Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "FALIRON Ancient demos PIRAEUS".
Phaleron. Despite the antiquity, size, and importance of Phaleron, little of a precise nature is known of its Classical topography and monuments, even though it is clear from Pausanias especially that the number of its sanctuaries and altars was large. The general location of the deme is, however, well established: Herodotos (6.116) associates Athens' first port and arsenal with Phaleron; Pausanias describes it as on the coast (1.1.2), more specifically, 20 stades from both Athens (8.10.4) and Cape Kolias (1.1.5), the latter to be identified as Haghios Kosmas; and Strabo names it first in his enumeration of the coastal demes E of Piraeus (9.21). These indications, while not in complete harmony, still heavily favor the identification of the area and headland around the Church of Haghios Georgios in Palaion Phaleron as the site of the ancient town, with the broad open roadstead of the Bay of Phaleron between it and Mounychia to the W as the harbor. Discoveries at this location have been, and are still being, made suitable for a deme. Perhaps of greatest significance are the traces of a series of conglomerate blocks that have been followed across the heights of Old Phaleron to the sea, and interpreted as belonging to the Phaleric Wall recorded by Thucydides (1.107.1). Modern development, however, not only has obliterated almost all such ancient remains, but has also changed the very nature and position of the coastline.
C. W. J. Eliot, 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.
The rocky peninsula of Peiraeeus is said by the ancient writers to
have been originally an island, which was gradually connected with the mainland
by the accumulation of sand. (Strab. i. p. 59; Plin. iii. 85; Suid. s. v. embaros.)
The space thus filled up was known by the name of Halipedum (Halipedon), and continued
to be a marshy swamp, which rendered the Peiraeeus almost inaccessible in the
winter time till the construction of the broad carriage road (hamaxitos), which
was carried across it. (Harpocrat., Suid. s. v. halipedon; Xen. Hell. ii. 4. 30)
Under these circumstances the only spot which the ancient Athenians could use
as a harbour was the south-eastern corner of the Phaleric bay, now called, as
already remarked, Treis Purgoi, which is a round hill projecting into the sea.
This was accordingly the site of Phalerum (Phaleron, also Phaleros: Eth. Phalereis),
a demus belonging to the tribe Aeantis. This situation secured to the original
inhabitants of Athens two advantages, which were not possessed by the harbours
of the Peiraic peninsula: first, it was much nearer to the most ancient part of
the city, which was built for the most part immediately south. of the Acropolis
(Thuc. ii. 15); and, secondly, it was accessible at every season of the year by
a perfectly dry road.
The true position of Phalerum is indicated by many circumstances.
It is never included by ancient writers within the walls of Peiraeeus and Munychia.
Strabo, after describing Peiraeeus and Munychia, speaks of Phalerum as the next
place in order along the shore (meta ton Peiraia Phalereis demos en tei ephexes
paraliai, ix. p. 398). There is no spot at which Phalerum could have been situated
before reaching Treis Purgoi, since the intervening shore of the Phaleric gulf
is marshy (to Phalerikon, Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 844, Them. 12; Strab. ix. p.
400; Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 1693). The account which Herodotus gives (v. 63)
of the defeat of the Spartans, who had landed at Phalerum, by the Thessalian cavalry
of the Peisistratidae, is in accordance with the open country which extends inland
near the chapel of St. George, but would not be applicable to the Bay of Phanari,
which is completely protected against the attacks of cavalry by the rugged mountain
rising immediately behind it. Moreover, Ulrichs discovered on the road from Athens
to St. George considerable substructions of an ancient wall, apparently the Phaleric
Wall, which, as we have already seen, was five stadia shorter than the two Long
Walls.
That there was a town near St. George is evident from the remains
of walls, columns, cisterns, and other ruins which Ulrichs found at this place;
and we learn from another authority that there may still be seen under water the
remains of an ancient mole, upon which a Turkish ship was wrecked during the war
of independence in Greece. (Westermann, in Zeitschrift fur die Alterthumswissenschaft,
1843, p. 1009.)
Cape Colias (Kolias), where the Persian ships were cast ashore after
the battle of Salamis (Herod. viii. 96), and which Pausanias states to have been
20 stadia from Phalerum (i. 1. § 5), used to be identified with Treis Purgoi,
but must now be placed SE. at the present Cape of St. Kosmas: near the latter
are some ancient remains, which are probably those of the temple of Aphrodite
Colias mentioned by Pausanias. The port of Phalerum was little used after the
foundation of Peiraeeus; but the place continued to exist down to the time of
Pausanias. This writer mentions among its monuments temples of Demeter Zeus, and
Athena Sciras, called by Plutarch (Thes. 17) a temple of Scirus; and altars of
the Unknown Gods, of the Sons of Theseus, and of Phalerus. The sepulchre of Aristeides
(Plut. Arist. 1) was at Phalerum. The Phaleric bay was celebrated for its fish.
This extact is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The most easterly of the harbours of Athens, and the one chiefly used by the Athenians before the time of the Persian Wars. After the establishment by Themistocles of the harbours in the peninsula of Piraeus, Phalerum was not much used.
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