RODOSTO a town of European Turkey, in the sandjak of Tekfur Daghi or Rodosto in the vilayet of Adrianople (Edirne), is situated on the coast of the Sea of Marmora about midway between Gallipoli and Constantinople. Its picturesque bay is enclosed by the great promontory of Combos, a spur about 2000 feet in height from the hilly plateau to the north, and round about the town are stately cypress groves. The church of Panagia Rhevmatocratissa contains the graves, with long Latin inscriptions, of the Hungarian exiles of 1696. Rodosto has long been a great depot for the produce of the Adrianople district, but its trade has suffered considerably since Dedeagatch became the terminus of the railway up the Maritza. In 1880 the value of exports and imports was £230,824. The population, formerly about 30,000, was in 1840 about 10,000, and at present (1885) may be estimated at 17,000, about half Turks, a quarter Armenians, and the remainder Greeks, Jews, and Latins.

Rodosto is the ancient Rhaedestus or Bisanthe, said to have been founded by Samians. In Xenophon’s Anabasis it is mentioned as in the kingdom of the Thracian prince Seuthes. Its restoration by Justinian is chronicled by Procopius. In 813 and again in 1206 it was destroyed by the Bulgarians, but it continues to appear as a place of considerable note in later Byzantine history, being captured and recaptured in successive wars.