Damastion
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Damastion was an ancient city in the area somewhere near present-day lake Ohrid. The exact site of the city is unknown, but the name is attested in Strabo[1]. The city was inhabited by the Illyrian/Dardanian tribe of the Damastini, and was ruled at one time during the 4th century BC by their king Bardyllis.[2] The city was known in antiquity for its silver mines, whose exact location, like that of the city itself, is today unknown[3][4].In the 5th century bc Greeks from Aegina had colonised the city[5].The circulation of the coins of Damastion included Dardania (Metohija and the Morava valley) and beyond, and to the west the southern Adriatic coast[6]. The city and its silver mines were captured by Philip II after he defeated Dardanian King Bardylis[7].
[edit] References
- ^ Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992,ISBN 0631198075,Page 223,"... Among the southern Illyrians the deposits which provided Damastion (Strabo 7.7, 8), somewhere in the Ohrid region, with a silver coinage may be the same ones that attracted Corinthian ..."
- ^ The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC by D.M.Lewis,ISBN-10: 0521233488,1994,Page 429"Bardylis combined military and economic developments. His subjects, the Damastini, began to issue a fine silver coinage c. 395, which adopted a version of the standard and some emblems of "
- ^ The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC by D.M.Lewis,ISBN-10: 0521233488,1994,Page 422:"... Silver was mined in antiquity by the Damastini to the east and the north east of Lake Ochrid.
- ^ Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992,ISBN 0631198075,page 128,"Nothing is so far known of the extraction of silver, and the location of Damastion, with its remarkable silver coinage, remains a mystery"...."
- ^ In An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis by Mogens Herman,ISBN 0198140991,2004,,"As a long-distance trading community, Aigina was not an active coloniser, but colonised Kydonia (no. 968) in 519, Adria (no. 75) c.C61, and Damastion in Illyria after 431 (Strabo 8.6.16)."
- ^ The Illyrians - Page 176 by J. J. Wilkes ISBN 0631198075
- ^ The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History Page 285 By Michail Yu Treister ISBN 9004099174
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