Anastasioupolis peritheorion
The archaeological site of Anastasioupolis-Peritheorion is located in Greece, southeast of the village of Amaxades in the Rodopi regional district in Thrace . Today you can still see parts of the fortification walls of the ancient city of Anastasioupolis (5th – 9th centuries) and Peritheorion (9th century). It is unclear whether these are two different cities or a single one that has been renamed in the meantime. The ancient city was an important port in the Aegean Sea .
Today the ruins of the walls are preserved, which have a trapezoidal plan with the longest side facing south. There are also circular and square towers (four on the north and south sides and two on the west and one on the east side). On the south side, at the main gate leading to the harbor, monograms of the palaeologists have been preserved (period 1341).
history
Anastasioupolis
The city is located in a fertile area north of Lake Vistonida , through which it was originally connected to the Aegean Sea. The ancient city of Tirida was probably located nearby . This in turn is presumably identical to the Stabulum Diomedis , a street station on the Via Egnatia road , which is attested in late antique itineraries . Its name is derived from the fact that in this region the horses of Diomedes are said to have grazed there, which, according to Greek myth, were tamed by Heracles .
The city of Anastasioupolis itself is first mentioned in the 6th century by the historian Prokopios of Caesarea . The name is traced back to the emperor Anastasios I (491-518), who caused the construction of fortifications there. After him, under Justinian I, a coastal wall was built towards the sea and a wall to the foot of the Rhodope Mountains to control the old Via Egnatia. Justinian also had an aqueduct built to transport water from the Rhodope Mountains to the city. However, in 562 the city was taken by barbarians who invaded the Byzantine Empire.
The Diocese of Anastasioupolis was part of the Diocese of Traianopolis from the 7th to the 12th centuries .
Peritheorion
The name Peritheorion is first attested from the 9th century. It is often assumed that the city was originally called Anastasioupolis and was later renamed Peritheorion. In addition, however, the research also supports the theory that two different cities were involved. Their erroneous equation goes to the emperor and historian John VI. Kantakuzenos back, who wrote in the 14th century that Anastasioupolis was shortly before by Emperor Andronikos III. had been renamed Peritheorion. According to the records of the Patriarch Nicholas I, however, the city of Peritheorion was previously known as a city with its own diocese, separated from Anastasioupolis.
In the 11th century Peritheorion was a rural town where Gregor Pakourianos's brother owned a house and the Vatopedi Monastery owned a courtyard. At the same time, the place seems to have had a certain economic importance in the 11th and 12th centuries, as it is mentioned in several treaties between the Republic of Venice and the Byzantine Empire. In 1203, Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria invaded Thrace, destroyed Peritheorion and various other cities in the region and dragged their inhabitants to the banks of the Danube.
In the 14th century, however, the city is again documented in the sources. During this time, Andronikos III. re-fortified and the city's diocese was elevated to the status of a metropolitan area . Most of the surviving remains seen today date from this phase, although earlier phases are also relatively easy to spot. At this time, the Via Egnatia had clearly lost its importance as a trade route in favor of maritime trade (especially through the northern Italian cities such as Venice). Many places along the Via Egnatia were thus deprived of their economic basis and the decline was unstoppable.
The city was also involved in the Byzantine throne conflicts of the 1340s : in 1342 John VI besieged . the peritheorion in vain where his domestic opponents were staying. Also in the following year he failed to capture , now supported by the allied Emir Umur Bey . On July 7, 1345, Johannes and Umur Bey won a decisive victory over the robber baron Momchil , who had established a quasi-independent rule in the Rhodope Mountains in the battle of Peritheorion in front of the city walls . However, the townspeople did not take part in the clashes and waited for the outcome. In 1355 Johannes Asanes , governor ( archon ) of Peritheorion, handed the city over to Emperor John V , the opponent of John VI. It was not until 1357 that Johannes V actually got control of the place.
Shortly after the rise of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II in 1421 at the latest , Peritheorion was under his control and was given away by the ruler to his Genoese ally Giovanni Adorno. According to the report by Bertrandon de la Broquière , the city of Peritoq - probably meaning Peritheorion - had a Greek population in 1433. Because the harbor was silted up by the nearby river, it was cut off from access to the sea (the ruined city is now about 2 km from the lake). This led to a great loss of importance and economic decline and was probably the reason that the city was finally abandoned. During the Ottoman Empire, the fortress was known as Bourou Kale . At the end of the 17th century only a few people lived in the city; probably around this time it was completely abandoned.
Ruin site
Since no archaeological excavations have been carried out, the approx. 12 hectare area of the city is completely overgrown. The ruins are in the middle of a forest and are overgrown with ivy and other climbing plants. A circular path is kept free, however, on which you can get to the ruins. There are no signs from the street. On the Xanthi-Komotini route, turn off at the underpass of the highway in the village of Amaxades and follow the paved dirt road. The remaining 2 km of dirt road are easy to drive without a 4WD. The entrance gate is on the north side. Since it is usually locked, you enter the ruins through the loose grille in the gate.
The remains of the former aqueduct can still be seen north of the city on the mountainside (located directly on the country road). This formed the end of an approx. 2.5 km long double wall that ran from the fortress walls to the hills to the north and sealed off the free passage of the Egnatia and brought it under the control of the city. A pipe to supply the city with drinking water ran inside the double wall. You can still see the course of these today using aerial archeology .
Web links
- Anastasiopolis, the submerged city in Thrace, Greece
- Castle of Peritheorio
- Η Αναστασιούπολις, μια αρχαία πόλη-ζούγκλα , article on Votaniki.gr.
literature
- Catherine Asdracha: La region des Rhodopes aux XIIIe et XIVe siecles. Etude de geographie historique (= texts and research on Byzantine-Neo-Greek philology. Volume 49). Publishing house of the “Byzantine-Modern Greek Yearbooks”, Athens 1976, pp. 98-104.
- Steven W. Reinert: Peritheorion. In: The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Volume 3, Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1991, p. 1630.
- Peter Soustal: Thrace (Thrace, Rhodope and Haimimontos) (= Tabula Imperii Byzantini . Volume 6). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1991, p. 394 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Catherine Balla. Αναστασιούπολη-Περιθεώριο . East Macedonia and Thrace District website, accessed June 29, 2020.
- ↑ On the geographical proximity of Tirida / Stabulum Diomedis and Anastasioupolis, see Richard Talbert (Ed.): Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000, p. 51 and directory notes .
- ↑ a b c Stavroula Dadaki. "Anastasioupolis - Peritheorion" . Odysseus - Website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ^ Prokopios of Caesarea , Buildings 4,11,11 ( English translation ).
- ↑ Peter Soustal: Thrace (Thrace, Rhodope and Haimimontos) (= Tabula Imperii Byzantini. Volume 6). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1991, p. 394.
- ↑ M. Kortzi - V. Siametis. "Peritheorion (Byzantine Era)" . Language Processing Institute - Thracian Electronic Treasure. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d Peter Soustal: Thrace (Thrace, Rhodope and Haimimontos) (= Tabula Imperii Byzantini. Volume 6). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1991, p. 394; Steven W. Reinert: Peritheorion. In: The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 3, Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1991, p. 1630.
- ↑ a b c Steven W. Reinert: Peritheorion. In: The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 3, Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1991, p. 1630.