Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "MYTILINI Ancient city LESVOS".
(Mitulene) or Mytilene (Mutilene), the latter being the earlier form. The chief city of Lesbos, stood on the east side of the island opposite the coast of Lesbos, upon a promontory which was once an island, and both sides of which formed excellent harbours. Its first foundation is ascribed to Carians and Pelasgians. It was early colonized by the Aeolians. Important hints respecting its political history are furnished by the fragments of the poetry of Alcaeus, whence (and from other sources) it seems that, after the rule and overthrow of a series of tyrants, the city was nearly ruined by the bitter hatred and conflicts of the factions of the nobles and the people, till Pittacus was appointed to a sort of dictatorship, and the nobles were expelled. Meanwhile, the city had grown to great importance as a naval power, and had founded colonies on the coasts of Mysia and Thrace. At the beginning of the seventh century B.C. the possession of one of these colonies, Sigeum, at the mouth of the Hellespont, was disputed in war between the Mitylenaeans and Athenians, and assigned to the latter by the award of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Among the other colonies of Mitylene were Achilleum, Assos, and Antandrus. Mitylene submitted to the Persians after the conquest of Ionia and Aeolis, and furnished contingents to the expeditions of Cambyses against Egypt and of Darius against Scythia. It was active in the Ionian revolt, after the failure of which it again became subject to Persia, and took part in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece. After the Persian War it formed an alliance with Athens, and remained one of the most important members of the Athenian confederacy, retaining its independence till the fourth year of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 428), when it headed a revolt of the greater part of Lesbos, the progress and suppression of which forms one of the most interesting episodes in the history of the Peloponnesian War. This event destroyed the power of Mitylene. Its subsequent fortunes cannot be related in detail here. It fell under the power of the Romans after the Mithridatic War.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Mytilene.The older city of Mytilene was located on an islet
on which a fortress of the Byzantine period, repaired under the Genoese and the
Turks, is now preserved. This original city later expanded onto the main part
of Lesbos. Excavation of the ancient theater began in 1958, although the first
trial findings were made in the 19th c. The orchestra has a diameter of 25.26
m and is almost perfectly circular, which shows this to be one of the oldest theaters
in Greece. The theater of Mytilene was so beautiful that Pompey copied the plan
when he built the first great stone theater in Rome.
Excavation of mosaic pavements dating to the beginning of the 4th
c. B.C., which have representations of scenes from Menander's plays, was begun
in 1961 near the ancient theater, in an area now called Khorafa. Other mosaic
pavements of the Roman period have been uncovered in front of the entrance to
the church of Ag. Therapon, and a striking portion of a Classical structure (probably
an aqueduct) of the beginning of the 4th c. B.C. was found NW of this church.
At the same site a road of the early Hellenistic period was discovered, made of
soft brown limestone, preserved to a width of 3.6 m.
Twenty minutes walk NE of the village of Moria (ca. 7 km NW of Mytilene)
one can see the best-preserved section of the Roman aqueduct which appears to
have brought water to Mytilene from the Megali Limni (Great Lake) which has now
been drained. Portions of the same aqueduct are preserved W of the village of
Lambou Myloi (Mills of Lambos) and there are other traces of it along its route.
About 500 m S of the Spa of Thermi and near the village of Pyrgoi Thermi, on the
shore, is a part of the remains of the prehistoric town of Thermi, dating to the
Bronze Age (3d and 2d millennium B.C.) now covered with earth.
M. Paraskavaidis, ed.
This extract is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Sept 2003 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
A titulary archbishopric in the island of Lesbos.
Inhabitated, first by the Pelasgians, then by the Aeolians, it was ruled in turn
by the Persians, the Athenians, the Macedonians, the Seleucid, and the Romans.
Included in the empire of the East after the time of Theodosius it
suffered much from the different invasions of the Scythians in 376, the Slavs
in 769, the Arabs in 821, 881, 1035, the Russians in 864 And 1027. In 1204 after
the foundation of the Latin Empire, the city became a possession of the French,
only to be reconquered in 1248 by John Ducas Vatatzes. It belonged to the Genoese
when the sultan, Mahomet II, conquered it in 1462.The home of many famous persons,
among them Sappho, Alcaeus, and the sage Pittacus, Mitylene was famous for its
beauty and for the strength of its walls. St. Paul stopped there during his third
journey.
S. Salaville, ed.
Transcribed by: Douglas J. Potter
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
or Mitylene (Mutilene or Mitulene: Eth. Mutilenaios or Mitulenaios).
