Ainis (, ,

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

, ) or Aeniania (), was a region of ancient Greece located near Lamia in modern Central Greece, roughly corresponding to the upper valley of the

Spercheios The Spercheios (, ''Sperkheiós''), also known as the Spercheus from its Latinization of names, Latin name, is a river in Phthiotis in Central Greece (geographic region), central Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . It was worshipped a ...

river.

Name

The region takes its name from the tribe of the Ainianians, who dwelt in the area. The name ''Ainis'' first occurs in Roman times; the only known earlier name of the region was "land of the Aenianians", ''Ainianōn khōra'' ( Theopompus).

Geography

Ainis is located in the upper

valley, bordering with Dolopia in the west, Oitaia in the south, Malis in the east and Achaia Phthiotis in the north.H. Kramolisch, "Ainianes" ''Der Neue Pauly'', Brill Online, 2013. The exact borders with Oitaia and Malis have never been established.M. H. Hansen & T. Heine Nielsen (eds.), ''An inventory of Archaic and Classical poleis'', Oxford 2004. The river Spercheios flows through the region on its way down to the

Maliac Gulf The Malian or Maliac Gulf () is a gulf in the western Aegean Sea. It forms part of the coastline of Greece's region of Phthiotis. The gulf stretches east to west to a distance of , depending on the definition, and is very shallow, with a maximum ...

, and is joined in Ainis by its chief tributary the Inachos. The area is limited to the north by the

Othrys Mount Othrys ( – ''oros Othrys'', also Όθρη – ''Othri'') is a mountain range of central Greece, in the northeastern part of Phthiotis and southern part of Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia. Its highest summit, ''Gerakovouni'', situated on ...

mountains, and to the west by a spur of the Pindus mountains, with the peak of Tymphrestus visible from most of the region. To the south lie the peaks of Mount Goulinas and Mount Oiti, separated by the river Inachos. Most of Ainis consists today of a fertile river plain; whether this was the case during Antiquity does however remain uncertain. As with Greece in general, there is some seismic activity with hot springs close to the village of Platystomo. After the introduction of modern heating, the previously bald foothills of the surrounding mountains are now covered with dense thickets of ivy and prickly pear.

History

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

writes
Quest. Graec. 12
that the Ainianians were once expelled from

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

by the

Lapiths The Lapiths (; , ''Lapithai'', Grammatical number, sing. Λαπίθης) were a group of legendary people in Greek mythology, who lived in Thessaly in the valley of the Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios and on the mountain Pelion. They were believed to ...

to wander the Greek peninsula until they finally settled in the upper Valley of Spercheios. According to Plutarch, when the Ainianians finally settled in what would become Ainis, the land was already occupied by the Inachians and the Achaeans. Phemios, king of the Ainianians, however, killed Hyparochos king of the Inachians with a stone while the latter had his head turned, thus winning the region for his people.M. B. Sakellariou, "Between Memory and Oblivion"
''ΜΕΛΕΤΗΜΑΤΑ'' 12
Athens 1990. The Ainianians struck coins in Hypata with the head of Zeus on the obverse and the legendary king Phemios on the reverse.''RE'', Band I,1

Settlements

Very little is known of the settlements in ancient Ainis apart from the city of Hypata. Several '' poleis'' ( Kapheleis, Korophaioi, Phyrrhagioi and Talana) are mentioned in inscriptions at

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

, but apart from Hypate, none has yet been convincingly identified. Moreover, other settlements that were not poleis have been identified, including Sosthenis and Spercheiai. A smaller settlement, that of Makra Kome, is also mentioned in a passage by

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

as being ravaged by the Aetolians during the

Second Macedonian War The Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC) was fought between Macedon, led by Philip V of Macedon, and Rome, allied with Pergamon and Rhodes. Philip was defeated and was forced to abandon all possessions in southern Greece, Thrace and Asia Minor. ...

. There are, however, several known sites in the area, mostly of the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, some of them of urban character. Ypati

Hypata

The "capital" of Ainis, Hypata (Ὑπάτα), was located at the modern town of Ypati on the northern slope of Mount Oeta; the name is probably derived from a corruption of ''hypo Oita'' (, meaning "near the Mount Oeta"). The ancient city was probably divided in a lower fortified city located approximately at the modern location of the town, and an

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

which is still visible further up the mountain. Apart from some fortifications and inscriptions, very little of the ancient town is visible today; travelers in the early 20th century noted ancient blocks and slabs built into the modern houses, but most of these were probably destroyed when the German

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

demolished most of the town during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The commanding tower on the acropolis is of a later date, built in the Middle Ages. The political area of Hypata probably extended far north on the river plain, which is also mentioned in several inscriptions. A road over Mount Oeta led southward from Hypata towards Kallion in Aetolia."Hypata"
in Stillewell ''et al.'', ''The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites'', Princeton University Press 1976.
Most of

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

' ''

The Golden Ass The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (Latin: ''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of ...

