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ancient city in modern Albania
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Apollonia (Ancient Greek, Koine Greek: Ἀπολλωνία; demonym: Ἀπολλωνιάτης, Apolloniates; Latin: Apollonia) was an Ancient Greek trade colony which developed into an independent polis, and later a Roman city, in southern Illyria. It was located on the right bank of the Aoös/Vjosë river, approximately 10 km from the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Its ruins are situated in the county of Fier, close to the village of Pojan, in Albania.
Apollonia was perhaps the most important of the several classical towns of the same name. It was founded around 600 BC by Greek colonists from Corinth and possibly Corcyra, who established a trading settlement on a largely abandoned coastal site by invitation of the local Illyrians. Corinthian colonial policy seems to have been relatively liberal, focused on resource extraction for the support of their homeland, rather than exploitation or expulsion of the local Illyrian population. Apollonia gradually gained political independence from Corinth and was organized as a polis under an oligarchic system. Aristotle describes Apollonia's oligarchy as a small Greek elite class, largely descended from the original colonists, ruling over a largely local Illyrian population.
From the second century BC Apollonia allied itself with the Roman Republic, which maintained a Legionary base there for a time. The city flourished in the Roman period, housing a renowned school of Greek philosophy, rhetoric, and military training which attracted students from across the empire. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, studied at Apollonia in his youth. The city began to decline in the 3rd century AD when its harbour started silting up as a result of an earthquake. It was abandoned in the 4th century AD.
The name of the city is mentioned among the modern bishoprics of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania (Apollonia and Fier). Apollonia is also a titular see of the Latin Church. The ruins were designated as an archaeological park on 7 April 2003 by the government of Albania.
The settlement was initially known as Gylakeia (Ancient Greek: Γυλάκεια) after its founder, Gylax. Apart from one inscription and a mention by Stephanus of Byzantium there is no other information which has been preserved about him. Gylax may have been a tyrant closely linked to the ruling dynasty of Corinthian tyrant Periander. The decision to change the name of the settlement can be possibly dated to the collapse of the Corinthian tyranny when the settlement was possibly refounded as Apollonia by a faction which opposed the Corinthian establishment. The name Apollonia appears in 588 BC and is a reference to Apollo.
It was one of 24 cities in the Ancient Greek world known as Apollonia. It was distinguished from other cities named Apollonia by being referred to as Ἀπολλωνία κατ᾿ Ἐπίδαμνον (Apollonia kat' Epidamnon) or Ἀπολλωνία πρὸς Ἐπίδαμνον (Apollonia pros Epidamnon), meaning "Apollonia towards Epidamnos," in reference to the nearby Greek colony of Epidamnos.
The site of Apollonia occupied a strategic position within southern Illyria because it was located at the crossroads of a prehistoric trade route, which both linked the eastern Adriatic coast with the interior, and the northern Adriatic with the Aegean. The route into the interior, which was the more valuable because it permitted overland travel elsewhere in the region, existed before the arrival of Greek colonists, and later it became the Roman Via Egnatia. Before the foundation of Apollonia, the Greek goods that moved inland along this route were very few.
The presence of indigenous Illyrian human remains recovered from a burial mound in the necropolis of Apollonia indicates that the initial inhabitation of the region of Apollonia began during the Early Bronze Age. The presence of the Early Bronze Age tumuli shows that Illyrians viewed Apollonia as a part of their territory. The earliest EBA tumulus dates to 2679±174 calBCE (2852-2505 calBCE). These burial mounds belong to the southern expression of the Adriatic-Ljubljana culture (related to Cetina culture) which moved southwards along the Adriatic from the northern Balkans. The same community built similar mounds in Montenegro (Rakića Kuće) and northern Albania (Shtoj). A part of the grave finds of the Adriatic tumuli included locally produced violin idols which were influenced by trends observed in the Early Cycladic I (Grotta-Pelos) culture in southern Greece. Surface surveys of the region suggest that there was very little general use of the area until the colonial establishment.
The first post-Mycenaean Greek mariners and traders in the Adriatic were the Euboeans, who interpreted the foreign coast of this sea in ways that were comfortable to them. It has been conjectured that at the site of Apollonia, in particular, those early Greek seafarers encountered a deserted landscape with abandoned tumuli interpreting them as monuments to their Homeric ancestors. Archaeological evidence shows that in the hinterland of Apollonia the earliest Greek pottery dates from the middle of the 7th century BC and is solely Corinthian. A Corinthian Type A transport amphora that is dated to between the third and last quarter of the 7th century BC, also prior to the foundation of the colony, was discovered inside a tumulus, confirming pre-colonial interaction for the site of Apollonia.
The local population's density before the establishment of the colony is debated. When Greek colonists arrived, there were no indigenous people inhabiting in the immediate vicinity of Apollonia, or, if a native settlement in and around Apollonia existed at all, it was very limited. Despite an ancient tradition preserved by Stephanus of Byzantium that the site was first settled by Illyrians there is yet no clear evidence that it was settled by a non-Greek population before the arrival of the Greek colonists. Traces of Iron Age non-Greek ceramics dating back to the pre-colonial period are very few. Such a pattern appears to conform to a gently trodden landscape, which likely was occupied only seasonally by Illyrians, as one should expect from an area inhabited by people who were organized in tribes.
