 Even from the legendary
years the role of the Prefecture of Serres was active. Syleas
was famous in the region of Serres, a king who lived in Paggeo area.
It is said that Syleas was forcing the passers-by to work in his
vineyard. He wanted to do the same with the hero Hercules. However,
Hercules killed Syleas and his daughter Xenodiki after
destroying Syleas’ vineyards. In a satirical drama, Euripides presents
Hercules as being sold as a slave to Syleas and not to Omfali
as it was initially said. Then he sent the hero to his vineyards, but Hercules
destroyed all the vines, placed them on his back and carried them to Syleas’
palace. There, he killed the best bull, opened the best wine barrel, made
a table which was set in the gateway of the palace and forced Syleas to
serve him.
Also, according to mythology, Hercules went past the Prefecture of Serres while he was returning from Thrace. It is said that, at the time, the inhabitants complained to the hero about the great damages, which were caused by the frequent floods in Strymon River. Then, Hercules solved the problem of the river’s bed and relieved the inhabitants from the big disasters. That was the tenth labor of Hercules.
According to Apollodoros the Athenian, Lycurgos the king of Idonus, people who lived close to Strymonas was the first one who ventured to oust Dionysus from his country. After that, Dionysous went to Nereid Thetis, while Idonus captured the Bacchus and the Satyrs of this escort. But they were soon emancipated due to God Dionysus’ intervention, which made Lycurgos take leave of his senses. Then the king, through his insanity, killed his son Dryad, believing that he was a vine and only after that happened, Lycurgos came to his senses. After that the land stopped being productive and God gave the oracle that the soil would be fertile again, only if the Idonus people killed Lycurgos. In fact, as soon as the Idonus people found out about the oracle pinioned and took the king to Paggeo and sentenced him to a firghtful death in conformity with Dionysus’ instructions. In so many words, he was left to be mangled by wild horses. The son of Theseus, Dimophodas or Acamas, kept an intimacy with this place. According to mythology he got married to Phylis, the daughter of native king. Some time later though, he abandoned her and went to Athens. After that, the unhappy king’s daughter hanged herself in Nine Ways (Amfipolis), in despair. Aries, from whom the Golden Fleece came from, was the fruit of Poseidon and Theophanus’ love, the daughter of Visaltis, first ancestor of the Visalts who lived in the area of Nigrita. Visaltis in order to release his daughter from the crowd of suitors, who were mobbing her, took her to an island. However, her suitors, who were spellbound by her beauty were not discouraged, insisted and discovered her shelter. So one day they arrived at the island, whose inhabitants did Poseidon metamorphose into animals and they started killing them. Then, the god of sea metamorphosed his rivals into wolves and, after he was metamorphosed into a ram and the girl into a young ewe, was united with her. That is how Aries with the Golden Fleece was born, someone who played an important role in the myth of the Argonauts. HISTORICAL TIMES a. Archaic-Hellenistic
period
After the Trojan War, various races of Thrace and Peonia inhabited the place. In the beginning, all these people constituted autonomous countries with their own king. At the end of the 6th century B.C. they were subjugated to the Persians and they were taken to Asia as captives, where the stayed for about 15 years. With the outbreak of the Ionic Revolution they managed to return to their homeland with the help of the Ions and Chios people. They fought very hard against Xerxes, when he passed by the Prefecture of Serres, during his expedition against Greece in 480 B.C. In the 4th century B.C. all these people came under the kings of Macedonia and consisted the «acquired Macedonia». Later, many of these people followed Alexander the Great on his overseas expedition and took part in the most important battles, where they were distinguished for their bravery. The area of today’s Sintiki Province was inhabited by the Sintous or Sintious, who set off around the 19th century B.C. from Sintiida, today’s Limnos, leaving their country for one or another reason. This Greek tribe, after arriving at the coast of Thrace, in the Strymon Gulf, followed the flow of Strymon River, which at that time was the natural way to the Balkan Countries. This island race might have gone over Orbilo for their permanent placement if the morphology of the ground hadn’t attracted their attention. They considered this place as the most suitable for their living. According Strabona they belonged to the Thracian race. However, other historians alleged that they belonged to the Pelasgiki race. The country where they settled was named Sintiki after their name and had almost the same boundaires as today’s Province of Sintiki. The Sintians had the same manners and customs as the rest of the Greeks. They spoke the Greek language and adored the twelve gods of Olympus. However, their favorite god was the limping coppersmith Hephaestus.