The most important city in the island of Lesbos. There is some uncertainty about
the orthography of the name. Coins are unanimous in favour of Mutilene. Inscriptions
vary. Greek manuscripts have generally, but not universally, Mitulene. Latin manuscripts
have generally Mitylene; but Velleius Paterculus, Pomponius Mela, and sometimes
Pliny, have Mytilene. In some cases we find the Latin plural form Mitylenae. (Suet.
Caes. 2, Tib. 10; Liv. Epit. 89.) Tacitus has the adjective Mytilenensis (Ann.
xiv. 53). It is generally agreed now that the word ought to be written Mytilene;
but it does not seem necessary to alter those passages where the evidence of MSS.
preponderates the other way. A full discussion of this subject may be seen in
Plehn (Lesbiacorum Liber). The modern city is called Mitylen, and sometimes Castro.
The chief interest of the history of Lesbos is concentrated in Mytilene.
Its eminence is evident from its long series of coins, not only in the autonomous
period, when they often bore the legend PROTE AEXBOU MUTIAENE, but in the imperial
period down to the reign of Gallienus. Lesbos, from the earliest to the latest
times, has been the most distinguished city of the island, whether we consider
the history of poetry or politics, or the annals of naval warfare and commercial
enterprise.
One reason of the continued pre-eminence of Mytilene is to be found
in its situation, which (in common with that of Methymna) was favourable to the
coasting trade. Its harbours, too, appear to have been excellent. Originally it
was built upon a small island; and thus (whether the small island were united
to the main island by a causeway or not) two harbours were formed, one on the
north and the other on the south. The former of these was the harbour for ships
of war, and was capable of being closed, and of containing fifty triremes, the
latter was the mercantile harbour, and was larger and deeper, and defended by
a mole. (Strab. xiii. p. 617; Paus. viii. 30.) The best elucidation of its situation
in reference to the sea will be found in the narratives contained in the 3rd book
of Thucydides and the 1st book of Xenophon's Hellenics. The northern harbour seems
to have been called Maloeis [Malea]. This harmonises with what we find in Thucydides,
and with what Aristotle says concerning the action of the NE. wind (kaikias) on
Mytilene. The statements of Xenophon are far from clear, unless, with Mr. Grote
(Hist. of Greece, vol. viii. p. 230), we suppose the Euripus of Mytilene to be
that arm of the sea which we have mentioned, in the article Lesbos under the name
of Portus Hieraeus, and which runs up into the interior of the island, to the
very neighbourhood of Mytilene. A rude plan is given by Tournefort; but for accurate
information the English Admiralty charts must be consulted. The beauty of the
ancient city, and the strength of its fortifications, are celebrated both by Greek
and Roman writers. (See especially Cic. c. Rull. ii. 1. 6) Plutarch mentions a
theatre (Pomp. 42), and Athenaeus a Prytaneium (x. p. 425). Vitruvius says (i.
6) that the winds were very troublesome in the harbour and in the streets, and
that the changes of weather were injurious to health. The products of the soil
near Mytilene do not seem to have been distinguished by any very remarkable peculiarities.
Theophrastus and Pliny make mention of its mushrooms: Galen says that its wine
was inferior to that of Methymna. In illustration of the appearance of Mytilene,
as seen from the sea, we may refer to a view in Choiseul-Gouffier; and to another,
which shows the fine forms of the mountains immediately behind, in Conybeare and
Howson's Life and Epp. of St. Paul.
The first passage in which the history of Mytilene comes prominently
into view is in the struggle between the Aeolians and Athenians for Sigeum (B.C.
606), at the NW. corner of Asia Minor. The place and the time are both remarkable,
as illustrating the early vigour with which Mytilene was exercising its maritime
and political power. We see it already grasping considerable possessions on the
mainland. It was in this conflict, too, that Pittacus, the sage and lawgiver of
Mytilene, acted so noble a part, and that Alcaeus, her great poet, lost his shield.
The mention of these two names reminds us that this time of rivalry with Athens
coincides with the famous internal contests of the nobles and commons in Mytilene.
For the history and results of this struggle, see the lives of Alcaeus, Pittacus,
and Sappho, in the Dict. of Biography.
It may be difficult to disentangle the history of the Mytilenaeans
from that of the Aeolians in general, during the period of the Persian ascendancy
on these coasts. But we have a proof of their mercantile enterprise in the fact
that they alone of the Aeolians took part in the building of the Hellenium at
Naucratis (Herod. ii. 178); and we find them taking a prominent part in the invasion
of Egypt by Cambyses. (Ib. iii. 13, 14.) They supplied a contingent to Darius
in his Scythian expedition (Ib. iv. 97). They were closely connected with the
affairs of Histiaeus (Ib. vi. 5); and doubtless, though they are not separately
mentioned, they were the best portion of those Aeolians who supplied sixty ships
to Xerxes in his invasion of Greece. (Ib. vii. 95.)
