bythinium), Prusias ad Hypium and Nicaea. During one of these visits, Hadrian probably met Antinous, a beautiful young Greek boy who would accompany him on his many travels as a cherished lover and companion. Nicomedia and Nicaea had recently experienced an earthquake that had caused significant damage to the cities. The exact date of the earthquake is not known, but it most likely occurred in the fifth year of Hadrian’s reign in 121, between August and December, according to Eusebius. This was before Hadrian’s visit to the area in 124. Saint Jerome, on the other hand, places the earthquake in the fourth year of Hadrian’s reign, AD 120, which was the 224th Olympiad.

After an earthquake had happened, Nicomedia lay in ruins, and many things were overturned in the city of Nicaea: for the reconstruction of which, Hadrian generously gave funds from the public treasury. Jerome, Chronicle 180

Hadrian showed special care for the province and contributed to the reconstruction of both Nicomedia and Nicaea. This is evidenced by a set of coins celebrating Hadrian as Restitutor Bithyniae and Restitutor Nicomediae. Nicomedia also expressed its gratitude by adding the epithet ‘Hadriane’ (Ἁδριανή) to its name (CIG 1720). The Emperor is credited with reconstructing city walls, gates and markets in the two neighbouring towns, which had a long rivalry over which city held the rank of capital of the province. Nicomedia was the metropolis or ‘first city’ of Bithynia and wanted to be the only city claiming the title, which Nicaea also claimed. Hadrian also entrusted Patrocles, a Bithynian who had commanded two Roman cohorts, with overseeing the reconstruction of his native Nicaea (IK Iznik 56).

Bithynia was a mountainous region with heavy forests and fertile valleys, lying northwest of Asia Minor, between the Propontis (now known as the Sea of Marmara) and the Black Sea. It was bordered by Thrace to the west, Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast along the Pontic coast, and Phrygia to the southeast towards the interior of Asia Minor. Bithynia became a Roman province in 74 BC when Nicomedes IV (c. 94–74 BC) bequeathed his entire kingdom to the Roman Republic. The Kingdom of Pontus was incorporated after the defeat of Mithridates VI Eupator (120–63 BC) in 63 BC, thanks to Pompey the Great’s decisive victory in the Third Mithridatic War. The province’s area was then expanded as part of Pompey’s annexations and organisation of the eastern provinces.

During Roman rule, the provinces of Bithynia and Pontus were merged for administrative purposes, as evidenced by inscriptions mentioning Procos. provinciae Ponti et Bithyniae. The region covered the eastern part of the coast of the Propontis, the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, and the southern coast of the Black Sea up to Amisus. These three regions, namely Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, hold significant historical importance.

Pontus and Bithynia had no Roman legions stationed in their territories, but the Roman army passed through the region during their military operations against Armenia and Parthia. To reach the Cappadocian frontier, troops would travel through Byzantium, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Juliopolis and Ancyra. Bithynia had several prominent cities, including Calchedon (a free town) and Apamea, Prusa, and Heraclea Pontica (colonies). During Hadrian’s reign, various centres such as Caesarea Germanica, Apamea Myrlea, Cius, Calchedon, Bithynium Claudiopolis, and Nicomedia issued coins with the Emperor’s image.

Greek culture thrived in Bithynia, a province that produced notable writers and intellectuals. Asclepiades from Prusa (c. 124–40 BC) was a Greek physician who established Greek medicine in Rome. Lucius Flavius Arrianus (c. 95–175), known mainly for his work devoted to the expeditions of Alexander the Great and his Periplus of the Euxine Sea, was from Nicomedia. Cassius Dio (c. 155–235) from Nicaea was the author of the History of Rome, and Dio Chrysostom from Prusa (c. 40–c. 110) was a Greek rhetorician and philosopher who gained fame in Rome and throughout the empire for his writings and speeches.

Although Bithynia et Pontus was governed by a single Roman governor, Bithynia had its own provincial assembly, called the koinon of Bithynia. The assembly met at Nicomedia in a temple dedicated to the imperial cult, known as the Temple of Rome and Augustus. Augustus, who authorised the construction in 29 BC, only allowed temples to be built in his honour if the goddess Rome was also worshipped (Suetonius, Augustus 52). The temple is depicted on the reverses of Hadrianic cistophori bearing the legend COM(MUNE) BI(THYNIAE), meaning “koinon of Bithynia”. Although the temple has not been found, it has been reconstructed based on extensive numismatic evidence (RPC III, no. 968-984). The temple was built in Corinthian style and had eight columns, and the inscription on the entablature read Romae Senatui Populo Augusto. It was probably damaged in an earthquake and later restored during the reign of Hadrian.

All types of Hadrianic cistophori have counterparts in the bronze series (RPC III, no. 985-1021), which regularly feature ΚΟΙ-ΝΟΝ ΒΕΙΘΥΝΙΑϹ as legends. However, no trace of this provincial imperial shrine has been discovered. The architectural appearance of the temple is only known through these cistophori and bronze coins produced by the koinon of Bithynia. The primary role of the koinon was to organize the cult of the Emperor, manage the regional economy, and collect taxes.

Bithynia, a senatorial province, was in a state of disarray, both financially and administratively, before Trajan took direct control of it. In AD 110, the Optimus Princeps appointed Pliny the Younger, an experienced administrator, as legatus Augusti pro praetore (proconsular legate of the province) to exercise his imperium in the allegedly corrupt province. During his tenure, Pliny corresponded with the Emperor to discuss administrative issues, engineering projects, and everyday life in the province and its cities. Pliny also commented on the emergence of Christianity in the province and sought the Emperor’s advice on how to deal with this new sect (Ep. 10.96).