After Macedonia’s division into four parts by the Romans, Sintiki was included in the First part whose capital was Afmipolis. Later, after the battle in Philipi in 42 B.C. the ancient capital of Sintiki, Heraklia was declared free, as Titus Livios mentions. Agrianes, according to Thucydides, was a Peonian race and lived in the Upper Valley of Strymon. Agrianes, according to Arrianos, were vigorous, hardened and polemical. Orthopolis and Parorvilia are mentioned as towns, which belonged to the country of Agriani. Satrians, probably a race from Thrace, were living in the east of Agriani’s country. In the ancient cradle of Satrians there is a village that still exists and it’s called Satra. During the years of the Turkish domination roving shepherds inhabited this village. Agrianes after their subordination to the Macedonians remained under their domination until Persea’s time. Since then they disappeared or assimilated and as a result of that their name quenched. Because Satres were living in the inaccessible mountain of Orvilos, weren’t subordinated, but they were assimilated or vanished during their travels to mountains such as Aimos, Menikio or Paggeo. Medi, according to Stefanos the Byzantine, was also a Thracian race, which lived in the Upper Valley of Strymon river around the 14th century B.C.
Mediki country, although it was big and had a large population, it had only two big cities apart from the capital. Desoudava and Petra or Byzantine Selefktoupoli, which was later, called Petritsa and today is called Petritsi. Ancient Petra was a very well fortified city. Philip the 5th on his return from the area of Skomio, where he campaigned in order to subordinate this remote area of Mediki, besieged Petra, which he subordinated with great effort, after a number of assaults. So, this fortified city was annexed from the Macedonian country only in 211 B.C. Petra, Petritsa of Petritsi was adjudicated in Bulgaria in 1913. Its inhabitants took refuge in Greece and settled in Vetrina which was renamed Neo Petritsi. A mention to Siropeons who lived in the Peonian country and founded the city of Serres around the 12th century B.C., was made by Herodotus. Siropeons were colonists of Phrygian’s Tefkri and they had emigrated after the Trojan War. Firstly, Herodotus named this city «Siris the Peonian» and narrated that this was the place where Xerxes left his golden chariot during his expedition against Greece. After Herodotus there is also Theopombus who mentioned the city in an extract from «Philippikon», 20th book. Titus Livios was the only Roman writer who called the city «Siras» in plural and narrated that Aemilios Pavlos after he won Perseas and subordinated the Macedonian cities, moved to Amfipolis leaving his army in the valley of Siras. The name «Siras city» is also mentioned during the Roman period. During the medieval period the city was mentioned as Serre and more rarely as Serra or Fere. Finally, the writing of the city’s name was changed several times by the Latins and Franks. So it was mentioned as Saxra, Serra, Ceres and Serre.