'' takes place in and about Hypata, which at the time of the novel was a thriving Roman city. After the introduction of Christianity, Hypata became a Metropolitan bishopric in the Roman province of Achaea. In

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, Hypata became the refuge of citizens of

Patras Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...

who fled the Slavic invasion of Greece; as a consequence, the town changed its name to ''Neopatras'' ("New Patras"), which it kept until the establishment of the modern Greek state in the 19th century. Kastrorakhi

Kastrorachi

An elongated hill near the village of Vitoli (Βίτολη) bears the name 'astrorachi (Καστρόραχη, "castle ridge"), and on its top there are remains of a wall with many towers as well as an impressive gate. The wall encompasses the whole hill, which bears the shape of a skewed "T", and is only preserved to a limited degree. No remains of structures other than the circuit wall has been noted. The strategic importance of the fortifications are not to be underestimated since the location dominates the upper plain of the valley as well as the confluence of the Spercheios with its tributary, the Papagourna. The location is often associated with the ancient ''polis'' of Spercheiai, but the identification remains uncertain.Y. Béquignon, ''La vallée de Spercheios'', Paris 1937. Stählin, visiting the site in the early 1910s, wrote that it is impossible to see whether the site was inhabited in Antiquity due to later agricultural use of the hill. He was only able to find traces of reddish pottery at the location, which he dated to the Hellenistic period. Béquignon, a couple of decades later, reports that the state of the walls were ''mediocre'', probably due to stone robbing. Ano_Fteri

Ano Fteri

Just south of Kastrorakhi, up the slope from Fteri, is another site of considerable size, known as ''Ellinika''. A circular wall stretches around a plateau between two ravines. The view is quite commanding; all known sites in Ainis are visible from this location, making it a place of strategic importance.M. F. Papakonstandinou in Aνδρέας Γ. Bλαχόπουλος (ed.), '' Αρχαιολογία: Εύβοια & Στερεά Ελλάδα'', Athens 2009.
The remains at Ano Fteri, as is also the case of Kastrorakhi, has been linked with the ancient ''polis'' of Spercheiai, but this theory has yet to be proven.F. Stählin, ''Das hellenische Thessalien — Landeskundliche und geschichtliche Beschreibung Thessaliens in der hellenischen und römischen Zeit'', Stuttgart 1924. The body of a female statue in tufa was found here in around 1973, no other finds have been published.Aupert Pierre, "Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques en Grèce en 1977" in ''Bulletin de correspondance hellénique'', Vol. 102, livr. 2, 1978. pp. 699.
/ref> Béquignon interpreted the site as a mere observation post and not a position of defense. Macra Come view

Profitis Ilias

Located in the centre of ancient Ainis, the hill of ''Profitis Ilias'' (Προφήτης Ηλίας) overlooks most of the lower plains of the Spercheios and guards the pass of Giannitsou, leading north to

. A circular wall encloses the two peaks of the hill, creating a double acropolis with a shallow saddle in between. Very little is still to be seen at the site; most of the circular wall is lost, the most striking part being located along the southwestern slope with several foundations of towers. Béquignon indicates that there were remains of house foundations on mainly the northern peak at the time of his visit in the 1920s.
In the foothills and at the plain below the hill, Georges Roux in 1954 noted remains of a possible lower city, as well as some epigraphical material in the nearby village of Platystomo.G. Roux, "Note sur les antiquités de Macra Comè", ''BCH'' vol. 78, pp. 89-94, 1954. Roux and most other scholars of the early 20th century interpreted the remains at Profitis Ilias as the remains of Makra Kōmē (Μακρὰ Κώμη), briefly mentioned in

, and the nearby town of Varybombi has since changed its name to Makrakomi as a result of this. Stählin, Béquignon and Roux all date the remains at Profitis Ilias to the Hellenistic period (late 4th-early 2nd century B.C.E.), a view supported by finds from excavations conducted by the local ephorate of the Greek Archaeological Service at Lamia in the 1970s.''Arch.Delt.'' 28 (1973), Chron. p. 280-281, 283. This has been contested by some local authors who claim that the hill is the location of the semi-mythical Phthia, home of

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...

.Ε. Αδάμας, Τ. Ευθυμίου & Β. Κανέλλος, ''Αναζητώντασ ίχνη του Ομηρικού Αχιλλέα στην κοιλάδα του Σπερχειού'', Lamia 2006. This is, however, based on philological readings and not supported by any archaeological evidence. The site at Profitis Ilias is currently the subject of an archaeological survey conducted by the 14th Ephorate at Lamia and the Swedish Institute at Athens.ΙΔ Εφορεία Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτω�

Makrakomi Archaeological Landscapes Projec

/ref>

References

External links

{{commonscat-inline Ainis, Historical regions in Greece Ancient Central Greece History of Phthiotis Geography of ancient Thessaly Spercheios Valley