Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "INIADES Ancient city IERA POLIS MESSOLONGIOU".
It is situated on a hill surrounded by the waters of the ancient Melite lake (today Lesini).
Located in N Greece, in Akarnania at the mouth of the Acheloos river.
The city first appears in history in the 5th c. B.C. when it was apparently already
at least partially fortified. A friend of the Peloponnesian League, Oiniadai had
to withstand pressure from Athens, including at least one siege conducted by Pericles.
It held out, but eventually joined the Athenian League in 424. The city from this
time on remained under Athenian influence and was a member of the second Athenian
Confederacy in the 4th c. The Hellenistic period was marked by warfare with the
Aitolians, until Philip V freed the city from their control in 219. Oiniadai reverted
to Aitolia under the Romans but became Akarnanian again in 189. Its history under
Roman rule is unclear.
The walls are particularly well preserved, extending some 6.5 km in
length with a number of well-preserved gates and sally ports. Two types of masonry
are employed, polygonal and trapezoidal. Latest research on the chronology of
the fortifications leans to the opinion that the polygonal walls are datable to
the period of Athenian pressure in the latter half of the 5th c., and that the
circuit underwent modifications in the Hellenistic period.
Excavations in 1900-1901 revealed a number of important buildings.
A Greek bath complex was found, consisting of two round rooms with basins and
a number of other rooms, at least one of which had a large bathtub. The date appears
to be the second half of the 3d c. B.C. This is probably about the time of the
rebuilding in the theater of Oiniadai, which was partially excavated. At this
time a proskenion was placed in front of an earlier stage building, which may
have been originally erected in the 4th c. B.C. A row of four stone blocks within
the present scene building probably marks the original front wall of the earlier
skene. In the excavated portion of the cavea, some of the stone seats were found
to have manumission inscriptions, datable to the 3d or 2d c. B.C., cut into their
upper surfaces. Some remodeling was apparently undertaken in the early Roman period,
and there is also some indication of a later reconstruction in the bath complex.
On the E side of the entrance to the harbor, the excavators with some
difficulty identified what they considered a combination naval storage building
and ship shed composed of five slipways for the careening and storage of vessels.
Minor buildings uncovered include a small temple on a promontory W of the harbor
and a private house on another hill.
W. R. Biers, 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 6 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Oiniadai, though unhealthily situated and inaccessible in winter,
was strategically important as the key to South Akarnania. It was taken after
a siege in 455 BC. by exiled Messenians established at Nafpaktos,
and attacked in vain by Pericles in 453. Demosthenes in 424 forced it to join
the Athenian alliance. It fell to the Aitolians in 336 and, without bloodshed,
to Philip V in 219. The Romans captured it eight gears later and handed it over
to the Aitolian League. The town was restored to the Akarnanians in 189.
The entrance to Oiniadai is by the east wall near a cottage. The closely
jointed polygonal masonry is of the 6th century BC. To the south are the main
Gate, one of many with arched openings, a feature unusual in Greek architecture,
and the Acropolis. In the other direction are the remains of a small theatre,
having 27 rows of seats; inscriptions on the lowest three rows record the freeing
of slaves and date the building (late 3rd century BC). Farther north are remarkable
vestiges of the Docks reconstructed by Philip V. Here are a buttressed quay, porticoes
surrounding a basin hewn in the rock, berths with traces of the rings to which
the ships were moored, and their slipways. To the southwest of the port are some
remains of baths of Greek construction.
This text is cited December 2004 from the West Greece Region General Secretariat URL below, which contains images.
Oiniadai, Oineiadai, Eth. Oiniadai. A town in Acarnania, situated
on the W. bank of the Achelous, about 10 miles from its mouth. It was one of the
most important of the Acarnanian towns, being strongly fortified both by nature
and by art, and commanding the whole of the south of Acarnania. It was surrounded
by marshes, many of them of great extent and depth, which rendered it quite inaccessible
in the winter to an invading force. Its territory appears to have extended on
both sides of the Achelous, and to have consisted of the district called Paracheloitis,
which was very fertile. It seems to have derived its name from the mythical Oeneus,
the great Aetolian hero. The town is first mentioned about B.C. 455. The Messenians,
who had been settled at Naupactus by the Athenians at the end of the Third Messenian
War (455), shortly afterwards made an expedition against Oeniadae, which they
took; but after holding it for a year, they were attacked by the Acarnanians and
compelled to abandon the town. (Paus. iv. 25.) Oeniadae is represented at that
time as an enemy of Athens, which is said to have been one of the reasons that
induced the Messenians to attack the place. Twenty-three years before the Peloponnesian
War (B.C. 454) Pericles laid siege to the town, but was unable to take it. (Thuc.
