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Corinth, Ambracia, Apollonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. L. Beaumont
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Extract

This paper is an amplification of that much quoted passage of Thucydides ἐπορεύθησαν δὲ πεƷῇ ἐς Ἀπολλωνίαν. Of this land route, which enabled the Corinthians to get troops up to Epidamnus in despite of Corcyra, we know something andcan guess more, and in view of the undoubted importance of this part of the Greek world to Corinth, it may be worth while to try to fit the isolated facts together and reconstruct a picture of a short phase of Epirote and Acarnanian history in the latter half of the fifth century. It is certain that the north-west ranked as one of Corinth's vital interests. There is no need to quote other evidence when there is the specific statement of the Corinthian ambassador before the Athenian demos that it was a necessity for Corinth to sail to Corcyra. It is beyond the scope of this paper to enquire why this was so; all that is here attempted is a correlation of the facts about the land route, how Corinth and Apollonia contrived to open it, how Corinth and Ambracia tried to keep it open, and how by the end of the Archidamian War Athens had succeeded in closing it. The evidence is not copious, but of good quality; Thucydides is contemporary, Pausanias quotes contemporary sources, and the mountains, rivers, and valleys of the north-west are silent witnesses.

The route falls naturally into three parts, the Acarnanian, the Epirote, and the Illyrian. It will be convenient to consider the Acarnanian section first, and the other two sections in the order mentioned.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 72 , November 1952 , pp. 61 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1952

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References

[Readers will remember that R. L. Beaumont died in 1938. In a previous article ‘Greek Influence in the Adriatic’, which appeared as long ago as 1936 (JHS LVI), he alluded (p. 184, n. 179) to the present paper, which he left completed save for final revision. The Editors are much indebted to Mr. N. G. L. Hammond and Mr. T. J. Dunbabin for their assistance in preparing it for publication.]

1 Thuc. I, 26, 2. The importance of this passage has been emphasised before, first, I believe, by Grundy, , Thucydides and the History of his Age, 347 ff.Google Scholar; and Cornford, , Thucydides Mythistoricus, p. 47Google Scholar, deals with Acarnania. But the Epirote and Illyrian sections of the route have not been considered, which is some justification of this article.

2 Thuc. I, 37, 3. The Corinthians were presumably speaking for themselves.

3 CAH X, p. 103.

4 Thuc. III, 106, 2.

5 Thuc. III, 114, 4.

6 Thuc. II, 102, 2.

7 Thuc. III, 105, I: For its position see Hammond, N. G. L. in BSA XXXVII, 133.Google Scholar

8 Thuc. II, 68.

9 E.g. CAH V, pp. 474–5.

10 JHS 1932, 216.

11 Thuc. I, 46, 1.

12 Thuc. I, 55, 1.

13 See below, note 29.

14 Thuc. I, 111, 3.

15 Thuc. II, 30.

16 Thuc. IV, 49.

17 Thuc. IV, 77, 2.

18 Thuc. II, 33, 1.

19 Thuc. II, 80, 3.

20 Thuc. III, 114, 4.

21 Thuc. IV, 42, 3. Corinth had 500 men on garrison duty, 300 in Ambracia (III, 114, 4), so 200 in Leucas. Since it must have been unwillingness to bear this type of standing expense which prevented the fortification of a Decelea in the Archidamian war (cf. Thuc. I, 142), it is instructive to find the Corinthians ready to spend on the security of the north-west.

22 Thuc. V, 30, 2.

23 To be popular in Epirus, as the Corinthians were (Thuc. I, 50, 3; cf. I, 47, 3), they must have been fairly well known.

24 Herod. V, 92, 7. Thuc. I, 47, 3 implies a long standing friendship.

25 Cross, , Epirus p. 6Google Scholar, note 2.

26 Cf. Thuc. I, 50, 3.

27 Thuc. III, 85, 2.

28 Thuc. III, 114, 3.

29 Thuc. III, 105, 1: 3,000 hoplites go to Olpae, not a full levy, as they later send for reinforcement to come πανδημεί (III, 110, 1). From the second force the Athenians and Acarnanians took ‘more than 1,000 panoplies’ (III, 113, 4); this means that the second force was not more than c. 2,000 strong, as the defeat was severe (III, 112, 8 ). 5,000 seems a reasonable estimate.

