Kolonai

Kolonai
αἱ Κολωναί
Kolonai is located in Turkey
Kolonai
Shown within Turkey
LocationAlemşah, Çanakkale Province, Turkey
RegionTroad
Coordinates39°41′23″N 26°9′48″E / 39.68972°N 26.16333°E / 39.68972; 26.16333
History
Founded7th century BC

Kolonai (Ancient Greek: αἱ Κολωναί, romanizedhai Kolōnai; Latin: Colonae) was an ancient Greek city in the south-west of the Troad region of Anatolia. It has been located on a hill by the coast known as Beşiktepe ('cradle hill'), about equidistant between Larisa to the south and Alexandreia Troas to the north. It is 3.3 km east of the modern village of Alemşah in the Ezine district of Çanakkale Province, Turkey.[1] Its name in Ancient Greek is the plural form of κολώνη (kolōnē), 'hill, mound', a common name for promontories with hills on them in the Eastern Mediterranean.[2] It is not to be confused with Lampsacene Kolonai, a settlement situated in the hills above Lampsacus in the north-east of the Troad.[3]

  1. ^ Cook (1973) 216–17.
  2. ^ LSJ s.v. κολώνη; Apion ap. Apollodorus, Lexicon p. 102; Bürchner RE XI (1922) s.v. Kolona, Kolonai, Kolone, coll. 1109–10.
  3. ^ Strabo 13.1.19, Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri 1.12.6. Cf. Bürchner RE XI (1922) s.v. αἱ Κολωναί (3) col. 1110, who, however, reduplicates the passages from his entry on Kolonai in the southern Troad for 'Lampsacene' Kolonai, even when context indicates that one and not the other is meant.