DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4327#0044
CHAPTER II
TEOS.
Teos, now Sighajik, was an Ionian city on the south shore of the isthmus which connects the peninsula of
Karaburnou with the mainland, and which is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Smyrna. The site of Teos
was one which could not fail to commend itself to the Greek adventurers, who, at a very early period, established
themselves on the west coast of Asia Minor, wherever a safe anchorage could be combined with a strongly fortified
position. At Teos, as at Mytilene, Knidos, Phokaaa, Myndos, a promontory, connected with the mainland by
an isthmus, formed the natural protection of two harbours, opening respectively north and south, and by cutting
a canal through this isthmus a double harbour was formed which admitted of a choice of entry and egress
according to the prevailing wind.1 The northernmost of these harbours, the ancient Portus Gerassticus, is
described by Hamilton? as accessible at all times and with almost all winds; the port on the south is now almost
filled up with sand.
The first Greek settlers at Teos are said to have been Orchomenian Minyas under Athamas.3 Here, as else-
where on the same coast, the Greeks found the Karians already established, who do not, however, appear to
have been as hostile to the new comers at Teos as was the case at Ephesos and other places; indeed, there is
evidence from a Teian inscription, as Bockh and Grote have shown, that the indigenous population must have
been gradually fused and amalgamated with Hellenic immigrants.4 The original settlement founded by the
Minyas was reinforced about the time of the Ionian migration by Athenians led by Nauklos and Damasos,
sons of Kodros; Boeotia contributed other colonists under Geres.5 The tradition of these Athenian immigrants
was preserved at Teos for many centuries in the names of their denies, or vvpyoi.6 The Portus Geraasticus owed
its name to the Bceotian leader, Geres.
Teos, like Priene, Avas one of the twelve Ionian cities which, in very early times, formed a league or
confederacy with a common place of meeting, the Panionion near Priene, where there was a temple of Poseidon
Helikonios.7 In a position so favourable for navigation as Teos, the spirit of maritime enterprise must have been
early developed, and accordingly we find that this was one of the favoured Grajco-Asiatic cities which, in the
sixth century B.C., were admitted by the Egyptian king, Amasis, to the privilege of trading at Naukratis, and
that the Teians took a leading j3art in founding the Hellenion there.8
Their prosperity seems to have continued unimpaired till the 59th Olympiad (b.c. 544-541), when, in
common with the other cities of Ionia, Teos was subdued by Harpagos, the General of Cyrus. After their city
had thus lost its independence, a portion of the Teians migrated to Thrace, where they founded Abdera
(b.c. 543), but the majority of the citizens must have remained after the capture of their city, for we find that
not many years afterwards the Teians contributed a contingent of seventeen ships to the naval forces during the
Ionian revolt against Darius." Moreover we learn from an epigram of Simonides that the Teian poet Anacreon,
who flourished b.c. 559-25, was buried in his native city,10 which could hardly have been the case had it been
totally abandoned then.
1 For the topography of Teos and its harbours see Livy, xxxvii. 27, 28 ; G. Hirschfelcl in the Berlin Arclidol. Zeitung, 1876, pp. 24-30. As
the two ports were connected by a canal through the isthmus, Pliny's statement, Hist. Nat. v. 31, § 138, that Teos was built on an island, becomes
intelligible. For a general panorama of the coast near Teos see Leon de Laborde, Voyage de I'Asie Mineure, pi. xliii.
2 Travels in Asia Minor, ii. pp. 11-15 ; Livy, loc. cit.
3 Miiller, Orcliomenos, p. 303; Herod, i. 146. In a fragment of inscription, Bockh, Corpus Inscr. No. 3078, the name Athamas occurs.
Bockh conjectures that this is a fragment of an honorary decree or dedication in which some one is styled vios 'A6dp,a<;, a new founder of the city.
* Pausan. vii. 3, § 3; Bockh, Corpus Inscr. No. 3064; Grote, Hist. iii. 251.
5 Strabo, xiv. p. 633; Pausan. loc. cit. ° Bockh, Coi°pus Inscr. No. 3064.
1 Herod, i. 142,148.
8 Ibid. ii. 178 ; Grote, iii. pp. 449-52, who gives reasons for thinking that the Greek factory at Naukratis was founded before the reign of
Amasis.
0 Herod, vi. 8 ; K. F. Hermann, Abhandlungen, p. 96.
10 Bergk, Poet. Lyric. 1843, p. 781, No. 116.
TEOS.
