Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "STRATOS Ancient city ETOLOAKARNANIA".
Located between Agrinion and Amphilochia in Akarnania, on the right
bank of the Acheloos.
The name and the history of Stratos are noted in the sources (Strab.
10.450; Ptol. 5.13.10; 96.3). During the Peloponnesian War the city was allied
with Athens. In 314 Kassander completed the synoecism between Stratos, Saurias,
and Agrinion; and in 270, after the death of Pyrrhos, it was assigned to Aitolia.
Antiochos, and later Nikander, found refuge at Stratos. In 167 it was included
in the Roman province.
The ruins of Stratos, with an extensive city wall that encloses the
modern village of Surovigli, extend over three hills. The walls, because of their
numerous spurs and many towers, should antedate 429 B.C. although the building
technique is pseudo-isodomic trapezoidal, more typical of the 4th c. Actually,
since the W sector encloses the Temple of Zeus, it is probable that the dating
of the entire wall should be lowered to 314 B.C. A median wall, a diateichisma
running N-S, cuts the enclosed area approximately in half. It was intended for
the concentration of the defense in case of attack. The large gate in the wall
opens to the S, and is defended by powerful buttresses. To the N of the surrounding
wall is the acropolis, protected by its own encircling wall which is linked to
the defensive system.
The theater, of the 4th c. B.C., is on a hill E of the village of
Surovigli. The city probably also had a gymnasium, since an inscription of the
2d c. B.C. (IG2 IX, 1.24.408) records the appointment of a gymnasiarchos.
Also datable to the 4th c. B.C. is the agora, SW of the modern village.
The entire W side of the structure, with its portico, was built on a row of subterranean
rooms, a Hellenistic peculiarity.
The Temple of Zeus, a peripteros 16.5 x 32.4 m on the W hill, may
be dated to the 4th c., as is suggested by its connection with the city wall.
It has a miscellany of orders: Doric in the peristasis, Ionic in the architrave,
and Corinthian in the interior.
N. Bonacasa, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Now Lepenu or Lepanon, the chief town in Acarnania, ten stadia west of the Achelous. Its territory was called Stratice.
Eth. Stratios: its territory he Stratike: Surovigli. The chief town
of Acarnania, was situated in the interior of the country, in a fertile plain
on the right bank of the Achelous. It commanded the principal approaches to the
plain from the northward, and was thus a place of great military importance. Strabo
(x. p. 450) places it 200 stadia from the mouth of the Achelous by the course
of the river. At the distance of 80 stadia S. of the town the river Anapus flowed
into the Achelous; and 5 Roman miles to its N., the Achelous received another
tributary stream, named Petitaurus. (Thuc. ii. 82; Liv. xliii. 22.) Stratus joined
the Athenian alliance, with most of the other Acarnanian towns, at the commencement
of the Peloponnesian War. In B.C. 429 it was attacked by the Ambraciots, with
a number of barbarian auxiliaries, aided by some Peloponnesian troops, under the
command of Cnemus; but they were defeated under the walls of Stratus, and obliged
to retire. Thucydides describes Stratus at that time as the chief town of Acarnania,
which it is also called by Xenophon in his account of the expedition of Agesilaus
into this country. (Thuc. ii. 80, seq., iii. 106; Xen. Hell. iv. 6) When the Aetolians
extended their dominions, Stratus fell into the hands of this people, whence it
is called by Livy a town of Aetolia. It is frequently mentioned during the Macedonian
and Roman wars. Neither Philip V. nor his successor Perseus was able to wrest
the town from the Aetolians; and it remained in the power of the latter till their
defeat by the Romans, who restored it to Acarnania, together with the other towns,
which the Aetolians had taken from the Acarnanians. (Polyb. iv. 63, v. 6, 7, 13,
14, 96; Liv. xxxvi. 11, xliii. 21, 22.) Livy (xliii. 21) gives an erroneous description
of the position of Stratus when he says that it is situated above the Ambracian
gulf, near the river Inachus.
There are considerable remains of Stratus at the modern village of
Surovigli. The entire circuit of the city was about 2 1/2 miles. The eastern wall
followed the bank of the river. Leake discovered the remains of a theatre situated
in a hollow: its interior diameter below is 105 feet, and there seem to have been
about 30 rows of seats. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 137, seq.)
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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