Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "YPATI Ancient city FTHIOTIDA" .
YPATI (Ancient city) FTHIOTIDA
he Hupate, ta Hupata: Eth. Hupataios, Hypataeus, also Hupateus. The
chief town of the Aenianes, in the valley of the Spercheius, and at the foot of
Mt. Oeta. In the Roman wars in Greece it belonged to the Aetolian league. (Polyb.
xx. 9, 11, xxi. 2, 3; Liv. xxxvi. 14, 26.) The women of Hypata, as of many other
Thessalian towns, were noted for their skill in magic; and it was here that Lucius,
in the story of Lucian, was metamorphosed into an ass. (Lucian, Asin. 1, seq.;.
comp. Apul. Metam. i. p. 104; Theophr. H. Plant. ix. 2.) The town is mentioned
by Hierocles in the 6th century. (Hierocl. p. 642, ed. Wess.; comp. Ptol. iii.
13. § 45.) It occupied the site of the modern Neopatra, where inscriptions have
been discovered containing the name of Hypata. The town appears to have been called
Neae Patrae in the middle ages, and is mentioned in the 12th century as a strongly
fortified place. (Niceph. Gregor. iv. 9. p. 112, ed. Bonn.) There are still considerable
remains of the ancient town. Leake observed many large quadrangular blocks of
stones and foundations of ancient walls on the heights of Neopatra, as well as
in the buildings of the town. In the metropolitan church he noticed a handsome
shaft of white marble, and on the outside of the wall an inscription in small
characters of the best times. He also discovered an inscription on a broken block
of white marble, lying under a plane-tree near a fountain in the Jewish burying-ground.
(Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 14, seq.)
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
A city of Ainis, which first appears when it issued coinage of the
Ainianes ca. 400-344 B.C.; from 302 B.C. it was in the Aitolian League. In 191
B.C. it was an Aitolian strong point and its territory laid waste by M' Acilius
Glabrio. It remained with the Aitolians after 189 B.C., but after 168 B.C. was
part of the free League of Ainis, which was finally joined to Thessaly by Augustus
in 27 B.C. (Livy 28.5.15; 36.14.15, 16.4, 26.1, 27.4, 28.8, 29.5; Polyb. 20.9.6,
10.13, 11.5; Livy 37.6.2, 7.1; Polyb. 21.2.7, 3.7, 3.13). The city prospered in
the Roman Imperial period (Apul., Met. 1.5) and was the site of a bishopric in
Christian times. It came to be known as Neai Patrai, an important mediaeval city.
Hypata is located above the Spercheios valley, on the N slope of Oeta,
on a hillside flanked on the W by the Xerias river and on the E by a ravine. The
acropolis hill is a small, rocky peak (661 m) which falls away steeply on all
sides. It is connected to the main mass of Oeta to the S by a narrow saddle. A
road led S over Oeta to Kallipolis. On the acropolis are some remains of the ancient
wall circuit, although these have largely disappeared under later Byzantine and
Frankish walls. Stahlin saw some of the ancient wall on the S side with a gate
giving on the saddle which connects the hill to Oeta. The wall was ca. 4 m thick,
of good 4th-3d c. B.C. masonry. Bequignon noted an ancient Hellenic wall inside
the acropolis on the SE side at right angles to the circuit wall, perhaps the
foundation of some building. modern Hypati is set on a terrace on the steep N
face of the hillside, below the acropolis. It occupies the site of the ancient
city. Stahlin saw traces of the ancient city walls on the N and E sides of this
terrace. Inscriptions and various ancient blocks have been built into the modern
houses. Bequignon saw a marble head and a mutilated relief, and other pieces of
sculpture have been seen. In 1921 a late Roman (?) mosaic was found near the church
of Haghios Nikolaus in the town. Graves have been discovered in the vicinity,
particularly outside the city to the W. At the beginning of the century Giannopoullos
reported an ancient Greek naiskos at Rigoziano (Rogozinon) on the left bank of
the Xerias opposite Hypata's acropolis; this has apparently not been checked since.
Several inscriptions exist relative to Hypata's boundaries (see Stahlin) which
included a considerable amount of the river plain.
T. S. Mackay, 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.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
