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Greek city of Cassandrea in Macedonia
Bronze 14mm (2.61 grams) Struck circa 1-35
A.D.
Reference: RPC I 1513; SNG ANS 233 VERY RARE
Vexillum between two signa.
CAS/AND/RE in three lines within wreath.
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Cassandrea, Cassandreia, or Cassandria (Ancient
Greek: Κασσάνδρεια,
Kassandreia) was once one of the most important cities in Ancient
Macedonia
founded by and named after
Cassander
in 316 BC located on the site of the
earlier
Ancient Greek
city of
Potidaea
. The fact that Cassander named it
after himself suggests that he may have intended it to be his capital, and if
the canal which cuts the peninsula at this point was dug or at least planned in
his time, he may have intended to develop his naval forces using it as a base
with two harbours on the east and west sides. The territory also at one time
comprised the areas of
Olynthus
and
Mekyberna
to the northeast,
Bottiaea
to the northwest and the small
peninsula of Pallene (now Kassandra) to the east. At the end of the
Roman Republic
, a Roman colony was settled
around 43 BC by the order of
Brutus
, by the proconsul Q. Hortensius Hortatus.
The official colonial name was Colonia Iulia Augusta Cassandrensis. The
colony enjoyed
ius Italicum
. It is mentioned in
Pliny the Elder
‘s encyclopaedia (IV, 36) and in
inscriptions.
During the Byzantine period it was briefly important in the 1423–30 period,
when the Venetians captured it from the Turks and used it as a naval base. They
also captured the castle of Platamon on the western shore of the Thermaic Gulf,
and so had complete control of the approaches by sea to Thessalonica, which they
had taken over after it had been offered to them by the ruling Despot. Like
Thessalonica, it fell to the Ottomans in 1430.
The modern settlement of
Kassandra
lies to the south of the ancient
site. The ancient site of Cassandreia (renamed Nea Potidaia) is not excavated.
The peninsula of Pallene, now generally known as Kassandra, stretches to the
south. This was the westernmost of the three peninsulas of
Chalkidike
, the middle one being the Sithone/Torone
peninsula and the easternmost Mount Athos. Its southernmost point is near
Paliouri
which is also the prefecture’s
southernmost point; the promontories include the
Kassandreia
to the west and the
Kanistro
to the east. Except for Kanastraio,
none of these capes marks the extremities of the peninsula except for the
eastern part.
The canal on the northern side of
Nea Potidaia
to the north divides the peninsula
from the rest of Chalkidiki.
The peninsula of Kassandra features picturesque villages, beautiful green
nature filled with grasslands and forests, beaches and tourist attractions..
Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to
the period of
Greek history
lasting
from the
Archaic period
of the
8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity and
beginning of the
Early Middle Ages
with
the rise of the
Byzantine
era following
Justinian I
. At the
center of this time period is
Classical Greece
, which
flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first
under
Athenian
leadership
successfully repelling the military threat of
Persian invasion
. The
Athenian Golden Age
ends with the defeat of Athens at the hands of
Sparta
in the
Peloponnesian War
in
404 BC. Following the conquests of
Alexander the Great
,
Hellenistic civilization
flourished from
Central Asia
to the
western end of the
Mediterranean Sea
.
Classical
Greek cultureee
had a
powerful influence on the
Roman Empire
, which
carried a version of it to many parts of the
Mediterranean region
and
Europe
, for which
reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be
the seminal culture which provided the foundation of
Western civilization
.
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