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FILIPPOUPOLIS (Ancient city) BULGARIA
Philippopolis (Philippopolis, Ptol. iii. 11. § 12; Polyb. v. 100;
Steph. B. s. v.), a town of Thrace, founded by Philip of Macedon, on the site
of a previously existing town, called Eumolpias or Poneropolis. (Amm. Marc. xxvi.
10. § 4; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18.) From its situation on a hill with three peaks or
summits, it was also called Trimontium. (Plin. l. c.; Ptol. l. c.) It lay on the
SE. side of the Hebrus. The Thracians, however, regained possession of it (Polyb.
l. c.; Liv. xxxix. 53), and it remained in their hands till they were subdued
by the Romans. Its size maybe inferred from the fact of the Goths having slaughtered
100,000 persons in it (Amm. Marc. xxxi. 5. § 17), though doubtless many persons
from the environs had taken refuge there. The assumption that it likewise bore
the name of Hadrianopolis, rests only on an interpolation in Ptolemy. It is still
called Philippopoli, and continues to be one of the most considerable towns of
Thrace. (Tac. Ann. iii. 38; Itin. Ant. p. 136; Hierool. p. 635.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Now Philippopoli; an important town in Thrace, founded by Philip of Macedon, was situated in a large plain, southeast of the Hebrus, on a hill with three summits, whence it was sometimes called Trimontium. Under the Roman Empire it was the capital of the province of Thracia.
A city on the right bank of the Maritza river in the great lagoon
between the Balkan and Rhodopian mountains at the junction of the Belgrade-Istanbul
and Danube-Aegean roads. The city was founded in 342 B.C. by Philip II of Macedon
over a prior Thracian center (Pulpudava). Conquered again by the Thracians after
the fall of the Macedonians, the city remained under Thracian control until it
was conquered by the Romans, who made it the capital of the province of Thrace,
the metropolis and seat of the provincial assembly; in 248 it became a colony.
It was provided with a circuit wall by Marcus Aurelius. Captured temporarily and
sacked by the Goths in 251, it became an episcopal seat in the 4th c. It was occupied
by the Huns and restored during the reign of Justinian.
Traces remain of the Thracian-Macedonian (4th c. B.C.) polygonal circuit
wall. It encircled the three hills (a prehistoric site) with an irregular and
triangular surface area of ca. 80,000 m and was restored in the late Roman and
Byzantine period in opus mixtum and rubble core. Only one gate of the original
four has been preserved. The second and larger circuit wall (ca. 430,000 sq. m),
in the shape of an irregular pentagon, was constructed during the reign of Marcus
Aurelius as a defense against the Marcomanni (mentioned in fragmentary inscriptions).
Very little of it has been preserved.
Of the ancient buildings, only the stadium, to the W and at the front
of the hill between the second circuit wall in the central section of the modern
city, remains. There are ruins of a temple of Aesculapius to the E, a large bath
building with massive vaults on pilasters in the E section, aqueducts, and many
architectural fragments belonging to various buildings that have since disappeared.
The theater is supposed to have been in the S section of the city S of Taxim-tepe.
It is quite probable that the city had a stadium (3d c. B.C. on the evidence of
the architectural and decorative elements and according to the ancient sources).
The length of the track is a little more than a stade--ca. 180 m--and the width
was probably 25 to 30 m, with a capacity possibly of ca. 30,000. The orientation
of the stadium was NW to SE. The W side occupied the slopes of Sahat-tepe, taking
full advantage of the natural rock and slope of the land; the E side was for the
most part artificially elevated with buttressing walls of brick and stone. Inscriptions
document the existence of reserved seats for officials and organizers of the games.
The monumental entrance to the track, set on a slightly curved line, was built
of five large vaulted chambers. This monumental entrance, which must have been
on three levels, was probably decorated in the three architectural orders. Herodian
mentions the restoration of the Pythian games in the cities of Thrace at the behest
of Caracalla in honor and memory of Alexander the Great. Coins minted by Caracalla
and later by Elagabalus at Philippopolis commemorate this restoration by the provincial
assembly of the Thracians. The coins represent fights, gladiators, a diskobolos,
gymnasts exercising, and prizes. The games mentioned are the Pythian in honor
of Apollo Pythius, the Alexandria in honor of Alexander the Great, and the Kendreiseia,
local games of Thrace in honor of the Thracian deity Kendrizos. At the time of
the Gothic invasions, the sources remark that the stadium was within the city.
The Byzantine chronicler Anna Comnena, who visited Philippopolis at
the beginning of the 12th c., mentions a hippodrome without remarking on the stadium.
That the stadium no longer existed in her time is proved by the stratigraphy of
the excavations where the Byzantine coins are at a level higher than that of the
stadium. Inscriptions give evidence of the participation of famous athletes at
the games and of the commemoration of statues to them.
The modern city preserves traces of the old topography along with
the separation of the ethnic sections and the irregular, winding course of the
streets (characteristically, the houses are wood, the markets are covered, and
the baths are Turkish). There is a typical lack of a real urban center.
The National Archaeological Museum in Plovdiv, second only in size
to the one at Sofia, conserves the prehistoric, Thracian, Roman, and mediaeval
antiquities. Particularly important are the religious reliefs, and the coin collection
is noteworthy.
A. Frova, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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