PART 4 – Ch.XXVI.3

Prehistoric monuments of metallurgic art in Dacia

(Chryseion Koas – The Golden Fleece)

XXVI.3. The capital and residence of king Aietes (Dia, Dioscurias, Sevastopolis, today Tirighina).

According to the most exact historical sources, the capital and residence of king Aietes was situated at the mouths of the river Phasis (Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. Lib. II. v. 402-403; Orpheus, Argon. v. 763-764), whose important tributary was Saranges.

The Orphic poem describes the splendour of this memorable city like this:

“In front of the palace and the lovely river, raises the inaccessible enclosure of the fortress, 9 fathoms high, defended by towers and strong masses of well cut stone, and encircled by 7 circular walls. There are three huge copper gates in the walls of the fortress, and the wall above them is crowned with golden crenels. Above the gates’ lintel is placed the statue of the divinity, who the Colchi venerate under the name Diana (Artemis). She is the goddess of the Gates, the noisy rider, staring into the distance, and exuding a shivering light, exactly like a flame”. When Iason arrives with his companions at the mouths of river Phasis, Aietes accompanied by his daughters Chalciope, the widow of Phrixus, and Medea, yet unmarried, were taking a ride on the field adjoining the river “in a gold carriage, in which Aietes shined like a sun, because the gold of his vestments radiated only light; he wore on his head a crown of brilliant rays, his sceptre shone like lightning and his daughters sat on each side of him” (Orpheus, Argon. v. 896).

Apollonius Rhodius tells us even more (lib. III. v. 210 seqq) about Aiete’s citadel and his magnificent palace:

Iason, accompanied by Phrixus’ children and two heroes of his group, enters the city and the palace of Aietes. “They stop first in the vestibule and Iason admires the walls, the large gates, the pilasters adjoining the stone walls of the palace, decorated on the upper part with copper triglyphs (beam ends). Then they pass in silence over the threshold, near which grape vines, with green leaves and in full bloom, climbed upwards. From under the vines, four fountains, dug and built by Vulcan, flew continuously, one of milk, another of wine, the third of lovely scented myrrh and the forth of water. From the western side of this latter fountain flew warm water, in which bathed the figures of the Pleiades, and from a rock on its eastern side flew icy cold water. Such divine things Vulcan, the master craftsman, had executed in king Aietes’ palace” [1].

[1. In various Romanian religious carols which we find in the lower parts of the Danube, especially in the districts of Buzeu, Braila and Constanta, is celebrated even today the magnificence of some “courts”, some “reigns”, some “high palaces”, in which were made “three rivers, three little rivers”, one of wine, one of myrrh and the third of clear water, and in this last one Good God bathed (Teodorescu, Poezii popl p. 33). A nuptial song also tells about some sumptuous courts, built in the same manner as Aietes’ palace, also called “Son of the Sun” (Marianu, Nunta la Romani, p. 753)].

Finally, Valerius Flaccus tells us that in Aiete’s city there were also the altars of the Sun, and that this temple was so brilliant, so inundated with light, that one could believe it was the palace of the Sun itself (Argon. lib. V. v. 404).

This was the miraculous appearance of the capital of Aietes, king over the region called “Aia” or “Tera” and over the mountainous land of the Colchi.

We can ask now, in which part of ancient Oceanos potamos, or Istru, was located this magnificent capital, whose fortifications, palaces and temples, by their building style and their fabulous splendour, had astonished a heroic world, a residence of a king so glorious and rich, that he had acquired the illustrious title of “son of the Sun”.

The famous capital of Aietes was situated, as we have already mentioned, on the high ground where the two memorable rivers, Phasis joined with Saranges, (therefore Buzeu and Siret), flew into Oceanos Potamos or Istru.

Map of the environs of Tirighina.

(From the Map of meridional Romania, year 1856)

Indeed, on the left bank of Siret river, close to the point where its waters join the Danube, could be found up to our days the ruins of an ancient and powerful fortress, which is called even today Tirighina.

