Greek Islands Off Troas Tenedos

Tenedos - TENEΔIΩN​

The island of Tenedos guarded the entrance to the Hellespont and traditionally served as an important waypoint for every ship sailing to or from the Propontis and the Black Sea. As such, it was not only an important landmark, but of great strategic importance to any major naval power in the region. Unsurprisingly, Tenedos had close ties to the Athenians, who used the island as a stronghold to protect their vital supply routes to the Black Sea; however, with the dwindling might of Athenian naval power, the Tenedians became subject to the Hellenistic monarchies in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, being controlled first by the Seleukids, then the Attalids and eventually by Mithradates VI Eupator. We know from Plutarch that the Pontic King used the island as a naval base in the Third Mithradatic War [73-63 BC]. However, Lucullus defeated the Pontic fleet in 72 BC, sinking and capturing 32 warships and an unknown number of transport vessels [Plut. Luc. 3]. It seems that Tenedos subsequently lost its autonomy and was incorporated into the polis of Alexandria on the nearby mainland [Paus. 10.14.4].

This Labyrys shown on the reverse of coins, is a reference to the Tenedian foundational myth, in which the hero Tenes used an axe to sever the mooring lines of his father's ship when he attempted to land on the island to reconcile with his son. When Pausanias [ΠΑΥΣΑΝΙΑΣ] talks about this myth, he explicitely concludes: ἐπὶ τούτῳ μὲν ἐς τοὺς ἀρνουμένους στερεῶς λέγεσθαι καθέστηκεν ὡς ὁ δεῖνα ὅστις δὴ Τενεδίῳ πελέκει τόδε τι ἀποκόψειεν : For this reason a by-word has arisen, which is used of those who make a stern refusal: So and so has cut whatever it may be with an axe of Tenedos [Paus.10.14.4].

In early February 54 BC Cicero jokes to his brother Quintus about Tenedos' unsuccessful request to the Roman senate to be made a free city [libera civitas]: Tenediorum igitur libertas securi Tenedia praecisa est - well then, the liberty of the Tenedians has been chopped by the Tenedian axe [Cic. Q. fr. 2.9].