30 Thuc. II, 80, 6; cf. 81, 4.

31 Thuc. I, 46, 4.

32 Thuc. II, 81, 4.

33 See Hammond, N. G. L. in BSA XXXII, 141.Google Scholar

34 See Thuc. II, 22, 2 for Athens' Thessalian allies; and cf. IV, 78, 4.

35 Thuc. II, 80, 7.

36 The general principle is stated in the Pseudo-Xenophontic Ath. Pol. II, 5.

37 Cf. Thuc. IV, 132.

38 By 424, if not sooner, Thuc. IV, 79, 2.

39 See below, p. 65.

40 Cf. Hammond, op. cit. 146.

41 Thuc. I, 46, 5.

42 Thuc. III, 85, 2.

43 Hecataeus fr. 106 in Jacoby, , FGH I.Google Scholar So the place is at least sixth century. There is a terrace wall above the theatre which might be as early. I unfortunately failed to penetrate the Museum, so cannot judge of the probability of its being earlier.

44 Procopius, , de aedificiis IV, 4Google Scholar (Vol. III, p. 279 of the Bonn edition). On the dating of the wall see Appendix.

45 Bell. Civ. III, 6; 11, 2; cf. Lucan, , Pharsalia V, 460.Google Scholar For the identification see Leake, , Northern Greece, i, 5 ff.Google Scholar The Logará is 1055 metres high.

46 There was, however, no Roman road that we know of down this valley. Leake's map marks one, but is quite unreliable (see note 72 below).

47 Thuc. III, 85, 2. Grundy, , Thucydides, p. 347Google Scholar, speaks vaguely of a ‘road running near the coast to Apollonia and Dyrrachium’ (from Ambracia). But it certainly is not the ‘great natural route’ of which he speaks (the Arta–Dryno route is far more obvious and less exacting); there is today no decent coast route from Prevesa to the Forty Saints, and a coast route from Apollonia to Dyrrachium meant crossing two large and sprawling rivers at their widest, probably with marshland between them. So his view is to be rejected.

48 Thuc. I, 26, 2.

49 This is the route followed by the modern road from Janina to Argyrocastro and Tepeleni. It was also used by Lord Byron in 1809. The route following the upper Vijosë valley is somewhat longerand more difficult.

50 Cf. the accompanying map.

51 Thuc. II, 80, 6.

52 Ditt. Syll.3, 228 shows that Tharyps was made an Athenian citizen, but leaves the date uncertain. It is, however, clear that Tharyps was educated at Athens during the Archidamian war. Nilsson, , Studien zur Geschichte des alten Epeiros, 44–5Google Scholar, rejects the tradition (Plut. Pyrrhus i; Justin XVII, 3, 11), but his arguments are not very cogent. The tradition is acceptedby Cross, op. cit. p. 12, and Robertson, D. S., Class. Rev. 1923, 58 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, to which article I am indebted for its connexion of the Andromache with Molossia and Tharyps. D. L. Page's arguments thatthe play was performed at Argos, not Dodona as Robertson suggests, does not affect Robertson's identification of Molossus and Tharyps (see Greek Poetry and Life, pp. 227–8, and note 2 on p. 227).

53 Paus. VIII, 11, 12.

54 Cf. Thuc. I, 38, 3; 25, 4.

55 Paus. V, 22, 3 ff.

56 Inschriften von Olympia, no. 692.

57 References in Richter, , The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, ed. 2, p. 205.Google Scholar

58 The above remarks are based on the letter chart in Larfeld's, Handbuch der griechischen Epigraphik I.Google ScholarCf. especially the and the

