doi: 10.2143/AWE.18.0.3287220 AWE 18 (2019) 277-283

PHANAGORIA AND PHANAGORAS – THE TOPONYM AND THE NAME OF THE OIKIST (FOUNDER)

(†) John Hind*

Abstract This note discusses the origins and naming of (and its subsequent renaming) and considers naming practices more broadly.

The name of the city comes in several variants in the Greek writers, and still more when translit- erated by authors.1 These are Phanagoreia (Φαναγορεία: Ps.-Scymnus 886; 11. 2. 10; Appian Mithr. 109; Stephanus of s.v.), Phanagoreion (Φαναγορείον: Strabo 11. 2. 10), Phainagoreia (Φαιναγόρεία: Arrian apud Eustathius, see below), Phainagorē (Φαιναγόρη: Dio- nysius Periegetes 549), Phanagorea (Pomponius Mela 1. 114; Pliny NH 6. 18), Phanagorē (Avienus 733) and Phanagorus (Ammianus Marcellinus 22. 8. 30). There are some distorted versions in the manuscript tradition of road-books and maps: Phanugoria (Anonymous Ravenna Cosmographer 1. 17; 4. 5), Phamacorium (Tabula Peutingeriana 8. 4). The original name then was Phanagoreia/Phanagoria. Locally produced, and found, inscriptions and coins confirm this by presenting the ethnikon Phanagoritēs in the genitive plural form, Phanagoritōn, ‘of the Phanagoritans’.2 Appian provides an alternative form of the ethnic, Phanagoreus (Mithr. 106), but it is not known whether this form was used in the city itself, or was a literary construction from the name. Several writers indicate a tradition as to how the name was arrived at. Stephanus of Byzantium (Ethnika = Hecataeus fr. 164) says it was from Phanagoras, and that it was on an island, Phanagorē (πόλις ἀπὸ Φαναγοῦ); this item purports to come from Hecataeus’ Asian section of the Periodos, therefore dating to ca. 500 BC. Another writer, supposedly of the late 6th century BC, but actually of the mid-4th, Ps.-Skylax, says that it was the city of Phan- (Φαναγορόυ πόλις). Strabo, in his fairly full description of the Asiatic side of the Bosporus (11. 2. 10), mentions that Phanagoria was on an island at the mouth of the River Antikeites; such an island would naturally have taken the name of the Greek city founded there. Two other writers, one of the early 1st century BC and one of the mid-2nd AD, provide a little fuller detail of how they understood the colonisation here to have taken place. Ps.-Scymnus (1. 886) reports that Phanagoria was a foundation from , and Arrian pro- vides rather more: ‘Phainagoras, the Tean, fled from his home-city escaping the violent threat of the Persians’ (Arrian apud Eustathius Geographi Graeci Minores II, 312–314, Müller; FGH IF 212, Jacoby). The vaguer statement found in Dionysius Periegetes (1. 549) that

* This paper was written ca. 2003. No attempt has been made to update it. 1 Kacharava and Kvirkvelia 1991, 284–85. 2 SEG 41. 625, inscription of the 1st century BC; Shelov 1956, pl. 9.114; Anokhin 1986, pl. 7.193; Price 1993, nos. 995–1007; coins of the late 2nd–early 1st century BC. 278 J. HIND

