Olympe

Olympe (Ancient Greek: Ολύμπη) (Albanian: Olimpi) was an ancient city located in the territory of the Amantes, between northern Epirus and southern Illyria in classical antiquity. It is located in modern day Mavrovë, Vlorë County, Albania.[1][2]

Olympe
Ολύμπη
Olimp
Location in Albania
LocationMavrovë, Vlorë County, Albania
RegionEpirus or Illyria
Coordinates
TypeSettlement
History
Periods
  • Iron Age
  • Classical
  • Hellenistic
  • Roman
Cultures
  • Illyrian
  • Greek
  • Roman
Site notes
OwnershipGovernment of Albania

History

The settlement at Olympe was fortified between the late 5th century BC and the early 4th century BC.[1]

Taking into account archaeological and historical considerations, the city of Olympe should have been founded in the ethnic context of the Amantes, but later it was organized as a proper polis turning away from its ethnic context.[2][3] The dissociation from the ethnic to the polis coincided with Philip V of Macedon's conquest of a number of cities in Illyria.[2]

In the Hellenistic period there is evidence for the polis status of Olympe, and Stephanus of Byzantium (fl. 6th century AD) recorded Olympe as a "polis of Illyria" (πόλις Ίλλυρίας). During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC Olympe minted bronze coins bearing the inscription ΟΛΥΜΠΑΣΤΑΝ (OLYMPASTAN), and the city-ethnic was probably ’Ολυμπαστάς (Olympastas). A late 3rd century BC dedication to Zeus Megistos mentions a politarches, a grammateus and the synarchontes.[1]

See also

References

  1. Hansen & Nielsen 2004, p. 347.
  2. Shpuza 2017, p. 43.
  3. Cabanes 2011, p. 80.

Sources

  • Cabanes, Pierre (2011). "Disa çështje mbi Amantët / Interrogations sur les Amantes". Iliria. 35: 75–98. doi:10.3406/iliri.2011.1100.
  • Hansen, Mogens Herman; Nielsen, Thomas Heine (2004). An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198140991.
  • Shpuza, Saimir (2017). Dyczek, Piotr (ed.). "Scodra and the Labeates. Cities, rural fortifications and territorial defense in the Hellenistic period". Novensia. Warszawa: Ośrodek Badań nad Antykiem Europy Południowo-Wschodniej. 28: 41–64. ISBN 978-83-946222-5-1. ISSN 0860-5777.
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