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Abdera was an ancient Carthaginian and Roman port on a hill above the modern

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on the southeastern

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coast of

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. It was located between Malaca (now Málaga) and

Carthago Nova Cartagena () is a Spanish city and a major naval station on the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Iberia. As of January 2018, it has a population of 218,943 inhabitants, being the region's second-largest municipality and the country's sixth-la ...

(now Cartagena) in the district inhabited by the

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Name

Abdera shares its name with a city in Thrace and another in North Africa. Its coins bore the inscription ( xpu, 𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤓𐤕). The first element in the name appears to be the Punic word for "servant" or "slave"; the second element seems shared by the Phoenician names for Gadir (now Cadiz) and Cythera but of unclear meaning. It appears in Greek sources as ''tà Ábdēra'' ( grc-gre, τὰ Ἄβδηρα) and ''Aúdēra'' (), ''Ábdara'' (), and ''tò Ábdēron'' ().Ephor. apud Steph. B.

History

Abdera was founded by the Carthaginians as a trading station and, after a period of decline, became one of the more important towns in the Roman

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of Hispania Baetica. Tiberius seems to have made the place a Roman colony.

Coins

The most ancient coins bear its name with the head of Melqart and a tuna. Coins from the time of Tiberius show the town's main temple with two erect tunas as its columns. Early Roman coins were bilingual with Latin inscriptions on one side stating the name of the emperor and the town and with Punic text on the other side simply stating the name of the town.

Name

History

Coins

Notes

References

Citations

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Further reading