Dardanus or Dardanum (, ''Dardanos'', the feminine form; , ''Dardanon'', the neuter) was an ancient city in the

Troad The Troad ( or ; , ''Troáda'') or Troas (; , ''Trōiás'' or , ''Trōïás'') is a historical region in northwestern Anatolia. It corresponds with the Biga Peninsula ( Turkish: ''Biga Yarımadası'') in the Çanakkale Province of modern Tur ...

."Dardanus" in William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'' (1854)
/ref> It was sometimes called Dardania (, ''Dardania'', neuter plural of adjective Dardanios), a term used also for the district around it.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

called it Dardanium (Latin neuter singular).Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'', 5.33
/ref> It appears in other sources indirectly as well. The city-ethnic, or appellation of a person from Dardanus, is Dardaneus (). Its coin legends are DAR and DARDAN. Its localization is securely marked by an inscription naming itself on the site. Its time as a classical

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

, which it is called in numerous sources, is secured by inscriptional evidence. Its coins, of electrum, silver, and bronze, date from the 6th to the 4th centuries BC. They feature a "fighting cock" motif. Silver coins are in the Persian standard, suggesting that at some point Dardanus was under Persian rule, which it must have been, as the Persians controlled the region from time to time. One coin refers to Zenis Dardaneus, "satrap of Aeolis in 399," suggesting that by then the population was Aeolian. During the 5th century BC, Dardanus was in the

Delian League The Delian League was a confederacy of Polis, Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Achaemenid Empire, Persian ...

; that is, a member of the Athenian Empire. It is recorded on the tribute list from 451/50 through 429/9 BC as paying a cash tribute of 1 talent.

Localization

Dardanos is a toponym that has according to the evidence been in place for at least 3000 years. Too much should not be read into it. There has been no continuity of occupation or culture. Only the name of the general location has survived to be incorporated into the current substructure. Research concentrates on accumulating evidence for occupation of the general location at different periods. If there was an ancient city there, all certain memory had been lost by the start of the 19th century. The task of fixing its location remained. Since then a little excavation has been done but so far the evidence is mainly the testimony of ancient authors, and of inscriptions, which must be reconciled if they can be. The toponym today refers to a neighborhood of the Turkish city of

Çanakkale Çanakkale is a city and seaport in Turkey on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. It is the seat of Çanakkale Province and Çanakkale District.

Classical city

The 19th-century classical scholars reasoned as follows.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

says that "After Abydos comes the Dardanian Promontory ... and also the city of Dardanus, which is 70 stadia from Abydos. Dardanis was south of Abydos. Bostock and Riley, translators and commentators on Pliny, identify it with Cape Barbieri. Lemprière provides the alternative name, Kepos Burun, the same as Kephez Point on the 1901 map, which ties in Dardanis finally with Kepos on the modern map. Dardan- is generally considered to be the stem in the word Dardan-elles, whether the straits were named after the point or after the city. The above mentioned encyclopedic scholars toss around the phrase "at which the

Hellespont The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey t ...

begins to narrow" as a reason why Dardan- was chosen. No further justification is given. It is possible to calculate a position for Dardanus from distances given in Strabo and Pliny. Strabo says that the distance between Abydos and Dardanos is 70 stadia. The position of Abydos is known. The position of Dardanos is for the moment x, the unknown quantity. Pliny says "The little town of Dardanum is distant from Rhœteum seventy stadia." The position of Rhoetium is not very well localized either, but Bostock and Riley place it at Paleo Castro, appearing on the 1901 map. The coordinates are , near the small village of Octo. The distance along the coast from Octo to Abydos is , which may be equated to 140 stadia. The method is no more than a rough approximation, since Pliny and Strabo are not likely to have used the same stadion, and no information exists about how the stadia were acquired. What counts is that it can be made compatible with the archaeology. The 70 stadia from Dardanos to Abydos therefore account for , at the lower end of the 13-14 km range cited in the Princeton Encyclopedia. The distance of Dardanis, or Kephez Point, from Abydos along the coast, is 10.21 km, leaving 2.68 km, about 1.5 mi, to be applied to the distance from Dardanis to Dardanos. George Long (GL) in the Smith article gives it as 1 mile. Position x, if the beginning of the 2.68 is the docks at Kepos, is up on the hill of Şehitlik Batarya for the 1.5 mi., down in the modern settlement for the 1 mi. Knowing that nearly all poleis have an acropolis, the scholars immediately identified the top of Şehitlik Batarya as the acropolis of Dardanos. The Princeton Encyclopedia calls it Mal Tepe. Turkish Şehitlik Batarya means "Martyrdom Battery." This name stems from the use of the hill as a base for the Dardanos Battery during World War I. Several artillery pieces were there overlooking the Dardanelles. They were hit by counterbattery fire from British ships trying unsuccessfully to break through to Çanakkale on March 18, 1915. Four men were killed, or "martyred," for whose sake the name of the hill was changed after the war and a monument was constructed. The hill is an uninhabited grassy field (the foundations lie under the grass) about N-S by E-W hedged by steep bluffs on the Dardanelles side. These appear on the satellite view as lines of vegetation. From the water they tower over Dardanos Beach, a strip between the water and the bluffs over which the summer resort community extends. Its narrowest width is about .

