Sestus
Sestus, located on the Thracian Chersonese in modern-day Turkey, is an ancient city with a significant strategic position on the Hellespont (Dardanelles). It was originally settled by Aeolian Greeks from Lesbos and is noted for its historical importance in maritime trade, particularly grain shipments from the Black Sea. Notably mentioned in Homer's Iliad, Sestus served as a critical naval base during the Peloponnesian War and was involved in key military campaigns, including the Persian invasions led by King Xerxes I and later by Alexander the Great in 324 BC. The city witnessed a series of changes in control among various powers, including the Athenians and Spartans, and was well-fortified, featuring protective double walls linked to its harbor. Sestus is also renowned for its association with the tragic love story of Leander and Hero, a tale that has inspired art and literature through the ages. The city continued to mint coins into the Roman period, reflecting its ongoing significance in the region.
Sestus
Sestos (Akbaşı)
A city of the Thracian Chersonese (Gelibolu [Gallipoli] peninsula, European Turkey) on the Hellespont (Dardanelles), situated on a low plateau beside the southern shore of a bay that provided the best harbor on the strait, less hampered by wind and current than Abydus on the opposite coast. Sestus is mentioned in the catalog of ships in Homer's Iliad. Its original Greek population consisted of Aeolians from the island of Lesbos.
The Athenian interest in Sestus, because of its importance for grain shipments from the Euxine (Black) Sea, began with the control of the Chersonese by the two Miltiadeses (c 555, 524). The Achaemenid Persian King Darius I returned from his Scythian expedition (512 BC) by way of this port, and it was from Apobathra, nearby, that Xerxes I, on his way to Greece (480) crossed the Hellespont on a bridge of boats, after an earlier bridge had been destroyed by a storm. Sestus became the first town to be liberated from Persia by the Athenians—who remained in the area during the winter of 479/8 to conduct the siege—and was the principal naval base for their operations against the Spartans during the later phases of the Peloponnesian War (411–404). When the war was over, the base came under Spartan control until 393/386, but subsequently reverted to Athens (365); its rebellion in 357 only led to recapture, enslavement and recolonization (353/2). The historian Theopompus (born c 378) described Sestus as small but well fortified, and protectively linked with its harbor by a double wall. It was from here, in 324, that Alexander the Great launched his conquering expedition into Asia. During the Hellenistic age, the place changed hands a number of times, issuing coinage, which continued (with a gap from c 300 to c 150 BC) until the third century AD.
Issues of Roman imperial date show Leander swimming, lighted on his way by Hero in her tower, and by Eros from above. This refers to the myth (recounted by Musaeus Grammaticus, fifth century AD), according to which Leander, who lived across the strait at Abydus, fell in love with Hero, the priestess of Aphrodite at Sestus, and swam by night across the Hellespont to see her, until, one night, a storm put out the light by which she guided him across, and he was drowned: whereupon she threw herself into the sea after him.