Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "PELLA Ancient city GIANNITSA".
A city in the region of ancient Bottiaia to which King Archelaus (413-399
B.C.) moved the capital of Macedonia. It was the seat of Philip and the birthplace
of Alexander.
Stephanos of Byzantium (s.v. Pella) mentions the pre-history of the
place: Pella of Macedonia was formerly called Bounomos or Bounomeia . . . In historical
times it was first mentioned by Herodotos (7.123) in the description of Xerxes'
journey to the Axios river which is the boundary between Mygdonia and Bottiaiis.
The latter has a narrow coastal strip occupied by the cities of Ichnae and Pella.
Later, Thucydides mentions Pella twice, first in the passage about the Macedonians
spreading E, before his time, and then in the attack of the Thracians under Sitalces
against the Macedonian king Perdiccas, in his own time (Thuc. 2.99.4, 100.4).
Southern Greeks took scant notice of Archelaus' activities in the last years of
the Peloponnesian War, and laughed at his building of a palace in Pella (Ael.,
VH 14.17). But in Archelaus' time the painter Zeuxis came to Pella to decorate
the palace, and the poet Timotheus also came, and the dramatist Euripides, who
wrote the Archelaus there and died in Macedonia. After the time of Archelaus,
Pella grew larger, so that in Xenophon's time it was called the largest of the
cities of Macedonia (Hell. 5.2.13). The statement of Demosthenes (18.68) that
Philip grew up in a small and insignificant village was a rhetorical exaggeration.
Information about Pella is curiously scanty in the time of Philip, Alexander,
and the Diadochoi, but from a political and artistic point of view the best days
of Pella were probably during the long reign of the philosopher king Antigonos
Gonatas (274-239 B.C.).
The only description of Pella which has survived is that of Livy (44.46.4-7),
who writes of the capture of the Macedonian capital by Aemilius Paulus after the
battle of Pydna, in which Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, was defeated. On
the basis of his description, travelers and archaeologists from the end of the
18th through the 19th c. vaguely located Pella at a few visible remains of an
ancient city near the town of Agioi Apostoloi, N of the Giannitsa swamp. In the
first year after the liberation of Macedonia from the Turks (1912), excavations
uncovered the remains of peristyle-type houses, an underground cistern, a hoard
of silver coins of Kassander, bronze and iron household implements, bronze bed
fittings, etc. A fuller and clearer picture of the topography of the ancient city
has only been gained after continuous surface observations which began in 1954.
The most ancient finds from the area, which go back at least to the
Bronze Age, came from: (a) fields N of the so-called Baths of Alexander; (b) from
a hill W of the town of Palaia Pella; and especially from (c) the top of the Phakos
within the former marsh. Test trenches in the latter revealed a prehistoric settlement,
like others around the marsh, the best known being that of Nea Nikomedeia, dating
to the Early Neolithic period (7th millennium B.C.). The prehistoric settlement
on the Phakos may be Bounomos or Bounomeia (Steph. Byz.).
Over 40 test trenches brought Classical and Hellenistic remains to
light over the whole area between the Phakos and the towns of Palaia Pella and
Nea Pella. This area is about 2 km sq. It was ascertained that the acropolis encompassed
a part of a double hill, that is, the hill occupied by the town of Palaia Pella
(formerly Haghioi Apostoloi) and another, to the W of it. On the W hill, especially
(Sections II and III), some rather scanty remains of important buildings were
uncovered. Those which have come to light up to the present are: (a) walls ca.
2 m thick with huge poros orthostates (ca. one m high, under one m thick, up to
2 m long), (b) Ionic and Doric architectural members, the scale of which is shown
by a Doric poros capital, dated to the first quarter of the 4th c. B.C. with the
side of the abacus one m long, (c) parts of a triangular votive monument of bluish
stone, (d) fragments of marble architectural members, statues, etc.
The position and scale of these constructions establish that here
on this W hill was probably the palace of Archelaus, and the palace complex and
temple, perhaps that known from Livy (42.51.2) as the Temple of Athena Alkidemos.
