Listed 17 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SARANDE Town ALBANIA" .
ONCHISTOS (Ancient port) ALBANIA
Onchesmus (Onkesmos), a port-town of Chaonia in Epeirus, opposite
the north-western point of Corcyra, and the next port upon the coast to the south
of Panormus. (Strab. vii. p. 324; Ptol. iii. 14. § 2.) It seems to have been a
place of importance in the time of Cicero, and one of the ordinary points of departure
from Epeirus to Italy, as Cicero calls the wind favourable for making that passage
an Onchesmites. (Cic. ad Att. vii. 2) According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus
(Ant. Rom. i. 51) the real name of the place was the Port of Anchises (Anchisou
limen), named after Anchises, the father of Aeneas; and it was probably owing
to this tradition that the name Onchesmus assumed the form of Anchiasmus under
the Byzantine emperors. Its site is that of the place now called the Forty Saints.
(Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 11.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FINIKI (Ancient city) ALBANIA
Now Finiki; a city of Epirus on the coast, in the district Chaonia.
ONCHISTOS (Ancient port) ALBANIA
(Onchesmos) or Onchismus (Onchismos). A seaport town of Epirus, opposite Corcyra.
VOUTHROTON (Ancient city) ALBANIA
Now Butrinto; a town of Epirus, a flourishing seaport on a small peninsula, opposite Corcyra.
According to Polybios, this was the best fortified town of Epeiros.
It rose on a hill shaped like the wrecked keel of a ship, with the village of
Finik at the foot of the hill. The walls, in three sections, are preserved on
the hill: the acropolis walls, the walls of the period of the enlarging of the
acropolis, and the walls of the fortified city. These walls, constructed in ashlar
masonry, employed huge blocks, and in some places rest in the living rock. They
date between the 4th c. and 2d c. B.C. Inside the acropolis are the remains of
Greek and Roman walls. In the village, there are few remains of Greek walls, but
the Roman remains are numerous, incorporated for the most part into modern buildings.
Some are in opus reticulatum and brick, others in opus incertum and can be dated
even to the late Roman period. A small thesauros has been uncovered on the acropolis.
In the Byzantine period it was transformed into a baptistery. Three cisterns,
dating between the 5th c. B.C. and the 3d c. A.D., are recognizable, as are a
few remains of minor buildings.
The necropolis, set on the slopes of the hill, contains tombs, all
of the Hellenistic period, some chest-like in rock slabs and others covered with
tiles.
P. C. Sestieri, 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.
MAIANDRIA (Ancient city) ALBANIA
On a hill in marshy ground near the coast, inland from Buthrotum,
are remains of a powerful circuit wall with massive well-cut blocks, similar to
that at Phoinike and built probably ca. 325-320 B.C. The name was attributed to
Trojans who settled here en route to Latium. Pliny (HN 4.1.4) mentions it as being
on the coast of Epeiros; it was probably on the Roman road, which followed the
coast.
N.G.L. Hammond, 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.
ONCHISTOS (Ancient port) ALBANIA
A port of call on the coast of Epeiros, just N of Santi Quaranta.
Remains of a small Roman theater and of buildings and fortifications of the Late
Roman Empire suggest that it became important only in Roman times. Its position
is indicated by Strabo (7.7.5), and its wind favored Cicero in sailing to Italy
(Att. 7.2.1).
N.G.L. Hammond, 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.
VOUTHROTON (Ancient city) ALBANIA
A city which, according to Vergil, was founded by the Trojan seer
Helenos. After marrying Andromache, the widow of Hector, Helenos migrated to the
shores of Epeiros where he founded a new Troy. In reality, Buthrotum must have
been founded, as were Apollonia and Durazzo, by colonists from Kerkyra (Corfu).
It is situated on a hill commanding a view of the coastal lagoon of Corfu--Lake
Pelode in antiquity--connected to the sea by a short, natural canal. The remains
of the city, which belong to the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods, are scattered
on the acropolis hill--along its slopes and in the low-lying section along the
bank of the canal--and in the entire zone between there and the base of the hill.
The city became a colony under Julius Caesar. Pompeius Atticus constructed
a magnificent villa there, the Amaltheion, in the vicinity of which was found
a Parian marble relief representing a winged Nike of disputed date. The acropolis
is protected by three circuit walls, set out in three rows of varying height.
The highest and oldest was constructed of large, rough-hewn polygonal blocks.
