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[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.

(Πύρρα/ Pýrrha). [German version] [1] Daughter of Epimetheus In Greek mythology daughter of Epimetheus (brother of Prometheus) and Pandora and wife of  Deucalion. She and her husband were the only people to survive the flood sent over the earth by Zeus to punish the people of the Bronze Age; on the advice of Prometheus they built a boat on which they sailed around for nine days and nine nights. Deucalion and P. created a new race of people (Pind. Ol. 9,43-56; Ov. Met. 1,318-415), by - on the instruction…

(Ἀρέθουσα; Aréthousa). Frequent name for springs. [German version] [1] Spring on Homer's Ithaca Spring on Homer's  Ithaca, where the swine of  Eumaeus graze (Hom. Od. 13,408; Plut. Mor. 776 E; Steph. Byz. s. v. A.). To identify A. with the spring of Perapigadi on the modern Ithaka, 5 km south-east of Vathy, is speculative. Strauch, Daniel (Berlin) Bibliography A. Heubeck, A commentary on Homer's Odyssey, 1992, 189 f. A. J. Wace, F. H. Stubbings, A companion to Homer, 1963, 414-416. [German version] [2] Name for the main spring of Chalkis on Euboia The name handed down by numerou…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete (Πραισός/ Praisós). City in eastern Crete (Scyl. 47) on the peninsula of Sitia, near the modern village of Nea Praisos (Vaveli) between three acropoleis. The location was already settled in the Neolithic Period (cult site in a cave to the north west of the town). Numerous remains from the Minoan and Mycenaean periods survive (megalithic building in the south; tholos tombs in the necropolis north of the town, in use from the 15th-2nd cents. …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Achaemenids | Grain Trade, Grain Import | Hellenistic states | Crete | Macedonia, Macedones | Mycenaean culture and archaeology | Peloponnesian War | Persian Wars | Pompeius | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine (Κυδωνία; Kydonía). Town in north-western Crete, now Chania, according to Str. 10,4,7 the third biggest town on the island (cf. Flor. 1,42,4). According to legend, its establishment can be traced back to  Minos and his son Cydon (Diod. Sic. 5,78,2; Paus. 8,53,4). Th…

[German version] Island off the coast of Campania in the southern part of the Gulf of Naples (today Capri). Verg. Aen. 7,735 provides a legendary link of an early Greek settlement with  Telon and the  Teleboae: Serv. Aen. 7,735; Tac. Ann. 4,67. The Greeks linked both settlement centres (modern Capri, Anacapri) by a flight of steps which, in parts, are still usable today (Scala Fenicia). In 29 BC, Augustus acquired C. from Neapolis in exchange for Aenaria ( Pithecussae; Suet. Aug. 92; Cass. Dio 52,…

This item can be found on the following maps: Byzantium | Peloponnesian War | Persian Wars | Delian League | Athenian League (Second) | Education / Culture (Μυτιλήνη; Mytilḗnē). [German version] A. Geography City in the southeast of the island of Lesbos, of great political, economic and cultural signficance throughout antiquity. M. owed its prominent position not least to its favourable topographical situation. The earliest settlement, founded by Aeolians in about 1200 BC, was on the modern Kastro Hill and was separated by an a…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Mycenaean culture and archaeology | Aegean Koine (Ἀμνισός; Amnisós). Harbour settlement, belonging to  Knosos during the Minoan period (Epineion: Str. 10,4,7), situated on the northern coast of  Crete, 8 km east of  Heracleum on the river A. (modern Karteros); remains of the Minoan town structure (i. a. ‘Villa of the Lilies’); its name is listed on the place name register of Amenophis III [1. 67 ff.] and in the clay tablet archives of Cnossus; it was f…

[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] [1] Locality in Moesia superior This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | | Legio | Limes | Moesi, Moesia Locality (posting station) in Moesia superior (Tab. Peut. 7,1; It. Ant. 221,4; Νοοῦαι/ Nooûai: Ptol. 3,15,5), 4 km east of modern Svištov (Bulgaria). N. was founded around AD 30; the legio I Italica  was stationed here under Vespasian (garrison on the right bank of the Danube near a river-crossing). A civilian settlement grew up nearby. Extensive archaeological and epigraphical finds (fortress wall with gate …