59 Pseudo-Scylax 26.

60 Stephanus of Byzantium, sub Ἀμαντΐα.

61 Pseudo-Scylax, loc. cit.

62 Ptolemy III, 12 and 13.

63 Pliny, NH II, 204.Google Scholar The identification was first suggested by Heuzey-Daumet, , Mission Archéologique de Macédoine, 403 ff.Google Scholar; since the visit of Patsch (Sandschak Berat in Albanien, figs. 53, 54) there can be no doubt about the matter. Casson, , Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria, p. 323Google Scholar, says that there are no ‘epigraphic or other records’ from the site; but I saw ancient blocks in the walls of the Kiša i Marmireit, a few kilometres S.E. across the lagoon, though the police post on Palaeocastro itself prevented me from finding the originals of Patsch's figures. There are some late Attic b.f. lecythi of inferior artistic value in the Vlore collection in Valona. Ugolini, , Albania Antica IGoogle Scholar, plate LXI, p. 96, suggests that most of them were found on the Pasha Liman (Oricus), but none of the proveniences are certain; there is an equal probability that the pots came from Pojani (Apollonia), though I do not doubt that Oricus was an early settlement. I owe this information, and much other help and encouragement, to the kindness of His Excellency Senator Ekrem Bey Vlore.

64 The clay of the sherd is between orange and yellow in colour, and nearly fine enough to be Attic. The pattern was geometric (orange stripe, separated from a brown band by a stripe of unpainted clay, followed by an orange stripe, a brown stripe, and another orange stripe).

65 I try to justify this dating in the Appendix. Unpleasant as it is to use the Roman name Byllis and the Albanian name Klos in conjunction, it is perhaps the lesser of evils, since the modern Albanian (Slav) name sometimes used of Byllis, Gradiste, is used by the inhabitants of Klos of both hills.

66 E.g. by G. Veith, quoted by Praschniker, in Jahreshefte 1922Google ScholarBeiblatt I, 91, to which admirable discussion of the ancient and modern topography of such part of the Muzakhia and Malakastra as was held by the Austro-Hungarian troops during the War of 1914–18 I am very deeply indebted.

67 See Appendix.

68 Thuc. I, 46, 4.

69 Cross, op. cit. p. 6, note 2, pointing out the significance of Homer Od. XIV, 315, Strabo VII, 328 (Thesprotian control of Dodona before rise of Molossia); cf. Aeschylus, PV 829–31Google Scholar:

70 Op. cit. pp. 33 ff. If Thronion was destroyed in the fifth century, it is possible that the later city Amantia was built on the same site. Plloca may be both Thronion and Amantia. There has, so far as I know, been no discussion of the site of Thronion.

71 Annuario III, 287. Casson, op cit. 323, does not consider the suggestion.

72 This is clear from his map, as well as from his discussion of the site of Amantia, (Travels in Northern Greece I, 376).Google Scholar In view of the fact that his suggestion that Amantia should be identified with Nivica on the Bences is stIII sometimes repeated (e.g. by Casson, op. cit. 323), it may be worth while to say something about the history of this identification, which is also not without its own interest. Neither de Pouqueville nor Leake could go to Nivica, as it was not under the contro of the Pasha of Janina, (Voyage de la Grèce I, 337Google Scholar and Travels in Northern Greece I, 89); they both went wrong over the position of this insignificant village, putting it in the Shushicë valley, while actually it is very well on the Vijosë side of the watershed; and they were both told about its wealth in ancient remains. Leake was even told details, viz. that the walls resembled those of Himara. Yet, though one hesitates to make such a statement categorically, there are no such remains at Nivica. This was pointed out by Hahn, Von in the middle of last century (Albanesische Studien, p. 33, note 66).Google Scholar He visited the place, found nothing, and despite his excellent command of the language, heard of nothing. Nothing is to be seen there today. The idea that Nivica was Amantia is in any case fantastic, as there was a Roman road from Apollonia to Nicopolis passing through Amantia, and Nivica is one of the more inaccessible places; one can say at once that there was never a road to it.

73 Head, , Historia Numorum ed. 2, p. 313.Google Scholar

74 NH III, 145.

75 Steph. Byz., sub Ἀμαντία.

76 Paus. loc. cit.

77 Pseudo-Scymnus 441–3.

78 Hecataeus fr. 106.

79 Blakeway, A. A., BSA XXXIII, p. 205Google Scholar, note 4.

80 Schol, on Apollonius Rhodius IV, 1175.

81 The best discussion of the eastern Locrians and their relation to Epizephyrian Locri, and of Locrians in general, is Oldfather's article in R.E. XIII sub Lokroi; his conclusion is that the Italian colony was probably a mixed city, with elements from both eastern and western Locri. He accepts the Epirote Thronion tradition, though naturally tentatively.

82 Cf. Johansen, , Les Vases Sicyoniennes, p. 182.Google Scholar