Generally, from all the archeological findings we come to the conclusion that ancient Siris was built on the Acropolis hill, which was the most inaccessible one, compared to the other hills. Besides, at that time, all the cities were built on high hills and were surrounded by solid walls. Finally, the remains of the ancient tower, which were part of the Byzantine tower base, show that in the same location used to be a castle with solid walls and that castle offered defense and security to the ancient city of Serres, Herodotus’ «Siris». In ancient times, today’s Province of Phyllida was part of Hedoniki country or Hedonida, as it was also named, and includes the area of today’s Zihni, Alistrati and Drama. In the older times different people inhabited this country. The information we get about these people comes from the coins that were found in the area of Nea Zihni. Zaielei, who were of Peonian descent and preferred to live in the mountains, lived around the area of Strymon. Their name is found on coins, which are dated back to around 320 B.C. Moreover, there was a town mentioned in byzantine papers, under the name of Zelihova, Zilihova, Ziliahova (N. Zihni). According to Professor Svoronos, Ihnei were related to Zaielei and they lived in the area of Phyllida. Most probably they were of Peonian descent, too. We also get some information about these people from coins, which, according to numismatists, were cut during the period of the Macedonian kings, before Alexander I and they all belonged to the Peonians. It has been proved that the coins of Ihnei were cut in Ihna, in Paggeo. There are also plenty of coins belonging to Orreski, which look very similar to the ones of Ihnei and they have got the same patterns.
Hedonos, the son of Aris and Kalliopi, daughter of Nestos river, is supposed to the first ancestor of Hedoni, who gave their name to the area. Hedoni were very well known for their orgiastic worship of Dionysus. Their first king was the mythical hero Lycurgus, who as they say, wanted to forbid Dionysus’ worship, but Menades chased him and finally wild horses mangled him. The second king of Hedoni is thought to be Pittakos who is mentioned by Thucydides. It is said that his son and wife killed this king. Arround 500 B.C. Getas was the king in Hedonida. Some silver eight-drachma king’s coins that were found portray a naked man with two bulls on the front side and the sight «ÃÅÔÁ ÙÁÓÉËÅÕ ÇÄÙÍÅÙÍ» or «ÂÁÓÉËÅÕ ÇÄÏÍÅÙÍ» on the other side. These coins were found in Tigris River, in Asia, where the Persians, around the end of 6th century B.C, brought Hedoni as captives. According to information given by Herodotus, during the Persian Wars, the king of the Persians, Xerxes, passed through Hedonic country during his expedition against Greece. After Xerxes suffered a defeat in Plataies in 479 B.C., he returned to Heiona. There he left his army to satrap Vogi and he got on a Phoenician ship and sailed towards Asia. Hedonida was divided into three parts, from which the homonymous daughter of the king of Thrace called the first one Phyllis Sithonas. The second part was mainly called Hedonis and the third one Pieria. This country was very crowded and included many towns: Amfipolis, Heiona, Philipus, Myrkinos, Phagrita, Oesymi, Galipso, Draviskos, Dato, Neapolis, Skapti Yli, Akontisma, Pistyros, Gazoros, Perni. Amfipolis was the most remarkable town of Hedonis and it was in the same position as the present village of Amfipolis, built on the fortified hill, in the east bank of Strymon. Initially its name was Nine Streets, taken from the nine streets, which were leading there, all coming from different directions.
But among the people of the ancient times, who kept on disputing for such an abundant acquisition, it was the Athenians who where particularly distinguished. After they conquered Heiona while Kimon was in power and they tried to conquer Nine Street twice, Hedoni passed them. At the end, they subjugated the town in 457 B.C. under Agnonas’ generalship who founded the Athenian colony in the town and renamed it into Amfipolis. Moreover, this name was chosen because it was built between two of Strymon arms, which together with the wall that surrounded the town, made it fortified and inaccessible. Because of Amfipolis’ position and also because of the plentiful shipbuilding timber, gold and silver and its fertile soil, it became the apple of discord during the ancient time between the Athenians, Lacedaemonians and Macedonians. During the battle that took place in 442 B.C. in front of the city’s walls, Vrasidas, Lacedaemonians’ general, was killed. The Amfipolians buried him at the public expense and honored him as a hero and founder of their city. Since then, Amfipolis came under a lot of changes, sometimes as a colony and some other times as a free city, until the Macedonian King Perdiccas became its sovereign. It remained under the domination of Macedonians until 359 B.C., when king Philip withdrew the Macedonian garrison because of the Athenians and promised to yield the city. However, he went back on his word and occupied the city in 357 A.C., which had remained under Macedonia’s domination since then. Amfipolis was the base of operations of Alexander the Great for the conquest of the known world at the time. All the members of the royal house died here: Philip, Arrideos, Eurydice, Roxanne and little Alexander. That was the place where the last Macedonian King, Perseas, turned to after his defeat in Pydna. The Roman consul Aemilios Pavlos welcomed the ambassadors of different Greek states and organised the conquest of the Macedonian country, appointing Amfipolis as the capital of «Macedonians First» province. Egnatia Roman road was crossing this city and also Apostle Paul passed by on his way to Thessalonica coming from Philippi.
