Heraclea in Trachis

Coordinates: 38°47′27″N 22°26′33″E / 38.79077°N 22.4425°E / 38.79077; 22.4425
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Heraclea in Trachis
Ancient Greek: Ἡράκλεια ἡ ἐν Τραχῖνι
The site of Heraclea in Trachis.
Heraclea in Trachis is located in Greece
Heraclea in Trachis
Shown within Greece
Alternative nameTrachis (Τραχίς)
LocationGreece
RegionCentral Greece
Coordinates38°47′27″N 22°26′33″E / 38.79077°N 22.4425°E / 38.79077; 22.4425

Heraclea (Herakleia) in Trachis (

Ancient Greek: Ἡράκλεια ἡ ἐν Τραχῖνι), also called Heraclea Trachinia (Ἡράκλεια ἡ Τραχινία),[1] was a colony founded by the Spartans[2] in 426 BC, the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War.[3] It was also a polis (city-state).[4]

Situation

Originally called Trachis (Τραχίς), or by

Herakles as the scene of his death.[12]

History

It became a place of historical importance in consequence of the colony founded here by the Lacedaemonians in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War, 426 BC. The

oecists (Leon, Alcidas, and Damagon), built and fortified a new town, to which the name of Heraclea was given, from the great hero, whose name was so closely associated with the surrounding district.[13][14] It was usually called the Trachinian Heraclea, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, and by later writers Heraclea in Phthiotis (Ἡράκλεια Φθιώτιδος),[15] as this district was subsequently included in the Thessalian Phthiotis. Thucydides also tells us that the Spartans thought the town would "lie conveniently for the purposes of the war with Athens." From Heraclea the Spartans could ready a fleet to threaten Euboea, and the town would be "a useful station on the road to Thrace
."

The new colonists also built a port with docks near Thermopylae. It was generally expected that this city, under the protection of Sparta, would become a formidable power in Northern Greece; however, soon after the town was founded, things began to go quite badly. It was attacked from the beginning by the

Boeotians occupied it to prevent it falling into Athenian hands, and dismissed the Lacedaemonian governor, on the ground of misconduct.[16] Thucydides tells us that the Spartans were "offended at the Boeotians for what they had done."[17]

The Lacedaemonians, however, regained possession of the place; and in the winter of 409-408 BC, they experienced here another disaster, 700 of the Heracleots being slain in battle, together with the Lacedaemonian harmost (military governor).[18] But, after the Peloponnesian War, Heraclea again rose into importance, and became the headquarters of the Spartan power in Northern Greece. In 399 BC, Herippidas the Lacedaemonian, was sent there to repress some factious movements in Heraclea ; and he not only put to death all the opponents of the Lacedaemonians in the town, but expelled the neighbouring Oetaeans and Trachinians from their abodes.[19] In 395 BC, the Thebans, under the command of Ismenias, wrested this important place from the Spartans, killed the Lacedaemonian garrison, and gave the city to the old Trachinian and Oetaean inhabitants.[20]

The walls of Heraclea were destroyed by

Aetolian War than the city, may very possibly have been the only inhabited part of Heraclea two centuries later.[23]

The city is attested at least until the 6th century, when

Procopius of Caesarea mentions it as part of Justinian I's efforts to fortify the nearby pass of Thermopylae. According to Procopius, a wall was erected across the valley of the Asopos, and the town was strengthened with an otherwise unidentified fortress called Myropoles. Traces of Byzantine fortifications, as well as a cistern, survive on the site.[6] The town was apparently abandoned in the following decades. Some modern scholars have tried to identify it with the later medieval settlements of Ravennika or Siderokastron, but these identifications are generally rejected as incompatible with the literary evidence.[6]

References

  1. ^ Other names by which it was known in antiquity were: Ἡράκλεια ἡ ἐν Τραχινίᾳ, Xen. Hell. 1.2. 18: Diod. 12.77, 15.57; Ἡρακλεῶται οἱ ἐν Τραχῖνι, Thuc. 5.51; Ἡ Ἡράκλεια ἡ Τραχὶν καλουμένη πρότερον, Strab. ix. p.428; Heraclea Trachin dicta, Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 14; H. Φθιώτιδος, Ptol. 3.13.46.
  2. ISBN 1-60620-995-7
    .
  3. ISBN 3-515-08396-0
    .
  4. ISBN 0-19-814099-1
    .
  5. ^ a b c Strabo. Geographica. Vol. ix. p.428. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-3-7001-0182-6
    .
  7. ^ a b Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 7.176.
  8. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v. Τραχίς.
  9. ^ Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 7.198.
  10. ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 3.92.
  11. ^ Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.682.
  12. ^ Sophocles, Trach. passim.
  13. ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 3.92.
  14. ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). Vol. 12.59.
  15. ^ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 3.13.46.
  16. ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 5.51, 52.
  17. ISBN 1-60620-995-7
    .
  18. ^ Xenophon. Hellenica. Vol. 1.3.18.
  19. ^ Polyaenus, 2.21; Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). Vol. 14.38.
  20. ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). Vol. 14.82.
  21. ^ Xenophon. Hellenica. Vol. 6.4.27.
  22. Ab urbe condita Libri
    [History of Rome]. Vol. 36.24.
  23. ^ William Martin Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 26-29.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Trachis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

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