KYME
(Namurt Limani) Turkey.
City in Aiolis, 40 km N of Smyrna. Founded, according to Strabo
(
621), by Greek colonists after the Trojan War and
after their capture of Larisa from the Pelasgians. Kyme
contributed ships to Dareios in 512 B.C. and to Xerxes
in 480 (
Hdt. 4.138; 7.196). The city was assessed in the
Delian Confederacy at the very high figure of nine
talents, and is called by Strabo the biggest and best of
the Aiolian cities. Kebren and Side are said to have been
her colonies. The coinage extends from the 7th c. B.C.
to the 3d c. A.D., but the city has virtually no history in
the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Little remains of the ancient city. It occupied two hills,
of which the S one was defended by a circuit wall of
polygonal masonry; almost nothing of this is now to
be seen. The hollow of a theater is visible at the foot
of the N hill, but its stones are gone. A small Ionic
temple of Isis, once excavated, is now undiscoverable.
In the valley between the hills are the remains of a
monumental building of late date with two rows of unfluted columns. To the N a stream identified with the
Xanthos enters the sea; another stream to the S has converted the valley into a marsh. On the shore are two
harbor-moles; the S one is reasonably well preserved,
though now under water. The whole site is virtually
deserted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Schuchhardt,
Altertümer von Pergamon I, 1 (1912) 95; G. E. Bean,
Aegean Turkey
(1966) 193-96.
G. E. BEAN
