Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "PARION Ancient city TURKEY" .
PARION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Parium (Parion: Eth. Parianos), a coast-town of Mysia, on the Hellespont,
on the west of Priapus, in the district called Adrasteia, from an ancient town
which once existed in it (Strab. xiii. p. 588). Pliny, (v. 40) is mistaken in
stating that Homer applied the name of Adrasteia to Parium, and the only truth
that seems to lie at the bottom of his assertion is that a town Adrasteia did
at one time exist between Priapus and Parium, and that on the destruction of Adrasteia
all the building materials were transferred to Parium. According to Strabo, Pariumt
was a colony of Milesians, Erythraeans, and Parians ; while Pausanias (ix. 27.
§ 1) calls it simply a colony of Erythrae. According to the common traditions,
it had received its name from Parius, a son of Jason. (Eustath. ad Hom. Od. v.
125, ad Dion. Per. 517; Steph. B. s. v.)
The harbour of Parium was larger and better than that of the neighbouring
Priapus; whence the latter place decayed, while the prosperity of the former increased.
In the time of Augustus, Parium became a Roman colony, as is attested by coins
and inscriptions. It contained an altar constructed of the stones of an oracular
temple at Adrasteia which had been removed to Parium; and this altar, the work
of Hermocreon, is described as very remarkable on account of its size and beauty.
Strabo and Pliny (vii, 2) mention, as a curiosity, that there existed at Parium
a family called the Ophiogenes (Ophiogeneis), the members of which, like the Libyan
Psylli, had it in their power to cure the bite of a snake by merely touching the
person that had been bitten. Parium is also mentioned in Herod. v. 117; Xenoph.
Anab. vii. 2. § 7, 3. § 16; Ptol. v. 2. § 2; Appian, Mithrid. 76; Mela, i. 19;
Polyaen. vi. 24. The present town occupying the site of Parium bears the name
of Kemer or Kamares, and contains a few ancient remains. The walls fronting the
sea still remain, and are built of large square blocks of marble, without mortar.
There are also ruins of an aqueduct, reservoirs for water, and the fallen architraves
of a portico. The modern name Kamares seems to be derived from some ancient subterraneous
buildings (kamarai) which still exist in the place. (Walpole, Turkey, p. 88; Sestini,
Num. Vet. p. 73.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city of Mysia, on the Propontis, founded by a colony from Miletus, Paros, and Erythrae. It was known for its local worship of Apollo, Dionysus, and Eros. Under Augustus it was made a Roman colony.
A port of great strategic importance on the Hellespont between Lampsakos
and Priapos. The city may have been founded by Parion, son of Jason, chief of
the settlers of Erythrai; or by the mythic Parilarians, together with colonists
from Erythrai and Miletos.
Parion enjoyed enviable prosperity because of its port; and once the kingdom
of Pergamon was established, it came under the control of the Attalid dynasty.
It passed to the Romans in 133 B.C. under the testament of Attalos III, and under
Augustus must have been a flourishing center as the numerous coins coming from
Parion designate the city Colonia Pariana Iulia Augusta. Strabo (Geogr. 13.588)
records a colossal altar constructed at Parion by Hermokreon; and we know that
prior to 354 B.C. the sculptor Praxiteles executed a statue of Eros there.
N. Bonacasa, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Sep 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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