City of Thrace, NE Greece, near the mouth of the Mesta River. It is a small agricultural settlement. Abdera was founded by the citizens of Teos, a city of Ionia south of Clazomenæ, fleeing their city when the Medeans of Harpagus, a general of Cyrus the Great, took it around 545 BCE, as part of his conquest of Ionia. Abdera is the birthplace of Protagoras, Democritus, Leucippos, Anaxarchos, and Ekataeos. The term Abderite was used by the ancient Greeks as a synonym for "stupid".