Teos and Abdera Two Cities in Peace and War

In late summer 2017, ongoing Turkish excavations at the site of Teos in Ionia uncovered one of the largest and most important Greek inscriptions to have been discovered this century. It records, in thrilling and moving detail, the assistance provided by the Teians in the repopulation and rebuilding of their daughter-city, Abdera in Thrace, after its sack by the Romans in 170 BC during the Third Macedonian War. The new text, published here for the first time, is startling testimony to the ancestral friendship- and support-networks that existed between Greek poleis in the Hellenistic world, and includes (among other things) the longest surviving description of an honorific statue to survive from the ancient world. In the light of the new inscription, the authors offer a full reassessment of the epigraphic and literary evidence for relations between Teos and Abdera, thereby providing a comprehensive long-term history of the two cities, from the sixth to the second century BC. The book also includes major new editions of the 'Teian Dirae' (public curses at Teos and Abdera in the early fifth century BC) and the second-century decree of Abdera for the Teian ambassadors Amymon and Megathymos, as well as two further new texts from the sanctuary of Dionysos at Teos.

Mustafa Adak, Professor in the Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures, Akdeniz University, Antalya,Peter Thonemann, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Wadham College, University of Oxford

Mustafa Adak is Professor in the Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures at Akdeniz University, Antalya


Peter Thonemann is Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Wadham College, University of Oxford

List of illustrations
Abbreviations
Maps
Prologue: The Fall of Abdera, 170 BC
1. Abdera and Teos After the Third Macedonian War: The New Inscription (Document 1)
2. 'The Lands Conquered and Settled By Their Ancestors': Archaic Teos and the Foundation of Abdera
3. The Teian 'Dirae' (Documents 2-3)
4. Teos in the Second Century BC (Documents 4-5)
5. Abdera, Kotys and Maroneia in the 160s BC (Document 6)
6. The Statue of the Dēmos of the Teians
Bibliography
Index of Greek words
Subject index