In 1836 and 1837, Professor Seulescul of Iasi, one of the most erudite Romanian men of his epoch, has studied with extreme interest these antique ruins form the mouth of Siret, and we can thank him for the precious data which we have today about the architectonic remains of this glorious fortress (Descrierea istorico-geografica a cetatii…Ghertina, 1837). Seulescul believed that these ruins might have represented the ancient city of Roman Dacia called Caput Bubali (Caput Bovis). This was a justifiable error for his times.

South of Galati, writes he, at a distance of half a mile from this city, there are the ruins situated on the left bank of Siret, close to its confluence with the Danube. These ruins are called today Tiglina or Triclina (more correct Tirighina). This city, by its favorable position and by the fortification works which encircled it, seems to have been the capital of this district. Only in the 18^th century these ruins started to be attacked and their material to be used for the building of the fortifications at Braila and for some churches at Galati; and also the people have used and still use the stone from these ruins in order to pave the streets and the national road to Galati.

This ancient city was encircled by construction works executed in an entirely particular manner. According to the foundations uncovered during the last dig, ancient Tirighina had a fortress and a city, which was divided in the old city, situated under the castle, and the new city, adjoining the old one on its western side. The citadel is on a hillock, partly collapsed around 1837, about 40 fathoms high, while the plateau on which are the ruins of the citadel has an extent of about 35 fathoms in diameter. The foothill and its vicinity were encircled and strengthened with walls. The hill of the citadel projects as a promontory southwards, towards the plain of Siret, and is joined with the neighbouring plateau by an isthmus enclosed between two parallel walls. On the top of the plateau, to the left and right sides of the isthmus, could be also seen foundations of walls and earth fortifications. On the northern part, where the approach was easier, the citadel of Tirighina was enclosed by four semi-circular walls. On the eastern part of the second circular wall, another wall descended abruptly to the waters of Siret. A second similar wall started on the western part of the complex, from the top of the hill down also to the bed of Siret river. And at a distance of about 100 fathoms two other walls were built in the same direction as the former, one in the east, the other in the west, stretching from the top of the hill to the bank of Siret in such a way, that the city was enclosed and protected from north, east and west by the elevation of the hills, of the castle and of the fortifications. Towards south it was protected by the waters of Siret, which here, at its widest, forms a semicircle and an island in front of Tirighina. Inside the castle, whose foundations were not yet destroyed by 1837, a subterranean crypt containing catacombs was discovered, as Seulescul tells us. The shape of this crypt was square, 2 fathoms wide, and because of lack of space the tombs were built in rows, on top of each other, like honeycombs. But around 1837 the vaults of the catacombs were caved in, and the remains scattered. Bas-reliefs, urns, lamps and other precious ornaments found in the tombs prove that the people whose remains had been deposited here belonged to the higher classes of society. On the western side of the city could still be seen around 1836 the foundations of a temple, on the ruins of which laid scattered various pieces of columns and capitals, Ionic and Corinthian.

General plan of the citadel and city of Tirighina (Dia, Dioscurias, Dinogetia, Diogetia, Diogenia),

the ancient capital of king Aietes.

(After the archaeological digs made in 1836 and 1837 by Professor G. Saulescul.)

LEGEND

Various other objects had been discovered here, like a small column of porphyry marble, a copper statuette of Cybele, holding in her left hand the Horn of Plenty, and a number of rectangular marble tablets (12x24cm) with reliefs, representing various scenes from the wars fought by this city. These tablets had once decorated probably the walls of the temple. The mastery, the beauty and size of these classical pieces, continues Seulescul, prove the magnificence of this temple, which once represented the majesty of some divinity.

Other data about the buildings and opulence of this vanished fortress is communicated to us by the teacher G. A. Murgeanu, from Filesci village, on the territory of which are these ruins.

