Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "YAMPOLIS Ancient city ATALANTI".
A town in Phocis, east of the Cephissus, near Cleonae, founded by the Hyantes. It was first destroyed by Xerxes, and afterwards rebuilt to be destroyed again in part by Philip and the Amphictyons.
On the main road from Boiotia and Phokis to Opus, and so to Thermopylai;
Pausanias 10. 35. 5 records that the city was a settlement of Huantes from Thebes,
and that the full name of the city was Huanton polis. Kleonai, the actual scene
of the Thessalian defeat (Plutarch, l.c. c. 28) a little higher up the pass, was
presumably a dependency of Hyampolis; remains of Hyampolis are identifiable (Leake
ii. 167, Bursian i. 165, Frazer v. 442). The city would be the first exposed to
the attack of a force coming from Thermopylai, and probably in 480 B.C. (with
Abai) was destroyed, not by the Persian column which had crossed from Malis into
Doris, and then worked down the Kephisos valley, spreading ruin and death wherever
it came, but by the main column, which must have advanced from Thermopylai along
the coast, and through the pass of Hyampolis.
Huampolis: Eth. Huampolites. An ancient town of Phocis, mentioned
by Homer (Il. ii. 521), and said to have been founded by the Hyantes after they
had been expelled from Boeotia by the Cadmeians. (Paus. ix. 35. § 5; Strab. ix.
p. 424.) It was situated on the road leading from Orchomenus to Opus (Paus. l
c.), and, as it stood at the entrance of a valley which formed a convenient passage
from Locris into Phocis and Boeotia, its name frequently occurs in history. It
was at the entrance of this pass that the Phocians gained a victory over the Thessalians.
(Herod. viii. 28.) Hyampolis was afterwards destroyed, along with the other Phocian
towns, by the army of Xerxes. (Herod. viii. 33.) In B.C. 371 Jason, in his march
through Phocis, when he was returning from Boeotia after the battle of Leuctra,
is said to have taken Huampoliton to proasteion (Xen Hell. vi. 4. § 27), which
is supposed by some to be the same place as Cleonae, a village belonging to Hyampolis.
(Pint. de Virt. Mul. p. 244; Valcken. ad Herod. viii. 28.) In B.C. 347 a battle
was fought near Hyampolis between the Boeotians and Phocians. (Diod. xvi. 56.)
The city is said to have been destroyed by Philip; but, as Pausanias states that
the ancient agora, senate-house, and theatre were still remaining in his time,
it must have been chiefly the fortifications which were destroyed by Philip. At
all events it continued to be an inhabited city, and is mentioned in the Roman
wars in Greece. (Liv. xxxii. 18.) It was embellished by Hadrian with a Stoa. Pausanias
mentions also a temple of Artemis, who was the deity chiefly worshipped in the
city. (Paus. x. 35. § § 6, 7.) Pliny (iv. 7. s. 12) and Ptolemy (iii. 15. § 20)
erroneously describe Hyampolis as a city of Boeotia.
The ruins of Hyampolis may be seen upon a height about five minutes
northward of the village of Vogdhani. The entire circuit of the fortifications
is traceable, but they are most complete on the western side. The masonry is of
the third order, nearly approaching to the most regular kind. The circumference
is about three-quarters of a mile. The direct distance to this ruin from the summit
of Abae is not more than a mile and a half in a north-west direction. Below Vogdhani,
on the side of a steep bank which falls to the valley of Khubavo, a fountain issuing
from the rock is discharged through two spouts into a stone reservoir of ancient
construction, which stands probably in its original place. (Leake, Northern Greece,
vol. ii. pp. 167, seq.)
Strabo relates that there was another town, named Hyampolis, in Phocis,
situated on Parnassus.
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
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!