Phanagorē was an ‘Ionian’ foundation may be true, but gives nothing of additional value. This information given by Ps.-Scymnus and Arrian, scanty though it is, has been reasonably taken to mean that the Tean contingent founded Phanagoria shortly after the first Persian conquest of (ca. 545–540 BC) and about the same time as the more famous settlement of Teans at Abdera in Thrace ( 1. 168).3 That Phanagoras was an historical figure, and not an aetiological fiction, made up from the city name, is indicated by the name appearing at this site on an inscription of the 4th century BC: one Ap[oll]odo[r]os, son of Phanagoras (Φαναγορέω: CIRB 971) made a dedication to Ourania. This Apollodoros, and this Phanagoras, are likely to have been descendants of the oikist Phanagoras, about 150 years later. It is noteworthy that the Ionic form of the genitive singular is appropriate to a family originating in Teos. The name Phanagoras is found rarely elsewhere, but Herodotus gives it as the name for an individual from Karystos in Euboea, who was suspected of betraying the inland path to Ther- mopylae to the Persians in 480 BC (Herodotus 7. 214). Other names ending in -agoras are fairly commonly found in Herodotus’ narrative (some 20 of them), mainly of prominent East or Athenians. We see there Aristagoras (four times), Athenagoras, Euagoras, Iatragoras, Isagoras, Kouphagoras, Lysagoras (twice), Molpagoras, Peithagoras, the Pylagoroi, (twice), Stesagoras (twice), Timagoras, Xenagoras. provides a much smaller number of such names, all in fact known already from Herodotus – Aristagoras, Athen- agoras, Stesagoras, Timagoras (twice). One might add two further famous figures, one of the 7th century BC, Orthagoras, of Sikyon, one of the 5th century, the phi- losopher. Without being exhaustive in listing such names, one can bring forward (from inscrip- tions) an Aristagoras at Istria, Myphagoras on the Bosporus (twice), Nymphagoras on the Bosporus (seven times), Pythagoras at Sinope, Semagoras at Miletos, and Themistagoras at Sinope and Pontica – the name also of the reputed founder of (Pomponius Mela 1. 108) and of a Milesian magistrate (aisymnetes) for the year 521/20 BC. One Herma- goras appears at (IOSPE I2 212), a Telestagoras in (Athenaeus Deipn. 348b–c), and Molpagoras repeatedly in cities north of the – at Olbia, Pantikapaion and .4 The -agoras element common to all these names is, of course, derived from the Greek, ‘public life’; agoreuō, ‘public speaking’. The first elements of these names express ideas suited to the city elite’s image of them- selves – ability, agility, freedom, guest-friendship, health, honour, nobility, persuasion, lord- ship, stability, uprightness. Demagoras (‘People’s speaker) at Olbia (I.Olbia 72) and Isagoras (‘Equal speaker’), the nobles’ faction leader at , may seem a touch more democratic, but they were nonetheless intended to sound influential. Several of the names seem to refer to a deity’s patronage or the observance of a cult. Among these are Molpagoras, Semagoras and Telestagoras (molpoi were a guild of religious singers at Miletos; sema was a sign or omen; telestai were religious rites). Athenagoras, Hermagoras, Nymphagoras and Pythagoras clearly had some connection with the deities concerned (Athena, Hermes, the Nymphs or a Nymph, Pytho of ). In this context appears Phanagoras, whose parents had signalled their allegiance to Phanes (the Orphic first principal deity also known as Eros and Protogonos).5

3 Zhebelev 1953, 60–61; Graham 1992, 48–49. 4 IOSPE I2 270, 10–58; CIRB 19; Sokolskii 1973. 5 Kerenyo 1958, 100–01; Guthrie 1952, 80, 95. PHANAGORIA AND PHANAGORAS 279

