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[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete | Education / Culture (Ἀπτάρα, Ἀπτέρα; Aptára, Aptéra). Port in the north-west of  Crete on a 230 m high plateau, today Aptara; on coins and in inscriptions Aptara, in literature Aptera (ancient explanation of the name: Steph. Byz. s. v. A.; Paus. 10,5,10). Signs of settlement from the 2nd millennium BC. Frequently involved in interstate politics in early Hellenistic times. In 220 BC under pressure from  Polyrrhenia A. terminated its alliance with  Knossos (Pol. 4,55,4). There is evidence of a   symmachia …

[German version] Roman castellum in Dalmatia on the Salona - Narona road (Plin. HN 3,142: N.; Nerate: other MS traditions; Geogr. Rav. 4,16: Netrate; 5,14: Nerente), modern Jesenice east of Split/Croatia. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography A. Mayer, Die Sprache der alten Illyrier, 1957, 240f.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Social Wars | Socii (Roman confederation) | Theatre | Tribus | | Coloniae | Coloniae | Italy, languages | Latini, Latium | Oracles | Regio, regiones Harbour town in southern Latium, modern Anzio. According to first treaty between Rome and Carthage, dated by Polybius back to 508/507 BC [1], this town, rich in tradition (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,32), was at that time under Roman control (Pol. 3,22,11). Soon after, A. came under the influence of the  Volsci, and was thus inv…

[German version] Region in  Latium between   mons Albanus and the coast of the mare Tyrrhenum. Its name is derived from the town of Pometia (Cic. Rep. 2,44; Liv. 2,16,8; 17,5 f.; 25,6; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,50; 6,29), which it has not been possible to localize. Probably towards the end of the 6th cent. BC, the ager Pomptinus (AP) came into the possession of the neighbouring  Volsci. Rome's reaction to this was -- supposedly as early as 492 BC -- the foundation of the colony of  Norba (Liv. 2,34,6; Dion. Hal. …

[German version] (Ῥύτιον/ Rhýtion). City in southern central Crete (Plin. HN 4,59), today's Rhotasi. Traces of settlements from late Minoan to Venetian periods. First literary mention at Hom. Il. 2,648 (reference to its being well populated). Rhytium was important beyond its borders as a cultic site for Zeus Skylios [1. 141]. Politically, R. was dependant on Gortyn  (Str. 10,4,14). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography 1 H. Verbruggen, Le Zeus crétois, 1981. H. Beister, s. v. Pyrgos, in: Lauffer, Griechenland, 580  M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Creticae 1, 1935, 303 f.  I. F.…

[German version] (Μαραθήσιον; Marathḗsion). Town on the west coast of Asia Minor (ruins at the Ambar Tepe [1]); after an exchange with Samos, it belonged to the territory of Ephesus (Scyl. 98; Steph. Byz. s.v. Μ.; Plin. HN. 5,114). From 478/7 BC it was a member of the Delian League (ATL 1,336f.; 515; 2,80; 3,204; 307). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography R. Meriç et al (Ed.) IK 17,1, 1981, 111 (with inscriptions 3112-3114), 100 (map). Magie 2, 886.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Aegean Koine (Λεβήνα; Lebḗna). City on the southern coast of Crete (Str. 10,4,12; Plin. HN 4,59) near the modern village of Lendas. Older form of the name: Λεβήν/ Lebḗn. There is evidence that it was already settled in the Minoan period. Initially important as the harbour for Gortyn, L. became a religious centre from the 4th cent. BC onwards because of its sanctuary of Asclepius founded at a healing spring (the visible remains of the temple as well as the stoa and nympha…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete (Ἔλυρος; Élyros). Extensive urban settlement in south-western Crete (Steph. Byz. s.v. E.) near Rodovani east of Kandans. Archaeological data: some Roman ruins (town walls, theatre, aqueduct). Syia was Elyrus' port (Steph. Byz. s.v.). It is possible that E. belonged to the koinon of the western Cretan Oreioi, who probably entered an alliance with Magas of Cyrene between 280 and 250 BC [1. 1; 2. 468]; from 183 BC, it was part of the alliance of thirty-one Cretan cities with Eumenes…

[German version] (Κεραία; Κεραῖαι; Keraía, Keraîai). Town on Crete in the north-west of the island, of undetermined location between Lappa and Polyrrhenia (Steph. Byz. s.v. Βήνη). In the Lyttian War (220 v.Chr.), C. -- together with other Cretan towns -- seceded from Cnossus and Gortyn (Pol. 4,53,6). In 183 BC, it was one of the Cretan towns to enter an alliance with Eumenes II of Pergamum [1. 179]. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography 1 M. Guarducci (ed.), Inscriptiones Creticae IV, 1950.

[German version] (Λευκὰ ὄρη; Leukà órē). The ‘white mountains’ in western Crete, up to 2,482 m high (Str. 10,4,4). Uncultivated and inaccessible with a remarkable stand of cypress trees (Plin. HN 16,142; cf. Theophr. Hist. pl. 4,1,3), in Plin. HN 31,43 also mentioned in connection with the search for sources. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography J. Bowman, Kreta, 1965, 271ff. P. Faure, Noms de montagnes crétoises, in: L'Association G. Budé. Lettres d'humanités 24, 1965, 426-446.

