Lesbos. Pyrrha
circa 400-300 BCE
Bronze Æ 10 mm, 1,12 g
Obv: Female head left, wearing sphendone.
Rev: ΠΥΡ.
Filleted goat standing left.
SNG Copenhagen 428.

Pyrrha was a relatively small city on the deep bay of Lesbos. Little is known of the town, though Strabo mentions that the primary site was uninhabited by his time and Pliny states that it was swallowed by the sea, presumably during an earthquake.

Pausanias cites a Lescheos of Pyrrha, who wrote the Iliupersis, which described the sack of Troy. All but ten lines of that work have been lost, though we do have an ancient summary.

The modern site for Pyrrha is known, but few ruins remain.

540 BCE

Eresos, along with Mytilene, Methymna, Pyrrha, and Antissa, fall under the influence of the Persian Empire during the reign of Cyrus the Great.

428 BCE

Eresos, Antissa, Pyrrha, Mytilene, and Methymna, revolt against Athenian domination during the Peloponnesian War. The revolt is crushed by Athens, and Eresos is punished with the loss of its autonomy.

428 BCE

The fortifications of Pyrrha are reinforced by Mytilene.

333 BCE

Memnon of Rhodes uses a Persian fleet to secure Chios, then Antissa, Eresos, Mytilene, and Pyrrha.

230 BCE

Pyrrha is destroyed by an earthquake and according to Pliny is swallowed by the sea.