The colony at Apollonia was founded by a group of 200 Corinthians led by the oikist Gylax to an already existing trading post around 600 BC. J. J. Wilkes reports that Corinth is said to have responded to an Illyrian invitation. According to N.G.L. Hammond they established good relations with the local Illyrians founding a joint settlement with a riverine harbor on the Aoos/Vjosë, which emerged as an important trade center. Stocker (2009) states that all textual evidence suggests otherwise, while McIlvaine et al. (2013) and Kyle et al. (2016) quotes Hammond's suggestion. Stallo (2007) states that the Corinthians and Corcyreans were recruited by the Illyrian Taulantii, cooperating in the establishment of the colony. According to Picard (2013) there is no doubt that the small number of the colonizers enabled the Illyrians the opportunity to prevent the colonial settlement in the area if they wished, hence Apollonia was necessarily founded with the approval of the natives, certainly because of trade advantages the colonizers could grant them. The first colonizers were followed by others particularly from Corcyra. According to Wilkes (1995) the site was located on the territory of the Illyrian Taulantii, while according to Hammond (1997) and Stocker (2009) it was probably located on the border between the Taulantii (and/or Parthini) to the north and the Bylliones to the east; both authors stated that the colonists probably took advantage of the enmity between those two supposedly rival Illyrian tribes.
Apollonia and Epidamnos apparently were the only Greek colonies founded in the Adriatic Sea during the Archaic era, and the only colonies established in Illyria by mainland Greeks. Apollonia in particular was one of the last colonies founded in the west by mainland Greeks during the Archaic colonization. The placement was chosen because it occupied a strategic position at trade crossroads north–south along the eastern Adriatic coast and east–west with the interior of Illyria and Macedonia; across the Straits of Otranto it was also close to the Italian coast; furthermore it was suitable for a riverine port on the shore of the Aoos, and there was also the presence of quality pastureland and scarcity of indigenous settlements in the immediate hinterland of the asty. The polis was located on a significant cultural border between Chaonia (the northernmost part of Epirus) and Illyria.
One of the early actions of the settlers was to bring under their control a hill to the southeast of Apollonia, which the Illyrian tribes used as grazing grounds. The settlers proceeded to exploit the hill by taxing the Illyrian pastoralists for its use. According to most scholars, relations between the colonists and locals were friendly and mutually beneficial. Apollonia grew following its foundation, although it remained modest in size until Hellenistic times. The Corinthian colonial policy appears to have been relatively liberal, and was geared towards resource extraction so as to support the growing Corinthian population, rather than violent expulsion or exploitation of the local Illyrian population. Though Corinth obtained benefits from colonization that resulted in health improvements for their population, the health of Apollonia deteriorated after the colonial establishment as a result of urbanization, poor sanitation, and exposure to new pathogens due to increased interaction with Mediterranean traders. Illyrians and Corinthians coexisted during the colonial period, and the low rate of skeletal trauma at Apollonia indicates that ethnic relations were peaceful.
Compared to pre-colonial Illyrians and ancient Greeks from Corinth, archaeo-demographic studies show that the population of Apollonia grouped more with the Illyrian population of pre-colonial Lofkënd; this indicates that pre-colonial Illyrians constitute an important genetic contribution to the population of colonial Apollonia. About 90% of the population of Apollonia was phenotypically closer to Illyrians than to ancient Greek Corinthians. Archaeological findings corroborate that Illyrian customs were still used in Apollonia after the foundation of the colony and cultural fusion and/or intermarriage between Illyrians and ancient Greeks took place in the site.
Apollonia in Illyria developed to become one of the most important urban centres in the wider region and played a major role as a trade gateway to the central Balkans. Apollonia, like Dyrrachium further north, became an important port on the Illyrian coast as the most convenient link between Brundusium and northern Greece, and as one of the western starting points of the Via Egnatia leading east to Thessaloniki and Byzantium in Thrace. It had its own mint, stamping coins showing a cow suckling her calf on the obverse and a double stellate pattern on the reverse, which have been found as far away as the basin of the Danube.
Apollonia began to mint its own coins in the 5th century BC.
In c. 450 BC the territory of Apollonia was expanded towards the south after the victory of the Apollonians in Thronion on the borders of the land of the indigenous tribe of Amantes, in the coastal area of the Bay of Aulon. By conquering Thronion, the Apolloniates had achieved two goals: they had substantially enlarged their territory towards the Illyrian hinterland and had also acquired a profitable source of money. It gave the Apolloniates control over the lower valley of the Shushicë river, a tributary of the Aoös (modern Vjosa), and consolidated their control over the sanctuary of Nymphaion and the area of the bitumen mines of present-day Selenicë, located to the east of the confluence of the Shushicë into the Aoös. Through that expansion Apollonia benefitted from the exploitation of new fertile lands. With the spoils of Thronion, the Apolloniates erected a monument at Olympia celebrating their victory and conquest. This turn may have also been the result of Apollonia's increasing power towards nearby Epirote lands. Apollonian land was bounded on the south-east by the territory of the Bylliones. In this early era, Apollonia began to expand to the south of the Aous valley and incorporporated in the function of its economy other Greek colonists and natives who lived in this area. The social hierarchy didn't change and both native Illyrians and the unprivileged colonists to the south of Aous joined the lower classes of the expanded territory of Apollonia. This relatively fixed colonial division may have brought socially closer the native Illyrians and the colonists of the lower classes.
Herodotus and Conon relate an anecdote concerning a man named Evenius or Peithenius, who was tasked with guarding the sheep sacred to Helios, but wolves attacked and devoured the animals. Evenius said nothing and planned on buying other sheep to make up for the loss, but the other Apollonians soon found out and gouged out his eyes. A famine then broke out as the earth ceased to bear fruit, because of Helios' wrath; the soil grew fertile again only after the Apollonians consulted the Oracle of Delphi and compensated the blinded man with property, while the gods gave him the gift of prophecy. This little anecdote attest to the divine introduction of prophecy, rather than a real biographical event.
S o u t h e r n I l l y r i ai n t h e 3rd – 2ndc e n t u r i e s B C E
Text from the Wikipedia article “Apollonia (Illyria)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.