Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The battle of Pydna

1984; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 104; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/630278

2041-4099

Ν. G. L. Hammond,

Classical Antiquity Studies

The battle took its name from Pydna because it was fought ‘in the plain before Pydna’. Accordingly the first need is to identify the site of Pydna as it was in the year of the battle, 168 BC. Originally a Greek city, planted by settlers from the south on the coast of Pieria and possessing a good harbour (Diod. xi 12.3, xix 50.4), Pydna was acquired by the Macedonian king Archelaus, who moved the people to a site two or three miles inland (Diod. xiii 49.2). In the ensuing period the original site was reinhabited. For Pydna appeared as an independent city in the 360s ( IG iv 2 95, II 6), ‘a Greek city’ (Ps.-Scylax 66) ‘on the coast’ (Ps.-Scymnus6i8). When Philip II captured it, he had good reason to maintain it as a port. In 317–316 BC it was besieged by land and by sea. It was certainly on this coastal site in 168 BC. It used to be thought that Pydna was on the elevation 56 m due cast of the old part of the village Makri Yialos (now having a regular population of 1,600). However, we found only a little pottery there and that probably of recent date; and the fact that there is a toumba , covering a Macedonian built tomb, on the elevation shows that it is not the site of a settlement. On the other hand, on the coast to the south between the hotels ‘Achilleion' and ‘Ancient Pydna’ there are the clear remains of an acropolis, its highest point being 36 m above sea level. As we walked over the site we collected one piece of Attic Black-Figure pottery, much excellent black glaze, and sherds of Hellenistic gray ware and relief ware. The present area of the acropolis is some 400 m from east to west and 150 m from north to south. Its natural defences are formed by cliffs on the seaward side and by steepish slopes on the three landward sides. These defences were reinforced by a circuit wall, of which the northern part is indicated today by a swell in the ground at right angles to the road just north of the top.