(Ἱεράπολις; Hierápolis). [German version] [1] Important town in south-west Phrygia This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Christianity | Natural catastrophes | Oracles | Pergamum Important town in south-west Phrygia (as opposed to the town of same name in the ‘Pentapolis’ of central Phrygia) at the edge of the Lycus valley on the road in the Hermus valley from Sardis to Apamea, famous for its thermal springs whose water leaves white limestone terraces when evaporating; they gave the place its modern name Pa…

[German version] [1] Town in northeastern Sicily This item can be found on the following maps: Sicily | Socii (Roman confederation) | | Commerce | Italy, languages | Colonization | Punic Wars | Punic Wars (Μεσσάνα/ Messána, Ionian Μεσσήνη/ Messḗnē, Lat. Messana). Town in northeastern Sicily, modern Messina. The original name Zancle (Ζάγκλη/ Zánklē = Siculan: ‘sickle’) is derived from the topographically suggestive shape of the natural harbour (Thuc. 6,4,5). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) [German version] A. Foundation The site was settled at an early time because of its o…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Delian League | Athenian League (Second) (Ἄντισσα; Ántissa). Harbour town in the north-west of  Lesbos, c. 9 km north-east of the modern Antissa, settled from the 14th cent. BC. A. was a member of the  Delian League, and participated in the secession of Lesbian towns on the initiative of  Mytilene (Thuc. 3,18. 28). It was a member of the Second Athenian Confederacy. In 167 BC, it was destroyed by the Romans, and its population resettled in  Methymna (Liv. 45,31,14; Plin. HN 5,139). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography R. …

This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Theatre | Ionic | Natural catastrophes | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Persian Wars | Phoenicians, Poeni | Delian League | Athenian League (Second) | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture (ἡ Σάμος/ hē Sámos, Lat. also Samus). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) [German version] I. Geography Island in the southeastern Aegean Sea, only c. 2 km from the mainland of Asia Minor (at Mycale); connected in prehistoric times; total area 476 km2. The island is crossed by a chain of mountains (Ampelus according to …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete (Ἱεράπυτνα; Hierápytna). Town on Crete, modern Ierapetra, at the narrowest point of the island between eastern and central Crete (Str. 10,4,3). In the Hellenistic period a significant political player as attested by several treaties primarily from the 2nd half of the 3rd cent. BC with other Cretan towns (Praesus, Itanus, Gortyn, Lyttus, Lato) [1]. There were links to powers outside Crete (Macedonia, Rhodes, Pergamum: Stv III 502; 551; Syll.3 627). An aggressive territorial policy in eastern Crete, especial…

[German version] (Λισσήν; Lissḗn). Locality on Crete with uncertain geographical position primarily because of unclear information from the scholiasts ad Hom. Od. 3,293, probably modern Cape Lithinos. Affiliation with Phaestus in Str. 10,4,4 (only by conjecture) and Steph. Byz. s.v. Φαιστός. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography P. Faure, La Crète aux cents villes, in: Kretika Chronika 13, 1959, 190.

[German version] (from Arabic ṣaḥrā, 'desert'; cf. Hdt. 2,32: τὰ ἐρῆμα τῆς Λιβύης/ tà erêma tês Libýēs, 'the desert region of Libya'; Mela 1,50: deserta Africae). The indigenous people today call only individual parts of the S. by their own name. The largest desert on earth, situated in North Africa, with an expanse from the Atlantic in the west to the Red Sea in the east ( c. 6000 km; c. 8 million km2). The S. underwent several cyclical climatic changes (Climate) in prehistoric times that shaped the vegetation and the natural profile; the last of these changes in…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Dark Ages | Crete (Ὀλοῦς; Oloûs). Dorian port on the northern coast of Crete, on the western part of the bay of Mirabello on the isthmus of the Spinalonga peninsula, modern Elounda. But for a basilica with splendid mosaics from the 5th cent. AD, the remains of O. are under water. In the Hellenistic period, a considerable prosperity developed in O., due not least to its double harbour, with correspondingly growing political significance. The history …

[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,…

(Πάρος; Páros). Island in the Cyclades (195 km2, 22 km long, 16 km wide), west of Naxos [1], south-west of it is the island Antiparos. [German version] I. Geography and early settlement history The landscape is shaped by Mt.Marpessa [2] (modern Prophitis Ilias) - heavily forested in Antiquity, today largely bare - with a height of up to 771 m. The foothills of the mountain stretch to the fertile coasts. Already settled in the Neolithic, P. developed into a significant site of the Cycladic culture. Important find spots are Na…