city state · Greece and the Aegean

Methone (Pieria)

733 BCE – 354 BCE (approx.) · capital Methone

Eretrian colony on the Macedonian coast whose siege in 354 BCE cost Philip II an eye, and whose pottery bears some of the oldest Greek writing.

Origins

Methone was founded on the coast of Pieria, on the Thermaic Gulf, by settlers from Eretria c. 733 BCE; Plutarch says they were Eretrians driven out of Corcyra. The site, on a low hill by the sea, had been inhabited since the Neolithic.

Rule and society

Methone was a trading port linking the Aegean with Macedonian timber and metals. Excavations since 2003 have found a deposit of pottery from c. 700 BCE inscribed with some of the earliest Greek alphabetic writing, as well as metalworking debris. In the Classical period it was an ally of Athens and a base for Athenian interference in Macedon.

Decline and legacy

Philip II of the Kingdom of Macedon besieged Methone in 354 BCE, losing an eye to an arrow. After its surrender he razed the city and divided its land among Macedonians. The site later became a small village.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Methone (Pieria). In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/methone-pieria
MLA
“Methone (Pieria).” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/methone-pieria. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Methone (Pieria).” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/methone-pieria.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Methone (Pieria)’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/methone-pieria (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