city state · Greece and the Aegean
Cyme (Aeolis)
Origins
Aeolian Greeks founded Cyme on the coast north of the Hermus, near modern Aliağa, c. 1000 BCE. It became the leading city of the Aeolian dodecapolis, and tradition held that Hesiod's father sailed from Cyme to Boeotia. A Cymaean princess was said to have married King Midas of Phrygia.
Rule and society
Cyme was a commercial port, minting coins from the 6th century BCE. It fell to the Kingdom of Lydia and then the Achaemenid Empire; its tyrant Aristagoras was among those guarding Darius's bridge over the Danube c. 513 BCE. The city joined the Ionian Revolt and later the Delian League, and the historian Ephorus was born there in the 4th century BCE.
Decline and legacy
In the Hellenistic period Cyme passed between Seleucid and Pergamene control and kept its civic institutions. It came under Rome when the province of Asia was organised in 129 BCE, and remained a modest city into late antiquity.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (3)
- Cyme (Aeolis) was part of Achaemenid Empire546 BCE – 479 BCE
- Cyme (Aeolis) was part of Delian League478 BCE – 412 BCE
- Cyme (Aeolis) was part of Kingdom of Pergamon188 BCE – 133 BCE
More states of Greece and the Aegean →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Cyme (Aeolis). In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cyme-aeolis
- MLA
- “Cyme (Aeolis).” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cyme-aeolis. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Cyme (Aeolis).” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cyme-aeolis.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Cyme (Aeolis)’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cyme-aeolis (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