Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "KYMI Ancient city TURKEY".
City in Aiolis, 40 km N of Smyrna. Founded, according to Strabo (621),
by Greek colonists after the Trojan War and after their capture of Larisa from
the Pelasgians. Kyme contributed ships to Dareios in 512 B.C. and to Xerxes in
480 (Hdt. 4.138; 7.196). The city was assessed in the Delian Confederacy at the
very high figure of nine talents, and is called by Strabo the biggest and best
of the Aiolian cities. Kebren and Side are said to have been her colonies. The
coinage extends from the 7th c. B.C. to the 3d c. A.D., but the city has virtually
no history in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Little remains of the ancient city. It occupied two hills, of which
the S one was defended by a circuit wall of polygonal masonry; almost nothing
of this is now to be seen. The hollow of a theater is visible at the foot of the
N hill, but its stones are gone. A small Ionic temple of Isis, once excavated,
is now undiscoverable. In the valley between the hills are the remains of a monumental
building of late date with two rows of unfluted columns. To the N a stream identified
with the Xanthos enters the sea; another stream to the S has converted the valley
into a marsh. On the shore are two harbor-moles; the S one is reasonably well
preserved, though now under water. The whole site is virtually deserted.
G. E. Bean, 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.
Total results on 11/5/2001: 127 Cyme, 20 Cymaeans, 3 Cymaean, 52 Kyme
The largest of the Aeolian cities of Asia Minor, upon the coast of Aeolis, on a bay named after it Cumaeus (also Elaiticus) Sinus. It was the mother-city of Cumae in Campania.
Kume: Eth. Kumaios. A city of Aeolis, so called, according to a legend, from Cyme an Amazon; and the city was also called Amazoneion. There was, according to Stephanus (s. v. Kume), another Cyme, which was called Phriconitis. Herodotus, however (i. 149), enumerating Cyme among the cities of Aeolis, calls it Cyme which is named Phriconis. Temnus and Aegae, Aeolian cities, were situated in the hill country which lies above the territory of Cyme, and of Phocaea, and of Smyrna, along which the Hermus flows. It was north of the Hermus, as appears from Strabo, who says that, after crossing the Hermus, the distance from Larissa to Cyme was 70 stadia, and from Cyme to Myrina was 40 stadia. The author of the Life of Homer also places Cyme north of the Hermus, and he quotes some lines which show that it was on an eminence, a spur or projection of a mountain called Sardene. The coins of Cyme show that there was a stream near it called Xanthus. The site of this ancient city is generally supposed to be at a place called Sanderli or Sandarlio, on that part of the coast which is opposite to the southern extremity of Lesbos. Whether this is the exact site or not, may be doubtful, but it is not far from it. This is the story of the origin of Cyme. (Strab. p. 621.) The inhabitants of Phricium, a mountain above Thermopylae, landed on the spot where Cyme now is, says Strabo; they found the Pelasgi, who had suffered from the war of Troy, still in possession of Larissa. The new comers built Neon Teichos, 30 stadia from Larissa, and from this point annoyed the Pelasgi. Here Strabo's text begins to be corrupt, and it is useless to attempt to mend it; though one may guess what is meant. We learn, however, that Cyme was founded after Neon Teichos, and it was named Phriconis from the mountain in Locris. Strabo observes that Cyme was the largest and noblest of the Aeolian cities; and Cyme and Lesbos might be considered the parent cities of the other cities, which were about thirty in number, of which not a few had ceased to exist. Herodotus (i. 157) observes that the Aeolians and Ionians used to consult the oracle at Branchidae, and he tells a story about the Cymaeans consulting it when Pactyes the Lydian fled to them to escape punishment from the Persians. Cyme came under the Persians after the overthrow of the Lydian kingdom; and a tyrannus of Cyme, Aristagoras, was one of those who are represented by Herodotus as deliberating whether they should destroy the bridge over the Danube, and leave king Darius to perish on the north side of the river (iv. 137). When Aristagoras of Miletus stirred up the Ionians to revolt against Darius, Cyme joined the insurrection, and sent Aristagoras away without doing him any harm. But Cyme was soon recovered by the Persians (v. 38, 123). Sandoces, the governor of Cyme in the time of Xerxes, commanded fifteen ships in the great expedition against Greece (B.C. 480). He seems to have been a Greek. (Herod. vii. 194.) The remnant of the fleet of Xerxes which escaped from Salamis wintered at Cyme. (Herod. viii. 130.) The history of Cyme is very barren, notwithstanding what Strabo says of its greatness. The place is hardly more than mentioned in the history of Thucydides (iii. 31, viii. 31, 100). After the conclusion of the war of the Romans against Antiochus, Cyme, like Colophon, obtained freedom from taxation. (Polyb. xxii. 27; Liv. xxxviii. 39.) It was afterwards included in the Roman province of Asia. It was one of the cities of Asia that was damaged by the great earthquake in the time of Tiberius. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 47.) Pliny (v. 30) mentions Cyme in his list of Aeolian cities; and Ptolemy (v. 2). Under the Byzantine empire it was a bishop's see. Cyme was the birthplace of the historian Ephorus; and Hesiod's father, according to the poet (Op. et D. 636), sailed from Cyme to settle at Ascra in Boeotia; which does not prove, as such compilers as Stephanus and Suidas suppose, that Hesiod was a native of Cyme. Strabo gives a reason for the alleged stupidity of the Cymaei, which is not worth the trouble of transcribing.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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