Teos, now Sighajik, was an Ionian city on the south shore of the isthmus which connects the peninsula of
Karaburnou with the mainland, and which is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Smyrna. The site of Teos
was one which could not fail to commend itself to the Greek adventurers, who, at a very early period, established
themselves on the west coast of Asia Minor, wherever a safe anchorage could be combined with a strongly fortified
position. At Teos, as at Mytilene, Knidos, Phokaaa, Myndos, a promontory, connected with the mainland by
an isthmus, formed the natural protection of two harbours, opening respectively north and south, and by cutting
a canal through this isthmus a double harbour was formed which admitted of a choice of entry and egress
according to the prevailing wind.1 The northernmost of these harbours, the ancient Portus Gerassticus, is
described by Hamilton? as accessible at all times and with almost all winds; the port on the south is now almost
filled up with sand.
The first Greek settlers at Teos are said to have been Orchomenian Minyas under Athamas.3 Here, as else-
where on the same coast, the Greeks found the Karians already established, who do not, however, appear to
have been as hostile to the new comers at Teos as was the case at Ephesos and other places; indeed, there is
evidence from a Teian inscription, as Bockh and Grote have shown, that the indigenous population must have
been gradually fused and amalgamated with Hellenic immigrants.4 The original settlement founded by the
Minyas was reinforced about the time of the Ionian migration by Athenians led by Nauklos and Damasos,
sons of Kodros; Boeotia contributed other colonists under Geres.5 The tradition of these Athenian immigrants
was preserved at Teos for many centuries in the names of their denies, or vvpyoi.6 The Portus Geraasticus owed
its name to the Bceotian leader, Geres.
Teos, like Priene, Avas one of the twelve Ionian cities which, in very early times, formed a league or
confederacy with a common place of meeting, the Panionion near Priene, where there was a temple of Poseidon
Helikonios.7 In a position so favourable for navigation as Teos, the spirit of maritime enterprise must have been
early developed, and accordingly we find that this was one of the favoured Grajco-Asiatic cities which, in the
sixth century B.C., were admitted by the Egyptian king, Amasis, to the privilege of trading at Naukratis, and
that the Teians took a leading j3art in founding the Hellenion there.8
Their prosperity seems to have continued unimpaired till the 59th Olympiad (b.c. 544-541), when, in
common with the other cities of Ionia, Teos was subdued by Harpagos, the General of Cyrus. After their city
had thus lost its independence, a portion of the Teians migrated to Thrace, where they founded Abdera
(b.c. 543), but the majority of the citizens must have remained after the capture of their city, for we find that
not many years afterwards the Teians contributed a contingent of seventeen ships to the naval forces during the
Ionian revolt against Darius." Moreover we learn from an epigram of Simonides that the Teian poet Anacreon,
who flourished b.c. 559-25, was buried in his native city,10 which could hardly have been the case had it been
totally abandoned then.
1 For the topography of Teos and its harbours see Livy, xxxvii. 27, 28 ; G. Hirschfelcl in the Berlin Arclidol. Zeitung, 1876, pp. 24-30. As
the two ports were connected by a canal through the isthmus, Pliny's statement, Hist. Nat. v. 31, § 138, that Teos was built on an island, becomes
intelligible. For a general panorama of the coast near Teos see Leon de Laborde, Voyage de I'Asie Mineure, pi. xliii.
2 Travels in Asia Minor, ii. pp. 11-15 ; Livy, loc. cit.
3 Miiller, Orcliomenos, p. 303; Herod, i. 146. In a fragment of inscription, Bockh, Corpus Inscr. No. 3078, the name Athamas occurs.
Bockh conjectures that this is a fragment of an honorary decree or dedication in which some one is styled vios 'A6dp,a<;, a new founder of the city.
* Pausan. vii. 3, § 3; Bockh, Corpus Inscr. No. 3064; Grote, Hist. iii. 251.
5 Strabo, xiv. p. 633; Pausan. loc. cit. ° Bockh, Coi°pus Inscr. No. 3064.
1 Herod, i. 142,148.
8 Ibid. ii. 178 ; Grote, iii. pp. 449-52, who gives reasons for thinking that the Greek factory at Naukratis was founded before the reign of
Amasis.
0 Herod, vi. 8 ; K. F. Hermann, Abhandlungen, p. 96.
10 Bergk, Poet. Lyric. 1843, p. 781, No. 116.