Parium
Parium, an ancient city located in Mysia (northwestern Asia Minor), was founded around 709 BCE by colonists from Miletus, Erythrae, and Paros. Its strategic position near the Hellespont contributed to its growth, leading to its involvement in the Delian League during the fifth century BCE under Athenian influence. The city became notable for its electrum coinage, starting before 500 BCE, and went through various political changes, including annexation by the Pergamene kingdom and later incorporation into the Roman province of Asia. It was established as a Roman colony, known as Colonia Gemina Julia Pariana, during the Second Triumvirate and underwent a refounding by Emperor Hadrian, adopting the name Hadriana. Parium's coinage features representations of deities such as Aesculapius, Diana, and Cupid, reflecting its cultural significance. Although much of the original city has eroded over time, remnants like a theater and a Roman aqueduct indicate its historical importance. The city is also associated with a monumental altar and a legendary tomb of its supposed founder, Parios.
Subject Terms
Parium
Parian (Kemer)
A city of Mysia (or Hellespontine Phrygia), in northwestern Asia Minor, upon the Asian coast of the Hellespont (Sea of Marmara) near its entrance to the Propontis (Dardanelles). It was founded c 709 BC by a team of colonists from Miletus, Erythrae (Ildırı) and Paros, from which it probably took its name (rather than, as was alternatively suggested, from the mythological Parilarians, or from Parios, one of the Ophiogeneis, who were changed from snakes to human beings and whose descendants cured snake bites by stroking).
Parium began producing electrum (pale gold) coinages before 500. During the fifth century, gaining importance from its strategic and maritime location, it became a member of the Delian League under Athenian sponsorship. In 302, during the wars between the successors of Alexander the Great, the city was seized by Demetrius I Poliorcetes from Lysimachus. Annexed to the Pergamene kingdom, it was permitted to enlarge its territory at the expense of neighboring Priapus. Incorporated in the Roman province of Asia (133), Parium received a draft of ex-soldiers and became a Roman colony (Colonia Gemina Julia Pariana) at the beginning of the Second Triumvirate (42/41), coining for the occasion and again for Octavian (the future Augustus) and Marcus Agrippa c 29, when the colony was apparently reconstituted. It was again refounded by Hadrian, assuming the name Hadriana.
Its colonial coinage displays figures of Aesculapius (Asclepius) the Helper (AESCulapio SVBvenienti), Diana Lucifera, and Cupid (DEO CVPIDINI: showing a statue of the god Eros made for the city by Praxiteles). An issue of Gallienus (253–68) depicts an elaborate triple gateway crowned by an elephant-chariot group and a statue of Parios whose head (as alleged founder) appears on other coinages, and whose tomb was said to exist in the city. The best-known building at Parium, however, was a colossal altar (shown on coins c 300 BC) which a certain Hermocreon built of stones taken from a large oracular temple of Apollo Actaeus and Artemis that had stood on the neighboring plain of Adrasteia. But little is now to be seen on the site of Parium, except fragments of a theater and of a Roman aqueduct.