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[German version] In Roman tradition the name given to the earliest inhabitants of  Latium (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,10; Lydus, Mag. 1,10). The etymology of the name is uncertain: Lycoph. 1253 hints at a derivation from Βορείγονοι ( Boreígonoi;  Aeneas [1] was prophesied that he would settle ἐν τόποις Βορειγόνων; en tópois Boreigónōn); others -- on the presumption that the A. pursued a nomadic way of life -- formulate an onomastic development from Aberrigenes ( aberrare) to A. (Paul. Fest. 19; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,10; Auctor de origine gentis Romanae 4,2). The origin of the A. is equa…

[German version] (Μόχλος). Small island  situated on the north-east coast of Crete and south-east of the Gulf of Mirabello. In Antiquity the island was probably connected to the mainland by an isthmus. Costly finds from the Minoan necropolis indicate considerable prosperity. Mochlos was also important in Roman (remains of walls and towers) and Byzantine times. Roman containers for holding fish lie beneath the surface of the water close to the mainland. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography H. Beister, s.v. M., in: Lauffer, Griechenland, 439  J.W. Myers et al., Aerial Atlas …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Persian Wars | Delian League | Athenian League (Second) | Education / Culture (Ἔρεσος; Éresos). City on the west coast of Lesbos (Str. 13,2,4; Plin. HN 5,139; Ptol. 5,2,29; Mela 2,101), 4 km south of today's town of Eresos near Skala Eresou. Few archaeological remains: ring wall of the acropolis, port facilities from the 5th/4th cents. BC, relics of the Hellenistic city wall, Roman cisterns; early Christian churches from the 5th cent., i.a. a basilica of St.…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Crete (Πολυρρηνία/ Polyrrhēnía). City in north-western Crete (Ptol. 3,17,10; Str. 10,4,13; Scyl. 47: Πολύρρηνα/ Polýrrhēna; Plin. HN 4,59: Polyrhenum) south of the Bay of Kissamos in an exposed position on a steep hill on the site of a village still called P. today. P. is one of the oldest Doric settlements in Crete (the place name is pre-Greek with its own dialect [1]). At the beginning of the 3rd cent. BC, P., through the mediation of Sparta, entered into an a…

(Ἀμύκλαι; Amýklai). [German version] [1] Pre-Greek settlement This item can be found on the following maps: Sparta | Dark Ages | Aegean Koine Pre-Greek settlement on and at the foot of the hills bearing the chapel of Agia Kyriaki, inhabited from the early Helladic to the imperial Roman period (Paus. 3,18,6-19,6; IG V 1, 515), c. 5 km south of  Sparta near the modern Tsausi. In historical times, it was a ὠβή ( ōbḗ) of Sparta with its own ephors and other officials (cf. Syll.3 932). The region seems to have reached its peak in the 7th/6th cent. BC. From the late Mycenaean period, it housed a sa…

This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Theatre | Byzantium | Commerce | Hellenistic states | Asia Minor | Colonization | Natural catastrophes | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Pompeius | Rome | Rome | Athletes | Athenian League (Second) | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture (Ῥόδος; Rhódos). [German version] I. Geography Island in the southeastern Aegean Sea, off the southwestern coast of Asia Minor, now part of the Dodecanese archipelago, with an area of 1400 km2. A good part of the ancient history of the island was shaped by its geographical situ…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Christianity | Dark Ages | Grain Trade, Grain Import | Hellenistic states | Hellenistic states | Crete | Apollo | Limes | Macedonia, Macedones | Pompeius | Rome | Rome | Education / Culture [German version] I. Location One of the biggest and most important cities of Crete, in the Mesara plain on the river Lethaeus, between the villages of Agi Deka and Mitropolis, 16 km (Str. 10,4,7: 90 stadia) from the Libyan Sea, also transmitted as Gortyna and Gortyne. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) [German version] II. Historical development The earli…

(Νάπη/ Nápē, ‘wooded gorge, valley’). [German version] [1] Settlement on Lesbos Settlement on Lesbos, in the territory of Methymna, with a temple of Apollo Napaios (Str. 9,4,5; Steph. Byz. s.v. N.). N. cannot be precisely located. The temple, however, may have been the cultic site to the west of the modern village of Napi in the district of Klopedi. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography H.-G. Buchholz, Methymna: Archäologische Beiträge zur Geschichte und Topographie von Nordlesbos, 1966, 206f.  W. Günther, s.v. N., in: Lauffer, Griechenland, 454f. [German version] [2] In Att…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Forcible deportations of combatants and civilians during wars were common practice (though on varying scales) in many periods of the history of the Ancient Orient and Egypt. Deportations had a dual purpose: they made possible the creation of an unfree and, therefore, easily exploited labour force, and they were a convenient means of lastingly weakening the military and economic potential of defeated tribes, cities and states. In Mesopotamia deportations appear to have been a source of unfree labour as early as the late 4th…

(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] Island in the Ligurian Sea (modern Gallinara). Small uninhabited island in the Ligurian Sea (Varro, Rust. 3,9); place of refuge for St. Martinus and Hilarius (Sulp. Sev. Sanctus Martinus 6,5; Sozom. Hist. eccl. 3,14; Ven. Fort. Sanctus Hilarius 35). Archaeological finds in the sea off the coast. Pera, Rossella (Genoa) Bibliography G. Forni (ed.), Fontes Ligurum et Liguriae Antiquae (Atti della Società ligure di storia patria 16), 1976 G. Spadea, Archeologia Subacquea in Liguria, in: Bollettino di Archeologia Subacquea 2-3, 1995/6, 103. [German version] [2] W…

