Listed 19 sub titles with search on: History for wider area of: "HALKIDIKI Province MAKEDONIA CENTRAL" .
AFYTIS (Ancient city) KASSANDRA
The area of Athytos has been uninterruptedly settled for at least
5000 years. Around the middle of the 8th century B.C. settlers from Euboea
arrived. Aphytis, one of the most significant cities in Pallini
(the ancient name of Cassandra), is mentioned by the ancient writers Herodotus,
Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristotle, Pausanias, and Strabo among others.
The city became well known for its Temple of Dionysus, which appears
to have been built in the second half of the 8th century B.C. In the same area
stood the Temple of Ammon Zeus, whose few remaining ruins date to the 4th century
B.C. structure.
The Temple of Dionysus, which dates to the Euboean settlement, and
the growth of Aphytis are mentioned for the first time by Xenophon in his "Hellenica".
In 381 B.C. Agesipolis, king of the Lacedaemonians, besieged Torone.
During the siege he suffered serious burns, and asked to be taken to the "shady
lodgings and sparkling waters" of the Temple of Dionysus, where, according
to Xenophon, Agesipolis died a week later. He was placed in a storage jar full
of honey and taken to his homeland for the official burial.
During archaic and classical times Aphytis was a prosperous city,
minting its own coins, which depicted the head of its patron, Ammon Zeus, the
city's economy appears to have been mainly based on farming and vine-culture.
Aristotle mentions the "agricultural law" of the Aphytians, a special,
singular and interesting chapter in the history of ancient Greek public finances.
Shipping must have played an important role in the economy of Aphytis
if one is to judge by the size of its port, now silted up, which lies in the area
of the small pine forest along the beach.
According to Herodotus, during the Persian Wars (5th cent. B.C.) Aphytis
was forced to support Xerxes sending soldiers and ships, as did other cities in
Chalkidiki. However, it revolted
against the Persians after the Battle of Plataea
(479 B.C.) and joined the Athenian Confederacy. As a member of the Confederacy,
Aphytis paid three talents annually to the Temple of Delos, a substantial sum
for that time.
An Athenian "resolution" found in Athytos gives a picture
of the relations between Aphytis and Athens.
This resolution, dated 423 B.C. gave directions concerning the minting of cons
and currency relations in general.
As a result of joining the Athenian Confederacy, Aphytis was besieged
during the Peloponnesian War by the Lacedaemonian general Lysander. According
to Pausanias, the patron of Aphytis, Ammon Zeus, appeared in a dream to Lysander
and urged him to raise the siege, which he did.
It is likely that Aphytis was destroyed by Philip of Macedon in 348
B.C., as were the rest of the cities in Chalkidiki. However, the construction
of the Temple of Ammon Zeus during the second half of the 4th cent. B.C. implies
that the city was prosperous. It has also been suggested that the Macedonian kings
contributed to the construction of the temple. During Hellenistic and Roman times
the city minted coins again; an event possibly related to the fame of the Temple
of Ammon Zeus. Strabo mentions Aphytis among the five cities, which existed in
Pallini in the first century
B.C. (Cassandrea, Aphytis,
Mendi, Scioni
and Sani).
(text: Gerakina N. Mylona)
This text (extract) is cited November 2003 from the Community
of Athytos tourist pamphlet (1994).
AFYTOS (Village) HALKIDIKI
Strabo mentions Aphytis among the five cities, which existed in Pallini
in the first century B.C. (Cassandrea,
Aphytis, Mendi, Scioni
and Sani).
A long interim period followed for which we have on records of Aphytis.
Traces of the Mediefal wall in the citadel. The present "Koutsomylos",
as well as the continuous use of the same name prove that there was uninterrupted
life in Aphytos also during the Middle Ages. The first written information about
Aphytos comes from Mount Athos
documents of the 14th century in which it is mentioned as "Aphetos".
In 1307-1309, it appears that the village was destroyed by the Catalans,
and for a while its people settled in their farms.
The chapel of the Archangels, frescoed in 1647 (demolished in 1954)
indicated that Athytos was flourishing financially at that time.
Athytos participated in the Revolution of 1821, sending men and suffering
casualties. However, it also met the same fate as the rest of Cassandra:
it was burnt. After the destruction, its people scattered to various parts of
the country, mainly Skopelos,
Skiathos and Atalanti.