As he writes: “around Tirighina fortress there is a deep trench, having the same shape as the trench called Troian. The citadel has a round shape and occupies the head of a hill. The old people, from whom I got this information, have themselves dug here by the order of the authorities, and found ancient coins, stones with inscriptions, and other valuable things, which were taken partly by the Russians, and partly by the local government of Galati. Tirighina fortress was apparently called by the people of old the “fortress of the giants”.

We have presented here the principal findings of the serious digs executed by Professor Seulescul at Tirighina in 1836 - 1837. They are invaluable for the historic science, especially when considering that today the aspect of the terrain has completely changed here, that the remains of these interesting fortifications have disappeared from the face of the earth, and that even the river Siret has changed here its course.

In the sincere and faithful description made by Seulescul, we can see quite clearly that the ancient fortress near the mouths of Siret, surrounded with nine walls built in various construction systems, represented the once happy metropolis of king Aietes, from near the mouths of the river Phasis, girdled, as the poem says, by seven rows of circular walls.

When studying these ruins we have to take into account that the ancient traditions of the Orphic poem about the immense wealth of king Aietes echo even today in the tales of the locals from around Tirighina.

“I heard from a number of old locals” writes to us the teacher G. A. Murgeanu from Filesci village, “that on the eastern side of Tirighina fortress, facing Barbosi railway station, there is an underground vault with strong gates, and that inside it there is a gold statue of the king, seated in a gold carriage with gold horses”.

We have now to study the old name of this important city from the confluence of the river Siret with the Danube.

In Romanian folk traditions the ruins of the city and the citadel near the mouths of Siret are called Tirighina (Terighina at Seulescul in Descrierea Ghertinei) and Gherghina (Cantemir, Descr. Mold. Ed. 1877, p.13). We find the true and only explanation of these archaic names only in the legend of the Argonauts.

According to the different versions of the legend, as told by Pindar (Pyth. IV), Apollonius Rhodius (Bibl. lib. I. 9. 20), and the grammarian Apollodorus, Iason, arriving at the river Phasis, sails the ship into the harbor and goes to king Aietes, to explain the task he had received from Pelias, and to ask for the golden fleece. Aietes promises Iason to give it to him, if he managed to fulfil some special works. So, king Aietes brought out a steel plough, made by Vulcan, and two bulls renowned for their size and savagery, received also from Vulcan as a gift. These bulls had copper hoofs and blew fire on their nostrils. Aietes himself yoked them and ploughed a few straight furrows, a fathom high (an allusion to the giant furrow existing between Serbesci and Tulucesci, which touches Tirighina fortress to the west and north, and which is considered as a continuation of Novac’s furrow from Tera Romaneasca (TN – The Romanian country). Then Aietes says the following: when the skipper of the ship will do the same, he will be allowed to take the golden fleece, which never rots. Iason, secretly aided by Medea’s spells, yokes the bulls and ploughs four jugers on the field called of Mars. Seeing this, Aietes imposes on Iason another task, to sow dragon teeth in the furrows, from those sown by Cadmus at Thebes. But Medea, burning with love for Iason, who had promised to take her to Thessaly as his wife, reveals to the hero that from the dragon teeth which he will sow on the furrows, giant armed men will spring from the earth, who will try to attack him. He will have to throw stones amongst them, they will start fighting each other, and then he will have to attack them one by one, until he will kill them all.

According to the legends things happen exactly like that. These giants, emerged from the earth on the field near Aietes’ capital, are called in the Argonautica legend Gegenees (Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. lib. III. v. 799, 1338, 1342, 1355) and Terrigenae by Latin authors (Ovid, Met. Lib. VII. v. 141; Heroid. VI. v. 35), meaning men born from the earth.

The name Tirighina or Terighina which the ruined fortress form the mouth of Siret bears even today, is therefore only an archaic folk name of the Pelasgo – Latin word Terrigena [2].

