Quoting Pherecydes, the Amaseian geographer Strabo, who lived between 64 BC and AD 24, repeated the foundation myth: ‘…Teos (was founded) at first by Athamas, for which reason it is by Anacreon called Athamantis, and at the time of the Ionian colonization by Nauclus, bastard son of Codrus, and after him by Apoecus and Damasus, who were Athenians, and Geres, a Boeotian…’. Pausanias, the 2nd century AD Lydian geographer and traveller, provided this account.
Archaeological data demonstrated the existence of permanent settlement in Teos since the Protogeometric Period (1050–900 BC), after the migrations from mainland Greece to Western Anatolia at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Despite the limited extent of our knowledge on Teos during the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, the city probably experienced its first economic boom in the Late Geometric and Archaic periods (8th–6th century BC).

Herodotus mentions that Teos: right before Harpagus’ army was about to breach the city walls by piling up soil against them, the Teians abandoned the city and settled in the colony of Abdera on the Thracian coast, thus escaping the Persian yoke. Although it is certain that in the second half of the 6th century BC many Teians migrated to the city of Abdera.

During the Ionian Revolt in 500 BC against the Persians, the people of Teos sided with the rebels from the beginning, the city participated in the Battle of Lade with 17 ships. The Teians paid an annual tax of six talents to the Delian League. While this was amongst the highest sums paid by the Ionian cities.
A new era began for Teos with the Macedonian conquest of Western Anatolia in 334 BC. For the next two centuries, the Teians attempted to maintain good relations with the Macedonian kings who ruled the region. The city fell into the hands of Attalus I, king of Pergamon around 228 BC, and thus passed under the control of a local kingdom for the first time in its entire history. After III. Attalos left his lands to Rome through his will, the city became part of the Asian Province of Rome.

The fact that the emperor is depicted as a ktistes on the coins minted during the Augustu Period and his bust is shown in the temple indicates the cult of Augustus in the city. It is known that minted coins until the Valerianus Period. Although there is not much concrete data on the Late Antiquity, it is understood that the city continued its existence on a small scale untik the Middle Ages, although it lost its importance.