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Greek city of
Olynthos in
Macedonia
Chalkidian League
Bronze 15mm (3.51 grams) Struck circa 432-348 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1433; B.M.C. 5.31; Cf. Robinson-Clement Group M; SNG ANS 552
Laureate head of
Apollo
right.
XAΛKIΔΕΩΝ, Lyre.
A colony of Chalkis, Olynthos became the center of opposition
to Athenian imperialism in the North, and was the headquarters of the Chalkidian
League formed circa 432 B.C. The city was captured and destroyed by Philip II,
king of Macedon, in 348 B.C.
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The lyre (Greek:
λύρα) is a
stringed musical instrument
known for its use
in Greek
classical antiquity
and later. The word comes
from the
Greek
“λύρα” (lyra)[1]
and the earliest reference to the word is the
Mycenaean Greek
ru-ra-ta-e, meaning
“lyrists”, written in
Linear B
syllabic script.[2]
The earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous
sarcophagus
of
Hagia Triada
(a
Minoan
settlement in
Crete
). The sarcophagus was used during the
Mycenaean
occupation of Crete (1400 BC).[3][4]
The recitations of the
Ancient Greeks
were acco mpanied
by lyre playing. The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being
strummed with a plectrum
, like a
guitar
or a
zither
, rather than being plucked, like a
harp. The fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in
the chord. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct
differences.
The word lyre can either refer specifically to a common
folk-instrument, which is a smaller version of the professional
kithara
and eastern-Aegean
barbiton
, or lyre can refer generally to
all three instruments as a family.
The term is also used
metaphorically
to refer to the work or skill of
a poet
, as in
Shelley’s
“Make me thy lyre, even as the forest
is”[5]
or Byron’s
“I wish to tune my quivering lyre,/To
deeds of fame, and notes of fire”
In
Greek
and
Roman mythology
, Apollo
,
is one of the most important and diverse of the
Olympian deities
. The ideal of the
kouros
(a
beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the
sun; truth and prophecy;
archery
;
medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son
of Zeus
and
Leto, and has a
twin
sister, the chaste huntress
Artemis
.
Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology
as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both
ancient Greek
and
Roman religion
, as well as in the modern
Greco
–Roman
Neopaganism
.
As the patron of Delphi
(Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an
oracular
god — the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle
.
Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god
himself or mediated through his son
Asclepius
,
yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly
plague
as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god’s
custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over
colonists
, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of
the Muses
(Apollon
Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god
of music and poetry
.
Hermes
created
the lyre
for him,
and the instrument became a common
attribute
of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called
paeans
.
In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo
Helios he became identified among Greeks with
Helios
,
god of
the sun
, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with
Selene
,
goddess
of the moon
.
In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to
find any conflation of Apollo with
Sol
among the
Augustan poets
of the first century, not even in the conjurations of
Aeneas
and
Latinus
in
Aeneid
XII
(161–215).
Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological
texts until the third century CE.
The Chalkidian League (Greek:
Κοινόν τῶν Χαλκιδέων, “Koinon
of the Chalkideans” or Olynthians or Χαλκιδεῖς
ἐπί Θρᾴκης Chalcidians in
Thrace
to distinguish them from
Chalcidians
in
Euboea
) was a federal state that existed on the
shores of the north west Aegean from around 430 BCE until it was destroyed by
Philip II of Macedon
in
348 BCE
.
History
Macedonia and the Chalkidice
In
432 BCE
Olynthos
broke away from
Athens
. Along with several other cities, some
form of united state was formed with Olynthos. Exactly what form it took is a
matter of academic dispute. By the terms of the
Peace of Nicias
of
421 BCE
, Athens and Sparta agreed that it
should be broken up but it seems clear that Athens failed to enforce this.
However, because the
Chalkidike
was no longer the arena of conflict
between Athens and Sparta, nothing is heard of it from that time until
393 BCE
.
In 393,
Amyntas III of Macedon
temporally transferred
some territory to Olynthos during a period when he was driven out of Macedon by
Illyrians. It was restored when Amyntas regained power. Eight years later,
Amyntas again in trouble handed over territory, this time to the league. The
League were not so ready to return what they held which now included
Pella
the capital of Macedonia. In
383 BCE
, Amyntas appealed to Sparta and at the
same time a similar appeal came from
Akanthos
and
Apollonia
, two League members who claimed that
that membership of the League was not voluntary but enforced at the point of a
sword. Sparta was keen to respond to the request. Amongst Sparta’s allies there
was no animosity against the Chalkidian League. Nevertheless, when the question
was put, fear of annoying Sparta ensured that the proposal was carried. A force
of 10,000 was authorized to be sent. An advance force of 2000 was sent under
Eudamidas which succeeded in separating Potidaea from the League.