Finally, thousands of coins were discovered too, which from the artistic point of view are considered to be the best of all those that were found in the ancient cities of Northern Greece. Around the 4th century B.C., Phyllida was annexed from the Macedonian country and became part of «Acquired Macedonia». Moreover, the king of Macedonia, Philip II, was the first of one who took advantage of Paggeo’s goldmines. New types of coins were made out of this gold, which were the same as the Persian Dariks. This coin, which was named «Philippeon», became very well known outside the Macedonian country. Ancient Visaltia, which tooks its name form Visaltis, the son of Sun and earth, was inhabited by the Thracian Visaltians for the first time, who came here from Halkidiki. During the Persians’ expedition against Greece, the king of Visaltia went to Rodopi because he didn’t want to follow the barbarians and forbid his sons to go to war against Greece on the side of the Asian invaders. But they didn’t listen to their father’s advice and followed the barbarians. When the Persian left and the king returned back and found his sons safe and sound he lost his vision of sight. Visaltia was conquest by Alexander I’ in 479 B.C. Later, Pericles sent 1000 Athenian colonists, who contributed towards the civilization of the Visaltians. In the Battle of Pydna in 168 B.C., where the future of Macedonia was decided, the Visaltians fought on the side of Perseas. They were so distinguished for their courage, that Perseas only after his defeat became desperate, when even the «gallant Visaltians» abandoned him. Despite the small size of this province during the ancient times, it included many cities which were often mentioned by the ancient writers: Argilos, Kerdylion, Visaltia -the capital of the country, Kalitere, Oreskia, Europia, Verga and Ossa. The most authentic city from the ones mentioned above was Argilos, which, according to the ancient people, was built by the Thracians, the first inhabitants of the country, in unknown time, but it was colonized by the Adrians at the same time with Stagira round the middle of the 7th century. After the Thracians’ scurry and the Halkidiki’s colonization by the Adrians, Argilos which had remained free and autonomous from 655 until Xerxes’ expedition (480 B.C.) succumbed to his country. After his defeat and scurry it was added in the allied cities of Athens. However, later on, it was deserted by the Athenians, which made it very easy for Lacedaemonians’ general to take over Amfipolis
Between Argilos and Ossa in the S.E. foot of Vertiskos Mountain there were the cities of Kallitere and Oreskia, which are mentioned by Ptolemy. In the SW bank of Kerkini Lake there was Euporia, which was built by Alexander the Great and was named after the abundance of the earth’s fruit. Finally, the capital Visaltia was built beneath Visaltis river, which springs from Vertiskos Mountain and flows into Strymon River. Some other distinguished
personage apart from Vogis and Sylleas, during that period, were the following:
Nearchus. Originated
from Crete and lived in Amfipolis. He was one of the best friends of Alexander
the Great during his childhood and teenage years.
