Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "MENDI Ancient city KASSANDRA".
A city on the peninsula of Pallene located on the Thermaic Gulf near
the modern village of Kalandra. According to Thucydides (4.123.1) it was founded
by Eretria probably in the 8th c. It later founded colonies of its own: Neapolis
on the E coast of Pallene (ATL I 354) and Eion (Thuc. 4.7). An important trading
city, Mende's best known commodity was its wine which was famed (Athen. I 29,d,e)
and sent out all over the Mediterranean. It is likely that Mende also dealt in
grain and wood.
Mende's wealth is indicated by the high amounts of tribute paid to
the Delian Confederacy: 8 talents until 451-450 and then again after 438-437 with
fluctuations in between of from 5 to 9 talents. In the Peloponnesian War Mende
originally sided with Athens, then on the urging of the oligarchs went over to
Brasidas (Thuc. 4.123), but eventually returned to Athens (Thuc. 4. 129ff). It
is not mentioned in connection with the Peace of Nikias. From 415-414 Mende again
appears in the Athenian Tribute Lists. By 404 the city was minting copper on the
Phoenician standard.
Little is known of the city in the 4th c. except that it engaged in
a war with Olynthos (Arist., Oec. 2. 1350a. 11ff). The city was not destroyed
by Philip II but lost its importance with the founding of Kassandreia nearby in
315. Livy (31.45.14) calls Mende a maritimus vicus of Kassandreia.
Mendean amphoras, which carried its famed wine, have been found throughout
the Mediterranean. Silver coinage began in Mende in the 6th c. on the Euboic standard
and featured various Dionysiac symbols. Mende's most famous citizen was the renowned
5th c. sculptor Paionios if, as seems likely, the Mende in Thrace which Pausanias
(5.10.8) gives as that artist's home is in fact the Chalkidean city.
No systematic excavations have been carried out at the site nor are
there any substantial remains preserved. The section of fortification wall seen
in 1923 by B. D. Meritt is no longer to be found and the blocks have reportedly
been carried off for reuse by villagers. The outline of the acropolis is unmistakable,
however. There is a sheer drop on the S to the sea, a steep decline on the E,
a ravine on the W, and a gentler but discernible slope off to the N. A few architectural
blocks and quantities of pottery from archaic to Hellenistic date at the site
are the chief indications of ancient habitation.
S. G. Miller, 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.
Mendae. A town on the west coast of the Macedonian peninsula Pallene and on the Thermaic Gulf, a colony of the Eretrians, and celebrated for its wine
or Mendae (Mendai, Menda, Mendis, Eth. Mendaios). A town of Pallene, situated on the SW. side the cape. It was a colony of Eretria in Euboea, which became subject to Athens with the other cities of Pallene and Chalcidice. On the arrival of Brasidas, Mende revolted from the Athenians (Thuc. iv. 123), but was afterwards retaken by Nicias and Nicostratus (Thuc. iv. 130; Diod. xii. 72). It appears, from the account which Livy gives of the expedition of Attalus and the Romans (B.C. 200), to have been a small maritime place under the dominion of Cassandria. Together with Scione, Mende occupied the broadest part of the peninsula (Pomp. Mela, ii. 3. § 11), and is probably represented by some Hellenic remains which have been observed on the shore near Kavo-Posidhi, to the E., as well as on the heights above it. The types on its autonomous coins - Silenus riding upon an ass, and a Diota in a square - refer to the famous Mendaean wine, of which the ancients make honourable mention. (Athen. i. pp. 23, 29, iv. p. 129, viii. p. 364, xi. p. 784; Hippocrat. vol. ii. p. 472, ed. Kuhn; Jul. Poll. Onomast. vi. segm. 15.)
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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