PRIENE, pri-e'ne, in ancient history, a city of Ionia at the mouth of the Gason in early times, but because of the alluvial deposits of the Mmander finally lay several miles from the coast. One of the 12 cities in the Ionian League, Priene was conquered by Ardys, a Lydian king, in the latter part of the 7th cen tury a.c. It was mixed up in several revolts against the Persian power, notably the Ionic trouble (500-494 s.c.). Shortly after Priene fell into the hands of Athens. During the power of Alexander in Asia Priene flourished. A new city was laid out and it and the old beautified by additions of the best art of the day. Some time during the reign of the Byzantine rulers, the city was deserted and it was subsequently covered by &brig caused principally by earth quakes, and on Creesus' overthrow became the property of Persia. The great temple of Athena Polias, the scene of the festival called the Paniona, was here; a dedication upon it by Alex ander the Great is now in the British Museum. In 1868 the temple of Athena Polias (erected under the direction of Pythias) was excavated for the Dilettanti Society by Pullan and New ton, who have shown that it was one of the finest pieces of Ionian architecture ever built.
The plan of the ancient city has been made plain by explorations in 1895-99 under the manage ment of the Royal Museum in Berlin. These show that the city had been planned with great care and had been looked after as the best of the Greek cities were. The excavations, there fore, have made of the ruins one of the most important sources of information concerning the Greek city life of the period. The market place, theatre, temples and other public buildings, to gether with a vast amount of sculpture and in scriptions, were unearthed. Consult Baedeker, (Konstantinopel, Balkanstaaten, Kleinasien' (Leipzig 1914); Frothingham, A. L.,
(Century Magaaine, VoL LXII, 1901) ; Girt ringen, H. von, (Inschriften von Priene) (Ber lin 1907); Lenschau,
Rebus Prienensibus' (Leipzig 1890) ; Leutner, 'Priene' (Classical Weekly, Vol. V 1911) ; Pullan and Newton,