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City of eastern Peloponnese on the southern coast of the Saromic Gulf (area 3)
The city was said to have been founded by Pittheus, a son of Pelops (or by his brother Troezen who gave the city its name). It is in that city that Theseus was born to Æthra, Pittheus' daughter and that he spend his youth. Later, Theseus' son Hippolytus was sent there to be reared by Pittheus, who had a great repute of wisdom.
In historical times, when the Athenians had to flee before Xerxes in 480, at the start of the second Persian War, it is in Troezen that most of them seeked refuge for their wives and children (Herodotus, VIII, 41). Because of its strategic position across the Saronic Gulf from Athens, Troezen was the target of several Athenian attacks during the Peloponnesian War and had to switch sides several times (Thucydides, I, 115 ; II, 56 ; IV, 21 ; 118, 4).