It is probable that the fortified peribolos of the palace complex made a part
of the acropolis wall and continued the city wall, which is now, however, invisible,
since, in all probability, only its foundations and orthostates were of stone,
while the upper parts were of mudbrick, which hid the stone parts under a layer
of earth when they collapsed.
More striking are the discoveries around the center of the ancient
city, N of the Thessalonika-Edessa road (Section I, from which Sections IV and
v are separated by the road). Here, about six blocks of buildings were uncovered,
constructed according to the Hippodamian system of town planning. One of the blocks
had three peristyle courts with stoas and adjoining rooms on all sides, according
to the Hellenistic type of house with peristyle. The others had approximately
the same arrangement. They are surrounded by roads with a width of ca. 9 m along
which are water pipes and drains. Parts of the buildings were at least two-storied,
as apparent from the remains of stairs and from architectural fragments such as
little columns and pillars. The floors of the ground floor rooms were covered
with mosaic pavement, some completely plain, others with a geometric pattern,
and others with figures, but all of them made of natural river pebbles. In 1957
the first four figured mosaics were uncovered. These show: (a) Dionysos, naked,
on a panther, (b) a lion hunt, perhaps an episode known from the life of Alexander,
when he was saved by Krateros, (c) a gryphon tearing a deer apart, and (d) a couple
of centaurs, male and female. In 1961 in another block four more mosaic floors
were uncovered, one of which is badly damaged. The others show: (a) the rape of
Helen by Theseus, (b) a deer hunt with the inscription, Gnosis made it, and (c)
an Amazonomachy.
In another section near the former marsh (Section VI) a circular floor
in the same pebble technique was discovered, mainly decorated with floral motifs,
like the mosaics of Verghina.
The buildings with the mosaic floors are dated to around the last
quarter of the 4th c. or the beginning of the 3d c. B.C. Some of the peristyle
columns and walls have been reconstructed in place. The mosaic floors have been
taken up and consolidated, and are in the local museum, except for the mosaic
of Gnosis, which remains in situ.
Of the architectural fragments, besides the stone columns, pillars,
and parts of a cornice, worth mention are Corinthian pan and cover tiles decorated
with palmettes, painted simas from the pediments, etc. Among the tiles, some are
stamped with the name of the city in the genitive case (PELLES. This was the first
indisputable evidence, found in 1957, for the site of the Macedonian capital.).
Of the sculpture from the site, the older finds are the most notable:
(a) a marble funeral stele taken to the museum at Constantinople and (b) a statue
of a horseman, possibly from a pediment, in the Thessalonika Museum. Of the more
recent finds the most interesting are: (a) a severe style marble dog, (b) a bronze
statuette of Poseidon of the Lateran type. Other small finds are Votive inscriptions
(to Asklepios, the Great Gods, Zeus Meilichios, Herakles, the Muses, etc.), funeral
inscriptions with bas-relief portraits, some bilingual in Greek and Latin, two
unpublished milestones from the Via Egnatia, etc.
Of the pottery, most notable are some red-figure fragments and a class
of local pottery which follows on old tradition (the technique is gray Minyan;
the decoration early Mycenaean; the handles show its Hellenistic date). A large
number of coins, chiefly of bronze, and many small worked pieces of bronze were
found. The small finds are mainly kept in the local museum.
PH. M. Petsas, 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 64 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
An ancient town in Macedonia, in the district Bottiaea, situated upon a lake formed by the river Lydias. Philip the Great made it his residence and the capital of the Macedonian monarchy. It was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Hence the poets give the surname of Pellaea to Alexandria in Egypt, because it was founded by Alexander the Great, and also use the adjective in a general sense as equivalent to Egyptian.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The capital of Macedonia. At the time when Xerxes passed through Macedon,
Pella, which Herodotus (vii. 123) calls a polichnion, was in the hands of the
Bottiaeans. Philip was the first to make Pella, which Amyntas had been obliged
to evacuate (Xen. Hellen. v. 2. § 13; comp. Diodor. xiv. 92, xv. 19), a place
of importance (Dem. de Cor. p. 247), and fixed the royal residence there: there
was a navigation from the sea by the Lydias, though the marshes, which was 120
stadia in length, exclusive of the Lydias. (Scyl. p. 26.) These marshes were called
Borboros, as appears from an epigram (Theocrit. Chius, ap. Plut. de Exil. vol.
