Akanthos (Chalkidike)

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Ancient house of the city of Akanthos (now Ierissos)

Akanthos was an ancient city ​​in northern Greece on the east coast of the Chalcidian peninsula . The remains of the settlement can be found near the present-day town of Ierissos .

history

The ancient historian Nikolaos of Damascos reports on the city's beginnings . According to this, Akanthos was colonized by the island of Andros in 655 BC. Founded. However, today's research is skeptical of this tradition. The first reliable evidence for the existence of an autonomous polis is the one that dates back to 520 BC. BC. Imprinted tetradrachms . These silver coins were not only widespread on the Chalcidian peninsula, but also as far as Sicily, Egypt and Persia. The export of silver in the form of these coins was an important source of income for Akanthos in archaic times, alongside the dominant agriculture.

During the Persian Wars , Akanthos served in 492 BC. To the Persian general Mardonios and 480 BC. The Persian King Xerxes I as a base for their military operations in the Aegean region .

After the defeat of the Persian Empire in 480/79 BC BC against the alliance of free Greek cities, Akanthos joined the Attic League under the leadership of Athens . The members of the federation were obliged either to contribute their own ships or to pay tribute. Until 450/49 BC Akanthos provided ships, but then went over to paying tribute of three talents to Athens.

After the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between the Greek hegemonic powers Athens and Sparta , the city remained in the Attic League, although most of the poleis on the Chalcidian peninsula fell away from Athens. It wasn't until the city of 424 BC Was threatened by troops of the Spartan general Brasidas , Akanthos switched sides. 421 BC Athens and Sparta agreed to end the armed conflicts. Although the Peace of Nicias provided for the autonomy of the polis, Akanthos was obliged to pay tribute to Athens. Akanthos probably only gained complete freedom after 405 BC. With the defeat of Athens at Aigospotamoi in the re-flared war against Sparta.

In the next decades the autonomy remained untouched and was in the treaty between the Macedonian king Amyntas III. and the now influential Chalcidian city association between 393 and 389 BC Confirmed. However, this state became 382 BC. B.C. by the Chalkidischen Städtebund with the capital Olynth in question, when the city was asked together with Apollonia to join the union. Both cities managed to get Sparta, which had risen to become the hegemonic power of Greece since the end of the Peloponnesian War, to intervene. After the sending of Spartan troops, the Chalkidian League of Cities had to capitulate in the Olynthian War and accept the autonomy of Akanthos.

It finally lost its freedom with the expansion of Macedonia under King Philip II in the middle of the 4th century BC. News about Akanthos only comes back to the year 199 BC. In that year the city was sacked by Roman troops during the Second Macedonian War , but continued to exist until the Roman Empire .

Archaeological finds

The ancient city of Akanthos has a necropolis that dates back to the 6th century BC. Until Roman times. In the 8000 graves examined so far, Attic black and red-figure ceramics are strongly represented for the archaic-classical epoch .

literature

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