—

Nicomedia was an important port with a well-protected harbour. The city was located on the main roads that directly connected Byzantium to Pontus and Armenia, making it an important connection point between the eastern frontiers of the empire. It was founded in 264 BC by Nicomedes I on the ruins of a Greek colony named Olbia, a Megarian town founded in the 8th century BC. Nicomedia served as the chief residence of the Bithynian kings and was the centre of pre-Roman administration. During the Roman period, it became a metropolis and the provincial capital, where the main administrator of the province resided. Despite several destructive earthquakes (the city rests on the North Anatolian faultline), Nicomedia never lost its geographical and strategic importance, competing with Nicaea for the first rank in the province. It was one of 37 cities in Asia that acquired the title of neokoros several times (three times), associated with the imperial cult.

Nicomedia was predominantly built on picturesque hills overlooking the sea. It had strong walls with gates, some parts of which still exist today. The city thrived particularly during the Flavian and Antonine periods. In his letters to Trajan, Pliny mentions several public buildings of the city, such as a senate house, a forum, and a temple of Cybele. He also spoke of a great fire that engulfed Nicomedia, causing much destruction because of the lack of firemen (Plin. Ep. 10.33). Pliny further reported on the Nicomedian aqueduct, which took an investment of 3.5 million sesterces but was not completed (Plin. Ep 10.37). Nicomedia also had temples dedicated to Isis (Plin. Ep 10.37), Zeus Bronton (TAM IV 58), and Cybele/Magna Mater (TAM IV 74). Other notable buildings included large baths, a nymphaeum, a theatre, gymnasia, numerous fountains, a circus, and an agora.

The city’s chief divinity of Nicomedia was Demeter, the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture who presided over crops and the fertility of the earth. Nicomedia held regular games called Demetria in her honour. Arrian, who served as the priest of Demeter and her daughter Kore (as per TAM IV 402), reported that the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore originated in Nicomedia. During the imperial period, coins from Nicomedia usually depicted the patron goddess carrying a sceptre, an attribute associated with the Eleusinian goddess. The cult celebrating the earth’s fertility was one of the most important in ancient times and was relatively popular in Bithynia. This may have been due to the fertility of the area, as Nicomedia had very fertile valleys and coastal districts that produced a great variety of products, ranging from grain to grapes and nuts.

The renowned orator from Antioch, Libanius, resided in Nicomedia from 344 to 349. He referred to Nicomedia as “the city of Demeter” and recorded the existence of a temple dedicated to Demeter. He also documented the city’s remarkable structures, which were destroyed in the earthquake of AD 358.

What city was more beautiful? Its public buildings were splendid, its private contiguous, rising from the lowest parts to the citadel, like the branches of a cypress, one house above another, watered by rivulets and surrounded by gardens. Its council-chambers, its schools of oratory, the multitude of its temples, the magnificence of its baths, and the commodiousness of its harbour I have seen, but cannot describe. Libanius, Ornationes LXI 7

Nicomedia was among the cities that worshipped Antinous after his death in the Nile in Egypt. There are coins confirming that the young Bithynian was heroised, as he is shown on coins with the legends ‘ΗΡΩϹ ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟϹ’ (hero Antinous) on the obverse and ‘Η ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΙΑ’ (Nicomedia the Metropolis) on the reverse. Bithynia saw the importance of Antinous in linking the birthplace with the empire and wanted to commemorate him as a divine local hero as well.

As previously mentioned, an earthquake severely damaged Nicomedia and Nicaea before Hadrian’s visit. Late chroniclers explicitly report that the Emperor provided funds for the necessary restoration work. ‘He [Hadrian] restored Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bithynia, which had collapsed in an earthquake’ (Eus. Hist. 164). The Historia Augusta also mentions that Hadrian gave tax exemptions to communities which had been damaged by “famines, plagues, and earthquakes” (SHA, Hadrian, 21.5). Malalas claims that Hadrian “bestowed” money on the surviving citizens (Malalas, 279). Moreover, on a high-relief frieze block found within the nymphaeum at Nicomedia, the name Hadrian is written in the nominative case (TAM IV, 1 10). This is believed to be related to the original building or its reconstruction.

People attempted to assist those affected by the earthquake. A funerary monument was built to honour a male tutor named Hermes, who risked his own safety to protect the children under his care. The memorial stele shows Hermes embracing the young boys with his arms, shielding them from the falling debris.

Thraso, son of Diogenes, erected this stele for his two sons, Dexiphanes, aged five and Thraso, aged four, and for Hermes, aged twenty-five, who was bringing them up. In the earthquake collapse, so did he hold them in his arms.

From this time on, Nicomedia was plagued by large-scale destructive earthquakes. Other emperors, such as Commodus and Julian, helped rebuild the city. Commodus also presented Nicomedia with its second neokoros title, whereas Julian spent several years in the city and donated a significant amount of money towards its restoration. After the earthquake of 533/4, Nicomedia lost its grandeur, but it continued to exist in the Byzantine era. During Justinian‘s rule, the city was revived by rebuilding churches, aqueducts, and bathhouses.

—

After Nicomedia, Hadrian went on to assist its rival located to the southeast on the bank of Lake Ascania.

[Hadrian] surrounded with strong walls Nicaea and Nicomedea, which had suffered in an earthquake.’ (Niceph. 256/i. 944).

While our knowledge of Hadrian’s response to the earthquake in Nicomedia is limited to ancient writers, the city of Nicaea has delivered some valuable epigraphical and archaeological evidence that sheds light on Hadrian’s efforts to rebuild the city. Among the most significant pieces of epigraphical evidence is the long dedication to Hadrian above the Lefke (eastern) and Istanbul (northern) city gates.

Nicaea was a wealthy city situated in a vast and fertile valley surrounded by mountains. The settlement was connected to the nearby Propontis via the main highway leading from Thrace to central Anatolia and extending southeast towards Syria. Nicaea is said to have been colonised by Bottiaeans from Central Macedon, who had named the city Helikore, but the Mysians subsequently destroyed the first colony. In the wake of Alexander the Great‘s death, Nicaea was rebuilt by the Macedonian king Antigonus I, who named the city Antigoneia after himself. Shortly after that, in 301 BC, Lysimachus conquered the city after the battle of Ipsus, and he changed its name to Nikaea in honour of his wife.

