Aulon (), known later as Alonion (Άλονίων), was a town and ''

poleis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

'' (city-state) of

ancient Crete The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. During the Iron Age, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-i ...

. It is mentioned in a decree of 480 BCE of

Gortyna Gortyna (; also known as Gortyn (Γορτύν)) was a town of ancient Crete which appears in the Homeric poems under the form of Γορτύν; but afterwards became usually Gortyna (Γόρτυνα). According to Stephanus of Byzantium it was or ...

where a series of privileges are granted to a person perhaps of foreign origin among which were land and housing in Aulon. Of this decree it has been deduced that Aulon was a city that was fortified and was dependent on Gortyna but that probably had autonomy in some aspects. About this relationship between Aulon and Gortyna analogies have been noted with that between

Halicarnassus Halicarnassus ( ; Latin: ''Halicarnassus'' or ''Halicarnāsus''; ''Halikarnāssós''; ; Carian language, Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia.

and

Salmacis Salmacis () was an atypical Naiad nymph of Greek mythology. She rejected the ways of the virginal Greek goddess Artemis in favour of vanity and idleness. Mythology Ovid's version Salmacis' attempted rape of Hermaphroditus is narrated in the ...

. Its site is located near

Agioi Deka Agioi Deka (, "Holy Ten") is a village in the Heraklion regional unit, Greece, with 785 inhabitants (2021 census). It is located in the 44th km of the Heraklion-Tympaki national road and it is the centre of the municipality of Gortyna (Δήμο� ...

('Ten Saints'), which refers to ten Christian martyrs killed at the amphitheatre of Alonion.

References

Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Cretan city-states {{AncientCrete-geo-stub