Abstract
The aim of this paper is to take into consideration the traditions about autochtony in five poleis of Asia Minor: Miletus, Ephesus, Samos, Chios and Smyrna. From this analysis the autocthony emerges as an element of the community’s collective identity and as such is used within a process of writing and rewriting of the history of the poleis. In the first four poleis the concept of autochtony is inserted in a debate between different groups in the same city; in Smyrna the concept is linked with a different perspective of celebrative traditions of the various Ionic poleis in the age of the Roman Empire.