ANTANDRUS
ANTANDRUS (
Ἄντανδρος: Eth.
Ἀντάνδριος:
Antandro), a city on the coast of Troas, near the head of the gulf of Adramyttium, on the N. side, and W. of Adramyttium.
According to Aristotle (
Steph. B. sub voce Ἄντανδρος), its original name was Edonis, and it was inhabited by a Thracian tribe of Edoni, and he adds “or Cimmeris, from the Cimmerii inhabiting it 100 years.” Pliny (
5.30) appears to have copied Aristotle also.
It seems, then, that there was a tradition about the Cimmerii having seized the place in their incursion into Asia, of which tradition Herodotus speaks (1.6). Herodotus (
7.42) gives to it the name Pelasgis. Again, Alcaeus (Strab. p. 606) calls it a city of the Leleges. From these vague statements we may conclude that it was a very old town; and its advantageous position at the foot of Aspaneus, a mountain belonging to Ida, where timber was cut, made it a desirable possession. Virgil makes Aeneas build his fleet here (
Aen. 3.5).
The tradition as to its being settled from Andros (Mela, 1.18) seems merely founded on a ridiculous attempt to explain the name.
It was finally an Aeolian settlement (
Thuc. 8.108), a fact which is historical.
Antandros was taken by the Persians (
Hdt. 5.26) shortly after the Scythian expedition of Darius.
In the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war it was betrayed by some Mytilenaeans and others, exiles from Lesbos, being at that time under the supremacy of Athens; but the Athenians soon recovered it. (
Thuc. 4.52,
75.) The Persians got it again during the Peloponnesian war; but the townspeople, fearing the treachery of Arsaces, who commanded the garrison there for Tissaphernes, drove the Persians out of the acropolis, B.C. 411. (
Thuc. 8.108.) The Persians, however, did not lose the place. (
Xen. Hell. 1.1. 25)
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G.L]
