Teos, titular see, suffragan of Ephesus in Asia Minor. A city of Caria, situated on a peninsula opposite Samos, it was an asylum for the Greeks, likewise for the Minym of Orchomenos; then came colonies from Ionia, Athens, and Boeotia and gradually the population became Grecian. This very prosperous city was one of the first attacked by the Persians; the inhabitants fled into Thrace and founded Abdera, during the reign of Cyrus. Those who remained in Teos allied themselves with the Athenians. Later they revolted, going over to the Spartan rule, but were afterwards reconquered by the Athenians. The walls, recently discovered, 3-3/4 miles in circumference, date from this time, as do also the greater part of the monuments which made it one of the most beautiful cities of Ionia. Teos was celebrated for its wine and, therefore, for the worship of Bacchus. Here was born the poet Anacreon. Here too was the home of a body of bacchanalian artists who furnished actors for the theatres of Asia and the Archipelago. It was the beginning of the ancient theatre. In order to further commerce and the pursuit of the fine arts, Teos, after having saved the fleet of the Roman praetor Regulus from Antiochus, King of Syria, secured for its territory in 193 B.C. from Rome and a great number of Grecian cities the right of perpetual asylum, this privilege being largely due to the temple of Bacchus. During the Christian era almost nothing is known of this city. It figures in all the “Notitiae Episcopatuum” as a suffragan of Ephesus, but in the fifteenth century no mention is made of it. Teos is believed to have been destroyed by an earthquake. Among its bishops Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 727) mentions: Maximus at the Council of Nice; Gennadius at Chalcedon, 451; finally St. Sisinnius, who is said to have lived about the eleventh century, and whose feast days are February 2 and July 14, at Torcelli near Venice. Today Teos is known as Sighadjik, near Sivri-Hissar; it is a nahie of the sanjak of Smyrna; its ruins have furnished a great many inscriptions.
S. VAILHE