AULON
AULON (Αὐλών), a hollow between hills or banks, was the name given to many such districts, and to places situated in them.
1.
A valley in the north-west of Messenia, upon the confines of Elis and Messenia, and through which there was a route into the Lepreatis. Pausanias speaks of “a temple of Asclepius Aulonius in what is called Aulon,” which he places near the river Neda; but whether there was a town of the name of Aulon is uncertain. The French Commission suppose that there was a town of this name, near the entrance of the defile which conducts from Cyparissia to the mouth of the Neda, and believe that its position is marked by some ruins near the sea on the right bank of the river Cyparissus. (Strab. viii. p.350; Xen. Hell. 3.2. 25, 3.3.8; Polyaen. 2.14; Paus. 4.36.7; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 484; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 116.)
2.
In Mygdonia in Macedonia, situated a day's march from the Chalcidian Arnae. (Thuc. 4.103.) Leake (Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 170) regards it as simply the name of the pass, through which the waters of the lake Bolbe flow by means of a river into the Strymonic gulf; but it appears to have been also the name of a place in this pass. In later times at all events there was a town called Aulon, since it is mentioned as one of the Macedonian cities restored by Justinian. (De Aedif. 4.4.)
3.
A small place in Attica in the mining district of Laurium. [LAURIUM]
4.
(Valona), a town on the coast of Illyricum between Apollonia and Oricum, a little south of the Aous, and on a deep bay. (Ptol. 3.13.3; Tab. Peut.; Hierocl)