Amphicleia or Amphikleia () or Amphicaea or Amphikaia (Ἀμφίκαια) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

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 o ...

, distant 60 stadia 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 (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

calls it Amphicaea, following the most ancient traditions, the Amphictyonic League 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 relates. The place was celebrated in the time of Pausanias for the worship of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

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

spolia ''Spolia'' (Latin for 'spoils'; : ''spolium'') are stones taken from an old structure and repurposed for new construction or decorative purposes. It is the result of an ancient and widespread practice (spoliation) whereby stone that has been quar ...

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