As Strabo records (Strab. 12.4), the town was built as a square measuring 16 stadia in circumference (approx. 700 sq. km). The city’s streets were planned using the Hippodamian system, with all intersections at right angles. This system is still visible in Iznik’s modern street layout. The city had two main streets leading to four gates that were visible from a fixed stone located at the centre of the gymnasium, which stood at the heart of the town.

As Strabo noted, Nicaea had a smaller ring of walls during the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic walls fell into disuse and disappeared in the Roman period. Instead, freestanding triumphal arches were built under Vespasian at the ends of Nicaea’s main streets. The city walls were reconstructed after the Goths threatened the region in the late 3rd century AD. These walls formed an irregular pentagon around 5 km long, as seen on the reverses of bronze coins minted under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus.

During the reign of Augustus, Nicaea underwent significant development to the extent that it rivalled Nicomedia as the seat of the provincial governor. A temple was built for Roman citizens, dedicated to Roma, the personification of the city of Rome, and Julius Caesar. Additionally, during this time, the koinon of Bithynia established agonistic games in Nicaea, held every four years in honour of the Emperor.

Caesar, meanwhile, besides attending to the general business, gave permission for the dedication of sacred precincts in Ephesus and in Nicaea to Rome and to Caesar, his father, whom he named the hero Julius. These cities had at that time attained chief place in Asia and in Bithynia respectively. Dio 51.20.6

In the Flavian era, the city of Nicaea received four new monumental gates built using local marble. These gates were dedicated to Vespasian and his son Titus, as well as to Nicaea itself, by the Bithynian proconsul M. Plancius Varus after AD 70 (IK Iznik 25–28). The four gates were located on the north, east, west and south sides of the city. Each gate consisted of an arched central passage and two minor rectangular gateways. The gates were decorated with statues placed in the niches on either side of the archway and possibly over the gates. Later, in the 3rd century AD, the walls were raised, and the gates were completely rebuilt with new brick superstructures and towers as part of a re-fortification project.

Pliny the Younger further enlarged the city and completed the construction of new buildings. In discussing the state of Nicaea’s public works, he reported on investments in unfinished buildings such as the theatre and gymnasium (Plin. Ep 10.39). The theatre’s construction had begun shortly before Pliny inspected the Bithynian cities, costing more than ten million sesterces. However, the building was sinking, with cracks appearing, and despite Pliny’s suggestion that it should be demolished, Trajan requested that it be completed.

The theatre was located in the southwest part of the city between the lake and the eastern gate. It was built largely on vaulted substructures in opus caementicium and faced with marble. It measured 85 by 55 m and belonged to the Hellenistic type, although it had undergone several alterations. Over the centuries, the theatre became an open-air quarry. Its stones were used as construction materials, especially in restoring the city walls during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

After the earthquake of AD 120, Hadrian provided funds for the restoration of Nicaea. The Paschal Chronicle reports that Hadrian repaired the city’s walls, gates, and market. In recognition of his contributions and visit, the northern and eastern gates of Nicaea were rededicated to him. The long dedication to Hadrian on both sides of the gates’ architrave also mentions the titles metropolis and neokoros conferred by the Emperor to the city, which suggests that the earliest known neokoros temple at Nicaea belonged to Hadrian. Additionally, a text (IK Iznik 56) reveals that a local man named Patrocles was chosen to oversee the rebuilding of the city according to Hadrian’s instructions. Finally, inscriptions indicate the existence of an aqueduct dedicated to Hadrian.

“To the emperor king Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of the god Trajan Particus, grandson of the god Nerva, he who bears upon himself the authority of the people’s sovereignty, Nikaia, descended from the line of Dionysos and Herakles, the first (city) of Bithynia and Pontus, metropolis by the decrees of the emperors and the sacred Roman senate, offers the most pious Neokoros of the Augusti”. (IK Iznik 29)

Two inscriptions related to the aqueduct of Nicaea, one in Greek (IK Iznik 1) and the other in Latin (IK Iznik 55), reveal that Hadrian was the person to whom the aqueduct was dedicated. It is also mentioned that the Emperor imposed strict regulations for the protection of the aqueduct. According to the Greek decree, Hadrian ordered the people living near the aqueduct not to interfere with the water conduit in any way. Those who did so were to pay a fine to the treasury. The remains of the aqueduct that are visible today extend to the east of Iznik from the Lefke Gate. The total length of the aqueduct was about 1.5 km. According to Procopius (De aedificiis, V, 3), it was restored during the time of Justinian. Restorations were also carried out by Theodore I Lascaris (1205–1222) in the 13th century AD.

On a small altar (IK Iznik 32) found in Nicaea, Hadrian is referred to as Zeus Soter Olympios. The use of the epithet Olympios for Hadrian is attested for the first time in 128. However, it became regular after 131/2, the year in which the Olympieion in Athens was finished, and the Panhellenion (a league of Greek cities with headquarters in Athens) was established.

—

During his tour of Bithynia, Hadrian most likely visited the metropolis of Bithynium-Claudiopolis (modern-day Bolu), located in the highlands to the east of Nicomedia, beyond the Sangarius River. Bithynium-Claudiopolis stood on the great Roman highway that ran parallel to the coastal ridge, connecting Nicomedia to Ancyra in Galatia. In the past, the city was known for its pastures and cheese and was one of the leading cities of the Kingdom of Bithynia. It is believed to be a Hellenistic foundation of the kings of Bithynia, as there is no evidence of an earlier city on its territory. An inscription found at Bolu indicates that the founder of the city was King Prusias I. However, according to Pausanias, Bithynium was founded by Arcadians from Mantinea (Paus. 8.9.7), a belief which may date from the time of Hadrian. The Bithynian city was renamed Claudiopolis during Roman times under Claudius, but by Hadrian’s day, it had reverted to Bithynion (Bithynium).

