Parion
A port of great strategic importance on the Hellespont between Lampsakos and Priapos. The city may have been founded by Parion, son of Jason, chief of the settlers of Erythrai; or by the mythic Parilarians, together with colonists from Erythrai and Miletos.
Parion enjoyed enviable prosperity because of its port; and once the kingdom of Pergamon was established, it came under the control of the Attalid dynasty. It passed to the Romans in 133 B.C. under the testament of Attalos III, and under Augustus must have been a flourishing center as the numerous coins coming from Parion designate the city Colonia Pariana Iulia Augusta. Strabo (Geogr. 13.588) records a colossal altar constructed at Parion by Hermokreon; and we know that prior to 354 B.C. the sculptor Praxiteles executed a statue of Eros there.
BIBLIOGRAPHYB. V. Head, Historia Numorum (1911); M. Grant, From imperium to Auctoritas (1946); id., Emerita 20 (1952); D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950); L. Robert, Hellenica 9 (1950), 10 (1955), 11-12 (1960); id., Villes d'Asie Mineure (2d ed. 1962); L. Laurenzi, Riv. Ist. Naz. Arch. St. Arte 5-6 (1956-57); id., Ann. Sc. Arch. Ital. Atene 33-34 (1957); D. Nikolov, Archeologia (Sofia) 5 (1963).
N. BONACASA