Olbia
ολβία
Olbia (ολβία).
1.
A town in Bithynia, on the bay called, after it, the Sinus Olbianus (commonly Sinus Astacenus), was in all probability only another name for Astacus [ASTACUS]. Pliny (5.43) is probably mistaken in saying that Olbia was the ancient name for Nicaea in Bithynia; he seems to confound Nicaea with Astacus.
2.
The westernmost town on the coast of Pamphylia. (Strab. xiv. pp. 666, foll.; Plin. Nat. 5.26.) Ptolemy (5.5.2), consistently with this description, places it between Phaselis and Attaleia. Stephanus B. (s. v.) blames Philo for ascribing this town to Pamphylia, since, as he asserts, it was situated in the territory of the Solymi, and its real name was Olba; but the critic is here himself at fault, confounding Olbia with the Pisidian Olbasa. Strabo describes our Olbia as a strong fortress, and its inhabitants colonised the Lycian town of Cydrema.
3.
A town of Cilicia, mentioned only by Stephanus Byz. (s. v.), who may possibly have been thinking of the Cilician Olbasa or Olbe. [L.S]
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.