Bithynium was a city built on a low hill, surrounded by well-watered plains. It was equipped with the usual buildings found in a city, such as markets, gymnasiums and palaestras, a theatre, and a massive bath-house located at the foot of the mountain. However, Pliny had some concerns about possible overspending and poor engineering. As a result, he requested that Trajan send an architect to inspect the projects. In response, Trajan gave his famous rejoinder: “There must be plenty of architects to advise you, for there is no province which is without some men of experience and skill in that profession, and remember again that it does not save time to send one from Rome when so many of our architects come to Rome from Greece.” (Ep. 10.39-40).

According to Pausanias, Antinous was born in Bithynium-Claudiopolis, although he himself “never saw him in the flesh”. He adds that the Bithynians’ ancestors were Mantineans from Arcadia. The Mantineans, who, as A. Birley notes, “were later to honour Antinous with particular fervour”, certainly claimed him as one of their own. Dio confirms the place of birth, adding that Bithynium is now called Claudiopolis (Dio Cass. 69.11.2).

Antinous was by birth from Bithynium beyond the river Sangarius, and the Bithynians are by descent Arcadians of Mantineia. Paus. 8.9.7

There was a rural area called Mantineion located outside Bithynium-Claudiopolis, in the upper valley of the Ladon River (Socrates Hist. eccl. 2.38), which may have been the precise birthplace of Antinous. The pastoral nature of the landscape in which Antinous grew up proved key for the later presentation of the Bithynian youth as a woodland boy (Robert, 1980). In addition, the obverses of a series of medallions struck at Bithynium towards the end of Hadrian’s reign show Antinous as a divinised herdsman or as Hermes Nomios, “the protector of pastures and shepherds”.

Although the exact circumstances remain unknown, we can infer that Hadrian first encountered Antinous during his journey through the province. He may have been noticed at some public ceremony where Antinous was participating. This could have occurred at Claudiopolis, if not at Nicomedia or at Heraclea Pontica, where athletic contests for boys and men were held in Hadrian’s honour. Antinous could have been a competitor in these contests (Birley, 1997). After this meeting, Antinous would have been sent to Rome to attend the imperial paedagogium for further education before becoming part of the large entourage of Hadrian and his wife, Sabina. However, we don’t know for sure when Antinous first joined Hadrian on his travels, but his public presence with the emperor wasn’t confirmed until their tour in Egypt in 130.

Hadrian was to grant Bythinium numerous privileges as the hometown of Antinous and establish a local cult to Antinous after his death. The existence of a theatre located on the southern slope of the Acropolis and a stadium with a length of approximately 93 m are among the examples of urban architecture attributed to Hadrian in Bithynium. The remains of marble column fragments from a temple are evidence of Hadrian’s commitment to honour Antinous and his hometown.

The architectural fragments from a temple dedicated to Antinous and the Hadrianic theatre are now displayed at the Bolu Müzesi, while the clearest depiction of the temple is left to us on a single coin minted in Claudiopolis during the reign of Elagabalus (AD 218–22), which is now displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (see here). The Temple of Antinous would have stood above the city’s stadium, which itself hosted the Hadrianeia Antinoeia, the sacred games dedicated to Hadrian and Antinous. There is evidence of the institution of mystic rites (IK Klaudiupolis 65), and an agon mystikos is mentioned in an inscription from Ancyra as having travelled to Claudiopolis to participate in a mystical context (I.Ancyra 143).

Antinous was worshipped not only in public but also in private or domestic settings. A small limestone altar (IK Klaudiupolis 56) indicates that he was worshipped as a god. A small limestone altar dedicated to Antinous is inscribed in Greek: νέωι θεῶ[ι] / Ἀντινόωι / εὐχν / Σωσθένη[ς] (‘to the new god Antinous. Sosthenes (set this) as a prayer’). The formula indicates that Antinous answered Sosthenes’s prayer (Smith 2018, 53).

Recently, parts of a stadium have been uncovered in the city centre of Bolu, located on the southern slopes of Hisartepe. This stadium was used as the venue for the Hadrianeia Antinoeia games. It was built using limestone cut stones without using mortar. The stadium had an elongated U-shaped structure comprising a running track surrounded by seats on the east, south, and west. The estimated capacity of the stadium was 3,500 spectators. The stadium hosted athletic contests, including boxing and wrestling, as well as agonistic games, which probably included poetry, music, and drama competitions.

Seven marble slabs were discovered in 2008 during excavations in the stadium. These slabs form a 20-metre-long inscription (IK Klaudiupolis 53), written in Greek and engraved with regular letters in two lines. The inscription reveals that the stadium was built in dedication to Hadrian and the Demos of Claudiopolis. It also states that Gn. Domitius Ponticus Iulianus pledged to fund the stadium’s construction but unfortunately passed away before it was fully completed. The project was taken over by Claudia Procla and Aelius Plotius Iulianus, who were the legal foster parents of the daughters of Domitius and managed his property.

A commemorative series of coins was issued in honour of Antinous, with the inscription is Η ΠΑΤΡΙΣ ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ, that is, “His native country (reverences) the god Antinous” (RPC III, 1110-1120). Mantinea in Arcadia was the other main centre of Antinous worship, which was traditionally regarded as Bithynium’s mother city. Like Bithynium, Mantinea also had a stadium for the integral Hadrianeia Antinoeia. During his visit to Mantinea, Pausanias reported that a room in the gymnasium contained multiple Antinous statues, most of which were conflated with Dionysus. He also mentions a temple, the institution of annual mysteries, and quadrennial games.

So far, three statue bases of Hadrian (IK Klaudiupolis 51–52–53), dated between AD 131 and 135, have been identified in Bithynium-Claudiopolis. The strong bond between the emperor and the city was ultimately expressed by renaming the city Hadriane, as seen on the local coinage and the milestones. Additionally, two phylai were also renamed Hadriane and Antinois.

