Plataïka : the topography and remains of the region of Plataiai, with an historical introduction
Date
1977
Authors
Hunter, Robert Owen
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Abstract
Plataiai is most remembered for the battle of 479 B.C. where victorious Greeks began a process of reversing the encroachment of eastern arms and ideology on to European soil, and for the Games of Freedom which were at that time instituted at Plataiai and have survived as a reminder of the process and its continued impact and validity. The importance of the city and her territory is extensively documented in the works of the ancient Greek historians -- so much so that Herodotos devoted more attention to events in the Plataian region than in any other, while after him Thoukydides came little short of the same intensity. Nonetheless, the historical fame accorded her by the two major historians is but a part of Plataiai's history, a part which in isolation from the whole, proffers a false impression of a constantly democratic city continuously struggling against the malevolence of neighbouring Thebai and habitually nurtured by the patronage of Athenai. The purpose, then, of confining that impression within the context of her entire history, and thereby exposing the fallacy, guides the present history.
The historical introduction complements the subsequent topographical survey, in forming a unity wherein the former elucidates the latter and vice versa. The survey, accompanied by maps and plates, guides the reader through the region and its residua, while constantly relating the visual to the historical. The city site and walls, better preserved than is the case for most ancient Boiotian settlements, are compared in their present condition and location with the findings of the American excavations of the previous century. The comparison has prompted a reappraisal and consequent divergence from the urban circuit formerly reported, with the further result that revisions regarding the physical size and situation of the city through various periods from the sixth century B.C. to the fifteenth century A.D. are proposed. In the greater region beyond the ancient city and modern town, ruins and sherd concentrations are connected with the names of historically known habitations with specific elaboration on the identification and location of the ancient settlements of Hysiai, Erythrai, Skarphe and Skolos. The process of identification, however, is not restricted to a sole concern with demographic shifts within the region, but is extended to a consideration of various regional features which may be associated with the Plataian record within a time span which stretches for more than three millennia from the legendary to the historical. Some of the topographical study evaluates those identifications of previous scholarship which have continued to be questioned; some of the research involves itself with interpretations and material which is presented for the first time. The ultimate goal has been to offer a connection between event and place, whenever there is sufficient topographical and historical reference to do so.