Lete ( grc, Λήτη or Λητή) was an ancient city in Mygdonia, Macedon and Roman Catholic titular see in the Roman province of Macedonia.

History

Lete is known by its coins and inscriptions, mentioned in Ptolemy (III, xiii), the

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...

(IV, x, 17), Harpocration,

Stephanus Byzantius Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...

and

Suidas The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages in Nicephorus Bryennius (IV, xix). The spelling "Lite" is incorrect and comes from iotacism. According to Theagenes's ''Macedonica'' the town was named after the Greek goddess Leto, who was worshipped in a sanctuary near Lete. Marsyas of Philippi mentions it many times in book 6 of Makedonika ( grc, Μακεδονικά). In its

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

was found the Derveni papyrus. Lete appears in some ''

Notitiæ episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the -mostly Lat ...

'' of a late period as

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

of the Archbishopric of Thessalonica, later united to the See of Rentina. Lete and Rentina even had Greek (Orthodox) bishops until the eighteenth century. Lete became the small village of Aivati/Ajvatovo situated a little north of Thessaloniki. Bulgarian revolutionary

Andon Dimitrov Andon Dimitrov - (January 1867 – 13 March 1933) ( bg, Андон Димитров) was a Bulgarian revolutionary. He was among the founders of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees.People in World History, , Susan K. Kinn ...

was born there in 1867. The site of Lete is the near the modern Liti.

Sources

* Catholic titular sees in Europe Geography of ancient Mygdonia Leto Populated places in ancient Macedonia Former populated places in Greece Populated places in Thessaloniki (regional unit) {{AncientMygdonia-geo-stub