The relatively high number of Aelii (25) in Bithynium-Claudiopolis suggests that Hadrian granted citizenship to individuals and larger groups during his visit. According to Henri-Louis Fernoux (2004), at least 84 families of local origin obtained Roman status at some point during Hadrian’s reign. Examples of local families who named their daughters according to Roman traditions include Marcia Domitia, Aelia Magna, Aelia Antipatris, and Flavia Valentia from Claudiopolis.

—

Bithynium-Claudiopolis was also located on the Roman highway that headed northward to Heraclea Pontica and Tium (Tios/Tieion), two important Greek centres on the Euxine shores in Paphlagonia. Heraclea Pontica (identified with the present city of Ereğli) is the oldest among the two centres, with a history tracing back to 560 BC. It was founded by Dorian Megarians from Attica or, according to Strabo, by Miletus in the 8th century BC (Arrian, Periplus 13.3) or, according to Strabo, by Miletus (Strabo, 12.3.4) in the 8th century BC. The city owes its name to Hercules, who, according to Greek belief, descended into the underworld through a cave located at the adjoining Archerusian peninsula to capture the three-headed dog Cerberus as part of the twelfth labours assigned to him by the Mycenean king Eurystheus (now the Cehennemağzı Caves).

Heraclea thrived due to its proximity to the fertile lands and sea fisheries. It quickly became an important trading centre and even established colonies on the Black Sea, namely Callatis and Tauric Chersonesos. The area was also abundant in pines, firs, and beeches, indicating that woodcutting was a common industry. Heraclea boasted a natural harbour that was sheltered and spacious enough to accommodate merchant ships. The harbour had two moles and a lighthouse that presumably stood (known from coins). The city’s social structure was shaped by the dominance of sea trade, transport, and fishing, which also drove its economy.

According to Strabo, Julius Caesar established a Roman colony in Heraclea. However, the colony was later destroyed by the Galatian chieftain Adiatorix, who killed all the Roman colonists. The colony was re-established by Octavian (Strabo, 12.3.6). During the reign of Trajan, Heraclea became a metropolis, as shown on the coins bearing the legend ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΜΑΤΡΟΠΟΛΙΤΑΝ (RPC III, 1172). As a Greek city, Heraclea is believed to have had a theatre and a stadium. In the Roman era, an amphitheatre was built, as depicted on coins (RPC VII.2, 2080), but its location remains unknown. According to the surviving milestones, a road network leading from Heraclea Pontica to Amastris passed through Tium, which was built as early as the reign of Vespasian.

Pliny did not write much about the city of Heraclea and only mentioned it once. In his letters, he briefly noted that a man named Julius Largus of Pontus bequeathed his estate to Heraclea and Tium. He donated 50,000 sesterces to embellish the cities and establish games in honour of Trajan (Plin. Ep 10.75). However, there is no evidence of these Traiania games in inscriptions from Heraclea or in any other victory lists. There is, however, a reference to the Heracleia Hadrianeia Isaktion (ἐν Ἡρακλε[ί]-ᾳ τῇ πρὸς τῷ Πόντῳ Ἁδρι(ά)νηο[νἩράκλειον ἰσάκτ(ι)ον), the isactian (of Actium), Hadrianic, and Heraclean competitions (Chingyuan, 2018).

An inscription found in Aphrodisias (I.Aphr. 12.215) and dated to the early 3rd century (after AD 211) commemorates the victory of an athlete named Marcus Aurelius […]os. He was a long-distance runner who won the boys’ distance race in both the Hadrianeia Herakleia Isaktia held at Heraclea Pontica and the Hadrianeia Antinoeia held at Bithynium-Claudiopolis. He also won contests in Ancyra, Chalcedon, Nicomedia and Nicaea, competing in this circuit both as a boy and as an adult.

Due to the lack of epigraphic documentation, it is unclear when the Hadrianeia Herakleia Isaktia was founded. It is suggested that they either replaced the Traianea Heracleia when a new Emperor ascended the throne (Chingyuan, 2018) or were founded ex novo under the reign of the Emperor, as in other cities (Hervás, 2018). The new Hadrianic festival associated with the imperial cult was assimilated to Hercules, the patron deity of Heraclea Pontica, and was considered equal in rank to the contests of Actium (Boatwright, 2000). The name of the games implies that their organisation probably followed the same pattern as the Actian games established by Augustus in Nicopolis in 27 BC after the Battle of Actium. The program consisted of musical competitions, athletic games, and horse races, with three age categories: boys, younger ephebes, and older ephebes. These games were held every four years, and the winner was awarded a crown of reeds.

in almost every city [Hadrian] both built something and gave games” (HA, Hadr. 19.2)

There is an interesting inscription from Heraclea Pontica (I.Heraclea 2), which tells us that the thymelic synod of artists in Rome was renamed in honour of  Hadrian and his beloved Antinous in the year 130. After Antinous’ death, he was divinised and syncretised with Hermes in Rome (IGUR I 143). At that time, the thymelic synod issued a decree in Rome for one of its members, Marcius Xenokrates, a copy of which was sent to his hometown Heraclea Pontica. Many cities created games and festivals (agones) named after Hadrian. At least nineteen of these Hadrianeia and four Antinoeia, including the one at Bithynium-Claudiopolis, are known to us (Fauconnier, 2023).

—

Another Bithynian city that should have been favoured with a visit is Prusias ad Hypium (Konuralp), an important city between Nicomedia and Amastris on the Euxine in the Pontus region. The city was founded in the 4th century BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica and was originally known as Kieron. In the early 3rd century BC, it was conquered by King Prusias I of Bithynia, who renamed the city after himself. Prusias ad Hypium was situated on a hillside overlooking the plain around the Hypius River and facing Mt. Olympus. It was strategically located on an important road that linked Nicomedia, Amastris and other settlements in the northern part of Anatolia.