i. 111; Diod. xi. 85.) In the Peloponnesian War, Oeniadae still continued opposed
to the Athenians, and was the only Acarnanian town, with the exception of Astacus,
which sided with the Lacedaemonians. In the third year of the war (429) Phormion
made an expedition into Acarnania to secure the Athenian ascendancy; but though
he took Astacus, he did not continue to march against Oeniadae, because it was
the winter, at which season the marshes secured the town from all attack. In the
following year (428) his son Asopius sailed up the Achelous, and ravaged the territory
of Oeniadae; but it was not till 424 that Demosthenes, assisted by all the other
Acarnanians, compelled the town to join the Athenian alliance. (Thuc. ii. 102,
iii. 7, iv. 77.) It continued to be a place of great importance during the Macedonian
and Roman wars. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Aetolians, who had extended
their dominions on the W. bank of the Achelous, succeeded in obtaining possession
of Oeniadae, and expelled its inhabitants in so cruel a manner that they were
threatened with the vengeance of Alexander. (Diod. xviii. 8.) Oeniadae remained
in the hands of the Aetolians till 219, when it was taken by Philip, king of Macedonia.
This monarch, aware of the importance of the place, strongly fortified the citadel,
and commenced uniting the harbour and the arsenal with the citadel by means of
walls. (Polyb. iv. 65.) In 211 Oeniadae, together with the adjacent Nesus (Nesos)
or Nasus, was taken by the Romans, under M. Valerius Laevinus, and given to the
Aetolians, who were then their allies; but in 189 it was restored to the Acarnanians
by virtue of one of the conditions of the peace made between the Romans and Aetolians
in that year. (Pol. ix. 39; Liv. xxvi. 24; Polyb. xxii. 15; Liv. xxxviii. 11.)
From this period Oeniadae disappears from history; but it continued to exist in
the time of Strabo.
The exact site of Oeniadae was long a matter of dispute. Dodwell and
Gell supposed the ruins on the eastern side of the Achelous to represent Oeniadae;
but these ruins are those of Pleuron. The true position of Oeniadae has now been
fixed with certainty by Leake, and his account has been confirmed by Mure, who
has since visited the spot. Its ruins are found at the modern Trikardho, on the
W. bank of the Achelous, and are surrounded by morasses on every side. To the
N. these swamps deepen into a reedy marsh or lake, now called Lesini or Katokhi,
and by the ancients Melite. In this lake is a small island, probably the same
as the Nasos mentioned above. Thucydides is not quite correct in his statement
(ii. 102) that the marshes around the city were caused by the Achelous alone;
he appears to take no notice of the lake of Melite, which afforded a much greater
protection to the city than the Achelous, and which has no connection with this
river. The city occupied an extensive insulated hill, from the southern extremity
of which there stretches out a long slope in the direction of the Achelous, connecting
the hill with the plain. The entire circuit of the fortifications still exists,
and cannot be much less than three miles. The walls, which are chiefly of polygonal
construction, are in an excellent state of preservation, often to a height of
from 10 to 12 feet. Towards the N. of the city was the port, communicating with
the sea by a deep river or creek running up through the contiguous marsh to Petala
on the coast.
Leake discovered the ruins of a theatre, which stood near the middle
of the city ; but the most interesting remains in the place are its arched posterns
or sallyports, and a larger arched gateway leading from the port to the city.
These arched gateways appear to be of great antiquity, and prove that the arch
was known in Greece at a much earlier period than is usually supposed. Drawings
of several of these gateways are given by Mure.
Strabo speaks of a town called Old Oenia (he palaia Oinaia), which
was deserted in his time, and which he describes as midway between Stratus and
the sea. New Oenia (he nun Oinaia), which he places 70 stadia above the mouth
of the Achelous, is the celebrated town of Oeniadae, spoken of above. The history
of Old Oenia is unknown. Leake conjectures that it may possibly have been Erysiche
(Erusiche), which Stephanus supposes to be the same as Oeniadae; but this is a
mistake, as Strabo quotes the authority of the poet Apollodorus to prove that
the Erysichaei were a people in the interior of Acarnania. Leake places Old Oenia
at Palea Mani, where he found some Hellenic remains.
This text 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
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