PA´RIUM
PA´RIUM (
Πάριον: Eth.
Παριανός), a coast-town of Mysia, on the Hellespont, on the west of Priapus, in the district called Adrasteia, from an ancient town which once existed in it (
Strab. xiii. p.588). Pliny, (
5.40) is mistaken in stating that Homer applied the name of Adrasteia to Parium, and the only truth that seems to lie at the bottom of his assertion is that a town Adrasteia did at one time exist between Priapus and Parium, and that on the destruction of Adrasteia all the building materials were transferred to Parium.
According to Strabo, Pariumt was a colony of Milesians, Erythraeans, and Parians ; while Pausanias (
9.27.1) calls it simply a colony of Erythrae.
According to the common traditions, it had received its name from Parius, a son of Jason. (Eustath.
ad Hom. Od. 5.125,
ad Dion. Per. 517;
Steph. B. sub voce
The harbour of Parium was larger and better than that of the neighbouring Priapus ; whence the latter place decayed, while the prosperity of the former increased.
In the time of Augustus, Parium became a Roman colony, as is attested by coins and inscriptions.
It contained an altar constructed of the stones of an oracular temple at Adrasteia which had been removed to Parium; and this altar, the work of Hermocreon, is described as very remarkable on account of its size and beauty. Strabo and Pliny (vii,
[p. 2.551]2) mention, as a curiosity, that there existed at Parium a family called the Ophiogenes (
Ὀφιογενεῖς), the members of which, like the Libyan Psylli, had it in their power to cure the bite of a snake by merely touching the person that had been bitten. Parium is also mentioned in
Hdt. 5.117; Xenoph.
Anab. 7.2.7, 3.16;
Ptol. 5.2.2; Appian,
App. Mith. 76; Mela, 1.19;
Polyaen. 6.24.
The present town occupying the site of Parium bears the name of
Kemer or
Kamares, and contains a few ancient remains.
The walls fronting the sea still remain, and are built of large square blocks of marble, without mortar.
There are also ruins of an aqueduct, reservoirs for water, and the fallen architraves of a portico.
The modern name
Kamares seems to be derived from some ancient subterraneous buildings (
καμάραι) which still exist in the place. (Walpole,
Turkey, p. 88; Sestini,
Num. Vet. p. 73.)
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| COIN OF PARIUM. |
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