Prusias ad Hypium was a thriving trading centre that became a part of the Roman Republic in 74 BC. The city grew from four local tribes (Megaris, Thebias, Dionysias, and Prusias) during the Hellenistic period to twelve by the end of the 2nd century AD, including two named after Hadrian and Sabina (Hadriane and Sabiniane). Prusias ad Hypium enjoyed a degree of autonomy in local governance and even issued its own currency. The city’s early Roman coins were first minted under Vespasian (see here). Prusias ad Hypium was home to temples dedicated to Zeus, Asclepius, Aphrodite, Hermes, Dionysus, and Tyche. An altar unearthed at Prusias referred to Hadrian as “Olympios” (IK Prusias 35).

Unfortunately, the ancient city of Prusias ad Hypium is mostly buried under the modern settlement. Only the theatre remains as a preserved monumental structure. Although inscriptions identified a stadium, a gymnasium, an agora, and a bathhouse, they have yet to be located. The importance of this city is highlighted by the finds on display at the local Konuralp Museum. The museum houses a collection of 6,237 items, including 1,848 archaeological artefacts, 491 ethnographic objects, and 3,898 coins. Visitors can also see a floor mosaic depicting Orpheus (see here). The most impressive find, a marble statue of Tyche, was uncovered in 1931 and is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

Several inscriptions provide information about a city’s cultural level. Many athletes and artists participated in the Augusteia games, which were held every four years to honour the reigning Emperor. The games were organized by the imperial priest (IK Prusias 31). Kallikleanos Kallikles, who founded one of these games, was honoured with a monument by the sacred, travelling athletic and theatrical synods (I Prusias 49). The importance of theatre performances in the city is confirmed by an epitaph that tells us that a tragedian named Philoksenos from Athens died and was buried in Prusias (I Prusias 97). Philoxenus’ tomb was restored by another visiting tragedian from Corinth, whose name was Isthmus.

The theatre of Prusias ad Hypium was constructed on a natural slope at the top of a hill that overlooks the plain south of the settlement. It is a remarkable building that boasts a semicircular orchestra, a stage building with three doors and six windows, and a cavea consisting of three sections – ima, media and summa – and six vaulted entrances on the eastern and western ends. The stage building, which is a single-storey structure, measures 50 meters in length, 12 meters in width, and 6 meters in height and has a rectilinear shape. It was entirely constructed using limestone blocks in opus isodomum, similar to the analemma wall. The theatre exhibits both Greek and Roman influences and was built towards the end of the 1st century BC. It was expanded during the Roman period. The relief of a shield and wreath on the west aditum maximus (entrance to the orchestra) suggests that it may have been used for sports competitions or gladiator shows. The pancratiast Aelius Aurelius Menandros, a citizen of Aphrodisias, won the men’s pancration in the mid-2nd century AD in Prusias ad Hypium and many other cities in Bithynia (IAph 2007, 12.920), indicating that the theatre was also used for boxing and wrestling.

According to the architectural elements and epigraphic evidence, the theatre underwent a large-scale renovation in the 2nd century AD, and the stage building dates back to the Hadrianic period. An architrave block mentions M. Iulius Proclus as the donator of the proscenium, but only one-third of the original c. 47.5 m long inscription is preserved. However, M. Iulius Proclus is the same person mentioned on the base of a statue dedicated to Hadrian (I.Prusias 34). As a result, the stage building may also been dedicated to Hadrian, in addition to the Roman Senate and people.

The theatre of Prusias ad Hypium was an intricately decorated building. During the past four years of excavations, archaeologists have uncovered numerous architectural fragments adorned with carved reliefs. In 2022, a marble block depicting the mythological tale of Actaeon being devoured by his hunting dogs was discovered in the theatre’s orchestra. Many other highly decorated architectural fragments, including entablatures with tragedy and comedy masks that were once part of the theatre stage structure, were also found. In 2023, a lion mosaic was unearthed in a rectangular room connected to the portico in the middle of the theatre axis. Finally, a well-preserved portrait head of Alexander the Great, dating back to the 2nd century, was discovered (see here).

Hadrian may have visited other places in Bithynia, such as Apamea-Myrlea, Cius, and Prusa ad Olympum (Bursa). Apamea was the patria of Lucius Catilius Severus (stuff. 110, cos. II 120). After Hadrian acceded to the throne in Antioch, he appointed Severus as governor of Syria so he could return to Rome (see here). Birley suggests that Severus could have sailed home to welcome Hadrian in person. Apamea, located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara, also serving as a port, was the only Roman colony in all of Bithynia, thus named Colonia Iulia Concordia Apamea, established during the reign of Julius Caesar or Augustus. Apamea received the privileges of a free city, and provincial officials were not allowed to intervene in its affairs. However, Pliny visited Apamea and consulted Trajan to have the city’s accounts and expenditures audited (Plin. Ep. 10.47). Trajan insisted on the examination being conducted “without prejudice to their existing privileges” (Plin. Ep. 10.48).

There is little information available about the architecture of Apamea. However, it is known that the local council constructed a small public bath called Balineum Hadrianum in honour of Hadrian, Sabina, and the Senate. An inscription from the year 128/9 AD confirms that Hadrian donated public funds to the project. The inscription reads balineum Hadrianum pecunia publica dedicauit (CIL III 6992).

There was a rivalry between Nicomedia and Nicaea to become “first city” of their province. Similarly, there was a long-standing conflict between Apamea and Prusa. Prusa was established by King Prusias, with the guidance of Hannibal, who had taken refuge with the Bithynian king. The city was well-sited at the foot of Bithynian Mount Olympus (today’s Uludağ) and was famous for its hot baths that bore the name “royal waters” and were still appreciated in the Byzantine age. The Acropolis was a rocky plateau c. 600 m across, bounded by steep slopes on three sides and the fourth by the rising flank of the mountain. Walls further strengthened the natural defences of the Acropolis.

