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Concept
Lamia (city)
Summary
Lamia (Λαμία, Lamía, laˈmi.a) is a city in central Greece. The city dates back to antiquity, and is today the capital of the regional unit of Phthiotis and of the Central Greece region (comprising five regional units). According to the 2011 census, the Municipality of Lamia has a population of 75.315 while Lamia itself a population of 52,006 inhabitants. The city is located on the slopes of Mount Othrys, near the river Spercheios. It serves as the agricultural center of a fertile rural and livestock area.
One account says that the city was named after the mythological figure of Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon and queen of the Trachineans. Another holds that it is named after the Malians, the inhabitants of the surrounding area. In the Middle Ages, Lamia was called Zetounion (Ζητούνιον), a name first encountered in the 8th Ecumenical Council in 869. It was known as Girton under Frankish rule following the Fourth Crusade and later El Citó when it was controlled by the Catalan Company of mercenaries. In Turkish, it was sometimes called İzdin or İzzeddin. The city was also known as Zeitoun.
Archaeological excavations have shown the site of Lamia to have been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC).
In antiquity, the city played an important role due to its strategic location, controlling the narrow coastal plain above Thermopylae that connected southern Greece with Thessaly and the rest of the Balkans. The city formed a polis (city-state). The city was therefore fortified in the 5th century BC, and was contested by the Macedonians, Thessalians and Aetolians until the Roman conquest in the early 2nd century BC. After Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, the Athenians and other Greeks rebelled against Macedonian overlordship. Antipatros, the regent of Macedon, took refuge behind the substantial walls of the city (Lamian War, 323–322 BC). The war ended with the death of the Athenian general Leosthenes, and the arrival of a 20,000-strong Macedonian army.
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