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Eretria's colonies in the area of the Thermaic Gulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

N. G. L. Hammond
N. G. L. Hammond
Affiliation:
Clare College, Cambridge
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Abstract

Even the sites of the Eretrian colonies Methone, Dicaea and Mende in the area of the Thermaic Gulf were unknown ten years ago. Topographical research and excavation reports by Greek scholars have now provided much information on which this article is based.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 93 , November 1998 , pp. 393 - 399
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1998

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References

1 Other abbreviations are:

ATL = Meritt, B. D., Wade-Gery, H. T., and McGregor, M. F., Athenian Tribute Lists (Cambridge, Mass., 1939–1953Google Scholar

HM = Hammond, N. G. L., A History of Macedonia, i (Oxford, 1972), iiGoogle Scholar with G. T. Griffith (Oxford, 1979).

2 We owe the date to Thuc. 6. 3, where the occupation of Syracuse is described.

3 The ultimate source of Plutarch's account was probably the work of Hecataeus, Πείοδος ϒῆς, composed in the latter part of the 6th cent.

4 By ‘Macedonia’ Thucydides meant the original homeland of the Macedones in Pieria south of the river Haliacmon (Hdt. 7. 127. 1 and Thuc. 1. 61. 3).

5 IG iV2 94 ii 8; see HM ii. 193–4.

6 At Potidaea Philip had sold the population into slavery (Diod. 16. 8. 5).

7 See HM 1. 129, Hatzopoulos, et al. , BCH 114 (1990), 639–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and my Philip of Macedon (London, 1994), 199 n. 24Google Scholar.

8 Coins of Dicaea were reported also in a hoard at Balkh in Afghanistan in American in Numismatical Society Musuem Notes, 15 (1960), 1–2Google Scholar.

9 See ATL iv. 221.

10 For Aenea's position see HM i. 186.

11 Meritt, B. D. in ATL i. 481Google Scholar placed Dicaea ‘between Therme and Aenea, though we can identify it with no ancient site’.

12 See HM ii. 192.

13 In IG iv2 94 ii 5–7. See HM ii. 193 with n. 3, where it is argued that the Dicaea of the inscription is in Macedonia and not in Thrace.

14 On this curving piece of coast Pliny mentioned Thessalonica, which was founded by Cassander in the latter part of the 4th cent. Dicaea did not figure among the cities of which the populations were moved into the new foundation, probably because it had ceased to exist.

15 In HM i. 152, 189.

16 In AEMTH 7 (1993), 265–78Google Scholar.

17 See Vokotopoulou, J. in AEMTH 4 (1990), 399–400Google Scholar.

18 AEMTH 7 (1993), 272Google Scholar.

19 The other site which has ties with Lefkandi in the second half of the 8th cent, is the Neas Ankhialou Table site and its nearby cemetery, which has been named after the nearby village ‘Sindos’. However, the burials in the cemetery from the late 6th cent, onwards had many characteristics (e.g. gold death-masks, gold plaques over the mouth, warrior burials, miniature models of furniture, and lavish jewellery in women's burials) which are also not compatible with its nearby sites being occupied by Eretrians. Moreover, in the 4th cent, the settlement was importing pottery mainly from Attica. For the Neas Ankhialou Table and the Sindos cemetery see especially the Greek catalogue Sindos (Thessaloniki, 1985) 11–13, AEMTH 4 (1990), 315–32Google Scholar, 6 (1992), 355–67, and 7 (1993), 241–50.

20 AEMTH 7 (1993), 265Google Scholar with references.

21 There are reports in AEMTH 1 (1987), 279–95Google Scholar, 3 (1989), 409–23, 4 (1990), 399–410, 411–23; A. Delt. 41 (1986), Chr 368Google Scholar; and BSA 91 (1996), 319–28Google Scholar, being a paper delivered at a conference in Melbourne in 1991. The inscription in Phoenician script on a vase found in the cemetery has been published in Kadmos, 34 (1995), 5–12Google Scholar.

22 AEMTH 4 (1990), 401Google Scholar and BSA 91 (1996), 322Google Scholar.

23 AEMTH 4 (1990), 401Google Scholar, BSA 91 (1996), 319Google Scholar, and my article in BSA 90 (1995), 311Google Scholar.

24 AEMTH 4 (1990), 421Google Scholar.

25 Ibid. 399–400.

26 Such foundations are not limited to these two sites. See Papadopoulos, J. K. in OJA 15 (1996) 164Google Scholar for their occurrence at various sites within the Aegean area.

27 This is a general rise. There may be local variations due to subsidence.

28 BSA 91 (1996), 324–5Google Scholar.

29 AEMTH 4 (1990), 415Google Scholar.

30 Ibid. 401–3 and BSA 91 (1996), 325.

31 BSA 91 (1996), 321Google Scholar.

32 This feature of early colonization is described in my History of Greece (Oxford, 1959, 3rd edn. 1986), 118Google Scholar.

33 Now that the site of Methone is known, there is no need to postulate ‘an easy overland route to Methone’, as Borza, E. N. has done in Thomas, C. G. (ed.) Makedonika (Claremont, Calif., 1995) 89Google Scholar.

34 We know from an inscription of the late 5th cent. (ML 91) that oars and perhaps even triremes were built for Athens in Macedonia. It is unlikely that trimmed tree-trunks were rafted and towed at sea by the small merchant-ships of the period.

35 See my article in BSA 90 (1995), 307–15Google Scholar, with a summary on p. 310.

36 See Seltman, C., Greek Coins (London, 1933) pl. xiGoogle Scholar and Graham, A. J., Colony and Mother City in Ancient Greece (Manchester, 1964) 125Google Scholar.

37 I am most grateful to Professor A. J. Graham for reading the first draft of this article and making most helpful comments.