Ichnae or Ichnai (Greek: Ἴχναι) an ancient town of

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 ...

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

on the

Thermaic Gulf The Thermaic Gulf (, ), also called the Gulf of Thessaloniki and the Macedonian Gulf, is a Gulf (geography), gulf constituting the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki is at its northeastern tip, and it is bounded by Pie ...

, above the mouth of

Loudias The Loudias () or Lydias (Λυδίας), popularly called Mavroneri (Μαυρονέρι, "Blackwater", from its Ottoman Turkish name ''Kara Asmak'' قره آصماق) is a river in Central Macedonia that flows through the regional units of Pell ...

river, near modern

Koufalia Koufalia () is a town and a municipal unit of the Chalkidona municipality in Thessaloniki regional unit, Macedonia, Greece. Koufalia is the seat of the municipality of Chalkidona. Before the 2011 local government reform it was a municipality. ...

; built by the Macedonians according to Hazlitt, although Ichnaeans appear independently in epigraphy. It is mentioned by

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 ...

, coupled with

Pella Pella () is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It served as the capital of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. Currently, it is located 1 km outside the modern town of Pella ...

. Ichnai is called a

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 ...

in the urban sense in

7.123.3 and in the political sense in a fragmentary and undated treaty between the city and Dicaea. Coins of Ichnaeans, dated to 520-480 BC, carry a bull and wheel with crescentic lateral bars and are categorized to the Thraco-Macedonian type. According to

Mogens Herman Hansen Mogens Herman Hansen FBA (20 August 1940 – 22 June 2024) was a Danish classical philologist and classical demographer who was one of the leading scholars in Athenian Democracy and the Polis. Life and career Hansen finished his masters at U ...

, Ichnae may have been an originally South

Paeonian In antiquity, Paeonia or Paionia () was the land and kingdom of the Paeonians (or Paionians; ). The exact original boundaries of Paeonia, like the early history of its inhabitants, are obscure, but it is known that it roughly corresponds to m ...

settlement, which already in Archaic times received an influx of Southern Greek colonists. After the

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 ...

ian conquest, settlers from the Old kingdom were added and Ichnaeans may have participated in the Macedonian colonization of

Amphipolis Amphipolis (; ) was an important ancient Greek polis (city), and later a Roman city, whose large remains can still be seen. It gave its name to the modern municipality of Amphipoli, in the Serres regional unit of northern Greece. Amphipol ...

. Two 3rd century BC reported Ichnaeans are: Antigonos son of Asandros, Delphian

proxenos Proxeny or () in ancient Greece was an arrangement whereby a citizen (chosen by the city) hosted foreign ambassadors at his own expense, in return for honorary titles from the state. The citizen was called (; plural: or , "instead of a foreign ...

Dies son of Alketas, Pythian

theorodokos The ''theorodokoi'' (Greek: , ) in ancient Greece were sacred envoy-receivers whose duty was to host and assist the ''theoroi'' (θεωροί, "viewers") before the Panhellenic games and festivals... A ''theorodokos'' was sometimes appointed by th ...

. There is also an undated

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

in Athens of Eurydike daughter of Dadas, Ichnaian. Ichnae's site is within the boundaries of the modern municipal unit of

References

Sources

*Hazlitt, The Classical Gazetteer, page 181 *An inventory of archaic and classical poleis By Mogens Herman Hansen, Thomas Heine Nielsen Page 802 (2004)

External links

Bottiaea Cities in ancient Macedonia Former populated places in Greece {{AncientMacedonia-geo-stub