Around the year 1827 the refugees started returning, and Aphytos,
mainly due to its position, was a long time the principal village of Cassandra.
In Aphytos settled Captain Anastasis, who ruled the peninsula up to 1834.
(text: Gerakina N. Mylona)
This text (extract) is cited November 2003 from the Community
of Athytos tourist pamphlet (1994).
OLYNTHOS (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
When this year had elapsed, at Athens Theophilus was archon, and at Rome Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Quintius were elected as consuls, and the one hundred eighth celebration of the Olympian games was held at which Polycles of Cyrene won the stadion race. During their term of office Philip, whose aim was to subdue the cities on the Hellespont, acquired without a battle Mecyberna and Torone by treasonable surrender, and then, having taken the field with a large army against the most important of the cities in this region, Olynthus, he first defeated the Olynthians in two battles and confined them to the defence of their walls; then in the continuous assaults that he made he lost many of his men in encounters at the walls, but finally bribed the chief officials of the Olynthians, Euthycrates and Lasthenes, and captured Olynthus through their treachery. After plundering it and enslaving the inhabitants he sold both men and property as booty. By so doing he procured large sums for prosecuting the war and intimidated the other cities that were opposed to him. Having rewarded with appropriate gifts such soldiers as had behaved gallantly in the battle and distributed a sum of money to men of influence in the cities, he gained many tools ready to betray their countries. Indeed he was wont to declare that it was far more by the use of gold than of arms that he had enlarged his kingdom.
This extract is from: Diodorus Siculus, Library (ed. C. H. Oldfather, 1989). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Artabazus laid siege to Potidaea, and suspecting that Olynthus too was plotting revolt from the king, he laid siege to it also. This town was held by Bottiaeans who had been driven from the Thermaic gulf by the Macedonians. Having besieged and taken Olynthus, he brought these men to a lake and there cut their throats and delivered their city over to the charge of Critobulus of Torone and the Chalcidian people. It was in this way that the Chalcidians gained possession of Olynthus.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
MENDI (Ancient city) KASSANDRA
Mende a town in Pallene and a colony of the Eretrians
POTIDEA (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
The Potidaeans, who inhabit the isthmus of Pallene, being a Corinthian colony
Son of Antipater, other of Plistarchus, husband of Thessalonice, daughter of Philip, at war with Athens, invades Attica, captures Salamis, makes Demetrius tyrant of Athens, murders Olympias, poisons sons of Alexander, restores Potidaeans, restores Thebes, attacks Pyrrhus, joins in war against Antigonus, besieges Elatea, instigates Lachares to make himself tyrant of Athens, brings Greece low, his miserable end, his sons, his family extirpated by deity.
ORMYLIA (Small town) HALKIDIKI
Written testimonies are: in 875 ad from the Archbishop of Thessalonica,
Vasilios as "Sermylia Komi" in "Bio", which he has written in the beginning of
the 10th century ad for his master, Eythimios the Young, and in 1047 ad during
the demarcation of the fields that belonged to the abbey "Xavounion", that is
today's Ploygiros. In the
last document one can read that: "... it touches the borders of the castle Ermylia".
Since the beginning of the 13th century, the monasteries from the Holy
Mt Athos have a very dynamic presence in the area by establishing dependencies
in the fertile lowland and thus restricting the habitants of Ormylia in the higher
and more barren areas or by employing them. The raise of the number of the monastery
dependencies was boosted more in the next century mainly because of the raids
from the Serbs and the Turks forcing the habitants to sell their estates. In the
beginning of the 14th century one of the 6 commanding precincts of Chalkidiki
was called "Kapetanakion of Ermylia".
Ormylia was finally occupied by the Turks somewhere between 1416 and
1424. During the occupation the Ottoman Empire granted the Christians various
privileges in exchange with heavy taxation. The villages next to the monasteries,
were under the protection of the Holy Mt Athos. This meant that most of them,
including Ormylia, were left somewhat free of occupation and they were able to
develop very important trading activities. Ormylia even managed to become in the
19th century the most important silk industry centres.
In 1818, a very big church was built in the name of St George, a fact
that proves how well established was the economy of the village. In 1821, Ormylia
enters the Greek Revolution together with the rest of Chalkidiki and under the
commandment of Emmanouil Pappa. Unfortunately this attempt failed and the Turks
burned the whole peninsula of Chalkidiki.
