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A hellenistic inscription from Skotoussa (Thessaly) and the fortifications of the city

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

V. Missailidou-Despotidou
V. Missailidou-Despotidou*
Affiliation:
Pella Museum
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Abstract

In 1983 the Larisa Museum received an inscribed stele, purporting to be from the farming area of Agia Triada. Even today, parts can be seen in this area of the fortifications of an ancient city, thought to be the Thessalian Skotoussa. The inscription comprises 154 lines, and is written in the Thessalian (Pelasgian) dialect; it dates from 197–185 BC. It is a decree of the city (which is now proved to be Skotoussa), and concerns the description of a zone inside and outside the city walls, which was to contain no privately owned land. The decree was passed as part of the reorganization of the defences of the city after the collapse of Macedonian supremacy in the region. The zone was defined in detail using as reference points the towers, distances between the towers, and other sections of the walls, as well as parts of the city adjoining the wall. The result of such a systematic body of cross-reference is a description of nearly the whole of the city's fortifications. Following a topographic survey of the Agia Triada region, and taking into account older surveys, a restoration of the course of the wall is attempted. Using the inscription as a guide, a comparison is made between the sections of the wall that are described, together with other place-names appearing in the inscription, and the surviving ruins at Agia Triada.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 88 , November 1993 , pp. 187 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1993

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Footnotes

1

This study was carried out as an M.Phil, thesis during my postgraduate work in Oxford. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Dr J. J. Coulton, who supervised my studies, read my draft text, suggested several improvements, and helped me in all possible ways with this publication. To Dr K. Gallis, Ephor of Antiquities, I owe warm thanks for permission to publish this inscription. I warmly thank Professor D. M. Lewis, who read my thesis and gave much valuable advice. I am also indebted to Professor A. Morpurgo-Davies for her help, and to Dr D. Evely for the correction of my English. I owe a debt of gratitude to my husband for his continual help at all stages of the work. Finally, I wish to express my thanks to the Greek Ministry of Culture, which financed my studies in Oxford. Besides the abbreviations normal in BSA, the following are used:

Bechtel = F. Bechtel, Die griechischen Personennamen (Göttingen, 1894)

Bechtel, Dialekte = F. Bechtel, Die griechischen Dialekte (Berlin, 1963)

Blümel = W. Blümel, Die aiolischen Dialekte (Göttingen, 1982)

Buck = C. D. Buck, The Greek Dialects (Chicago and London, 1955)

Kramolisch = H. Kramolisch, Die Strategen des thessalischen Bundes von 196 v. Chr. bis zum Ausgang der römischen Republik (Demetrias, ii; Bonn, 1978)

Lawrence = A. W. Lawrence, Greek Aims in Fortification (Oxford, 1979)

Leake = W. M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (London, 1835)

Maier = F. G. Maier, Griechische Mauerbauinschriften (Heidelberg, 1959–1961)

Mastrokostas = E. Mastrokostas, ‘Inscriptions de Locride et de Thessalie’, REA 66 (1964), 307–19

Pouilloux = J. Pouilloux, ‘Actes d'affranchissement thessaliens’, BCH 79 (1955), 442–66

Stählin = F. Stählin, Das hellenische Thessalien (Stuttgart, 1924)

Winter = F. E. Winter, Greek Fortifications (London, 1971)

References

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66 The dating of the manumission decree is based on the chronology of the strategos given by Kramolisch.

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