Amphicleia or Amphikleia ( grc, Ἀμφίκλεια) or Amphicaea or Amphikaia (Ἀμφίκαια) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

town in the north of

ancient Phocis Phocis was an ancient region in the central part of Ancient Greece, which included Delphi. A modern administrative unit, also called Phocis, is named after the ancient region, although the modern region is substantially larger than the ancient ...

, distant 60

stadia Stadia may refer to: * One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums" * The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes''). * Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey * Stadi ...

from Lilaea, and 15 stadia from Tithronium. It was destroyed by the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

army of Xerxes in his invasion of Greece (480 BCE). Although

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

calls it Amphicaea, following the most ancient traditions, the

Amphictyonic League In Archaic Greece, an amphictyony ( grc-gre, ἀμφικτυονία, a "league of neighbors"), or amphictyonic league, was an ancient religious association of tribes formed before the rise of the Greek '' poleis''. The six Dorian cities of coast ...

gave it the name of Amphicleia in their decree respecting rebuilding the town (346 BCE). It also bore for some time the name of Ophiteia (Ὀφιτεία), in consequence of a legend, which

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

relates. The place was celebrated in the time of Pausanias for the worship of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

, to which an inscription refers, found at the site of the ancient town. The site of the ancient town is occupied by the cemetery of the modern town of

Amfikleia Amfikleia ( el, Αμφίκλεια, before 1915: Δαδί - ''Dadi'') is a town and a former municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Amfikleia-Elateia, of which it is a municipal unit ...

. It is also the site of a medieval tower (Paliopyrgos), which has been built with extensive reuse of

spolia ''Spolia'' (Latin: 'spoils') is repurposed building stone for new construction or decorative sculpture reused in new monuments. It is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby stone that has been quarried, cut and used in a built ...

from the acropolis of Amphicleia.

References

Cities in ancient Greece Ancient Greek cities Populated places in ancient Phocis Former populated places in Greece {{AncientPhocis-geo-stub