[2. Professor Vaillant (La Romanie, III. 1844, 456) also derives the name Tirighina from terrigena, without knowing though the legendary history of this capital from the Lower Danube. Pliny mentions near the river Phasis a famous city, unknown today, called Tyndarida (Tyndaris), and Arrianus, who had placed in a frivolous manner the entire geography of the Colchi in Asia, calls the same city Tyndaridae. Herodotus has two traditions about Tyndaridae (IV. 145; IX. 73). According to one, they had been allied with the Argonauts. According to the other, they had invaded Attica with a great host, in order to take Helena back, not knowing where she had been taken].

Finally, we have another circumstance. In Romanian folk traditions Tirighina is also called the Fortress of the giants, and with the same epithet of fortress of the giants, Titanis, appears Aietes’ capital also with Apollonius Rhodius (lib. IV. v. 131).

So, we can ascertain with full historical conviction, that the famous capital and residence of Aietes had been situated on the left bank of Siret, at the place where until 1837 could still be observed the environs of the city and fortress of Tirighina fortress, now vanished from history and despoiled of its monuments and splendour. By its favourable position and strong fortifications, this queen among fortresses, built at the mouths of Siret, between the Danube Delta and the Carpathians, had once dominated the entire Western Pontos, from the Hem mountains to the upper parts of today Moldova (Ovid, Heroid. XII. V. 27-28). The capital of a powerful riverine state, it was during the heroic times the key of the great commercial movement on the Danube; it even had suzerain rights over the Euxine Pontos.

The erudite Alexandrine poet Apollonius Rhodius mentions the ancient pillars in Aietes’ city, on which were described the roads and the limits of the seas and countries, for the use of anybody who intended to travel anywhere (Argon. lib. IV. v. 277 seqq).

This special preponderance of the citadel of Tirighina over the navigation on Euxine Pontos is also confirmed by numismatic finds. On a bronze coin, discovered by Seulescul in the ruins of this citadel, is depicted a woman rider, defending herself with the curved sword (the Dacian national sword) against a hero who persecutes her. It is an Amazon fighting Hercules. Near the woman’s head appears the letter D (delta) and around the coin is the inscription:

METRO. PONTOU TOY EYKS.

Metro(polis) Pontou tou Eucs(einou)

In order to appreciate the historical value of this coin, a second example of a bronze coin was fortunately discovered in the ruins, having the same qualification of Metropolis of the Euxine Pontos. This coin shows on the front side the bust of a Roman emperor with the inscription:

AUTKMAURSE. ALEXAN.

Aut(ochrator) K(aisar) M(archos) Aur(elios) Se(veros), Alexan(dros) [Sevastos]

and on the reverse side, the figure of a feminine divinity holding in her left hand the Horn of Plenty and in her right hand a vase. It is Cybele or Dea Mater [3]. Under the goddess’ feet appears the Greek letter D (delta), and around the edge of the coin the inscription:

METRO. PONTOY TOU EUX

Metro(polis) Pontou tou Eux(einou)

[3. An inscription discovered at Filesci (in Moldova) has the dedication TERRaE MATRI (C.I.L.III. Nr. 1559).

As soon as Iason arrives near Aietes’ capital, says Apollonius Rhodius (II. 1273), he pours libations in honour of Gaea (Terra), of the indigenous gods and of the souls of the deceased heroes].

Various autonomous cities of antiquity, especially in the provinces of Asia Minor and Syria, were called Metropolis, some because they were under the particular protection of Cybele, the Mother of gods, others because were mother-cities of colonies, or capitals of provinces.

The title METROP. PONTOU first appears on the coins of emperor Trajan, but without other local indication. Later, this title of Metropolis of the Pontos was acquired by the cities Amasia and Neocaesarea in Asia Minor, as well as Tomis in Moesia (TN – Dobrogea) (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. Pars I. Vol. II. p. 344).

We must not forget though that none of these cities, neither Tomis, nor Amasia, or Neocaesarea, are called Metropolis of the Euxine Pontos, but only metropolis of Pontos, namely the littoral or the province near the Black Sea (Pontica terra). Tomis appears on a Roman inscription from 161-168ad (C. I. L. III. nr. 753) as Civitas pontica Tomitanorum (TN– the Pontic city of Tomis).

