Pitane (Aeolis)

Pitane (Greek Πιτάνη ) was an ancient city with two ports in the Mysian Aeolis at today Çandarlı in Turkey. Pitane was considered mythical founding of the Amazones.

Pitane was a member of the Delian Confederacy. In the year 336 BC, besieged Parmenion Pitane vain. For 380 talents to Pitane bought 281 BC by Antiochus I. Land added and remained until 133 BC -free city in the kingdom Pergamenische. In the First Mithridatic War, Mithridates VI fled. after Pitane and was trapped there by Gaius Flavius ​​Fimbria. At the instruction of Sulla, the fleet commander Lucullus let him escape to the sea. In the Roman Empire Pitane suffered severe damage in an earthquake.

The Platonic philosopher Arcesilaus and the poet Matron came from Pitane. In Christian times, the city was suffragan of Ephesus.

Pitane was located on a peninsula on which a Venetian fort was later built. The excavations of the archaeologist Ekrem Akurgal in the years 1959 to 1965 are still unpublished. In the city itself has been officially did not dig, so there are up to ceramic ( terra sigillata ) hardly archaeological finds from there. Remains of the wall can be seen, also the location of the theater and a putative stadium. Excavations in the necropolis services pottery finds from the Mycenaean, Protogeometric, geometric, oriental and archaic time.

A Kouros from Pitane from the 6th century BC is exhibited in the Bergama Archeological Museum.