Ancient Coin Stories

Anchialos is now the pretty city of Pomorie, Bulgaria. Its name literally means “close to the sea” and was founded in the 5th or 4th centuries BCE as a colony of Apollonia. In the 2nd century BCE, Messembria captured it, until it was soon retaken by Apollonia. It was taken by the Romans in 29 or 28 BCE.

I pray she wins by them, and driven on a strong southerly

may she quickly pass the clashing rocks,

the Thynian bay and from there hold her course

past Apollonia and Anchialus’s high walls.

In the first century CE, it fell under the sway of the Odrysian kingdom, until it was abolished in 45 CE and Anchialos came under the Roman province of Thrace. The city thrived under the Severan dynasty.