The ruins of Erythrai are north of the town Ildiri in the Cesme district of Izmir Province, Turkey. The city did not lie exactly on the coast, but some little distance inland, and had a harbor on the coast named Cissus. Erythrae was never a large city, but was renowned for its wine, goats, timber, and millstones, as well as its prophetic sibyls, Herophile and Athenais. The Erythraeans were for a considerable time subject to the supremacy of Athens. About 453 B.C. Erythrae, refusing to pay tribute, seceded from the Delian League. A garrison and a new government restored the union, but late in the Peloponnesian War, in 412 B.C. it revolted again with Chios and Clazomenae. |  |