Bottike or ''Bottice'' (Greek: ) was a western region of ancient Chalcidice, inhabited by

Bottiaeans The Bottiaeans or Bottiaei (Ancient Greek: ) were an ancient people of uncertain origin, living in Central Macedonia. Sometime, during the Archaic period, they were expelled by Macedonians from Bottiaea to Bottike. During the Classical era, they ...

, who, were expelled from their homeland

Bottiaea Bottiaea (Greek: ''Bottiaia'') was a geographical region of ancient Macedonia and an administrative district of the Macedonian Kingdom. It was previously inhabited by the Bottiaeans, a people of uncertain origin, later expelled by the Macedon ...

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

ians sometime in the Archaic period . Their chief

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

was

Spartolos Spartolus or Spartolos () was the chief city of the Bottiaeans, perhaps in Bottike, in the northwest of the ancient Chalcidice, at no great distance from Olynthus. It was a member of the Delian League under the Thracian phoros, paying 2 or 3.5 atti ...

. Bottiaeans were members and allies of the

Delian League The Delian League was a confederacy of Polis, Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Achaemenid Empire, Persian ...

. In 432 they revolted from Athens, along with the

Chalkidian League The Chalcidian League (, ''Koinon tōn Chalkideōn'', "League of the Chalcidians"), also referred to as the Olynthians or the Chalcidians in Thrace (, ''Chalkideis epi Thrakēs'') to distinguish them from the Chalcidians in Euboea, was a federa ...

, but in 422 they entered in an alliance with the Athenians. It seems from the inscriptions that they had formed a confederacy (

koinon ''Koinon'' (, pl. Κοινά, ''Koina''), meaning "common thing", in the sense of "public", had many applications, some societal, some governmental. An abstract noun formed from the neuter of the adjective, koinos, "common", the koinon could mean ...

) and struck silver and bronze coins. There were between six and twelve Bottiaean cities but not all of them inside Bottike. According to

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 ...

(8.127)

Olynthus Olynthus ( ''Olynthos'') is an ancient city in present-day Chalcidice, Greece. It was built mostly on two flat-topped hills 30–40m in height, in a fertile plain at the head of the Gulf of Torone, near the neck of the peninsula of Pallene, Cha ...

, close to Bottike, was originally a Bottiaean community. Bottike is mentioned by

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

and

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

in the battles taken place in Chalcidice between late 5th and early 4th century BC. ''Bottikois'', which means ''for Bottic ones'') is only mentioned in

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

.SEG 45:824
/ref> After the conquest by Philip II, unlike

, the name of Bottike disappeared.

References

*An inventory of archaic and classical poleis By Mogens Herman Hansen, Thomas Heine Nielsen, Københavns universitet Page 811 *Studies in the ancient Greek polis By Mogens Herman Hansen, Kurt A. Raaflaub Page 105 {{ISBN, 3-515-06969-0

External links

Coins of BotticeCoins of Bottice, Chalcidian allied type
Geography of ancient Chalcidice