Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Abdera (1.)

ABDERA (1.), in Ancient Geography, a maritime town of Thrace, eastward from the mouth of the river Nestus. Mythology assigns the founding of the town to Hercules; but Herodotus states that it was first colonised by Timesius of Clazomenæ, whom the Thracians in a short time expelled. Rather more than a century later (B.C. 541), the people of Seos recolonised Abdera. The town soon became one of considerable importance, and in B.C. 408, when it was reduced by Thrasybulus the Athenian, it is described as in a very flourishing condition. Its prosperity was greatly impaired by its disastrous war with the Triballi (circa B.C. 376), and very little is heard of it thereafter. The Abderitæ, or Abderitani, were proverbial for their want of wit and judgment; yet their city gave birth to several eminent persons, as Protagoras, Democritus, and Anaxarchus the philosophers, Hecatceus the historian, Niccenctus the poet, and others.