Mesembria
Ancient city · Bulgaria
- Abandoned
- unknown
- Founded
- 600 BC
- Population
- —
- Coordinates
- 42.659, 27.733
Why it was abandoned
🏛️ Ancient ruins
Detected automatically from the text: an ancient Greek city on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, modern Nesebar
History
Mesembria was an important Greek city in ancient Thrace. It was situated on the coast of the Euxine and at the foot of Mount Haemus; consequently upon the confines of Moesia, in which it is placed by Ptolemy. Strabo relates that it was a colony of Dorians from Megara, and that it was originally called Menebria (Μενεβρία) after its founder Menas; Stephanus of Byzantium says that its original name was Melsembria (Μελσημβρία), from its founder Melsas; and both writers state that the termination -bria was the Thracian word for town. According to the Anonymous Periplus of the Euxine Sea, Mesembria was founded by Chalcedonians at the time of the expedition of Darius I against Scythia; but according to Herodotus it was founded a little later, after the suppression of the Ionic Revolt, by fugitives from Byzantium and Chalcedon.