Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "THERMON Ancient city ETOLOAKARNANIA".
Located on a mountain plateau above the NE end of Lake Trichonis,
34 km from Agrinion, near the modern village of Kephalovryso, the site was settled
in the Late Bronze Age. Described as place or topos (Polyb. 5.7.8), the Classical
site was the center of Aitolian worship and the meeting place of the Aitolian
League, where annual magistrates were elected and large market fairs held (Polyb.
58.4ff). Some time after the invasion by Antipater and Krateros in 323 B.C. the
site was organized in its present form as a fortified temenos. Twice ravaged by
Philip V of Macedon, in 218 and 206 B.C. (Polyb. 5.9; 11.7.2), the site continued
in use until the reduction of the League in 168 B.C. and perhaps longer. This
is attested by a number of inscribed monument bases of the 2d c. B.C. found within
the temenos. The discovery of graves of the 1st c. B.C. over some of the public
buildings indicates that the site was no longer the League center at this time.
Excavations have uncovered a large temenos 340 m long and 200 m wide,
laid out at the base of Mt. Mega Lakkos. It is enclosed on three sides by a massive
fortification wall with square towers at intervals of 42 m. The main entrance
to the enclosure, guarded by two round towers, lies at the SW corner. A second
smaller entrance lies near the NE corner of the temenos. Within the enclosure
near the main entrance is a long stoa facing N, which runs parallel to the S peribolos
wall at a distance of 35 m from it. Only partially excavated, the stoa has buttressed
foundations along the S side, eight columns across the narrow E and presumably
also across the W end. To the SE of the stoa near the SE corner of the enclosure
is a large rectangular building 20 x 26 m with a three-stepped crepidoma and a
broad porch on the N side. Although the interior is as yet unexcavated, the building
has been identified as the meeting house or bouleuterion of the League. In front
of the porch is a row of statue and stelai bases. A broad avenue 25 m wide, framed
to E and W by long stoas, extends N from the bouleuterion. The E stoa, which runs
along the base of the mountain slope, is 173 m long with Doric columns across
the W face. Behind the stoa to the E is a strong retaining wall, and between wall
and stoa were found many roof tiles and terracotta antefixes. The W stoa is ca.
185 m long with buttressed rear wall, Doric columns on its facade, and bases for
an interior colonnade. In front of both stoas are many monument bases of primarily
3d c. B.C. date, undoubtedly those destroyed by Philip V in his two attacks on
the site. Near an exedra located before the middle of the E stoa were found six
fragments of a trophy commemorating the victory of the Aitolians over the Gauls
in 279 B.C. The fragments preserve elliptical shields, tasseled cloaks, and armor.
Pausanias (10.18.7) describes a similar monument depicting armed Aitolia erected
at Delphi. Just N of the W stoa there is a small fountain in polygonal masonry
built about a natural spring. At the N end of the long avenue near the NE quarter
of the temenos is the Temple of Apollo Thermios. The identification is known from
an inscribed bronze stele found beneath the floor, a record of a treaty between
Aitolians and Acarnanians to be set up within the temple. Oriented N-S, the temple
is Doric peripteral with 5 x 15 columns. The stylobate and lowest drums of eight
columns are preserved intact. The cella consists of a long narrow naos without
pronaos, and opisthodomos. A single row of columns runs down the central axis
of the cella. Since no fragments of a stone superstructure were found, the entablature
must have been of wood, the cella walls of mudbrick. Among the reused blocks incorporated
into the foundations was a fragmentary inscription of the mid 3d c. B.C., which
thereby dates the temple in this form to the latter part of the century, presumably
after Philip's second sack in 206 B.C. The 3d c. temple represents a remodeling
of an earlier temple having the same plan and dimensions, also of mudbrick and
wood on stone foundations. Part of the foundations were incorporated into the
W pteron of the later structure. To this earlier building belongs an elaborate
series of terracotta revetments found scattered about the temple site. These include
roof tiles, simas, at least two series of antefixes decorated in relief with human
busts, a sphinx acroterion and 10 fragmentary metope plaques with painted representations.
The plaques are less than a m in height or in width, with two tangs projecting
from the upper edge for socketing into the overlying cornice. Decoration is confined
to the center of the plaque, framed on two sides by a broad border of painted
rosettes. Among the representations are Perseus with the head of Gorgo, a hunter
(Herakles?) with boar and fawn, and Chelidon and Aidon about to dissect Itys.
