Cyzicus in 218 B.C.

Cyzicus — Spring 218 BC · The Electrum-Stater City.

Cyzicus — one of the wealthiest and most splendid Greek cities of the Propontis, a colony of Miletus set on the island-peninsula of Arctonnesus, "Bear Island", joined to the Asian mainland by a narrow isthmus and bridges beneath Mount Dindymon, holy seat of the Mother of the Gods. Cyzicus is famous above all for its coinage: the Cyzicene stater, a pale-gold electrum coin that for generations has served as a trusted international currency across the Black Sea and Aegean trade. With two fine harbours that can be closed with chains, strong walls, rich tunny-fisheries, and the marble of nearby Proconnesus close at hand, it is a free, prosperous and well-governed republic, friendly to the rising powers around it.

Where the Propontis narrows toward the Hellespont, Cyzicus sits astride one of the great crossroads of the sea-trade — the meeting of the routes out of the Black Sea with those of the Aegean. A Milesian colony grown rich and proud, it commands the southern shore of the Propontis from its island-peninsula of Arctonnesus, which a narrow neck and bridges bind to the mainland under the holy mountain of Dindymon. Its electrum staters, the kyzikenoi, pass current from one end of the Euxine trade to the other; its two harbours can be shut with chains against any fleet; its walls are strong and its fisheries full of tunny. Across the water lies Proconnesus, whose quarries send white marble far and wide. A free and well-governed republic, Cyzicus keeps the friendship of the great powers and grows fat on the carrying-trade that flows through its harbours.