HAMAXITUS
HAMAXITUS (
Ἁμαξιτός), a town on the southwestern coast of Troas, 50 stadia south of Larissa, and close to the plain of Halesion.
It was probably an Aeolian colony, but had ceased to exist as early as the time of Strabo. (Scyl. p. 36;
Thuc. 8.101; Xenoph.
Hellen. 3.1.13;
Strab. x. p.473, xiii. pp. 604, 612, 613.)
According to Aelian (
Ael. NA 12.5), its inhabitants worshipped mice, and for this reason called Apollo, their chief divinity, Smintheus (from the Aeolian
σμίνθα, a mouse). Strabo relates the occasion of this as follows: When the Teucrians fled from Crete, the oracle of Apollo advised them to settle on the spot where their enemies issued from the earth. One night a number of field-mice destroyed all their shields, and, recognising in this occurrence the hint of the oracle, they established themselves there, and called Apollo Smintheus, representing him with a mouse at his feet. Daring the Macedonian period, the inhabitants were compelled by Lysimachus to quit their town and remove to the neighbouring Alexandria. (Comp.
Steph. B. sub voce Plin. Nat. 5.33.) No ruins of this town have yet been discovered (Leake,
Asia Minor, p. 273); but Prokesch (
Denkwúrdigk. iii. p. 362) states that architectural remains are still seen near Cape Baba, which he is inclined to regard as belonging to Hamaxitus.
Another town of the same name is mentioned by Pliny (
5.29) as situated in Caria, on the north coast of the Cnidian Chersonesus.
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