Demetrias
Demetrias ( Greek : Δημητριάδα) was a Greek port city in Magnesia , 1.5 km south of modern Volos . Together with a fortress on the opposite side of the inner bay on the Goritsa hill, it became 294 BC. Founded by Demetrios I Poliorketes , one of the diadoches of Alexander the great .
During the Hellenistic period , in which the city also had its most prosperous phase with an estimated 25,000 inhabitants, the kings of Macedonia controlled northern Greece from Demetrias. Together with Chalkis and Corinth , the city was considered one of the three fetters of Greece due to its location on a central pass between Macedonia and southern Greece .
After the end of the Macedonian kingdom in 168 BC. A decline began, but was stopped in the Roman Empire , so that Demetrias was also the seat of a bishopric in late antiquity . In the Byzantine era of the Middle Ages , the city remained somewhat important and was only completely abandoned around 1600.
literature
- Peter Marzolff: Demetrias and its peninsula . Habelt, Bonn 1980, ISBN 3-7749-1354-4 , ( Demetrias 3), ( The German archaeological research in Thessaly. Contributions to the prehistoric and early historical archeology of the Mediterranean cultural area 19).
- Alfred Philippson : Thessaly and the Spercheios Depression . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1950, ( The Greek Landscapes 1, 1), pp. 149–159.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Olga Karagiorgou: in Late Antique Thessaly ( Memento of the original of April 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2 MB).
- ↑ Polybios , Historien XVIII, 11.45.
Web links
- Bibliographical information on Demetrias ( Memento of March 23, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- PDF at www.amoriumexcavations.org (1.87 MB)
Coordinates: 39 ° 15 ' N , 22 ° 49' E