The pictorial style of the metopes indicates that the building was erected late
in the 7th c., ca. 630-610 B.C. It is therefore one of the earliest developed
Doric temples known and a monument of primary importance for our knowledge of
the history of Greek architecture. The second, more advanced series of antefixes
with bearded men and silenes attest to a partial remodeling of the roof in the
second half of the 6th c. B.C. Generally considered to be a product of Corinthian
workmanship, the temple is more probably a product of local workshops, perhaps
under Corinthian influence. The metopes are inscribed in a mixed alphabet which
may well be Aitolian and are executed in local clay. The simas, moreover, are
crowned with antefixes in a manner unknown to date at Corinth. Beneath the archaic
temple is a still earlier building of Geometric date, the so-called Megaron B,
a long three-roomed structure with slightly different axis, surrounded by an elliptical
colonnade. Although often identified as a chieftain's house, the building enclosed
thick layers of ash, containing burnt animal bones, pottery, and several bronze
votive statuettes, and it was undoubtedly also a temple. Beneath Megaron B and
to the N of it were found several houses of Late Mycenaean date, part of the earliest
settlement which occupied the site. Immediately E of the Hellenistic temple is
a retaining wall incorporating reused blocks from a Doric stoa, as a fragmentary
inscribed epistyle reveals. Nearby to the E is a smaller temple, a small rectangular
cella with double colonnade across the S facade, identified by an inscription
found nearby as that of Apollo Lyseios. Painted terracotta metopes found within
the temple with representations of the Charites, Iris, and the Centaur Polos,
may belong to its original construction in the late 7th c. To the NW of the main
temple near the NE entrance to the temenos is a small, poorly preserved structure
tentatively identified as a Temple of Artemis. To it have been assigned several
architectural revetments. A few isolated foundations were uncovered outside the
temenos to the SE. Best preserved is a small fountain possibly of the 3d c. It
is well built in ashlar masonry with five spouts and is fed by a terracotta drain
from a source within the sanctuary.
N. Bookidis, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
(Thermon) or Therma (to Therma). A town of the Aetolians near Stratus, with warm mineral springs, and regarded for some time as the capital of the country.
Thermus or Therma (to Thermon, ta Therma, Themos, Eth. Thermios: Vlokho).
The chief city of Aetolia during the flourishing period of the Aetolian League,
and the place where the meetings of the league were usually held and an annual
festival celebrated. It possessed a celebrated temple of Apollo, in connection
with which the festival was probably celebrated. It was situated in the very heart
of Aetolia, N. of the lake Trichonis, and on a height of Mt. Panaetolium (Viena).
It was considered inaccessible to an army, and from the strength of its situation
was regarded as a place of refuge, and, as it were, the Acropolis of all Aetolia.
The road to it ran from Metapa, on the lake Trichonis, through the village of
Pamphia. The city was distant 60 stadia from Metapa, and 30 from Pamphia; and
from the latter place the road was very steep and dangerous, running along a narrow
crest with precipices on each side. It was, however, surprised by Philip V., king
of Macedonia, in his invasion of Aetolia in B.C. 218. The Aetolians, who had never
imagined that Philip would have penetrated so far into their country, had deposited
here all their treasures, the whole of which now fell into the hands of the king,
together with a vast quantity of arms and armour. He carried off the most valuable
part of the spoil, and burnt all the rest, among which were more than 15,000 suits
of armour. Not content with this, he set fire to the sacred buildings, to retaliate
for the destruction of Dium and Dodona. He also defaced all the works of art,
and threw down all the statues, which were not less than 2000 in number, only
sparing those of the Gods. (Pol. v. 6 - 9, 13.) A few years afterwards, when the
Aetolians had sided with the Romans, Philip again surprised Thermus (about B.C.
206), when he destroyed everything which had escaped his ravages in his first
attack. (Pol. xi. 4.) We have no further details of the history of Thermum. Polybius
alludes, in one or two other passages (xviii. 31, xxviii. 4), to the meetings
of the league held there. In the former of these passages Livy (xxxiii. 35) has
misunderstood the words ten ton Thermikon sunodon to mean the assembly held at
Thermopylae.
Polybius's account of Philip's first invasion of Aetolia, which resulted
in the capture of Thermum, supplies us with the chief information respecting the
towns in the central plain of Aetolia. Philip set out from Limnaea, on the south-eastern
corner of the Ambraciot gulf, crossed the Achelous between Stratus and Conope,
and marched with all speed towards Thermum, leaving on his left Stratus, Agrinium,
and Thestienses (Thestieis), and on his right Conope, Lysimachia, Trichonium,
and Phoeteum. He thus arrived at Metapa, on the lake Trichonis, and from thence
marched to Thermus by the road already mentioned, passing by Pamphia in his way.
He returned by the same road as far as Metapa, but from the latter place he marched
in one day to a place called Acrae, where he encamped, and on the next day to
Conope. After remaining a day at Conope, he marched up the Achelous, and crossed
it near Stratus.
The remains of the walls of Thermum show that the city was about 2
1/2 miles in circumference. It was in the form of a triangle on the slope of a
pyramidal hill, bordered on either side by a torrent flowing in a deep ravine.
The only remains of a public edifice within the walls consist of a square, pyramidal,
shapeless mass of stones.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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