Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "PIKILASSOS Ancient city SFAKIA".
Poikilasion. Small city in the Sphakia district on the S coast of W Crete, E of
Syia and W of Tarrha. On a small bay cut off from the interior by the White Mountains,
it is barely accessible except by sea and has little agricultural land. Little
is known of its history; in the 3d c. B.C. it was a member of the league of Oreioi,
and its gods are mentioned in the league's treaty with Magas of Kyrene (see Lisos).
It is mentioned only by Ptolemy (3.15.3: site wrongly placed E of Tarrha) and
a coastal pilot (Stadiasmus 330: Poikilassos, a city with an anchorage and water).
No coins can definitely be ascribed to it, and it may never have been an independent
city. A Temple of Serapis was consecrated or reconsecrated in the 3d c. A.D.
A few remains of houses survive on ancient terraces on the inland
side of the valley at the mouth of the Tripiti gorge, about 1.6 km from the sea;
there is now no safe anchorage, but if the relative sea level was some 6 m higher
in antiquity there would have been at least a sheltered creek at the river mouth.
D. J. Blackman, 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.
Poecilasium, Poecilassus (Poikilasion, Ptol. iii. 15. § 3; Poikilassos,
Stadiasm. Magni Mar. p. 299, ed. Hoffmann), a town on the S. coast of Crete, placed
by Ptolemy E. of Tarrha, between this place and the promontory Hermaea; but in
the Stadiasmus W. of Tarrha, between this place and Syia, 60 stadia from the former
and 50 from the latter. It is probably represented by the ruins near Trypete,
situated between the places mentioned ill the Stadiasmus. (Pashley, Crete, vol.
ii. p. 264.)
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