Alos (ancient city)

Alos ^{[1] [2]} , Gal ^{[3] [4]} ( dr. Greek Ἅλος , lat. Halos ) is an ancient city in Achaean Phthiotis , in Thessaly . Alos was located in the eastern part of the fertile plain of Almiros , between the spur of Mount Otris and Nyes Bay ( Όρμος Νηές ) on the western coast of the Pagasitikos Gulf of the Aegean Sea ^[4] . Alos was an important city in antiquity and is located on a strategically important position 60 kilometers northeast of Thermopyles , on the way to and Thessaly ^[5] . The city of the Hellenistic period was built around the end of the 4th century BC. e. ^[6]

According to Strabo, he founded the city of Afamant ^[7] on the Crocian plain ( Crocus Field , Κρόκιον πεδίον ), on the banks of the River ^[8] , near the cities of Eaton ^[3] , the and ^[9] . The southern part of the Crocian plain was called the Afamantian valley ^[10] (Afamant field ^[11] , Αθαμάντιον πεδίον , Αthamantius campus ) or Afamantia ( Αθαμαντία ) ^[12] .

In ancient times, it was the base of the Argonauts . The children of Afamant, Frix and Gella , depicted on the bronze coins of the city, flew across land and sea in a gold-wounded ram to Pont ( Black Sea ) to escape from Ino ^{[12] [13]} .

Excavations showed that the place was constantly inhabited from the Late Bronze Age , in the Iron Age , in the archaic and Hellenistic periods. Found cemeteries and ruins of residential buildings. The remains of the settlement of IX-VIII centuries. BC e. found on the site of Alos of the Hellenistic period ^[6] .

The region of Alos is mentioned by Homer in the Catalog of Ships in the Iliad as giving a militia to the Trojan War led by Achilles ^[1] . Alos mentions Herodotus in the description of the Greco-Persian war (480–479 BC) as the base of the Greek fleet against Xerxes ^[2] . In the V century BC e. Alos was one of the most important ports of Thessaly. In the IV century BC e. Alos minted his coin. During the Third Holy War, Alos was in alliance with Athens and was at enmity with the neighboring city of Farsalus . During the negotiations on the conclusion of the Peace of Filocrat , from February to the summer of 346 BC. e. was besieged by the Macedonian commander Parmenion , destroyed by Philip of Macedon ^[14] and transferred to the power of the city of Farsal, who sided with Philip ^{[7] [15] [5]} .

In 302 BC e. a city of the Hellenistic period was built, which is associated with the activities of the Macedonian kings Demetrius Poliorket and Kassandra in Thessaly ^[16] . The city of the Hellenistic city was founded as a military camp and, like it, has a strict rectilinear plan, aligned to the cardinal points, with an ordered arrangement of streets and residential quarters. According to archaeological finds, the inhabitants of Alos were engaged in land cultivation, cattle breeding and fishing, to a lesser extent - hunting. It flourished during the Hellenistic period. In the III century BC. e. Alos again minted a coin, probably after the liberation of Farsalus from power. Bronze and silver coins of Alos IV — II centuries. BC e. testify to the contacts of the city with the regions of Thessaly, Fthiotis, Euboea and Macedonia. The new city lasted a short time and was abandoned in 265 BC. e., probably after the earthquake ^[17] . However, in the II century BC. e. a small settlement continued to exist. It was an important city of the (196-146 BC) ^{[16] [6]} .

The ruins of city walls and apartment buildings remained visible and described by many travelers, including William Martin Lick ^[16] . But most of the buildings were destroyed by the locals during plowing and were used as material for construction. Systematic excavations began in the 1970s and continue with the participation of the at present ^{[6] [17]} .

The ruins of the city walls have survived over the coastal plain of Almiros on a spur protruding from the northern peak of Agios Ilias ( Άγιος Ηλίας ) of Mount Otris. At an altitude of 208 meters at the end of the spur are the walls of a small circular fortress of cyclopean masonry 2 meters thick. Around this height and near the end of the spur to the northeast are the walls of the classical period , built from rectangular and trapezoidal blocks of unequal height, preserved in places up to two masonry heights. The towers were unevenly located in a circle. Part of the fortifications is missing. Walls of polygonal blocks descend to the plain, but their end is not visible. The walls at a height probably date back to the 4th century BC. e. The remains of buildings are not visible inside the fortifications ^[16] .

At the northern foot of the spur there is an abundant, brackish spring Kefalossis ( Κεφάλωσης ). On the plain, a five-minute walk from the source, there are the city walls of the Hellenistic period in the form of a rectangle of 750 × 710 m, aligned approximately to the cardinal points. The walls are made of heavy rectangular blogs. The wall has a thickness of about 3 meters and has 15 square protruding towers on the sides, not counting the towers on each corner. The eastern wall and most of the northern are absent; the western and southern walls are in good condition, preserved up to two or three layers of masonry in height. There is no gate on the west side; each of the south and north sides had a gate surrounded by towers and small portals (one on the north, two on the south side). The Kefalossis stream flows through the northern wall and may be the ancient Amphris River, which Strabo wrote about ^[7] . The ruins at the height probably belong to Alos of the classical period, captured in 346 BC. e .; walls on the plain - the city of the Hellenistic period ^[16] .

On the plain north of the acropolis, northeast of the Kefalossis stream, there are several mounds. One of them was excavated in 1912 and contains the burial of the geometric period ^[16] .

From 2013 to the present, Greek archaeologists and archaeologists of the Netherlands Institute in Athens have been digging a classical settlement on the oblong artificial mound Plataniotiki Magula ( Πλατανιώτικη Μαγούλα ) next to the modern coastline, which differs from the settlement of the Hellenistic period ^[17] . This city was considered as the location of Alos in the geometric and archaic periods. But archaeological research shows that these two cities were modern, at least until a certain period ^[6] .