1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Abdera (Spain)
|←Abd-el-Kader||1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 1
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ABDERA, an ancient seaport town on the south coast of Spain, between Malaca and New Carthage, in the district inhabited by the Bastuli. It was founded by the Carthaginians as a trading station, and after a period of decline became under the Romans one of the more important towns in the province of Hispania Baetica. It was situated on a hill above the modern Adra (q.v.). Of its coins the most ancient bear the Phoenician inscription abdrt with the head of Heracles (Melkarth) and a tunny-fish; those of Tiberius (who seems to have made the place a colony) show the chief temple of the town with two tunny-ish erect in the form of columns. For inscriptions relating to the Roman municipality see C.I.L. ii. 267.