Phanagoria is almost unique among Greek colonies of the early expansion period (ca. 750–500 BC) in being named after its founder, though nearby Hermonassa is said to have taken its name from the wife of its oikist after he had died (Arrian Bith. fr. 55 Roos = FGH 156 fr. 71). Phanagoria, founded ca. 545–540 BC, appears to be the earliest such case; others follow in the Greek West.6 Much more common was the naming after gods (Apol- lonia), demigods (Herakleia), nymphs or rivers of the place (Sinope, Istria, ). After the mid-4th century BC, Philip, Alexander and the Hellenistic rulers gave their, or their wives’, names to cities with increasing regularity. From then on Phanagoria must have borne an increasingly outmoded, even inexplicable name, as Phanagoras was no hero of comparable status. It has been suggested that the exceptional adoption of the oikist’s name for the city may have been due to the fact that the settlers were refugees fleeing in haste from the Persian attack, and that there was no time to organise the colony properly to get a name, site, terms, etc. from an oracle or religious centre.7 But at Abdera so at Phanagoria, the life of the set- tlers seems to start ca. 540–500 BC, which ties in well with the literary evidence. The earli- est pottery and dwellings date to ca. 540–525 BC.8 More recently it has been suggested that it was the Teans settled at Abdera who founded Phanagoria, since neither Herodotus (1. 168) nor Strabo (14. 1. 30) mentions any Teans fleeing directly to Phanagoria, but only to Abdera in Thrace.9 It may well be that Abdera was a staging post into the Black Sea, and that Phanagoras went on to lead a breakaway group of his own Tean followers, who, in those rather unofficial circumstances, named their colony Phanagoria. There is, however, an interesting link with Ionian Teos rather than with Thracian Abdera. This is a silver coin-type of the Sindoi, the people around and inland of Phanagoria, which bears on the obverse side a seated griffin facing right.10 Here is the griffin of Teos, the mother-city of Phanagoria, and not the griffin of Abdera, which always is turned to the left.11 This suggests that the more direct ties of Phanagoria were with the mother-city rather than with the important sister-colony. The Sindian coins may well have been minted in Phanagoria, the nearest Greek colony,12 and after their cessation the Phanagorian civic coinage starts. Two Sindian diobols have been found at Phanagoria.13 The Phanagorian coinage itself (Fig. 1) does not bear a griffin, but, starting later as it did, it might be expected to break with that traditional link, and stress something else dis- tinctive to the region. The obverse side bears a youthful head in a rounded or conical cap to the left (in one denomination the cap is garlanded with leaves).14 The reverse side bears

6 Malkin 1985, 121–23; Jacquemin 1993, 21. 7 Malkin 1985, 122–23. 8 Kuznetsov 1998, 9–10; Kobylina 1983. 9 Kuznetsov 2002, 75. 10 Shelov 1956, pl. 2.24; Anokhin 1986, pl. 2.59. 11 Kraay 197, 35, pls. 5.95, 30.538–542. 12 Zograf 1951, 149; Shelov 1956, 48. 13 Abramson and Gorlov 1998. 14 Zograf 1951, pl. 39.43–45; Shelov 1956, pl. 2.26–28; Anokhin 1986, pl. 2.77–90; Zavoikin 1995. 280 J. HIND

Fig. 1: Phanagorian coinage.

a bull rushing left (or a forepart or head of a bull), a grain of wheat and the letters ΦΑ or ΦΑΝΑ above. The head on the obverse was once identified as Phanagoras, the founder,15 but now it is recognised as a young Kabeiros, deity of Samothrace and other islands of the North Aegean.16 A very clear example of a bearded Kabeiros appears on a gold stater of Lampsakos of ca. 340 BC;17 again the cap is decked with a garland of leaves. Kabeiroi, one old, one youthful, were also connected with Dionysos; they were believed to have instructed Orpheus, and they were thought to inhabit underground regions, caves, and to work with fire as smiths. Their origin was probably Phrygia, but their most famous centres were Samo- thrace, Lemnos, Imbros and Anthedon near Thebes.18 These ‘sons of Hephaistos’ (Herodo- tus 3. 37) were well suited to appear on the coins of Phanagoria, as the area inland was noted for hills of volcanic origin and caves (Strabo 11. 2. 10, for the Apatouron and the cave of the ). The Kabeiroi then were not only relevant to this topography of the ; they figured prominently in Orphic teaching, and Phanes, as we have seen, was its first begetter of the world (also called Protogonos and Eros). Orphism might well have been a religious element at Phanagoria in the 540s BC; it certainly existed at Olbia, as Herodotus and Orphic tablets show at much the same time.19 Although one can- not be certain, it may be that Phanagoras brought with him the cult of Orphsim (if it is a

