Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "AMANTIA Ancient city ILLYRIA".
On the right bank of the lower Aous, a steep-sided hill is fortified with a circuit wall ca. 1900 m long. An ancient road enters the city between two towers of ashlar masonry and foundations of houses are visible inside. Some magistrates of the city are named on an inscribed block in a house of the modern village. Religious and funerary reliefs of Hellenistic and Roman times come from the site. Literary evidence suggests that it was Amantia, the chief city of the Amantes, who issued coins.
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.
Amantia (Amantia: Eth. Amantieus, Steph. B. s. v.; Amantinos, Ptol. ii. 16. § 3; Amantinus, Plin. iv. 10. s. 17. § 35; Amantianus, Caes. B.C. iii. 12; Amantes, Etym. M. s. v.; Amantes, Plin. iii. 23. s. 26. § 45), a town and district in Greek Illyria. It is said to have been founded by the Abantes of Euboea, who, according to tradition, settled near the Ceraunian mountains, and founded Amantia and Thronium. From hence the original name of Amantia is said to have been Abantia, and the surrounding country to have been called Abantis. (Steph. B. s. v. Abantis, Amantia; Etym. M. s. v. Amantes; Paus. v. 22. § 3.) Amantia probably stood at some distance from the coast, S. of the river Aous, and on a tributary of the latter, named Polyanthes. (Lycophr. 1043.) It is placed by Leake at Nivitza, where there are the remains of Hellenic walls. This site agrees with the distances afforded by Scylax and the Tabular Itinerary, the former of which places Amantia at 320 stadia, and the latter at 30 Roman miles from Apollonia. Ptolemy speaks of an Amantia on the coast, and another town of the same name inland; whence we may perhaps infer that the latter had a port of the same name, more especially as the language of Caesar (B.C. iii. 40) would imply that Amantia was situated on the coast. Amantia was a place of some importance in the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey; and it continued to be mentioned in the time of the Byzantine emperors. (Caes. B.C. iii. 12, 40; Cic. Phil. xi. 1. 1; Leake, Ancient Greece, vol. i. p. 375, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