Pliny made significant contributions to the embellishment of Prusa by constructing new public buildings. Among these were the baths that he found “in a neglected and dilapidated state” and needed to be rebuilt to suit “the dignity of the city” (Plin. Ep. 10.23). In a letter to the city of Prusa (IK Prusa ad Olympum 4), Hadrian writes about a controversy over its hot springs. The dispute likely involved financial questions comparable to the difficulties Pliny dealt with (Boatwright, 2000). A bronze coin of the late Severan period minted in Prusa shows two water nymphs of the springs reclining in front of a building that may represent the façade of the thermal bath (RPC VI, 3027).

One might also postulate a visit to Cius (later renamed Prusias ad Mare) on the very eastern tip of the gulf in the Propontis, called the Gulf of Cius. The city was founded by Ionians from Miletus and became an important trading centre due to its strategic location on the trade routes leading eastward to the Sangarius and southeastward into Phrygia. In 202 BC, the city was destroyed by Philip V of Macedon during the Second Macedonian War (200-197 BC) along with Apamea. However, it was rebuilt by Prusias I. Inscriptions and coins indicate that Cius appointed a Bithyniarch, who was the chief priest responsible for the imperial cult and the Koinon. This Bithyniarch erected a statue of Hadrian and a temple (IK Kios 12) and renamed the city Hadriane (RPC III, 1050).

A member of Hadrian’s entourage at the time was the famous sophist and teacher of rhetoric, Marcus Antonius Polemon, who mentions the next journey in his Physiognomica (preserved only in Arabic translation). Polemo wrote, “I once accompanied the greatest of emperors on his travels, and we set out from Thrace to Asia with soldiers and carriages escorting the emperor” (Birley, 1997). This passage fits Hadrian’s journey of AD 124 and clearly indicates that Hadrian crossed the Sea of Marmara to Thrace before entering Asia, where his presence is well-documented in ancient records.

—

References & sources:

• Birley A.R. (1997), Hadrian The Restless Emperor, London, Roman Imperial Biographies
• Boatwright, M.T. (2000), Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, Princeton
• Price, S. (1998), Rituals and Power. The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, 2, Cambridge
• Marek, C. (2002), Die Phylen von Klaudiupolis, die Geschichte der Stadt und die Topographie Ostbithyniens’, Museum Helveticum 59: 31–50.
• Smith, R. (2018), Antinous: boy made god. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.
• Vout, C. (2005), Antinous, Archaeology and History. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol.95, 80-96.
• Robert, L. (1978), Documents d’Asie Mineure. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 102.1, 395–543.
• Robert, L. (1980), À travers l’Asie Mineure. Poètes et prosateurs, monnaies grecques, voyageurs et géographie (Paris).
• Mellink, M.J. (1979), Archaeology in Asia Minor, American Journal of Archaeology 83, no. 3: 331–344 [342]
• Adak, M., Akyürek Şahin, N.E. and Güneş, M.Y. (2008): ‘Neue Inschriften im Museum von Bolu (Bithynion/ Klaudiupolis)’. Gephyra 5, 73–120.
• Fernoux, H. (2004) Notables et élites des cités de Bithynie aux époques hellénistique et romaine (IIIe siècle av. J.-C. – IIIe siècle ap. J.-C.), Essai d’histoire social (Collection de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 31, Serie Épigraphique et Historique 5), Paris.
• Chingyuan, Wu (2018), The Local Impact Of The Koinon In Roman Coastal Paphlagonia, Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3204. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3204
• Hervás, RG. (2018), Competing for the emperor: games and festivals in honour of Hadrian, ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades, 177-205
• Fauconnier, B. (2023). In Athletes and Artists in the Roman Empire: The History and Organisation of the Ecumenical Synods (pp. iii–iii). title-page, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Emre Okan, Ahmet Bilir, Doğuş Çalışkan (2022). Ancient Theater of Prusias Ad Hypium: New Excavations, First Data. Höyük, (9), 33-66. doi:10.37879/hoyuk.2022.033

Related

Humans have been telling stories of dragons for millennia. Depending on the region of the world, a dragon might be a god or a monster, a bringer of water or fire, or a figure of fortune or death. These scaly, mythical creatures appear in the lore of countless societies, from the pool-dwelling, peaceable dragons of the East to the fiery, venomous demons of the West.

As anthropologist David E. Jones theorized in his 2000 book, An Instinct for Dragons, dragon stories may be linked to humans’ fear of snakes and other dangerous animals. Anatomically unfamiliar and sometimes venomous, snakes are one of the most common phobias. Our fear of them was hard-wired through evolution, as evidenced by primates’ natural aversion to serpents. Jones argued that the idea of the dragon “was formed by the nature of our own shadowy progenitors’ encounters with the creatures who hunted them over millions of years.” In the centuries since, tales of the mythical beasts have spawned religious concepts, iconic literature and entertainment franchises alike.

But while the otherworldly dragons, lizards and giant serpents scattered throughout cultural history may share scales, fangs and tails, their abilities—as well as their reputations—vary. These are some of the world’s most prevalent dragon myths.

China

Dragons’ claws plunge 4,000 years deep into Chinese culture. In Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, these legged, fanged serpents are not fire-breathers, but rather guardians of water who bring rain and breathe clouds from their nostrils. Said to reside at the bottoms of pools and lakes, dragons symbolized majesty and power in ancient China. As one scholar wrote in the 11th century, “None of the animals is so wise as the dragon.” During China’s Han dynasty, emperors co-opted dragon imagery, using the symbol to lend power to the monarchy.

To this day, the dragon remains an important Chinese cultural symbol. A substance known as dragon bone (crafted from the fossilized remains of prehistoric creatures) is still an ingredient in traditional medicine. Every year, Chinese New Year parades are anchored by colorful dragon puppets held aloft by puppeteers.

Japan

To the east in Japan, mythical snake-like beasts don’t enjoy quite the same reputation as in China. The most famous such Japanese monster is perhaps Yamata no Orochi, an eight-headed serpent. According to Shinto mythology, the creature resembled a giant snake-dragon hybrid, embodying pain, sorrow and destruction. Orochi moved across Japan, menacing its people and thriving on a diet of humans—specifically, virgin girls. Like most famed dragons, he was due for a slaying.

