Lilaia (Polis)

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Lilaia: ancient city wall

Lilaia ( Greek  Λιλαια , Latin Lilaea ) was a polis in the Phocis region in ancient Greece , about 15 km north of Delphi . The Acropolis is located on the south-eastern outskirts of what is now Lilea . Impressive remains of the city wall with watchtowers lead from the approximately 440 m high acropolis hill down the steep slope into the plain. In the valley east of the city, the road led through Arachova to Delfi.

According to the legend, Lilaia was named after the naiad Lilaia , the daughter of the river god of the river Kephisos , at whose main source Lilaia lies. This spring is located north of the Acropolis and is now called Kephalovrisis ( Greek  Κεφαλοβρύσεις ). Pausanias reports that this source occasionally sounded like a roaring bull.

The city was believed to have been founded in 480 BC. BC by Xerxes I , as it probably submitted to the Persians like most Doric cities . It was both in the Third Holy War of ancient Greece around 350 BC. BC as well as after the battle of Chäroneia in 338 BC. Chr. Destroyed. The city wall, which is still visible today, was built shortly after the last destruction. The Macedonian Demetrios I Poliorketes conquered the city. The city was only able to free itself from the Macedonian yoke during the reign of Philip V.

The city's heyday extends from the 5th to the 2nd century BC. Even in Pausanias' time there was a theater , an agora , baths and a temple of Apollo and Artemis with cult statues made of Pentelic marble , which were made in an Athens workshop. Later there was only a Roman manor here . In late Byzantine times a watchtower was built on the Acropolis.

East of the city near Kato Souvala there was a temple of the river god Kephisos, a Demeter sanctuary and the early Byzantine church Panagia Eleussa.

literature

Web links

Commons : Lilaia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Pausanias, Travels in Greece 10,33,5.
  2. ^ Pausanias, Travels in Greece 10,33,4.
  3. ↑ Karin Braun: Lilaia. in: Siegfried Lauffer (Ed.): Greece. Lexicon of historical sites from the beginning to the present. CH Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-33302-8 .

Coordinates: 38 ° 37 ′ 45.3 "  N , 22 ° 30 ′ 25.2"  E