Byzantine city

Archaeology

In 1959 Rüstam Duyuran performing rescue archaeology on a wooded hill at discovered what is now termed the Dardanos Tumulus, an artificial mound containing a royal family tomb. The water tank that had been scheduled to be constructed on the hill was cancelled.

History

The town that Strabo knew was a colony of

Aeolians The Aeolians (; , ''Aioleis'') were one of the four major tribes into which Greeks divided themselves in the ancient period (along with the Achaeans, Dorians and Ionians).. They originated in the eastern parts of the Greek mainland, notably in ...

and was distinct from the by then vanished Dardanus or Dardania presented in the

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

as situated at the foot of

Mount Ida In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which was also known as the '' Phrygian Ida' ...

and reputed to be named after Dardanus, who founded it earlier than the founding of Ilium. The historical city was one of those that the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

reduced in 497 BC in the course of its suppression of the

Ionian Revolt The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris (Asia Minor), Doris, Ancient history of Cyprus, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Achaemenid Empire, Persian rule, lasting from 499 ...

. Nearly two centuries later, the taking by surprise of

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

n ships on that coast led to the Athenian victory of the Battle of Abydos in 411 BC. Dardanus was also the place where in 85 BC

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...

and

Mithridates VI of Pontus Mithridates or Mithradates VI Eupator (; 135–63 BC) was the ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 120 to 63 BC, and one of the Roman Republic's most formidable and determined opponents. He was an effective, ambitious, and r ...

met and agreed on the

Treaty of Dardanos The Treaty of Dardanos (85 BC) was a treaty between Rome and Pontus signed between Lucius Cornelius Sulla of Rome and King Mithridates VI of Pontus. It ended the First Mithridatic War. Defeat of Mithridates Due the victories over Mithridates by ...

Bishopric

Dardanus became a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of the

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ...

Cyzicus Cyzicus ( ; ; ) was an ancient Greek town in Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula (the classical Arctonnesus), a tombolo which is said to have or ...

, the capital of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

of Hellespontus. The names of several its ancient bishops are known. Paulus, unable because of ill health to sign personally the acts of the

Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...

in 431 got Bishop Foscus of

Thyatira Thyateira (also Thyatira; ) was the name of an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, now the modern Turkish city of Akhisar ("white castle"), Manisa Province. The name is probably Lydian. It lies in the far west of Turkey, southwest of Istanb ...

to sign on his behalf. Petrus took part in the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

in 451 and was one of the bishops of Hellespontus who in 458 wrote a joint letter to

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Leo I the Thracian Leo I (; 401 – 18 January 474), also known as "the Thracian" (; ), was Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474. He was a native of Dacia Aureliana near historic Thrace. He is sometimes surnamed with the epithet "the Great" (; ), probably to ...

regarding the murder of Patriarch

Proterius of Alexandria Pope Proterius of Alexandria (died 457) was Patriarch of Alexandria from 451 to 457. He had been appointed by the Council of Chalcedon to replace the deposed Dioscorus. He regarded as hieromartyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic ...

. Phocas attended the synod called by Patriarch Menas of Constantinople in 536. Strategius took part in the

Second Council of Nicaea The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics and others. ...

in 787. Ioannes was at the Photian

Council of Constantinople (879) The Fourth Council of Constantinople was held in 879–880. It confirmed the reinstatement of Photius I as patriarch of Constantinople. The result of this council is accepted by the Eastern Orthodox as having the authority of an ecumenical c ...

. No longer a residential bishopric, Dardanus is today listed by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 879

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dardanus (city) Catholic titular sees in Asia Cities in ancient Troad Populated places in ancient Troad Former populated places in Turkey Aeolian colonies Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople