Poecilasium or Poikilasion ( grc, Ποικιλάσιον) or Poecilassus or Poikilassos (Ποικίλασσος)'' Stadiasmus Maris Magni'', p. 299 ed. Hoffmann was a town on the south coast of ancient Crete. Ancient sources disagree as to its location:

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

places the town east of Tarrha, between it and the promontory called Hermaea; the '' Stadiasmus Maris Magni'' places it west of Tarrha, between it and Syia 60

stadia Stadia may refer to: * One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums" * The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes''). * Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey * Stadi ...

from the former and 50 stadia from the latter. Poecilasium was not an autonomous city-state (''

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

''). In the town there was found inscription that testifies to the existence of Temple of Serapis. There were also found hollowed tombs in the rocks and marble pits. In the 918 Code of Markian Library, it is called Pecilasio overo Pescalio. The site of Poecilasium is located near modern Trypiti; confirming the accuracy of Stadiasmus and the error of Ptolemy.

References

Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece Archaeological sites in Crete {{AncientCrete-geo-stub