Aenus

Aenus (Αἶνος: Eth. Αἴνιἁτης, Eth. Aenius: Enos), a town of Thrace, situated upon a promontory on the south-eastern side of the PaIns Stentoris, through which one of the mouths of the Hebrus makes its way into the sea. According to Virgil (Aen. 3.18), it was founded by Aeneas when he landed there on his way from Troy, but there does not seem any more authority for this statement than the similarity of the names; but its antiquity is attested by the fact of its being mentioned by Homer (Hom. Il. 4.519). According to Herodotus (7.58) and Thucydides (7.57), Aenus was an Aeolic colony. Neither of them, however, mentions from what particular place it was colonised. Scymnus Chius (696) attributes its foundation to Mytilene; Stephanus Byzant. to Cumae, or, according to Meineke's edition, to the two places conjointly. According to Strabo (p. 319), a more ancient name of the place was Poltyobria. Stephanus says it was also called Apsinthus.

Little especial mention of Aenus occurs till a comparatively late period of Grecian history. It is mentioned by Thucydides (l.c.) that Aenus sent forces to the Sicilian expedition as a subject ally of Athens. At a later period we find it successively in the possession of Ptolemy Philopator, B.C. 222 (Pol. 5.34), of Philip, king of Macedonia, B.C. 200 (Liv. 31.16), and of Antiochus the Great. After the defeat of the latter by the Romans, Aenus was declared free. (Liv. 38.60.) It was still a free city in the time of Pliny (4.11).

Athenaeus (p. 351) speaks of the climate of Aenus as being peculiarly ungenial. He describes the year there as consisting of eight months of cold, and four of winter.

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