Cassandreia or Cassandrea (, ''Kassándreia'') was once one of the most important cities in

Ancient Macedonia 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 ...

, founded by and named after

Cassander Cassander (; ; 355 BC – 297 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 305 BC until 297 BC, and '' de facto'' ruler of southern Greece from 317 BC until his death. A son of Antipater and a contemporary of Alexander the ...

in 316 BC. It was located on the site of the earlier

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

city of

Potidaea __NOTOC__ Potidaea (; , ''Potidaia'', also Ποτείδαια, ''Poteidaia'') was a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BC in the narrowest point of the peninsula of Pallene, Chalcidice, Pallene, the westernmost of three peninsulas at t ...

, at the isthmus of the Pallene peninsula.POTEIDAIA (Nea Poteidaia) Chalkidike, Greece
entry in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. The fact that Cassander named it after himself suggests that he may have intended it to be his capital, and if the canal which cuts the peninsula at this point was dug or at least planned in his time, he may have intended to develop his naval forces using it as a base with a harbour on each of the east and west sides. Cassandreia soon became a great and powerful city, surpassing the other Macedonian towns in wealth.

Philip V of Macedon Philip V (; 238–179 BC) was king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon from 221 to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by the Social War (220–217 BC), Social War in Greece (220-217 BC) ...

made Cassandreia his main naval base. At the end of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

, around 43 BC by order of Brutus a Roman colony was settled by the proconsul Q. Hortensius Hortalus, which in 30 BC was resettled by August with the installation of new settlers and took the official name ''Colonia Iulia Augusta Cassandrensis''. The territory of the colony had included within its boundaries the peninsula of Pallini and the district stretched north of the canal to the foot of the mountain Cholomontas. The colony enjoyed ''

ius Italicum ''Ius Italicum'' or ''ius italicum'' (Latin, Italian or Italic law) was a law in the early Roman Empire that allowed the emperors to grant cities outside Italy the legal fiction that they were on Italian soil. This meant that the city would be go ...

'', and is mentioned in

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

's encyclopaedia and in inscriptions. It was destroyed by the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

and

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

around 540 AD. The modern settlement of

Kassandreia Kassandreia (, ), known as Valta before 1955 (, , meaning "town in the swamps"), is a town and a community in Chalkidiki, northern Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of Kassandra, in the center of the peninsula. Its population was 3,158 ...

(named Valta before 1955) lies to the south of the ancient site. The ancient site of Cassandreia, near the town

Nea Poteidaia Nea Poteidaia (, also Νέα Ποτίδαια) is a town in the Moudania municipal unit, in Chalkidiki, Greece. The location is the only land access to the Kassandra Peninsula. Built on the site of the ancient city of Potidaea, 33 kilometers sou ...

, has not been excavated. The Christian

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

based on the ancient town is mentioned in the early 10th-century ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the mos ...

'' of

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During ...

. Its bishop Hermogenes participated in both the

Robber Council The Second Council of Ephesus was a Christological church synod in 449 convened by Emperor Theodosius II under the presidency of Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria. It was intended to be an ecumenical council, and it is accepted by the miaphysite ...

of Ephesus in 449 and the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

in 451. In addition to the ancient Greek Orthodox metropolis ( el), Cassandria is also listed today by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 860

Notable people

* Aristobulus (4th century BC), historian * Poseidippus (3rd century BC), comic poet

References

*F. Papazoglou, ''Les villes de Macédoine à l'époque romaine'', Supplément du BCH 16,

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, 1988.

D. C. Samsaris, ''The Roman Colony of Cassandreia in Macedonia (Colonia Iulia Augusta Cassandrensis)'', Dodona 16(1), 1987, p. 353-437 *John R. Melville-Jones, 'L'ixola di Caxandria' in Thesaurismata 27, 1997, 125–138.

External links

Greek Coinage of Cassandreia
{{coord, 40.195, 23.330, region:GR, display=title 316 BC Populated places established in the 4th century BC Macedonian colonies Hellenistic colonies in Chalcidice Ancient Greek cities Coloniae (Roman) Former populated places in Greece Antipatrid colonies in Macedonia 310s BC establishments Populated places in ancient Macedonia Dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Catholic titular sees in Europe