CELÆNÆ, in Ancient Geography, the capital of Phrygia Magna, situated on a cognominal mountain, at the common sources of the Maeander and Marsyas. The king of Persia had a strong palace beneath the citadel, by the springs of the Marsyas, which rose in the market-place, not less in size than the Maeander, and flowed through the city. Cyrus the Younger had also a palace there, but by the springs of the Maeander, which river passed likewise through the city. He had, moreover, an extensive paradise or park, full of wild beasts, which he hunted on horseback for exercise or amusement; and watered by the Maeander, which ran through the middle. Xerxes was said to have built these palaces and the citadel after his return from his expedition into Greece.
Antiochus Soter removed the inhabitants of Celence into a city which he named, from his mother, Apamea; and which became afterwards a mart inferior only to Ephesus. See APAMEA.