The title of Metropolis of the Euxine Pontos had a totally different significance, and we find this title only on the coins discovered at Tirighina. We have here a title of maritime sovereignty. Aietes appears as the most powerful king of ancient Scythia. He could, as Apollonius Rhodius describes him, to make war even against Greece. His renown had reached west as far as the Adriatic Sea. On another hand, the Euxine Pontos is often named by the authors of antiquity Scythicus Pontus, Scythicum and Sarmaticum mare, meaning under the sovereignty of the kings of Scythia (Valerius Flaccus, Argon. I. v. 331; Ibid. II. v. 576; Statius, Thebaid. XI. v. 436-437; Ovid, Ex Ponto. Lib. IV. 10. 39).

But how do we explain the isolated letter D, delta, on these coins discovered in Tirighina’s ruins? It is without doubt the initial letter of the name of the autonomous and sovereign city which had minted these coins.

The glorious capital of Aietes appears with the ancient geographers under the name Dia [4], Dioscurias (Stephanos Byzanthinos; Pliny, lib. VI. 5. 1) and Sebastopolis, sebaste polis, the venerable, sacred, august city.

[4. Dia was an ancient Pelasgian divinity, the goddess protectress of the fields, identical with Rhea (Cybele) or the Mother of gods. Her Roman cult was administered by the collegium of the Arvali brothers. In Greek literature she appears under the name Deo (Apoll. Rh. III. 413), but she was considered identical with Demeter (Ceres). The principal temple of the ruined city from the mouths of Siret was dedicated to Cybele, therefore to Dia].

This ruined city near the mouths of Siret still existed in Roman times, but we have only versions of its true name. With Ptolemy is Dinogetia, Diogetia, Dinogenia, Diogenia (Geogr. Ed. Didot, I. p. 458); Diniguttia in Itinerarium Antonini Aug.(Ed. Pinder et Parthey) p.178; Dirigothia in Notitia Orientis (Ed. Boecking) p. 79; and Dinogessia with Ravennas (Cosmographia, Ed. Pinder et Parthey, p. 178).

So, we can presume that the letter D (delta) on the coins discovered at Tirighina, having the inscriptions metropolis Pontou tou Euxeinou, indicate the old name of this city, Dia, changed by Greek geographers in Dioscurias, and during the Roman epoch in Dinogetia, Dinogenia, Diniguttia, Dirigothia [5].

[5. We hear even today in a Romanian heroic folk song (Alecsandri, Poezii pop. p. 134) an echo about the arrival at the mouths of Siret of a small ship, with hostile intentions. It seems to be only a modified fragment of an ancient folk poem about the Argonauts. Even the number of 50 members of the group is almost the same as that of the Argonaut heroes. Another folk ballad (Marianu, Poezii pop. Tom. I. p. 30) mentions the great, princely courts from the lower parts of Moldova, at the turn of the river (the Turn of Tirighina].

And finally, we have another important coin regarding Aietes’ capital. It is an autonomous coin found in the Romanian countries, and probably in the parts of Tirighina.

Cesar Bolliac, the distinguished Romanian archaeologist and numismatist, had published in 1871 a series of Dacian coins, among which a silver one presents a particular historical interest. It shows on the front the bust of a feminine divinity, Cybele or Dea Mater, a figure which as a type presents a great likeness with the statuette of Cybele discovered by Seulescul in the ruins of Tirighina. On the reverse side is figured a lion, the particular attribute of the goddess Cybele. Above the lion is the almost erased inscription …RASS and under the lion’s feet: AIET. The coin is in no way from the times of legendary Aietes, but it is connected to the capital and territory over which Aietes once reigned. The first row contains without doubt the particular name of the city, and the second row the name of the people or the confederation. We will reconstitute this inscription like this:

(Dioschou)r(i)as S(evaste) [polis] Aiet(on)

meaning: Dioscurias, the venerable city of the Aieni.

NEXT