The period of the Athenian supremacy and the Peloponnesian War is
full of the fame of Mytilene. The alliance of its citizens with those of Athens
began soon after the final repulse of Persia. They held a very distinguished position
among the allies which formed the Athenian confederacy; but their revolt from
Athens in the fourth year of the Peloponnesian War brought upon them the most
terrible ruin. Though the first dreadful decision of the Athenian assembly was
overruled (Thucyd. iii. 36), the walls of Mytilene were pulled down, and her fleet
given up; her territory was divided among Athenian shareholders, and she was deprived
of her possessions and forts on the mainland. (Ib. iii. 50.) Towards
the close of the Peloponnesian War, Conon was defeated by Callicratidas off Mytilene,
and blockaded in the harbour. (Xen. Hell. i. 6) We pass now to the period of Alexander,
with whose campaigns this city was conspicuously connected. The Lesbians made
a treaty with Macedonia. Memnon reduced the other cities of the island ; and his
death, which inflicted the last blow on the Persian power in the Aegean, took
place in the moment of victory against Mytilene. It was retaken by Hegesilochus,
in the course of his general reduction of the islands, and received a large accession
of territory. Two Mytilenaeans, Laomedon and Erigyius, the sons of Larichus, were
distinguished members of Alexander's staff. The latter fell in action against
the Bactrians ; the former was governor of Syria even after Alexander's death.
The first experience of the Roman power in the Aegean was disastrous
to Mytilene. Having espoused the cause of Mithridates, and having held out to
the last, it was sacked by M. Thermus, on which occasion J. Caesar honourably
distinguished himself. Pompey's friendship with Theophanes led to the recognition
of Mytilene as a free city. (Plin. v. 31.) After the defeat of Pharsalia, Pompey
touched there for the last time to take Cornelia on board. His son Sextus met
with a friendly reception there, after his defeat at sea, by Agrippa. (Dion Cass.
xlix. 17; App. B.C. v. 133.) Agrippa himself resided there for some time in retirement,
ostensibly on account of his health, but really through mortification caused by
the preference shown to M. Marcellus (Tac. Ann. xiv. 53; Suet. Aug. 66, Tib. 10);
and this residence is commemorated by an inscription still extant. The last event
which we need mention in the imperial period is the crossing over of Germanicus
with Agrippina from Euboea to Lesbos, and the birth of Julia. (Tac. Ann. ii. 54.)
This event, also, was commemorated both by coins and inscriptions. (See Eckhel
and Pococke.) It appears that the privilege of freedom was taken away by Vespasian,
but restored by Hadrian. (Plehn, Lesbiac. p. 83.)
Mytilene is one of the few cities of the Aegean, which have continued
without intermission to flourish till the present day. In the course of the middle
ages it gradually gave its name to the whole island. Thus, in the Synecdemus of
Hierocles, Mitulene and Methumna are both mentioned under the Province of the
Islands; but in the later Byzantine division, Mytilene is spoken of as an island,
like Lemnos and Chios, in the Theme of the Aegean Sea. (Const. Porphyrog. de Them.
i. pp. 42, 43, ed. Bonn.) The fortunes of Mytilene during the first advances of
the Mahomedans in the Levant, and during the ascendancy of the Venetians at a
later period, are noticed in Finlay's History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
vol. ii. pp. 72, 171, 223. The island of Lesbos was not actually part of the Mahomedan
empire till nearly ten years after the fall of Constantinople.
With the exception of the early struggles of the time of Alcaeus and
Pittacus, there is little to be said of the internal constitutional history of
Mytilene. It shared, with all Greek cities, the results of the struggles of the
oligarchical and democratical parties. We find a commonalty (damos) and a council
(bolla) mentioned on coins of the period of Alexander ; and the title of magistrates,
called strategos (praetor), appears on coins of Lucius Verus. In connection with
this part of the subject we may allude to two creditable laws; one which enacted
(doubtless in consequence of the great quantity of wine in the island) that offences
committed by the drunk should be more severely punished than those committed by
the sober (Arist. Pol. ii. 9. 9); the other making a singular provision for the
punishment of faithlessness in tributary allies, by depriving them of the privilege
of educating their children. (Aelian, Var. Hist. vii. 15.)
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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