(Καμάρα; Kamára). [German version] [1] Harbour settlement in eastern Crete Harbour settlement in eastern Crete, originally Lato (Λατὼ πρὸς or ἐπὶ Καμάραι, Ptol. 3,17,5; Hierocles, Synekdemos 650,1), modern Agios Nikolaos. Close political links with  Lato [1. no. 72, p. 428]. Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography 1 A. Chaniotis, Die Verträge zw. kret. Poleis in der hell. Zeit, 1996. F. Gschnitzer, Abhängige Orte im griech. Alt., 1958, 49-51. [German version] [2] Empórion on India's south-eastern coast According to Peripl. M. Rubr. 60, an   empórion …

[German version] [1] Roman road station Roman road station (  statio ) between  Brixia and  Beneventum (It. Burd. 558,9). Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart) Bibliography Nissen 2, 981. [German version] [2] Statio, San Pietro in Fine   Statio , named after the curve in the via Latina between  Casinum and  Venafrum, at the 96th milestone near Ad Flexum (CIL X 6901); today San Pietro in Fine (Caserta). Strategically significant, dominated by walls in a polygonal pattern near San Eustachio and Marena-Falascosa, in opus quadratum and incertum near Muraglie Abbandonate. Uggeri, Giovanni (Flo…

[German version] [1] C. Inui Town of the Rutuli (Sil. Pun. 8,359) in the centre of Latium, founded by the kings of Alba Longa (Verg. Aen. 6,775). Abandoned in the archaic period, often confused with C. Novum in Etruria (Rut. Namat. 1,227). Uggeri, Giovanni (Florence) Bibliography A. Nibby, Analisi storico-topografica-antiquaria della Carta de' Dintorni di Roma 1, 1848, 440 Nissen 2, 579 O. Toti, 1984. [German version] [2] C. Novum Settlement on the southern coast of Etruria This item can be found on the following maps: Socii (Roman confederation) | Tribus …

(Πολίχνη; Políchnē). [German version] [1] Settlement in the Olympieum in the SW of Syracusae Settlement in the Olympieum, a sanctuary of Zeus on the right bank of the Anapus in the south west of Syracusae, where in 414 BC Gylippus stationed part of his cavalry to hamper the Athenians on the Plemmyrium from foraging in the Syracusan hinterland (Thuc. 7,4,7; Diod. Sic. 13,7,5; cf. [1. 41, 4110]). Olshausen, Eckart (Stuttgart) Bibliography 1 H.-P. Drögemüller, Syrakus (Gymnasium Beiheft 6), 1969. [German version] [2] Town in NW Crete This item can be found on the following maps: Crete Town …

[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 …

(Κρήτη, Krētē, Latin Creta). [German version] A. Settlement geography C. is the largest Greek island, with an east-west extension of 250 km and a north-south extension of max. 60 km. The narrowest part is the Isthmus of Hierapytna in the east. The island's topography is shaped by its mountains. Three large mountain ranges dominate: in the west the ‘White Mountains’ (  Leúka órē , 2,482 m), in the centre the  Ida Mountains (Piloritis, 2,456 m) and in the east the  Dicte Range (highest elevation 2,147 m) with the Lassithi Plateau (moun…

(Ἁλίσαρνα; Halísarna). [German version] [1] Small city in the border region of the regions Mysia and Troas Small city, dynastic seat in the border region of the regions of Mysia and the Troad. In Xenophon (Hell. 3,1,6; An. 7,8,17) H. is mentioned in connection with the Spartan-Persian war 400-396 BC. The dynast Procles named there is the descendant of the Spartan king Damaratus, who was exiled there at the beginning of the 5th cent. BC and received H. along with Pergamum and Teuthrania from Darius I as a gift (Paus. 3,7,8). The exact location and further history are unknown. Schwertheim, El…

[German version] Statio on the via Popilia (Tab. Peut. 7,1), after which Sala Consilina is named, in the liber regionum of 120 praefectura Consiline in provincia Lucaniae. Inhabited market site (Cassiod. Var. 8,33) near an old spring (Marcellianum). In the 5th cent. AD an episcopal seat. The old fortification mentioned in Pliny (Plin. HN 3,95) may possibly be associated with Padula in the Tanagro valley (thus already in [3]), where a fortified embankment was found on a hill and prehistoric graves in the valley (archaic g…

(Ἴδη, Ἰδαῖον ὄρος; Ídē, Idaîon hóros). [German version] [1] Highest mountain range in Crete Highest mountain range in Crete, modern Psiloritis, with the peak Timios Stavros (2,456 m). Still heavily forested in antiquity (cf. the name I. = ‘wooded mountains’), predominantly with cypresses (Eur. Hipp. 1253; Theophr. Hist. pl. 3,2,6; 4,1,3; Plin. HN 16,142). Used early on for mining metals (FGrH 239,11; Diod. Sic. 5,64,5) and agriculture (Theophr. De ventis, fr. 5,13 Wimmer; [1]). The cave considered the birthpl…