Karabiga (Karabuga) is a town in

Biga District Biga District is a Districts of Turkey, district of the Çanakkale Province of Turkey. Its seat is the city of Biga, Çanakkale, Biga.

Çanakkale Province Çanakkale Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northwestern part of the country. It takes its name from the city of Çanakkale. Like Istanbul, Çanakkale province has a European (Thrace) and an Asian (Anatolia) part. The E ...

, in the Marmara region of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. It is located at the mouth of the

Biga River Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest part ...

, on a small east-facing bay, known as Karabiga Bay. Its ancient name was Priapus or Priapos ( grc, Πρίαπος).

History

Originally a town of

ancient Mysia Mysia (UK , US or ; el, Μυσία; lat, Mysia; tr, Misya) was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian part of modern Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on th ...

, it was a colony of Miletus or of

Cyzicus Cyzicus (; grc, Κύζικος ''Kúzikos''; ota, آیدینجق, ''Aydıncıḳ'') was an ancient Greek town in Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peni ...

. It had a good harbour. Strabo mentions that the area produced fine wine and that the god Priapus gave the town its ancient name.

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...

mentions the town as a naval station. Arrian reports that in 334 BCE

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

sent

Panegorus Panegorus ( grc, Πανήγορος) son of Lycagoras, was a Macedonian hetairos. He was left behind with an undisclosed force to occupy the city of Priapus in Troad, which surrendered to Alexander the Great as he continued to Granicus in 334 BC. ...

to take possession of the city and the city surrendered without contest, prior to the Battle of Granicus. Besides the aforementioned authors, the town was noted by numerous ancient writers and geographers including

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

, Stephanus of Byzantium, and the

Geographer of Ravenna The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' ( la, Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. Textu ...

. Under the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

, the town was known as Pegae or Pegai (Πηγαί) and was the site of a Byzantine fortress. During the Allied occupation following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Karabiga was part of the lands that were claimed by Anzavur Ahmed Pasha in his attempt to keep the area from the Turkish nationalists. He was killed just outside Karabiga in April 1921 by Turkish nationalists aligned with Arnavud Rahman.Gingeras, Ryan (2009) ''Sorrowful Shores: Violence, ethnicity, and the end of the Ottoman Empire, 1912-1923'' Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, page
106
an
118

Notes

Populated places in Çanakkale Province Fishing communities in Turkey Towns in Turkey {{Çanakkale-geo-stub