The fighting was long and arduous.
Teleutias
, the half brother of the Spartan
king, Agesilaos (or
Agesilaus II
), was killed and King
Agesipolis
suffered heavy losses before dying
of fever. However, in
379 BCE
the cities of the former League became
“autonomous” and subject allies of Sparta. Freeman regards the Spartan
dissolution of the League as one of the most “calamitous events” in Hellenic
history for, in his view, the League uniting the northern Greek cities with the
most hellenised cities of Macedonia would have prevented the rise of
Philip II of Macedon
, who later destroyed the
Chalkidian League.
Internal Organization
The actual form of the League is uncertain. It seems it was a genuinely
federal state with common laws and coinage and was probably based on the
Boeotian League
. Political rights are likely to
have been reserved to a group of 8000 designated by a property qualification. It
included most but not all the Euboean colonies of Chalcidice. The symbol of the
Chalcidians was the lyre
, struck upon the coins the League.
Olynthus (Ancient
Greek: Όλυνθος, named for the
olunthos, a fig which ripens early; the area abounded in figs) was an
ancient city of
Chalcidice
, built mostly on two flat-topped
hills 30–40m in height, in a fertile plain at the head of the
Gulf of Torone
, near the neck of the peninsula
of
Pallene
, about 2.5 kilometers from the sea, and
about 60 stadia (c. 9–10 kilometers) from
Poteidaea
.
History
Olynthus
, son of Heracles, was considered the
mythological founder of the town. The South Hill bore a small
Neolithic
settlement; was abandoned during the
Bronze Age
; and was resettled in the seventh
century BC. Subsequently, the town was captured by the
Bottiaeans
, a Thracian tribe ejected from
Macedon by
Alexander I
. The town of Olynthus remained in
their possession until
479 BC
. In that year the Persian general
Artabazus
, on his return from escorting
Xerxes
to the
Hellespont
, suspecting that a revolt from the
Great King was meditated, handed the town over to Kritovoulos from
Toroni
and to a fresh population consisting of
Greeks from the neighboring region of Chalcidice (Herod.
viii. 127). Though Herodotus reports that Artabazus slaughtered them, Boetiaeans
continued to live in the area.
Olynthus became a Greek polis, but it remained insignificant (in the
quota-lists of the
Delian League
it appears as paying on the
average 2 talents, as compared with 6 to 15 paid by
Scione
, 6 to 15 by
Mende
, 6 to 12 by
Toroni
), and 3 to 6 by
Sermylia
from 454 to 432 .
In 432 King
Perdiccas II of Macedon
encouraged several
nearby coastal towns to disband and remove their population to Olynthus,
preparatory to a revolt to be led by Potidaea against Athens (Thuc.
1.58). This synoecism
(συνοικισμός) was effected, though
against Perdiccas’s wishes the contributing cities were preserved. This increase
in population led to the settlement of the North Hill, which was developed on a
grid plan. In 423 Olynthus became the head of a formal
Chalkidian League
, occasioned by the synoecism
or by the beginning of the
Peloponnesian War
and fear of Athenian attack.
During the Peloponnesian war it formed a base for
Brasidas
in his expedition of 424 and refuge
for the citizens of
Mende
and
Poteidaea
that had rebelled against the
Athenians (Thu.
ii, 70).
After the end of the
Peloponnesian War
the development of the league
was rapid and ended consisting of 32 cities. About 393 we find it concluding an
important treaty with
Amyntas III of Macedon
(the father of
Philip II
), and by 382 it had absorbed most of
the Greek cities west of the Strymon, and had even got possession of
Pella
, the chief city in
Macedon
. (Xenophon, Hell. V. 2, 12).
In this year Sparta was induced by an embassy from
Acanthus
and
Apollonia
, which anticipated conquest by the
league, to send an expedition against Olynthus. After three years of indecisive
warfare Olynthus consented to dissolve the confederacy (379). It is clear,
however, that the dissolution was little more than formal, as the Chalcidians
(“Χαλκιδῆς ἀπò Θρᾴκης”) appear, only a year or two later, among the members of
the Athenian naval confederacy of 378-377. Twenty years later, in the reign of
Philip, the power of Olynthus is asserted by
Demosthenes
to have been much greater than
before the Spartan expedition. The town itself at this period is spoken of as a
city of the first rank (πóλις μuρἰανδρος), and the league included thirty-two
cities.
