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Destinations Guide

ENOS (EAH), Ancient city, TURKEY


Information on the area


Homeric world (4)

Hegemons

Acamas

He was son of Eusorus, a Thracian leader and ally of the Trojans, who was slain by Ajax, son of Telamon (Il. 2.844, 5.462, 6.8).

Perseus Project

Peirous

He was son of Imbrasus from Aenus, a Thracian leader and ally of the Trojans (Il. 2.844, 4.520 & 525).

Ancient towns

Ainos

It was a Thracian city, of which the leader was Peiroos, son of Imbrasus (Il. 4.520).

Mythology (3)

Kings

Poltys

Entertains Herakles at Aenus.

Founders

Aenias

(Verg. Aenias 3,17)

Eponymous founders or settlers

Ainos

Gouneos' brother and Odysseus' friend (Steph. Byz.).

Ancient literary sources (2)

Perseus Encyclopedia

Strabo

Aenus, Poltyobria

Then comes the Haemus Mountain, which reaches the sea here; then Mesembria, a colony of the Megarians, formerly called "Menebria" (that is, "city of Menas," because the name of its founder was Menas, while "bria" is the word for "city" in the Thracian language. In this way, also, the city of Selys is called Selybria and Aenus was once called Poltyobria).

History (2)

Catastrophes of the place

By the Venetian Admiral Nicolo Kanale

1568

Population movements

Near the outlet of the Hebrus, which has two mouths, lies the city Aenus, on the Melas Gulf; it was founded by Mitylenaeans and Cumaeans, though in still earlier times by Alopeconnesians.

The inhabitants (1)

Ancient tribes

Apsinthi

Apsinthii or Apsynthii (Apsinthioi, Apsunthioi), a people of Thrace, bordering on the Thracian Chersonesus. (Herod. vi. 34, ix. 119.) The city of Aenus was also called Apsynthus (Steph. B. s. vv. Ainos, Apsunthos); and Dionysius Periegetes (577) speaks of a river of the same name.

Information about the place (4)

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites

Ainos

  A harbor town at the mouth of the Hebros (Maritza, Meric) river. Its Thracian name was Poltyobria, after the legendary Thracian king Poltys (Strab. 7. frag. 52; Steph. Byz.), but the name Amos appears very early, associated with the Trojan war (Il. 4.520). The name Apsinthos is also recorded (Steph. Byz.).
  The town was resettled by Greek colonists from the Aeolic region (Alopekonessos, Mytilene, Kyme) in the 7th c. B.C. It occupied a high ridge dominating a good harbor at the river mouth, which has silted up so as to become almost unusable. The abundant coinage of the city shows that it was a significant economic center, but almost nothing is known of its history. The town is mentioned sporadically in accounts of Athenian, Thracian, Macedonian, and Roman activity in the region, but never in an important role.
  The ancient site is presumed to be approximately coextensive with the modern town. The acropolis is occupied by the mediaeval castle of the Gattilusi, which probably incorporates any surviving fragments of Classical architecture. No systematic survey or excavation has been done.

T. S. Mackay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Perseus Project index

Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Aenus

A town in Thrace, near the mouth of the Hebrus, said by Vergil to have been founded by Aeneas.

Greek & Roman Geography (ed. William Smith)

Aenus

  Aenus (Ainos: Eth. Ainhiates, Aenius: Enos), a town of Thrace, situated upon a promontory on the south-eastern side of the PaIns Stentoris, through which one of the mouths of the Hebrus makes its way into the sea. According to Virgil (Aen. iii. 18), it was founded by Aeneas when he landed there on his way from Troy, but there does not seem any more authority for this statement than the similarity of the names; but its antiquity is attested by the fact of its being mentioned by Homer (Il. iv. 519). According to Herodotus (vii. 58) and Thucydides (vii. 57), Aenus was an Aeolic colony. Neither of them, however, mentions from what particular place it was colonised. Scymnus Chius (696) attributes its foundation to Mytilene; Stephanus Byzant. to Cumae, or, according to Meineke's edition, to the two places conjointly. According to Strabo, a more ancient name of the place was Poltyobria. Stephanus says it was also called Apsinthus.
  Little especial mention of Aenus occurs till a comparatively late period of Grecian history. It is mentioned by Thucydides that Aenus sent forces to the Sicilian expedition as a subject ally of Athens. At a later period we find it successively in the possession of Ptolemy Philopator, B.C. 222 (Pol. v. 34), of Philip, king of Macedonia, B.C. 200 (Liv. xxxi. 16), and of Antiochus the Great. After the defeat of the latter by the Romans, Aenus was declared free. (Liv. xxxviii. 60.) It was still a free city in the time of Pliny (iv. 11).
  Athenaeus speaks of the climate of Aenus as being peculiarly ungenial. He describes the year there as consisting of eight months of cold, and four of winter.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Archaeological findings (1)

Perseus Coin Catalog

Ainos [3 Coins]-Perseus Coin Catalog

Biographies (1)

Orators

Athenodorus

Athenodorus (Athenodoros), of Aenos, a rhetorician, who lived in the time of Pollux. He had been a disciple of Aristocles and Chrestus. (Philost. Vit. Sophist. ii. 14; Eudocia,)

Religious figures biography (1)

Saints

St. Olympius of Enos

d.c. 343, feastday: June 12 (Catholic). Bishop of Enos, in Rumelia, he was a dedicated foe of the heresy of Arianism and endured persecution, including removal from his see, by the Arian Emperor Constantius II. Olympius also defended another opponent of Arianism, St. Athanasius.

Places of worship (1)

Monasteries

Monastery of Ioannis Theologos

In 1652 established a school in the monastery with remarkable library, in which taught Nikiforos Filalithis from Maoudania.

Various locations (1)

Ancient place-names

Stentoris lacus

Stentoris lacus (Stentoris limne, Herod. vii. 58; Acropol. p. 64), a lake on the south-east coast of Thrace, formed by the Hebrus, and opening into the Aegean near the town of Aenos. Pliny (iv. 11. s. 18) incorrectly places on it a Stentoris Portus; and Mannert conjectures that perhaps the right reading in Herodotus (l. c.) is limena, not limnen.

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