During the revolution of 1854, Tsamis Karatasos - leader of the revolution
in the area - settled in Metoxi
and he gave one of the most crucial battles in the area of Psakoudia
of Ormylia. When he left, Metoxi was burned to the ground. Ormylia was liberated
from the Turks in October 1912, having been for almost 500 years under occupation.
In 1923 immigrants from the Asia Minor arrived to settle in the area.
They established the village of Vatopedi which was subsumed by the Municipality
of Ormylia in 1971. When the immigrants arrived, began the expropriation and
distribution of the estates that belonged to the monasteries. Those were given
to the immigrants as well as to the local farmers.
In 1941 - 1944, during the German occupation, the habitants took active
part in the National opposition, organizing among other things a network to collect
British officers and soldiers and help them escape to the Middle East.
This text is cited Oct 2003 from the Municipality of Ormylia URL below.
SERMYLI (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
Is the most ancient settlement in Chalkidiki,
having a uninterruptedly presence in the area since the Neolithic era. Its ancient
name was Sermyli, then it was changed to Ermyli during the dark ages, only to
become Ormylia which lasts till today.
The first findings are dated in the Neolithic age (4000-2000 bc) and
were found at Toumpa of Prophet Ilias, on the hill of St George during the 2nd
millennium bc, in the square Toumpa near the end of 2000 bc and at Kastri of Vatopedi
around 1000 bc.
During the classic age, the historical testimonies mention 2 cities
in the area, both of them being colonies of the Chalkideous (they came in the
area during the 13th - 12th century bc) and members of the Athenian alliance during
the Persian Wars. The first one with the name Sermyli,
according to the ancient historian Herodotus, was very big and very important.
It was located next to the sea and near the debouchment of the river. It was controlling
the primary and shortest road from Kalamaria
to Sithonia. The oldest
testimonies on the history of Ormylia, are given through the silver coins that
were cut in the 6th sentury bc. Herodotus is also mentioning the city as one of
those that gave army to the Persian King Xerxis.
When the Persian Wars were over, the city entered the Athenian Alliance
and from the contribution they were paying (3-5 talanta) we can easily assume
that it was the most important city of Chalkidean people besides Toroni.
During the Peloponnisian War, the city suffered a lot for the Spartans
(Thoukididis history, A' 66) A few bronze coins that were cut after 404 or 379
bc, testify that the city was self-governed in that period. In the 384 bc it was
destroyed by Filippos and its habitants were scattered in the greater area, establishing
small settlements that were hardly surviving.
In the old Christian period (4th - 7th century ad), two settlements
have been located. One was northwest from where Vatopedi is located today, in
area "Gveli" and the other one is the castle in Kallipoli, which must have been
built around the 5th century ad on a steep hill next to the river. This testifies
that the habitants of the area were in grave danger from the various barbarian
raids.
This text is cited Oct 2003 from the Municipality of Ormylia URL below.
TORONI (Municipality) HALKIDIKI
The municipality draws its name from mythology; Toroni was the wife
of Proteus, son of Poseidon God of the sea. Ancient Toroni was founded by the
Chalkidians who colonized it in the 8th century BC. By the fifth century BC Toroni
was one of the most important cities in Chalkidiki. It minted its own coinage
and was a member of the Athenian alliance. On the Acropolis of Likithos
towering over the harbor of Porto
Koufo once stood a temple dedicated to Pallas Athina. During the Peloponnesian
war it fell victim to both the Athenians and the Spartans. The historian Thucydides
recounts that in 423 BC it was occupied by Vrasidas the Spartans. In 348 EC the
town became absorbed into the kingdom of Philip of Macedon, in 168 BC it was again
conquered, this time by the Romans, and the town went into decline. During the
Byzantine era it became a dependency of mount
Athos. The mighty walls and other buildings were plundered by the Turks in
the 19th century pomegranate they once contained was used to pave the streets
of Thessalonica and Istanbul.
Sikia was one of the largest and most active villages of Halkidiki and took part
in the revolts against Turkish rule in 1821 and 1854. During the Byzantine era,
the village was referred to, as Logos and was the headquarters for the military
guardians of Athos. In 1821 the people of Sikia, always unsubdued, and with a
strong naval tradition, often manifested as piracy, revolted under the leadership
of Stamos Hapsas, and started to advance of Thessaloniki. Near the monastery of
St Anastassia they met the Turkish forces in a terrible battle in which many of
them gave their lives for freedom. In 1854, Tsamis Karatassios started his revolution
from Sikia and according to village tradition he burned the church of Agios-Athanassios
together with the Turkish garrison who had refused to surrender.
