Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Philippi
Summary
Philippi (fɪˈlɪpaɪ,_ˈfɪləˌpaɪ; Φίλιπποι, Phílippoi) was a major Greek city northwest of the nearby island, Thasos. Its original name was Crenides (Κρηνῖδες, Krēnĩdes "Fountains") after its establishment by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC. The city was renamed by Philip II of Macedon in 356 BC and abandoned in the 14th century after the Ottoman conquest. The present village of Filippoi is located near the ruins of the ancient city and is part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Kavala, Greece. The archaeological site was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 because of its exceptional Roman architecture, its urban layout as a smaller reflection of Rome itself, and its importance in early Christianity.
Thasian colonists established a settlement at Crenides in Thrace in 360/359 BC near the head of the Aegean Sea at the foot of Mt. Orbelos, now called Mt. Lekani, about north-west of Kavalla, on the northern border of the marsh that, in antiquity, covered the entire plain separating it from the Pangaion Hills to the south. In 356 BC, King Philip II of Macedon conquered the city and renamed it to Philippi.
The Macedonian conquerors of the town aimed to take control of the neighbouring gold mines and to establish a garrison at a strategic passage: the site controlled the route between Amphipolis and Neapolis, part of the great royal route which runs east-west across Macedonia which the Roman Republic reconstructed in the 2nd century BC as part of the Via Egnatia. Philip II endowed the city with important fortifications, which partially blocked the passage between the swamp and Mt. Orbelos, and sent colonists to occupy it. Philip also had the marsh partially drained, as the writer Theophrastus ( 371 – 287 BC) attests. Philippi preserved its autonomy within the kingdom of Macedon and had its own political institutions (the Assembly of the demos). The discovery of new gold mines near the city, at Asyla, contributed to the wealth of the kingdom and Philip established a mint there.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.