Syria
Size: 20mm� Weight:� 7.8 grams
Obverse: Diademed head of Zeus right
Reverse: APAMEWN THS EIPAS KAI ASYLOY KL, Elephant Standing right, Date before
Apamea or
Apameia (
Greek:
Απάμεια;
Arabic أفاميا or آفاميا,
Afamia) was a treasure city and stud-depot of the
Seleucid kings, was capital of
Apamene, on the right bank of the
Orontes River. (
Steph. B. s. v.;
Strabo xvi. p. 752;
Ptolemy v. 15. � 19;
Festus Avienus, v. 1083;
Anton. Itin.;
Hierocles). Its site is found about 55 km to the northwest of
Hama,
Syria, overlooking the
Ghab valley. Previously known as Pharmake, it was fortified and enlarged by
Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC, who so named it after his
Bactrian wife,
Apama � not his mother, as Stephanus asserts; compare Strabo, p. 578). In pursuance of his policy of Hellenizing Syria, it bore the
Macedonian
name of Pella. The fortress was placed upon a hill; the windings of the
Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence
its other name of Cherron�sos. Seleucus had his commissariat there, 500
elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300 stallions. The pretender,
Diodotus Tryphon,
made Apamea the basis of his operations. (Strab. l. c.) Located at a
strategic crossroads for Eastern commerce, the city flourished to the
extent that its population eventually numbered half a million. It was
one of the four cities of the
Syrian tetrapolis.