DOI article:
Morawiecki, Lesław: Coins from Cossyra
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21230#0130
the earliest times the island has suffered from a lack of potable water,
and it was not without reason that Ovid referred to it as "Cosyra sterilis."4
Inhabited sińce Neolithic times,5 it was subject to Phoenician influences
due to its position, 70 km from Africa, 100 km from Sicily. Diodorus
writes that the Phoenicians founded many colonies in Sicily and on
neighboring islands, not to mention Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula.6
On this basis it is often said, with a greater or lesser degree of conviction,
that there was Phoenician settlement on Cossyra.7 There is no archeo-
logical evidence, however, to confirm this. The oldest traces of Phoenician
presence on Cossyra do not date back any earlier than approximately
the seventh century B.C., and are very scanty.8
Though the lack of archeological sources does not make it possible,
then, to posit close ties between Cossyra and Carthage, everyone tacitly
assumes that they existed. It is thus taken for granted that Cossyra be-
longed to Carthage to the very end of the 3rd century BC. To a certain
extent this fmds confirmation in the relation of Zonaras, who most likely
based his account, at least in part, on the lost books of Cassius Dio. Zonaras9
describes an episode that took place in 255 BC, when the Romans sent
a fleet under the command of the consuls M. Aemilius and Fulvius Petinus
to the assistance of their troops in Sicily and Africa. When they reached
Sicily, the two consuls reinforced the Roman garrisons there, and then
set sail for Africa. Caught by a winter gale, they arrived on Cossyra. Hav-
ing plundered the island and established a garrison, they sailed on, after
which they fought a fierce battle with the Carthaginians, probably near
Cape Hermia (today Bonn).10 Despite the fact that the Romans won the
4 Fasti 3.567.
5 A. Mayr, "Pantelleńa", in Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, ed. M. Ebert, Bd. X, Berlin 1927-
28, pp. 31-32.
6 Diod. Sic. V.35.5.; on the Phoenician colonization of Malta and Gozo, see. Diod. Sic.
V. 12.2-4.
' G. Contenau, La cwilisation Phenicienne, Paris 1949, p. 73.
8 The Phoenicians. The Exhibition ojPalazzo Grossi, directed by S. Moscati, Milan 1988,
pp. 53 and 200; S. Moscati, Świat Fenicjan, Warsaw 1971, pp. 216-217. Recent investigations
have uncovered generally artifacts from the Roman period; see R. J. A. Wilson, Archaeology
in Sicily 1988-1995, Archaeological Reportsfor 1995-1996, 1996/42, p. 120.
9 Zon. VIII. 14.
10 See the CAH VII.2, Cambridge 1989, pp. 556-557; T. Łoposzko, Starożytne bitwy morskie,
Gdańsk 1992, pp. 256-258.
130
and it was not without reason that Ovid referred to it as "Cosyra sterilis."4
Inhabited sińce Neolithic times,5 it was subject to Phoenician influences
due to its position, 70 km from Africa, 100 km from Sicily. Diodorus
writes that the Phoenicians founded many colonies in Sicily and on
neighboring islands, not to mention Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula.6
On this basis it is often said, with a greater or lesser degree of conviction,
that there was Phoenician settlement on Cossyra.7 There is no archeo-
logical evidence, however, to confirm this. The oldest traces of Phoenician
presence on Cossyra do not date back any earlier than approximately
the seventh century B.C., and are very scanty.8
Though the lack of archeological sources does not make it possible,
then, to posit close ties between Cossyra and Carthage, everyone tacitly
assumes that they existed. It is thus taken for granted that Cossyra be-
longed to Carthage to the very end of the 3rd century BC. To a certain
extent this fmds confirmation in the relation of Zonaras, who most likely
based his account, at least in part, on the lost books of Cassius Dio. Zonaras9
describes an episode that took place in 255 BC, when the Romans sent
a fleet under the command of the consuls M. Aemilius and Fulvius Petinus
to the assistance of their troops in Sicily and Africa. When they reached
Sicily, the two consuls reinforced the Roman garrisons there, and then
set sail for Africa. Caught by a winter gale, they arrived on Cossyra. Hav-
ing plundered the island and established a garrison, they sailed on, after
which they fought a fierce battle with the Carthaginians, probably near
Cape Hermia (today Bonn).10 Despite the fact that the Romans won the
4 Fasti 3.567.
5 A. Mayr, "Pantelleńa", in Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, ed. M. Ebert, Bd. X, Berlin 1927-
28, pp. 31-32.
6 Diod. Sic. V.35.5.; on the Phoenician colonization of Malta and Gozo, see. Diod. Sic.
V. 12.2-4.
' G. Contenau, La cwilisation Phenicienne, Paris 1949, p. 73.
8 The Phoenicians. The Exhibition ojPalazzo Grossi, directed by S. Moscati, Milan 1988,
pp. 53 and 200; S. Moscati, Świat Fenicjan, Warsaw 1971, pp. 216-217. Recent investigations
have uncovered generally artifacts from the Roman period; see R. J. A. Wilson, Archaeology
in Sicily 1988-1995, Archaeological Reportsfor 1995-1996, 1996/42, p. 120.
9 Zon. VIII. 14.
10 See the CAH VII.2, Cambridge 1989, pp. 556-557; T. Łoposzko, Starożytne bitwy morskie,
Gdańsk 1992, pp. 256-258.
130