[German version] Linguistically, a forest in Latin (Serv. Aen. 1,310) is differentiated according to the degree of human cultivation ( silva, nemus,   saltus ) and the associated religious sphere ( lucus,  ‘Grove’). On one hand, forests caused fear and discomfort (Cic. Nat. D. 2,6; Plin. HN 12,3), on the other hand they were valued as places of (even productive) rest and recuperation (Plin. Ep. 1,6,2; 9,10,2; Tac. Dial. 9,6; 12,1). Forests received an extremely negative connotation among Romans in the context of the military …

[German version] (Ἅληξ; Hálēx). River in southern Bruttium, modern Alice. According to Timaeus (FGrH 566 F 43b) and Strabo (6,1,9) the border river between Rhegium and Locri (Paus. 6,6,4, however, says Caecinus). In the Peloponnesian War (426 BC) scene of an Athenian expedition against Locri (Thuc. 3,99). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography Nissen 2, 955.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete (Λισος; Lisos in inscriptions, Λισ(σ)ός; Lis(s)ós in literature; cf. Λίσσα; Líssa, Scyl. 47; Ptol. 3,15,3; Tab. Peut. 8,5). City on the south-western coast of Crete, to the west of modern Sougia, in a position protected by mountains and only open to the sea. From the late 4th cent. BC, L. with Elyrus, Hyrtacina and Tarrha formed the koinón of the oreíoi (‘mountain dwellers’). The city was occupied from the Classical to the Byzantine periods. Of supraregional importance was the Asclepium with the me…

[German version] (Δίκτη; Díktē). Mountain in Crete, not identifiable with certainty. In particular Str. 10,4,12 indicates that in antiquity, D. was not in the Lassithi Hills as today, but rather designated the Modi ridge (539 m) on the eastern tip of Crete and that this was the birthplace of Zeus (cf. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 2,61; Diod. Sic. 5,70,6; Ath. 9,375f.). At the Minoan town of Palaikastro there was a sanctuary of Zeus Diktaios. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography P. Faure, Nouvelles recherches de spéléologie et de topographie crétoises, in: BCH 84, 1960, 189-220 E. Meyer,…

[German version] (Τίτυρος; Títyros). Extended headland in the northwest of Crete on the Rodopou peninsula, about 16 km long and 6 km wide, with a sanctuary to Dictynna in the extreme north (Str. 10,4,12). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography M. Guarducci (ed.), Inscriptiones Creticae vol. 2, 1939, 129 f.  D. Gondicas, Recherches sur la Crète occidentale, 1988, 286.

[German version] For the whole of antiquity there are numerous reports of natural catastrophes (NC). Especially in the eastern Mediterranean, but also in Italy, tectonic conditions resulted in an extraordinary susceptibility for frequently disastrous seismic activity (earthquakes and resulting tsunami, volcanic eruptions). The ancient perception was that phenomena such as storms, epidemics, rains of stones, comets (Cic. Nat. deor. 2,14) and solar and lunar eclipses (e.g. Plut. Nicias 23; Eclipses) were also in the category of NC. Earthquakes (cf. map) …

[German version] (Μετεών; Meteṓn). Town of the Illyrian Labeates in the territory of Labeatis (Pol. 29,3; Liv. 44,23,3; 32,3), near modern Podgorica (Montenegro). M. achieved political significance in 168 BC as the meeting place of Pantauchus, an emissary of the Macedonian king Perseus, and the Illyrian prince Genthius (Pol. loc.cit.; Liv. loc.cit.). Towers of the 3rd-cent. BC town walls are preserved; no systematic excavations. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography J. J. Wilkes, Dalmatia, 1969, 26f., 166.

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Natural catastrophes | Pompeius | Delian League | Athenian League (Second) | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture (Κῶς; Kôs, Lat. Cos). [German version] I. Geography and settlement Island in the eastern Aegean, off the south-west coast of Asia Minor, the second largest of the Doric islands (298 km2). A fertile plain in the north contrasts with a barren, sparsely populated mountainous area in the south (highest elevation the Oromedon, 850 m; in the south-west the Latra, 425 m). In the Neolithic period (finds in a cav…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete (τὰ Φαλάσαρνα; tà Phalásarna). Port city in the NW of Crete (Str. 10,4,2; Plin. HN 4,59) with topographically striking, steep acropolis, present-day Koutri. Historical reports start with an alliance treaty concluded with the neighbouring polis Polyrrhenia as a result of mediation by Sparta at the beginning of the 3rd cent. BC [1. no. 1, pp. 179-181]. At the behest of the Romans, P. regained its previously lost autonomy from Cydonia (Pol. 22,1…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Venetic | | Coloniae A city on the western coast of Histria, the modern Poreč. Illyrian settlement is attested as early as the late Bronze Age. In the wake of the Roman occupation in the 2nd cent. BC, a castrum was built on the coastal road. P. later became one of the oppida Histriae civium Romanorum (Plin. HN 3,129). Raised by the future Augustus to the status of a municipium, P. became colonia Iulia Parentium, tribus Lemonia under Tiberius (AD 14-37). P. developed into an important trading centre, and also had fertil…