When the
Social War
broke out between Athens and its
allies (357), Olynthus was at first in alliance with Philip. Subsequently, in
alarm at the growth of his power, it concluded an alliance with Athens. Olynthus
made three embassies to Athens, the occasions of Demosthenes’s three Olynthiac
Orations. On the third, the Athenians sent soldiers from among its citizens.
After Philip had deprived Olynthus of the rest of the League, by force and by
the treachery of sympathetic factions, he besieged Olynthus in 348. The siege
was short; he bought Olynthus’s two principal citizens, Euthycrates and
Lasthenes,[1]
who betrayed the city to him. He then looted and razed the city and sold its
population—including the Athenian garrison—into slavery. According to the latest
researches only a small area of the North Hill was ever re-occupied, up to 318,
before Cassander
forced the population to move in his
new city of
Kassandreia
.
Though the city was extinguished, through subsequent centuries there would be
men scattered through the Hellenistic world who were called Olynthians.
Topography
and archaeology
Floor mosaic depicting
Bellerophon
scene in a house of
ancient city of Olynthos.
The city of Olynthus lies in the hill named Megale Toumba near the village of
Myriophyto. The probable site of Olynthus was identified as early as 1902.
Between 1914 and 1916 plans were made for an excavation by the British School at
Athens, but these fell through.
The ancient city extends in two hills that detach from a small coulee and
possess an area with 1500 m long and 400 m in width. Excavations began in 1928.
Prof. D. M. Robinson of
Johns Hopkins
, under the American School for
Classical Studies at Athens, conducted four seasons of work: in 1928, 1931,
1934, and 1939. The results of the excavations were digested into fourteen folio
volumes. The excavation had uncovered more than five hectares of Olynthus and a
portion of Mecyberna (the harbor of Olynthus). On the North Hill this hurried
pace proved relatively harmless due to the simple stratigraphy of an area of the
city occupied only for 84 years and subjected to a sudden, final destruction;
but the data from the South Hill was badly muddled. Nonetheless the work was
excellent for its time, and remains supremely valuable. Much of the stratigraphy
of the North Hill has been reconstructed by Nicholas Cahill. The site is now in
the charge of Dr. Julia Vokotopoulou, and the XVI Ephorate of Classical
Antiquities.
The Neolithic settlement is located in the edge of the southern hill and was
dated in the 3rd millennium BC. The houses were built by stone blocks and had
one or two rooms. The pottery that was found was the typical of that period
comprising monochrome ceramic vases. The end of this rural settlement was abrupt
and is placed around the first millennium..
The
archaic
city was built under a provincially
urban planning
and extended throughout the
whole south hill. Two avenues were revealed along the eastern and western edges
of the hill that intersected with crossing streets. Along the south avenue shops
and small houses were found while the administrative part was located in the
north part of the hill, where the
agora
and a
deanery
were found.
The
classical
city was established on the must
larger north hill and to its eastern slope. The excavations, which cover only
the 1/10 of the city’s total area, have revealed a
Hippodamian
grid plan
. Two large avenues were discovered,
with an amplitude of 7 meters, along with vertical and horizontal streets that
divided the urban area into
city blocks
. Each one had ten houses with two
floors and a paved yard. Very important for the archaeological research are
considered the rich villas
that were excavated in the aristocratic
suburb of the city located in the eastern part of the north hill since there was
found some of the earliest
floor mosaics
in
Greek art
.
Both the archaic and classical city were protected by an extended land wall.
Parts of the foundations of the wall were revealed in the north hill and
elsewhere, but they are not enlightening on which method was followed for their
construction. Archaeologists suppose that it was built with sun-dried bricks
with a stone base, but it’s difficult to tell, since the city was literally
leveled by
Phillip
.
As it concerns the public buildings, the
Agora
is placed in the south edge of the north
hill, near the eastern gate, along with a public fountain, an
arsenal
Notable
people
-
Callisthenes
(c. 360-328 BC), historian
-
Ephippus
(4th century BC), historian
- Euphantus
(4th century BC), philosopher
Modern
Olynthos
The modern city, formerly Myriophyto, now called Olynthos or Nea Olynthos,
sits on a small plateau
on the western side of the river
Olynthios or Resetenikia (in ancient times known as Sandanus), across from the
ruins of the ancient city.
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