The central wall, halfway up the hill, is also built of polygonal blocks. The
third wall, at the foot of the hill, is made of ashlar masonry; occasionally the
stones are very large and the wall shows traces of the restorations of different
periods. This last wall, constructed between the end of the 5th c. and the beginning
of the 4th c. B.C., was provided with bastions and gates. The most important of
the gates are the so-called Porta Scea and the Porta del Leone. The left side
of the former juts out like a large tower in such a way as to force attackers
to expose their right, unshielded sides. The flat arch of the gate is made of
long, narrow rectangular blocks held in place by molded brackets. The present
pavement, 5 m from the top of the gate, dates to the Byzantine period; the original
paving is 1.5 m below that.
The Porta del Leone has the same structure as the Porta Scea and was
so named because the top is decorated with a sculptured limestone relief of a
lion tearing a bull to pieces. The work seems unfinished (but certainly archaic--6th
c. B.C.) and appears to have been added to the gate after its construction.
Only the foundations of the N and W gates remain, while the Porta
a Mare in the third circuit wall is partially preserved and gains its name from
its geographic location. It is formed of two towers, one square and the other
semicircular. At the center on the inside, each of the two large towers has a
pillar which must have served to support the roofing. All the gates date to the
beginning of the Hellenistic period, around the middle of the 4th c. B.C.
Among other Greek and Roman buildings partially preserved and of prime
importance is the theater, which stretches along the S slopes of the acropolis.
The cavea and the orchestra belong to the end of the 4th c. B.C. Thirteen rows
of seats have been preserved as have the remains of at least six others, separated
from the first by a diazoma and parapet. Four stairways form five sections. The
horseshoe-shaped orchestra was paved in the Roman period with slabs of white limestone.
The stage dates to the first years of the Empire, with but few traces of the original.
The scaena is composed of the scaenae frons and the pulpitum, the first of which
is formed by a wall and three arcades with niches in the pilasters, and niches
also adorn the frons pulpiti. The parodoi were transformed in the Roman period
into versurae by means of a vaulted roof. Many Greek inscriptions can be read
on the rows and on the walls of the parodoi. On the third row is a dedicatory
inscription, probably to Asklepios since proximity of a small shrine dedicated
to Asklepios is nearby. Numerous statues have been discovered in the theater,
among which are a copy of the Great Hercules and the so-called Goddess of Buthrotum,
the latter a Hellenistic head of Apollo fitted to a female torso of the 5th c.
In addition, there are two statues of warriors, one of which is signed by Sosikles
the Athenian.
In the vicinity of the theater are various monuments, the most important
of which are:
A Greek temple, somewhat above the theater along the S slope of the
hill of the acropolis, in antis with the cella raised in the center on three steps;
two mosaic pavements--one of them polychrome--have been placed over the original
floor; the temple dates to the Hellenistic period.
A portico of ashlar masonry on the same axis as the theater with arcades
supported by pillars; only one arch is partially preserved and the pillars have
been reinforced.
A Shrine of Aesculapius, a small Roman temple built over a previous
temple of the Greek period, backs onto the W side of the theater. It comprises
a vestibule and a cella in which was discovered a large headless statue which
must be that of Aesculapius or of his priest; some 340 vases and vase stands were
found in the votive pit and inscriptions to Aesculapius were found on some of
those dating to the Hellenistic period.
There are numerous buildings at Buthrotum, partially preserved, dating
primarily to the Roman period. Among them are various bath complexes, the Nymphaeum,
and the Fountain of Junia Rufina. The fountain, near the Porta del Leone, is a
well of sulphurous water used in the Greek period and on into the Roman period.
Along the parapet are limestone slabs with a Greek inscription referring to Junia
Rufina, the friend of the Nymphs. The arcaded aqueduct, near the Porta a Mare,
is also noteworthy. The Baptistery was built from a circular room of the Roman
period with a mosaic pavement dating to the end of the 4th c. A.D. On the pavement
a baptismal font in the form of a Greek cross had been carved out of two superposed
column drums. Two panels inserted in it depicted the Baptism and the Eucharist.
The mosaic is polychrome and the decoration is of animal forms in bright colors.
P. C. Sestieri, 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.
On an isolated limestone hill in the plain S of Buthrotum. The site was defended by a double circuit wall, mainly in polygonal masonry, of which a part, containing a gateway, has been excavated. The quarry from which the masonry probably came has been identified.
N.G.L. Hammond, 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.
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