Citium

CI´TIUM(Κίτιον, Κήτιον, Κύτιον: Eth. Κιτιεῖς, Κιττιαῖοι, Κιτταῖοι, Citieus, Citiensis).

1. A town situated on the S. coast of Cyprus. In the Peutinger Tables it is called Cito, and is placed 24 M. P to the E. of Amathus. Diodorus (Diod. 20.49) is in error when he states its distance from Salamis as 200 stadia, for it is more remote. The ruins of ancient Citium are found between Larnikaand the port now called Salines:to the E. there was a large basin now almost filled up, and defended by a fort the foundations of which remain; this is probably the κλειστὸς λιμήνof Strabo (14. p. 682). The walls were strong, and in the foundations Phoenician inscriptions upon them have been discovered. A number of ancient tombs are still to be seen in and about Larnika, as well as the remains of an ancient theatre. (Mariti, Viaggi, vol. 1. p. 51 Pococke, Trav. vol. 2. p. 213; Müller, Archäol. § 255.) The salt lakes of which Pliny (Plin. Nat. 31.7s. 39; Antig. Caryst. Hist. Mirab. 100.173) speaks, are still worked. The date of this, probably the most ancient city in the island, is not known, but there can be no doubt that it was originally Phoenician, and connected with the Chittim of the Scriptures. ( Gen. 10.4; comp. J. AJ§ 1; Cic. de Fin. 4.20; Diog. Laert. Zen. 8, Winer, Bibl. Realwörterbuch, s. v. Chittim.) From this and other places in the island the Greeks partially embraced and diffused the cruel and voluptuous rites of the Phoenician worship. It was besieged by Cimon at the close of the Persian war (Thuc. 1.12), and surrendered to him (Diod. 12.3); he was afterwards taken ill and died on board his ship in the harbour (Plut. Cim. 18). It was a place of no great importance (πολίχνιον, Suid.), and we have no evidence that it coined money; though it could boast of the philosophers Zeno, Persaeus, and Philolaus, and the physicians Apollodorus and Apollonius. (Engel, Kypros, vol. i. pp. 12, 100.)


2. （ Máusta), a town of Macedonia, between Pella and Beroea, in the plain before which Perseus reviewed his army before he marched into Thessaly. (Liv. 42.51.) The name, like that of the town in Cyprus, is of Phoenician origin, and may warrant the belief that a colony of that nation occupied at a remote period this most desirable of all the districts at the head of the Thermaic gulf. (Leake, North. Greece, vol. 3. p. 447.) At the upper end of a deep rocky glen, between two of the highest summits of the mountain, three tabular elevations, rising one above the other, look from the plain like enormous steps. Máustaoccupies the middle and widest terrace. (Leake, vol. 3. p. 283.) [E.B.J]