Thenae

THENAE (Θεναί, Callim. in Jov. 42; Steph. B. s. v. Ὀμφάλιον), a town of Crete close on the Omphalian plain, and near Cnossus. If not on the very site it must have been close to the Castello Temenos of the Venetians, which was built A. D. 961, when the Cretans, under their Saracenic leaders, were vanquished by Nicephorus Phocas and the forces of the Byzantine emperor. (Pashley, Travels, vol. 1. p. 224; comp. Finlay, Byzantine Empire, vol. 1. p. 377; Gibbon. c. lii.)

THENAE (Θεναί), a maritime city of Byzacium in Africa Proper, at the mouth of a small river which fell into the Syrtis Minor, and 216 miles SE. of Carthage. (Plin. Nat. 5.4. s. 3.) By Strabo it is called ἡ Θένα (17. p. 831), and by Ptolemy Θαίνα, or Θέαιναι (1.15.2, 4.3.11). At a later period it became a Roman colony with the name of Aelia Augusta Mercurialis (Gruter, Inscr. p. 363; cf. Itin. Ant. p. 59, also pp. 46, 47, 48, 57). Now Thaini, or Têny.