(anc. geog.), a town of Ionia, in the Hither Asia, on a promontory on the Egean sea, and washed by the Halesus. The ancient Colophon was destroyed by Lysimachus, in his war with Antigonus, in order to enlarge Ephesus. Pausanias says, it was rebuilt in the neighbourhood, in a more commodious site. This was one of the cities that laid claim to Homer. Colophonem addere, a proverbial saying, explained by Strabo to denote, that the Colophonian horse turned the scales in favour of the side on which they fought. The Colophonians had a grove, a temple, and an oracle of Apollo Clarius (Strabo). Of this town was the poet Antimachus, remarked on for his tumid style by Catullus. He wrote a life of Homer, whom he makes a Colophonian (Plutarch).