PRIENE (mod. Samsun kale), an ancient city of Ionia on the foot-hills of Mycale, about 6 m. N. of the Maeander. It was formerly on the sea coast, but now lies some miles inland. It is said to have been founded by Ionians under Aegyptus, a son of Neleus. Sacked by Ardys of Lydia, it revived and attained great prosperity under its "sage," Bias, in the middle of the 6th cen tury. Cyrus captured it in 545 ; but it was able to send twelve ships to join the Ionian revolt Disputes with Samos, and the troubles after Alexander's death, brought Priene low, and Rome had to save it from the kings of Pergamum and Cappa docia in 155. Orophernes, the rebellious brother of the Cappado cian king, who had deposited a treasure there and recovered it by Roman intervention, restored the temple of Athena as a thank offering. Under Roman and Byzantine dominion Priene had a prosperous history. It passed into Muslim hands late in the 13th century. The ruins, which lie on successive terraces, were exca vated mainly in the late 1 gth century. The city, as rebuilt in the 4th and 3rd centuries, was laid out on a rectangular scheme. It faced south, its acropolis rising nearly 70o ft. behind it. The whole area was enclosed by a wall 7 ft. thick with towers at inter vals and three principal gates. On the lower slopes of the acropolis was a shrine of Demeter. The town had six main streets, about 20 ft. wide, running east and west and fifteen streets about Io ft.
wide crossing at right angles, all being evenly spaced ; and it was thus divided into about 8o insulae. Private houses were appor tioned four to an insula. The systems of water-supply and drain age can easily be discerned. The houses present many analogies with the earliest Pompeian. In the western half of the city, on a high terrace north of the main street and approached by a fine stairway, was the temple of Athena Polias, a hexastyle peripteral Ionic structure built by Pythias, the architect of the Mausoleum. Under the basis of the statue of Athena were found in 187o silver tetradrachms of Orophernes, and some jewellery, probably depos ited at the time of the Cappadocian restoration. Fronting the main street is a series of halls, and on the other side is the fine market place. The municipal buildings, Roman gymnasium, and well pre served theatre lie to the north, but, like all the other public struc tures, in the centre of the plan. Temples of Isis and Asclepius have been excavated. At the lowest point on the south, within the walls, was the large stadium, connected with a gymnasium of Hellenistic times.
See Society of Dilettanti, Ionian Antiquities (1821), vol. ii.; Th. Wiegand and H. Schrader, Priene (1904) ; on inscriptions (360) see Hiller von Gartringen, Inschriften von Priene (Berlin, 19(37), with collection of ancient references to the city.