April 7, 460 Earthquake: Cyzicus (Erdek), Turkey

460 Apr 7, Cyzicus. Cyzicus (now Erdek) was almost totally destroyed with great loss of life: the city walls were breached and villages in the interior of the province were ruined. In places the ground opened up. The earthquake caused extensive damage in the provinces of the Hellespont and to much of Thrace, where towns, which are not named, were destroyed, although not as completely as Cyzicus. In Bithynia and Constantinople the earthquake was followed by torrential rains, which caused great havoc […] A fragment of Priscus, cited by Evagrius, mentions that Thrace and the Hellespont were affected by an earthquake, without mentioning Cyzicus, at the same time as 'the Scythians' (i.e. the Goths) were waging war against the Romans (AD 459). He syncretises this event with the East Mediterranean earthquake of AD 460/465, whereas Guidoboni et al. (1994. 300-301) conflate this event with the shock in the Aegean Sea a few years later to create an earthquake of unprecedented epicentral dimension. (reference #9116)

460 Apr 7. This earthquake caused extensive damage in the province of the Hellespont and in the greater part of Thrace. Cyzicus (n.Erdek) and villages in the interior were totally destroyed, with great loss of life. In places the ground opened up. (reference #14000)