The town was founded as a colony from the Greek city of
Miletus in the 7th century BCE. According to
Strabo, the town was only remarkable as the birthplace of
Philetaerus, founder of the royal dynasty of
Pergamon. At the beginning of the 3rd century BCE,
Amastrine (Amastris), the niece of the last Persian king
Darius III, who was the wife of
Dionysius, tyrant of Heracleia, and after his death the wife of
Lysimachus caused a
synoecism of
Sesamus,
Cytorus,
Cromna, all towns mentioned in the
Iliad, and Tium after her separation from Lysimachus, to form the new community of
Amastris. Tium, says Strabo, soon detached itself from the community, but the rest kept together, probably in 282 BCE, recovered its autonomous status. There are coins of Tium as late as the reign of
Gallienus, on which the ethnic name appears as Τιανοί, Τεῖοι, and Τειανοί. Its site is located near
Filyos (formerly Hisarönü),
Asiatic Turkey. == Bishopric ==