Orestias

Orestias was an ancient Greek settlement next to the Maritsa (or Evros) river, near or at the site of present-day Edirne, and close to the current border between Turkey and Greece.

Legends claim that Orestias was founded by Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Orestias or Orestia is thought to have been the same town as Uscudama (other variants: Uskudama, Uskadama, Uskodama) or Odrysa (other variants: Odrysia, Odrysos, Odrysus) which was the first Odrysian capital. Orestias took its name by the Greeks, at least from the time Philip II of Macedon took over the town. The Roman emperor Hadrian expanded the town into a city, gave it a strong fortification and renamed it to Hadrianopolis. However the name Orestias for the city of Hadrian, was still used by many writers at the Byzantine era, along with Adrianoupolis. During the Ottoman period the name of Adrianou(polis) was paraphrased by the Turks and eventually became Edirne.