Trojilos. Sophist and literate from Amfipolis, contemporary with Diogenes. Ermagoras. Stoic philosopher from Amfipolis, student of Zenon and Peraea. Damippus. Pythagorean philosopher from Amfipolis Dimitrios. Friend and student of Plato from Amfipolis. He was distinguished in Philosophy. Pamfilus. Famous painter (1st half of the 4th century B.C.). He was a student of the famous painter Eupombus, founder of the Sicyonian School, which he took over the running. b. Roman period
Sinti, Maedi and other people took Persea’s side and fought with fanaticism against the Romans. However, in the last battle that Perseas fought in Pydna of Pieria, the Romans outflanked the Macedonians and abolished Macedonia, after a betrayal, in 168 B.C. After the subordination of Macedonia to the Romans and its division into four parts, Serres was included in the first part, «Macedonians’ First», a province with Amfipolis as capital. The years of the Roman occupation were very hard for the inhabitants of this region, many of who were exiled to Italy and never came back. During the Roman period the Egnatia road (Via Egnatia) was passing through Amphilpolis. A part of that big, stone-paved military road, which connected Durres with Constantinople, is saved today; it is situated near the village Draviskos, in the area of Frangala. Many tombstone inscriptions from the Roman age are saved in Serres, as well as many coins of various Roman emperors. The big dedicatory inscription, which contains only proper names, eleven of which are Greek-Macedonian, thirteen Roman and twelve mixed Greek-Roman and Thracian, belongs to that period, too. |
The field of Nysio
was placed in the Prefecture of Serres, where Pluto hooked
Persephone, Dimitra’s daughter.
The people from Thrace
were reported as being the first inhabitants in the Prefecture of Serres.
As the centuries went
by, the Sintians built beautiful towns in their country. Some of the well-known
ones are Heraklia, Skotousa, Giraskos, Orvilia,
Thristola and Paricopoli. The most remarkable one was Heraklia,
which was built by the brother of Philip the 3rd, Amyntas the
3rd. This Macedonian king had achieved a glorious victory at the foot
of Beles Mountain against the barbarians. In commemoration of that victory
he had Hreaklia built in honor of Hercules, whose descendants were thought
to be the kings of Macedonia. Amyntas, barricaded this town with impregnable
walls and vestiges exist even today. At the time of Andigonides, the descendants
of Alexander the Great, Heraklia became the capital of Sintiki and
the base of Peonia’s sub-perfect, as the historian Titos Livios mentions.
In this town the murder of Diomitrios by his brother Perseas became
the cause of the Romans to campaign against Perseas in 168 B.C.
and seize Macedonia.The Sintians fought so bravely during Pydnas’ battle
of the side of the Macedonian king that they managed to settle the hatred
of Aemilios Pavlos, the Roman opponent who ravaged their country in order
to punish them.
Mediki country bordered
on Sintiki, Agriani, Peonia and Orvilos and Skomio mountains. Medi kept
their independence until 356 B.C., when they subordinated to Philip II
but without stopping to fight in order to get their freedom again. Plutarch
mentioned that Medi, 10 years after their subjugation to the Macedonians,
revolted in order to get their independence back. As soon as they were
informed about Philip’s expedition, they tried to get rid of the Macedonian
domination. The 16-year old Alexander the Great, who punished them by destroying
their capital, Iamforina, which is mentioned by Plivios, though immediately
suppressed this attempt.
Some of the older
archeological findings found in Serres, on the Acropolis hill and are thought
to belong to the 6th century B.C., certify that, in the present position
of the city, «Siris the Peonian» of Herodotus was positioned, where
later on the Greek Medieval Ramparts of Serres castle were built.
Other people related
to Ihnei were Derronei, Laiei, Litei, Pernei and Dionysi. Dovires according
to Herodotus must have lived between Zihni and Alistrati. Perhaps according
to Thucydides, it was part of Dovires who lived close to Doirani, in a
town called Doviros, which was conquered by Sitalkis in 429 B.C.
The Pelasgics, Satres,
Hedoni, Odomanti, Peonians, and later the kings of Macedonia played a leading
part during the different stages in Amfipolis’ history.
During the Byzantine
period the city is both mentioned as Amfipolis and Popolia. It was said
that the city was destroyed, but the Emperor Andronikos III junior in 1341
A.C built rebuilt and new walls. However, later on, it was destroyed again
and only a few remains of the walls and the towers are still preserved
and can be seen from the top of the hill.