Legend says that Orochi conducted his last reign of terror in the region of Izumo, where he demanded one girl for each of his eight mouths. Orochi’s conduct earned him the disdain of even the Shinto trickster god, Susanoo, who formed a plan of revenge. The god lured Orochi to a place where the serpent thought eight fresh virgins were waiting for him—a veritable feast. Instead, he found eight jugs of sake set out by Susanoo. Orochi consumed the wine and became very drunk. While the serpent was vulnerable, the trickster god cut off his heads.

India

One of Hinduism’s most fearsome antagonists is Vritra, leader of the dasas—demonic creatures with innumerable eyes and heads. Often depicted as a three-headed dragon, Vritra was an anti-god who prevented and snuffed out life through many means. Like his Chinese counterparts, this dragon was a keeper of water, but he took the task more literally. Vritra withheld rain, causing drought and death. He also stole and ate cows, sacred animals symbolic of divine goodness in Hinduism. And sometimes, Vritra hid the sun.

According to the Rig Veda, an Indian text dated to more than 3,000 years ago, the Hindu deity Indra, king of the gods, defeated Vritra’s misanthropic habits once and for all. To end the draconic demon’s droughts, Indra battled and killed Vritra, freeing the rain, enabling sunlight and creating a new order.

The Middle East

The ancient people of Mesopotamia—a region that stretched over what’s now Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey—believed the world began with a dragon slaying. In a Mesopotamian creation myth, the god Marduk battled the goddess Tiamat, mother of the gods and embodiment of the sea, sometimes portrayed as a serpent or dragon. Marduk drove an arrow through Tiamat’s heart, then split her body in two, creating the heavens from one piece and the earth from the other. In the popular roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, a five-headed, draconic deity bears the goddess’ name.

The slightly newer legends of Persia—the region now known as Iran—employ dragons in a more familiar way: as earthly monsters cut down by humans, often in service of helpless girls. Such stories cemented heroic reputations for a select few Persian men. In the Shahnama, or The Book of Kings—an epic history of Iran’s ancient rulers—Bahram Gur, a king of the ancient Sasanian dynasty, slayed dragon-like beasts known as azi. In another story, the hero Thraetaona killed an azi named Dahaka, rescuing a shepherd’s two daughters who’d been abducted by the beast. In yet another, a prince named Isfandiyar defeated a fire-breathing, coiled dragon in one of seven challenges he had to complete to free his captive sisters.

The Mediterranean

Dragons and evil serpents are recurring figures in classical literature of ancient Greece and Rome. The genre’s most notable monster is the Hydra, defeated by Hercules (also known as Heracles) of Greek myth and Disney fame.

Hercules, a bastard son of Zeus, murdered his wife and children while under the influence of a curse by his jealous stepmother, Hera. As punishment, he was ordered to complete 12 labors, the second of which was killing the Hydra, a nine-headed, serpentine monster that lived in the swamps of Lerna. Accompanied by his nephew, Iolaus, Hercules lured the beast out of the water by shooting flaming arrows at it. During the hand-to-scale combat that followed, the Hydra wrapped its tail around Hercules’ foot. The hero tried to avoid the monster’s venom-filled fangs while striking its heads with his club. Each time Hercules snuffed one out, two more heads grew in its place, forcing the demigod and his nephew to come up with an alternative strategy. As Hercules cut off the Hydra’s heads, Iolaus cauterized the stumps with a burning torch to prevent new growth, allowing the pair to defeat the monster.

The Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote a good deal about dragons, too, once reporting that the beast could strangle an elephant with its tail. While this description resembles the abilities of an earthly python, even that powerful, squeezing snake couldn’t accomplish such a feat. And Pliny wasn’t exactly an authority on animal facts: He also recorded the traits and habits of the unicorn.

Western Europe

The dragons that permeate modern Western literature share few characteristics with their ancient Chinese counterparts. China’s dragons are respected, majestic and life-bringing, while Europe’s are pure evil and nuisance. They’re malevolent, greedy, fiery and sometimes even symbols of Satan.

The archetypal European dragon hails from the north. A Germanic creature that flies by flapping its leathery wings, the dragon possesses a fearsome, lizard-like face and tail, and it breathes fire to get its way. These dragons love treasure, and when they find some, they guard it with their lives.

Perhaps the oldest and most influential dragon in Western literature comes from the Old English epic poem Beowulf. The story’s horde-guarding beast “flies by night encircled by fire,” according to one translation. After a man stole from its treasure, the enraged dragon began to wreak havoc on a village. The epic poem’s eponymous hero, then an aging warrior, stepped in. He and his companion managed to pierce the beast’s soft underbelly with blades, but not before it bit Beowulf in the neck, inflicting a fatal wound. “He at once understood that the poison within [the dragon’s] breast welled up with deadly evil,” the translation states.

The dragon featured in Beowulf has inspired many modern Western epics. Readers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit will recognize similar traits in the talkative dragon Smaug. Witches and wizards are tasked with stealing from treasure-protecting beasts in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. And fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series might recognize the same anatomical attributes in the “children” of Daenerys Targaryen. As all such stories illustrate, humans’ near-universal, ancient interest in fangs and scales has yet to fade.

The Hellenic Museum speaks with the couple behind the Greek brand giving Melbourne specialty coffee a run for its money.

Tell us about the story behind Melvourni. When did it begin?

Why ‘Melvourni’?

For the enthusiasts – what can you expect from a cup of Melvourni?

A very important question – how do you both take your coffee!?

Now, we don’t normally allow drinks in our galleries, but! in an ideal world where you could kick back in a quiet corner of the Hellenic Museum, take in an exhibition and enjoy a cup of coffee, which spot would you pick?

What’s next for Melvourni?

The Hellenic Museum is a proud stockist of Melvourni Greek coffee and Freddo coffee. Browse online or visit us in-store to get your fix of specialty-grade, organic, ethically sourced and locally roasted coffee!