This text is cited June 2005 from the Municipality of Toroni URL below
POTIDEA (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
. . . Next to these in the line were five thousand Corinthians, at whose desire Pausanias permitted the three hundred Potidaeans from Pallene then present to stand by them.
The outbreak of the war came when the Spartans issued ultimatums to Athens that the men of the Athenian assembly rejected at the urging of Pericles. The Spartan ultimatums promised attack unless Athens lifted its economic sanctions against the city-state of Megara, a Spartan ally that lay just west of Athenian territory, and stopped its military blockage of Potidaea, a strategically located city-state in northern Greece. The Athenians had forbidden the Megarians from trading in all the harbors of the Athenian empire, a severe blow for Megara, which derived much income from trade. The Athenians had imposed the sanctions in retaliation for alleged Megarian encroachment on sacred land along the border between the territory of Megara and Athens. As for Potidaea, it been an ally of Athens but was now in rebellion. Potidaea retained ties to Corinth, the city that had originally founded it, and Corinth, an ally of Sparta, had protested the Athenian blockade of its erstwhile colony. The Corinthians were already angry at the Athenians for having supported the city-state of Corcyra in its earlier quarrel with Corinth and securing an alliance with Corcyra and its formidable navy. The Spartans issued the ultimatums in order to placate the Megarians and, more importantly, the Corinthians with their powerful naval force. Corinth had threatened to withdraw from the Peloponnesian League and join a different international alliance if the Spartans delayed any longer in backing them in their dispute with the Athenians over Potidaea. In this way, the actions of lesser powers nudged the two great powers, Athens and Sparta, over the brink to war in 431 B.C.
This text is from: Thomas Martin's An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander, Yale University Press. Cited Mar 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
OLYNTHOS (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
Chalcis colonized the cities that were subject to Olynthus, which later were treated outrageously by Philip. (Strabo 10.1.8)
POTIDEA (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
Artabazus son of Pharnaces, who was already a notable man among the
Persians and grew to be yet more so through the Plataean business, escorted the
king as far as the passage with sixty thousand men of the army that Mardonius
had chosen. Xerxes, then, was now in Asia, and when Artabazus came near Pallene
in his return (for Mardonius was wintering in Thessaly and Macedonia and making
no haste to come to the rest of his army), he thought it right that he should
enslave the people of Potidaea, whom he found in revolt. When the king had marched
away past the town and the Persian fleet had taken flight from Salamis, Potidaea
had openly revolted from the barbarians and so too had the rest of the people
of Pallene.
Thereupon Artabazus laid siege to Potidaea, and suspecting that Olynthus
too was plotting revolt from the king, he laid siege to it also. This town was
held by Bottiaeans who had been driven from the Thermaic gulf by the Macedonians.
Having besieged and taken Olynthus, he brought these men to a lake and there cut
their throats and delivered their city over to the charge of Critobulus of Torone
and the Chalcidian people. It was in this way that the Chalcidians gained possession
of Olynthus.
Having taken Olynthus, Artabazus dealt immediately with Potidaea,
and his zeal was aided by Timoxenus the general of the Scionaeans, who agreed
to betray the place to him. I do not know how the agreement was first made, since
there is no information available about it. The result, however, was as I will
now show. Whenever Timoxenus wrote a letter to be sent to Artabazus, or Artabazus
to Timoxenus, they would wrap it around the shaft of an arrow at the notches,
attach feathers to the letter, and shoot it to a place upon which they had agreed.
Timoxenus' plot to betray Potidaea was, however, discovered, for Artabazus in
shooting an arrow to the place agreed upon, missed it and hit the shoulder of
a man of Potidaea. A throng gathered quickly around the man when he was struck
(which is a thing that always happens in war), and they straightway took the arrow,
found the letter, and carried it to their generals; the rest of their allies of
Pallene were also there present. The generals read the letter and perceived who
was the traitor, but they resolved for Scione's sake that they would not condemn
Timoxenus with a charge of treason, for fear that the people of Scione should
hereafter be called traitors.
