Azorus

39°59′09″N 22°04′57″E

Map showing ancient Thessaly. Azorus is shown to the top centre in the Perrhaebian Tripolis.

Azorus or Azoros (Ancient Greek: Ἄζωρος or Ἀζώριον^[1]) was a town and polis (city-state)^[2] in Perrhaebia in ancient Thessaly situated at the foot of Mount Olympus. Azorus, with the two neighbouring towns of Pythium and Doliche, formed a Tripolis.^[3]

During the Roman–Seleucid War, the Tripolis was ravaged by an army of the Aetolian League in the year 191 BCE.^[4] During the Third Macedonian War the three towns surrendered to the army of Perseus of Macedon in the year 171 BCE,^[5] but that same year the Romans reconquered the three.^[6] In the year 169 BCE troops arrived from the Roman consul Quintus Marcius Philippus who camped between Azorus and Doliche.^[7][8]

The three cities minted a common coin with the inscription "ΤΡΙΠΟΛΙΤΑΝ".^[2]

The site of Azorus is the palaiokastro (old fort) at the modern village of Azoros.^[9][10] According to the 5th-century grammarian Hesychius of Alexandria the town was named after the mythological Azorus, helmsman of the Argo.^[11]