Opus (Lokris)
Opus ( ancient Greek Ὀποῦς Opús ) was an ancient city in the Lokris region in central Greece and was one of the oldest cities in Greece in ancient times.
location
The Lokris was divided into two parts, West Locris and East Locris, which were separated by the Parnassos Mountains and the Kallidromos Massif. Opus was the capital of the Eastern Locris, which is why it was also called the Opuntian Locris. The population of the two politically independent areas was ethnically closely related. The city was not directly on the sea; it had a port called Kynos . The exact location of Opus is not clear; it was located on the bay of Atalanti, which was called the Opuntian Gulf in antiquity, either on the Kastraki hill south of today's Kyparissi or near today's Atalanti .
The information of the ancient authors speak for the localization of Opus on the Kastraki hill. According to Titus Livius , the city was a Roman mile (approx. 1.5 km) from the sea. Strabon reports that Opus was 15 stadia (about 2.8 km) from the sea and 60 stadia (about 11 km) from Kynos. While the Kastraki hill is about 2.4 km south of the bay of Atalanti, 1.4 km west of another bay and 11 km south of Kynos, Atalanti is about 8 km from the sea and about 9 km from Kynos.
Numerous inscriptions in which Opus is mentioned and which were discovered at Atalanti speak for the identification of Atalanti with Opus.
Lore
According to Greek mythology , the city was named after Opus , the son of Lokros and Kambyse . He received rulership over the city while his father was still alive. Even in Homer , Opus is mentioned in three places in the Iliad . The Greek hero Patroclus is said to be a native of Opus and Ajax led the Lokrians into the Trojan War .
During the Second Persian War in August 480 BC. BC Opus sent troops to Trachis , who participated with Leonidas I in the battle of Thermopylae . A month later, seven Opuntian fifty oarsmen took part in the Battle of Salamis . In the summer of 479 BC The Lokrians joined the Greek army in the battle of Plataiai against the Persians .
456 BC Chr. Who attacked Athens to Sparta friendly city and abducted the hundred richest men. 431 BC The Athenians occupied the island of Atalanti off the Opuntian coast. Five years later, 426 BC. BC Opus was destroyed by an earthquake. After the Peace of Nicias the Athenians had to 421 BC. Evacuate the island of Atalanti. Finally, Opus became a member of the Boeotian League and began to coining around 405 BC Chr. Own coins. In the Fourth Holy War 340–338 BC However, the city supported the Macedonian King Philip II in 338 BC. After the defeat of the Boeotian League at the Battle of Chaironeia , Opus was captured by Aetolia . When the Galatians invaded in 279 BC The Opuntian Lokrians sent an army of 700 foot soldiers under the leadership of Meidias to Thermopylae .
234 BC The Lokrer Demetrios II of Macedonia joined. 208 BC King Attalus I of Pergamon conquered and sacked the city. Philip V was soon able to win them back, however. In October 198 BC BC a part of the Opuntier rose against the Macedonians. While they sought help from the Romans, their opponents turned to the Aitolians. However, the insurgents were able to defend the city until the arrival of the Romans and so Titus Quinctius Flamininus Opus was able to conquer with ease. A severe earthquake wreaked havoc around AD 106.
In early Byzantine times , Opus was the seat of a bishopric, so in 431 AD Bishop Domninus of Opus took part in the Council of Ephesus and in 451 AD Bishop Athanasius of Opus in the Council of Chalcedon . While it is documented as a bishopric in the 8th century, the diocese no longer existed in the 10th century, because the city was probably abandoned by its residents who moved to Atalanti in the 9th century.
From the Locrian opus comes from the 4th century BC. Living Platonist Philippos von Opus .
literature
- John M. Fossey: The Ancient Topography of Opountian Lokris . Gieben, Amsterdam 1990
- Siegfried Lauffer , Greece. Lexicon of Historic Places. , Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-4144-3 , p. 491
- Heinrich Swoboda : Two chapters from the Greek federal law . 1924, pp. 52–68 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pliny the Elder : Historia naturalis , 4,1-2; Pomponius Mela , Cosmographia , 2,3,6
- ↑ Titus Livius: From the foundation of the city - 142 books , 28,6,12 ( online ) (en)
- ↑ Strabo: Geographica , 9,4,2
- ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae , 9, 1, 268-272, 275-276, 278, 282-283
- ↑ Pindar : Oden , 9.55-87
- ↑ Homer; Iliad , 18,326; 23.85
- ↑ Homer; Iliad , 2.531
- ↑ Herodotus , Historien , 7,203
- ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 8.1
- ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 8,66; 9.31
- ^ Thucydides , The Peloponnesian War , 1.108
- ^ Thucydides , The Peloponnesian War , 2.531
- ↑ Diodor , Bibliothéke historiké , 12, 59 ( online ) (en)
- ↑ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War , 5, 18 ( online ) (en)
- ↑ Pausanias , Reisen in Greece , 10, 20, 4 ( online ) (en)
- ↑ Titus Livius: From the foundation of the city - 142 books , 28.7.4-28.8.3 ( online ) (en)
- ^ Rene Pfeilschifter: Titus Quinctius Flamininus . Göttingen 2005, p. 138 ( books.google.de )
- ^ FW Walbank: Philip V of Macedon , Cambridge 1940, p. 342 ( books.google.de ) (en)
- ↑ James Chrystal: Authoritative Christianity. The Third World Concil . Volume 2. New Jersey 1904, p. 189 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
- ^ Richard Price, Michael Gaddis: The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon , Liverpool 2005, ISBN 0-85323-039-0 , p. 146 ( books.google.de )