This is how Timoxenus' treachery was brought to light. But when Artabazus
had besieged Potidaea for three months, there was a great ebb-tide in the sea
which lasted for a long while, and when the foreigners saw that the sea was turned
to a marsh, they prepared to pass over it into Pallene. When they had made their
way over two-fifths of it, however, and three yet remained to cross before they
could be in Pallene, there came a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the
place say, than any one of the many that had been before. Some of them who did
not know how to swim were drowned, and those who knew were slain by the Potidaeans,
who came among them in boats. The Potidaeans say that the cause of the high sea
and flood and the Persian disaster lay in the fact that those same Persians who
now perished in the sea had profaned the temple and the image of Poseidon which
was in the suburb of the city. I think that in saying that this was the cause
they are correct. Those who escaped alive were led away by Artabazus to Mardonius
in Thessaly. This is how the men who had been the king's escort fared.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Mar 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Since the people of Athens desired for the glory of it to take Potidaea by storm, they sent Hagnon there as general with the army which Pericles had formerly commanded. He put in at Potidaea with the whole expedition and made all his preparations for the siege; for he had made ready every kind of engine used in sieges, a multitude of arms and missiles, and an abundance of grain, sufficient for the entire army. Hagnon spent much time making continuous assaults every day, but without the power to take the city. For on the one side the besieged, spurred on by their fear of capture, were putting up a sturdy resistance and, confiding in the superior height of the walls, held the advantage over the Athenians attacking from the harbour, whereas the besiegers were dying in large numbers from the plague and despondency prevailed throughout the army. Hagnon, knowing that the Athenians had spent more than a thousand talents on the siege and were angry with the Potidaeans because they were the first to go over to the Lacedaemonians, was afraid to raise the siege; consequently he felt compelled to continue it and to compel the soldiers, beyond their strength, to force the issue against the city. But since many Athenian citizens were being slain in the assaults and by the ravages of the plague, he left a part of his army to maintain the siege and sailed back to Athens, having lost more than a thousand of his soldiers. After Hagnon had withdrawn, the Potidaeans, since their grain supply was entirely exhausted and the people in the city were disheartened, sent heralds to the besiegers to discuss terms of capitulation. These were received eagerly and an agreement to cessation of hostilities was reached on the following terms: All the Potidaeans should depart from the city, taking nothing with them, with the exception that men could have one garment and women two. When this truce had been agreed upon, all the Potidaeans together with their wives and children left their native land in accordance with the terms of the compact and went to the Chalcidians in Thrace among whom they made their home; and the Athenians sent out as many as a thousand of their citizens to Potidaea as colonists and portioned out to them in allotments both the city and its territory.
This extract is from: Diodorus Siculus, Library (ed. C. H. Oldfather, 1989). Cited Mar 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
POTIDEA (Ancient city) HALKIDIKI
About the same time Philip, king of the Macedonians, who had been
victorious over the Illyrians in a great battle and had made subject all the people
who dwelt there as far as the lake called Lychnitis, now returned to Macedonia,
having arranged a noteworthy peace with the Illyrians and won great acclaim among
the Macedonians for the successes due to his valour. Thereupon, finding that the
people of Amphipolis were ill-disposed toward him and offered many pretexts for
war, he entered upon a campaign against them with a considerable force. By bringing
siege-engines against the walls and launching severe and continuous assaults,
he succeeded in breaching a portion of the wall with his battering rams, whereupon,
having entered the city through the breach and struck down many of his opponents,
he obtained the mastery of the city and exiled those who were disaffected toward
him, but treated the rest considerately. Since this city was favourably situated
with regard to Thrace and the neighbouring regions, it contributed greatly to
the aggrandizement of Philip. Indeed he immediately reduced Pydna, and made an
alliance with the Olynthians in the terms of which he agreed to take over for
them Potidaea, a city which the Olynthians had set their hearts on possessing.
Since the Olynthians inhabited an important city and because of its huge population
had great influence in war, their city was an object of contention for those who
sought to extend their supremacy. For this reason the Athenians and Philip were
rivals against one another for the alliance with the Olynthians. However that
may be, Philip, when he had forced Potidaea to surrender, led the Athenian garrison
out of the city and, treating it considerately, sent it back to Athens--for he
was particularly solicitous toward the people of Athens on account of the importance
and repute of their city--but, having sold the inhabitants into slavery, he handed
it over to the Olynthians, presenting them also at the same time with all the
properties in the territory of Potidaea.
This extract is from: Diodorus Siculus, Library (ed. C. H. Oldfather, 1989). Cited Mar 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
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