TEMNUS
TEMNUS (
Τῆμνος: Eth.
Τημνίτης), a town of Aeolis in Asia Minor, not far from the river Hermus, situated on a height, from which a commanding view was obtained over the territories of Cyme, Phocaea, and Smyrna. (
Strab. xiii. p.621.) From a passage in Pausanias (
5.13.4), it might be inferred that the town was situated on the northern bank of the Hermus.
But this is irreconcilable with the statement that Temnus was 30 miles south of Cyme, and with the remarks of all other writers alluding to the place. Pliny (
5.29) also seems to be mistaken in placing Temnus at the mouth of the Hermus, for although the deposits of the river have formed an extensive alluvial tract of land, it is evident that the sea never extended as far as the site of Temnus.
The town had already much decayed in the time of Strabo, though it never appears to have been very large. (
Xenoph. Hell. 4.8.5;
Hdt. 1.149;
Plb. 5.77,
20.25;
Cic. pro Flacc. 18) In the reign of Tiberius it was much injured by an earthquake (
Tac, Ann. 2.47), and in the time of Pliny it had ceased to be inhabited altogether. Its site is commonly identified with the modern
Menimen, though Texier, in his
Description de l'Asie Mineure, looks for it at the site of the village of
Guzal-Hissar.  |
| COIN OF TEMNUS. |
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