Epidamnos

The ancient Greek[1] city of Epidamnos or Epidamnus (Greek: Ἐπίδαμνος),[2] later the Roman Dyrrachium (modern Durrës, Albania), was founded in 627 BC[3] in Illyria by a group of colonists from Corinth and Corcyra (modern Corfu).[4] Aristotle's Politics several times draws for examples on the internal government of Epidamnos, which was run as a tight oligarchy that appointed a ruling magistrate; tradesmen and craftsmen were excluded from power, until internal strife produced a more democratic government. The exiled oligarchs appealed to Corcyra while the democrats enlisted the help of Corinth, initiating a struggle between the two mother cities described by Thucydides as a cause of the Peloponnesian War. Individual trading with the local Illyrians was forbidden at Epidamnos: all traffic was through the authorized city agent or poletes. In the fourth century BC the city-state was part of the kingdoms of Cassander and Pyrrhus. The general vicinity of Epidamnus was called Epidamnia.[5]

This article is about the settlements in Illyria. For modern city, see Durrës.
Map of Epidamnos in antiquity.

Dyrrhachium

In 229 BC, when the Romans seized the city the "-damnos" part of the name was inauspicious to Latin ears, and its name, as it was refounded, became Dyrrhachium. Pausanias (6.x.8) says "the modern Roman city is not the ancient one, being at a short distance from it. The modern city is called Dyrrhachium from its founder." The name Dyrrachion is found on coins of the fifth century BC; in the Roman period Dyrrachium was more common. However, the city maintained a semi-autonomy and was turned into a Roman colony.

Dyrrachium was the landing place for Roman passengers crossing the Ionian Sea from Brundisium, which made it a fairly busy way-station. Here commenced the Via Egnatia, the Roman military road to Thessalonica that connected Roman Illyria with Macedonia and Thrace. The city itself was part of Macedonia, more specifically Epirus Nova. In 48 BC Pompey was based at Dyrrachium and beat off an attack by Julius Caesar. In AD 345 the city was levelled by an earthquake and rebuilt on its old foundations.

In the 4th century AD, Dyrrachium was made the capital of the Roman province of Epirus nova. Thus its Archbishopric became the Metropolitan of all dioceses in the province.

The name "Epidamnos" was still used by the Byzantines, as for example in the 13th-century Synopsis Chronike, referring to contemporary events.[6]

Roman remains

The modern city of Durrës is built directly over the ancient site, so it is primarily on the basis of inscriptions and serendipitous finds that some idea of its monuments has been formed. Inscriptions offer evidence on the following Roman monuments: an aqueduct constructed by Hadrian and restored by Alexander Severus bears a dedicatory inscription at Arapaj, a short distance from Durazzo: (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum III, 1-709); the Roman temple of Minerva; the Temple of Diana (CIL III, 1-602), which is perhaps the one mentioned by Appian (BCiv. 2.60); the equestrian statue of L. Titinius Sulpicianus (CIL III, 1-605); the library (CIL m, 1-67). The last inscription mentions that for the dedication of the library 24 gladiators fought in pairs. The conjecture that there was an amphitheater in the city is confirmed by a passage from the fifteenth-century Vita di Skanderbeg by Marin Barleti: "amphitheatrum mira arte ingenioque constructum".

As a result of occasional discoveries, the following data are available: a 3rd-century mosaic pavement with a female head surrounded by garlands of vegetables and flowers, which brings to mind those painted on Apulian vases; remains of houses covered by other layers, the lowest of which, of the Greek era, was found at a depth of 5 m.

Columns with Corinthian capitals and sections of finished marble revetment, discovered on the nearby hillside at Stani, belong probably to the Temple of Minerva or to the Capitolium. In the necropolis east of the hills that stand above the city have been found a stele of Lepidia Salvia, a sarcophagus with a scene of the Calydonian Boar hunt (now at Istanbul), and numerous Roman tombs.[7]

Classical sources not mentioned in the text: Strabo 5.283; 6.316,323,327; Ptolemy 3.12; Dio Cassius. 41.49; Pomponius Mela 2.56; Pliny Natural History 3.145; 4.36; 6.217; 14.30; 19.144; 32.18. CIL refers to the series of published inscriptions Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.

See also

References
  1. Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, page 96, "From Bouthoe to Epidamnus, a Greek city..."
  2. Strabo Geography vi.316
  3. Mogens Herman Hansen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation, 2005, page 330: "Epidamnos was founded in either 627 or 625 (Hieron. Chron.)"
  4. Rhodes, P.J. A History of the Classical Greek World 478-323 BC. 2nd edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 88.
  5. James Augustus St. John, The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, 1842, Volume 3, page 275 (reprint 2003, ISBN 1-4021-5441-0)
  6. Synopsis Chronike, published by K. Sathas, Paris, 1894, p. 344 (pdf 594), line 31, and pdf pages 617, 684
  7. P.C. Sestieri, The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976.
  • Perseus site: several sources, including William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)

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