15 Köhler 1808, 11; von Koehne 1857 I, 404; Minns 1913, 620; Gaidukevich 1949, 582. 16 Fritze 1904, 105–07. 17 Jenkins 1972, no. 292. 18 Herodotus 2. 5; Peace 276; Pausanias Desc. Graeciae 4. 1. 7; Hemberg 1950. 19 Herodotus 4. 79, at Olbia; 7. 6, at Athens; Graf 1974; West 1982; Vinogradov 1997. PHANAGORIA AND PHANAGORAS 281 theophoric name like Athenagoras, Hermagoras and Nymphagoras), and that he then found in the area a connection with the Underworld that raised Greek reminiscences of the Kabei- roi as well as Orpheus. Not far away, across the straits at , a shrine of the Kabeiroi was found, and caves down to the shore.20 Certainly the similarly named Greek poet Phanokles (3rd century BC?) was especially concerned with Dionysos and, above all, Orpheus.21 Thus might the appearance of a Kabeiros as the city badge on the Classical coins of Phanagoria be explained, as symbolising Phanago- ras’ city, situated by the smoking vents from the Underworld (on Mt Boris and Gleb, by Lake Akhtanizov).22 Former volcanic activity and gaseous exhalations were said to be characteristic of the mountain on that other centre of the cult of the Kabeiroi, Lemnos, and this is where they were ‘sons of Hephaistos’.23 As we saw at the outset, Phanagoria was still issuing coins under its old name as late as the first half of the 1st century BC – silver drachms, hemi-drachms and bronze obols, tetra- chalks and chalks with the ethnic ΦΑΝΑΓΟΡΙΤΩΝ. In or about 64 BC the Phanagoritai precipitated a revolt against Mithridates and his sons under one Kastor (Appian Mithr. 103), an action for which they were rewarded by the Roman general with their autonomy and independence from Pharnaces of Pontis and the rest of the Bosporus (Appian Mithr. 113). It would be appropriate if they were still issuing these silver coins then. However, some 50 years later Phanagoria came even more under the influence of Rome. Agrippa, ’ most intimate and powerful friend (co-regent and ruler of the East), gave crucial support to Polemo I and in their struggle to rule over the Bosporus. By merely moving to Sinope, south of Bosporus across the Black Sea, Agrippa seems to have overawed their oppo- nent Scribonius and to have eliminated his threat (Cassius Dio 54. 24. 5–6). The Phanagoritans renamed their city Agrippeia, just as Pantikapaion/ was renamed Kaisareia, honouring Augustus himself. The two cities issued coins in bronze, in parallel, with the legends ΑΓΡΙΠΠΕΩΝ and ΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΩΝ, probably starting between 17 and 12 BC. The names Phanagoria and Pantikapaion must have seemed rather redundant in the new world-system of Rome and Augustus, and Kaisareiai were appearing as the new faces of cities in many parts of the Hellenistic world. Phangoria, named after a long-dead, obscure oikist, must have been especially vulnerable to being replaced by that of the mighty Roman benefactor.24 Agrippeia was still the name officially held by the city in the 2nd century AD and as late as AD 307 (CIRB 983, 1051); it probably remained so for as long as it existed, though late and derivative writers, and maps and itineraries still used the original name, often in dis- torted form.25 Finally the modern name of the site deserves a brief mention for its total lack of connec- tion with either ancient name. This is Sennoi khutor or Stanitsa Sennaya (‘Hay Farmstead’; ‘Straw Farm’), a purely agricultural name, not noticing at all the nearby ancient city. Not

20 Khudyak 1962, 18–23, 42–57. 21 Diehl 1934–42 VI, 71–73. 22 Gaidukevich 1949, 201; Marchenko 1977, 122. 23 Kerenyi 75–77. 24 Oreshnikov 1915, 37; Zograf 1951, 193, pl. 45.12.14; Anokhin 1986, pl. 12.322 3a, b; ­Frolova 1995, pl. II.8–10. 25 Podossinov 2002, 194, 265, n. 345, 357. 282 J. HIND until 1711 was the first antiquarian’s attempt at identification made, correctly seeing it as the former Phanagoria,26 second city of Bosporus after Pantikapaion (Agrippeia, the junior partner to Kaisareia).

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