Abdera shares its name with
a city in Thrace and another in North Africa. Its coins bore the inscription ʾBDRT (
Punic: 𐤏𐤁𐤃𐤓𐤕).[a] The first element in the name appears to be the Punic word for "servant" or "slave"; the second element seems shared by the Phoenician names for
Gadir (now Cadiz) and
Cythera but of unclear meaning.[3]
It appears in
Greek sources as tà Ábdēra (
Greek: τὰ Ἄβδηρα) and Aúdēra (Αὔδηρα),[4]Ábdara (Ἄβδαρα),[5] and tò Ábdēron (τὸ Ἄβδηρον).[6]
The most ancient coins bear its name with the head of
Melqart and a
tuna. Coins from the time of Tiberius show the town's main temple with two erect tunas as its columns.[2] Early Roman coins were bilingual with Latin inscriptions on one side stating the name of the emperor and the town and with Punic text on the other side simply stating the name of the town.
Notes
^Coins bearing only the first four letters appear to have been badly struck. A single example attested in 19th-century sources bore the six letters ʾBDRʾT (𐤀𐤁𐤃𐤓𐤀𐤕) but can no longer be found at the
Cabinet des Médailles.[3]