viii. p. 380, ed. Reiske), in which Aristotle is reproached for preferring a residence
near them to that of the Academy. Archestratus (ap. Athen. vii. p. 328, a.) related
that the lake produced a fish called chromis, of great size, and particularly
fat in summer. From its position on a hill surrounded by waters, the metropolis
of Philip, and the birthplace of Alexander (Juv. x. 168; Lucan, x. 20), soon grew
into a considerable city. Had Alexander not been estranged from Macedonia, it
would probably have attained greater importance. Antipater lived there as regent
of Macedonia, but Cassander spent less of his time at Pella, than at Thessalonica
and Cassandreia ; from the time of Antigonus Gonatas till that of Perseus, a period
of nearly a century, Pella remained the capital, and was a splendid town. (Liv.
xxvi. 25, xxxvii. 7, xiii. 41, 51, 67, xliii. 43, xliv. 10.) Livy (xliv. 46) has
left the following description, derived undoubtedly from Polybius, of the construction
of the city towards the lake. Pella stands upon a height sloping to the SW., and
is bounded by marshes which are impassable both in winter and summer, and are
caused by the overflowing of a lake. The citadel (the word arx is wanting in our
copies of Livy, but seems absolutely necessary both to the sense and the grammar)
rises like an island from the part of the marsh nearest to the city, being built
upon an immense embankment, which defies all injury from the waters; though appearing
at a distance to be united to the wall of the city, it is in reality separated
from it by a wet ditch, over which there is a bridge, so that no access whatever
is afforded to an enemy, nor can any prisoner whom the king may confine in the
castle escape, but by the easily guarded bridge. In the fortress was the royal
treasure. It was surrendered to Aemilius Paullus (Liv. xlv. 45), and became, according
to Strabo (p. 323) and the Itineraries, a station on the Egnatian Way, and a colony.
(Plin. l.c.) Dion Chrysostomus (Orat. Tars. Prior. vol. ii. p. 12, ed. Reiske)
says that Pella was a heap of ruins; but from the fact that there are coins of
the colony of Pella, ranging from Hadrian to Philip, this must be an exaggeration.
The name of the city is found as late as the sixth century of our era, as it occurs
in Hierocles. It Would seem indeed as if the name had survived the ruins of the
city, and had reverted to the fountain, to which it was originally attached; as
at a small distance from the village named Neokhori or Yenikiuy, which has been
identified with a portion of the ancient Pella, there is a spring called by the
Bulgarians Pel, and by the Greeks Pelle. Below the fountain, are some remains
of buildings, said to have been baths, and still called ta Loutra. These baths
are alluded to by the comic poet Machon (ap. Athen. viii. p. 348, e.) as producing
biliary complaints. Although little remains of Pella, a clear idea may be formed
of its extent and general plan by means of the description in Livy, compared with
the existing traces, consisting mainly of tumuli. The circumference of the. ancient
city has been estimated at about 3 miles. The sources of the fountains, of which
there are two, were probably about the centre of the site; and the modern road
may possibly be in the exact line of a main street which traverses it from E.
to W. The temple of Minerva Alcidemus is the only public building mentioned in
history (Liv.xlii.51), but of its situation nothing at present is known. Felix
Beaujour, who was consul-general at Saloniki (Tableau du Commerce de la Grece,
vol. i. p. 87), asserted that he saw the remains of a port, and of a canal communicating
with the sea. Leake (Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 261 - 266), who carefully
went over the ground, could find no traces of a port, of which indeed there is
no mention in ancient history: remains of a canal could be seen, as he was told,
in summer.
An autonomous coin of Pella has the type of an ox feeding, which explains
what Steph. B. reports, that it was formerly called Bounomos. (Eckhel, vol. ii.
p. 73; Sestini, Mon. Vet. p. 37.)
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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