The naturally fortified mound of Rentina is located approximately 75km northeast of Thessalonica, south of the Richios River and next to the ancient Via Egnatia. Excavations carried out on the hill and its environs have revealed traces of human presence since Neolithic times; on the basis of their construction and associated finds, the building walls and abutments unearthed in the southwest section of the castle date to the Hellenistic period. Rentina lies close to the settlement of Arethousa, which went into decline from the 6^th century onwards. According to one interpretation, Rentina may take its name from the nearby staging post (mutatio) called Peridipidis (genitive: Peripidinis).

The fortifications at Rentina are reasonably well preserved, as are the impressive remains of a settlement that may well be Artemision Castle, referred to by Procopius in his work On Buildings as having acquired fortifications in the time of Justinian. Nevertheless, research findings to date indicate that the first fortifications, which included water cisterns capable of supporting a small guard, should be dated to the mid-4^th century. Under Justinian the wall was reinforced with towers and equipped with a large cistern on the level ground in the citadel.

In mid-Byzantine times the wall was rebuilt to serve as fortifications for a settlement founded in the first half-decade of the 10^th century, when it was seat of the Diocese of Lete and Rentina. At that time a church was built over the ruins of the then defunct cistern on the citadel, together with accommodation for the bishop and his retinue. By the end of the same century several houses had been erected in the lower town, following the line of the old wall and on stepped terraces. A third wall then surrounded the settlement from the most vulnerable section to the west, where a tower was built. Wood remains from the interior of this have been carbon dated to around 980 AD.

After 1204 the settlement was surrendered to the rulers of the Frankish Kingdom of Thessalonica. As indicated by the large number of contemporary coins found in excavations, they appear to have installed a permanent guard, with the obvious aim of controlling the Plain of Thessalonica and the Strymonic Gulf. In 1242 John Vatatzes took the castle while marching on Thessalonica, since, as George Acropolites would have it, the Franks abandoned their position without a fight. News of the inhabitants of Rentina in the 13^th and 14^th century is contained in legal documents held by monasteries on Mount Athos, where mention is made of lands, mills and houses in the area. In the first half-decade of the 14^th century a small cruciform church was built inside the eastern enclosure, possibly in connection with an infant and child cemetery. In the mid-14^th century the Metropolitan of Thessalonica granted the vacant bishopric of Rentina to the Bishop of Platamonas, who was indicted for suspect ordainments but acquitted at the synod of 1363.  From around the same period it appears that the inhabitants gradually abandoned the settlement, which passed successively into the hands of Serbs, Greeks and then Turks. The arrival of Turkish Yuruks in the area probably led the greater part of the population to seek the safety of larger centres, the most prominent of which was Volvi. The few coins excavated from that time up until the mid-16^th century are illustrative of the decline of the once flourishing settlement at Rentina, confirming the existence of a small-scale farm on the same site.