Mityle´ne, the capital of the isle of Lesbos, in the Ægean Sea, about seven miles and a half from the opposite point on the coast of Asia Minor. It was a well-built town, but unwholesomely situated. It was the native place of Pittacus, Theophanes, Theophrastus, Sappho, Alcæus, and Diophanes. St. Paul touched at Mitylene in his voyage from Corinth to Judea (). It does not appear that any Christian church was established at this place in the apostolic age. No mention is made of it in ecclesiastical history until a late period; and in the second century heathenism was so rife in Mirylene that a man was annually sacrificed to Dionysus. In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, we, however, find bishops of Mitylene present at several councils. Mitylene still exists, and has given its name, in the form of Mytilni, to the whole island; but it is now a place of no importance.