ADRAMYTTIUM ăd’ rə mīt’ ĭ əm (̓Αδραμυττιόν). Ancient port city of Mysia in Asia Minor from which came the ship which conveyed Paul from Caesarea.

The city was located at the head of the Gulf of Adramyttium facing the island of Lesbos. The ancient name is now preserved in the inland town Edremid while the original site is known as Karatash.

Some think Adramyttium may have been Homer’s Pedasus. A different and attractive explanation is that the city was founded by Adramys, brother of Croesus, in 6 b.c. An Athenian colony may have existed there prior to this, though Rendel Harris has suggested an Arabian origin for the original settlement (“Adramyttium,” Contemporary Review, CXXVIII [1925], 194-202). In any case, the city gained considerable importance when Pergamum (Pergamus) became the capital of an important Hel. kingdom under the so-called Attalid dynasty in 3 b.c. Assizes were held there and numismatic evidence points to the city as a center for the worship of Pollux and Castor. The city boasted a good harbor and its importance as a maritime city is attested by commercial coinage from the E found there and belonging to 2 and 1 b.c. The city also was noted for the preparation of a special ointment (Pliny, NH, xiii. 2. 5).

Only one reference is made to the city in the Bible (Acts 27:2) and then in the form ̓Αδραμυτηνός (“of Adramyttium”). It was an Adramyttian ship prob. bound for home which carried Paul and his centurion escort from Caesarea and along the coast of Asia and enabled them to make connections for Rome.

Bibliography Strabo, xiii. 1. 51, 65, 66; W. Leaf, Strabo on the Trood (1923), 318ff.