|
Acraephia (Boeotia)
Acraephia or Akraiphia ( grc, Ἀκραιφία), Acraephiae or Akraiphiai (Ἀκραιφίαι), Acraephium or Akraiphion (Ἀκραίφιον), Acraephnium or Akraiphnion (Ἀκραίφνιον), was a town of ancient Boeotia on the slope of Mount Ptoum (Πτῶον) and on the eastern bank of the Lake Copais, which was here called Ἀκραιφὶς λίμνη from the town. Acraephia is said to have been founded by Athamas or Acraepheus, son of Apollo; and according to some writers it was the same as the Homeric Arne. Here the Thebans took refuge, when their city was destroyed by Alexander the Great. It contained a temple of Dionysus. At the distance of 15 stadia from the town, on the right of the road, and upon Mt. Ptoum, was a celebrated sanctuary and oracle of Apollo Ptous. This oracle was consulted by Mardonius before the Battle of Plataea, and is said to have answered his emissary, who was a Carian, in the language of the latter. The name of the mountain was derived by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its largest city is Thebes. Boeotia was also a region of ancient Greece, from before the 6th century BC. Geography Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It also has a short coastline on the Gulf of Euboea. It bordered on Megaris (now West Attica) in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris (now part of Phthiotis) in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and Parnitha in the east. Its longest river, the Cephissus, flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais was a large lake in the center of Boeotia. It was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptous
In Greek mythology, Ptous (; Ancient Greek: Πτῶος) may refer to the following: * Ptous, eponym of Mount Ptous in Boeotia on which the town Acraephnium was situated. He was believed to have been a son of either Athamas and Themisto, or of Acraepheus and Euxippe, or of Apollo and Zeuxippe, a daughter of Athamas.Thus scholia on Pausanias9.23.6 with reference to Pindar. The relevant passage in Stephanus in fact reads: "Acraephia... was founded either by Athamas or by Acraepheus, son of Apollo. The mountain is named after Ptous, son of the aforesaid individual (τοῦ αὐτοῦ) and Euxippe". The version given in scholia on Pausanias has prompted several scholars to emend "Euxippe" to "Zeuxippe", and to assume that "τοῦ αὐτοῦ" refers to Apollo rather than Acraepheus. Such an interpretation, however, has been contested on the strength of the facts that Stephanus must have closely followed Herodianus, where the parents' names are unambiguously Acraepheus and Euxippe, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Martin Leake
William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the Mediterranean seaports. He developed an interest in geography and culture of the regions visited, and authored a number of works, mainly about Greece. Life He was born in London to John Martin Leake and Mary Calvert Leake. After completing his education at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1794. Having spent four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was promoted to captain, and was sent in 1799 by the government to Constantinople to train the forces of the Ottoman Empire in the use of artillery. The British Empire had decided to support the Ottoman in its defence against Napoleonic France. A journey through Asia Minor in 1800 to join the British ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acropolis
An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, yet every Greek city had an acropolis of its own. Acropoloi were used as religious centers and places of worship, forts, and places in which the royal and high-status resided. Acropolises became the nuclei of large cities of classical ancient times, and served as important centers of a community. Some well-known acropoloi have become the centers of tourism in present-day, and, especially, the Acropolis of Athens has been a revolutionary center for the studies of ancient Greece since the Mycenaean period. Many of them have become a source of revenue for Greece, and represent some great technology during the period. Origin An acropolis is defined by the Greek definition of ἀκρόπολις, akropolis; from akros (άκρος) or (άκ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akraifnio
Akraifnio ( el, Ακραίφνιο), before 1933 known as Karditsa (), is a village in Boeotia, Greece. It was the seat of the former municipality Akraifnia, which is a municipal unit of the municipality Orchomenos since the 2011 local government reform. Population 1,058 (2011). Akraifnio is situated on the western edge of the Ptoo mountains, close to where the river Cephissus flows into Lake Yliki. It is 17 km northwest of Thebes. The A1 motorway (Athens-Thessaloniki) passes southwest of the village. Population History Akraifnio was named after the ancient city Acraephia ( grc, Ἀκραιφία). Acraephia or Acraephnium (Ἀκραίφνιον) was an ancient Greek city ''(polis)'' on the eastern shore of Lake Copais (drained in the late 19th century) and at the foot of the Ptoo mountains. It was believed to have been founded by the mythical Acraepheus. The ruins are a short distance south from the modern village. When Alexander razed Thebes those who were too wea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodus
Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. His reign is commonly thought of as marking the end of a golden period of peace in the history of the Roman Empire, known as the Pax Romana. Commodus accompanied his father during the Marcomannic Wars in 172, and on a tour of the Eastern provinces in 176. Later that year he became the youngest emperor and consul up to that point, at the age of 15. During his solo reign, the Roman Empire enjoyed reduced military conflict compared with the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Intrigues and conspiracies abounded, leading Commodus to revert to an increasingly dictatorial style of leadership, culminating in his creating a deific personality cult, with his performing as a gladiator in the Colosseum. Throughout his reign, Commodus entrusted the management ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined some 13 centuries later by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161. Marcus Aurelius was born during the reign of Hadrian to the emperor's nephew, the praetor Marcus Annius Verus, and the heiress Domitia Calvilla. His father died when he was three, and his mother and grandfather raised him. After Hadrian's adoptive son, Aelius Caesar, died in 138, the emperor adopted Marcus's uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir. In turn, Antoninus adopted Marcus and Lucius, the son of Aelius. Hadrian died that year, and Antoninus became emperor. Now heir to the throne, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Böckh
August Böckh or Boeckh (; 24 November 1785 – 3 August 1867) was a German classical scholar and antiquarian. Life He was born in Karlsruhe, and educated at the local gymnasium; in 1803 he left for the University of Halle, where he studied theology. F. A. Wolf was teaching there, and creating an enthusiasm for classical studies; Böckh transferred from theology to philology, and became the best of Wolf's scholars. In 1807, he established himself as ''Privatdozent'' in the University of Heidelberg and was shortly afterwards appointed professor extraordinarius, becoming professor two years later. The common misapprehension of Böckh's first name being not just August but Philipp August originated in Heidelberg where staff of the university misread the abbreviation 'Dr phil' (doctor philosophiae) as 'Dr Philipp August Böckh'. In 1811, he moved to the new University of Berlin, where he had been appointed professor of eloquence and classical literature. He remained there till h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oracle
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word ''oracle'' comes from the Latin verb ''ōrāre'', "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, ''oracle'' may also refer to the ''site of the oracle'', and to the oracular utterances themselves, called ''khrēsmē'' 'tresme' (χρησμοί) in Greek. Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense, they were different from seers (''manteis'', μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and other various methods.Flower, Michael Attyah. ''The Seer in Ancient Greece.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia (priestess to Apoll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias ( /pɔːˈseɪniəs/; grc-gre, Παυσανίας; c. 110 – c. 180) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD. He is famous for his ''Description of Greece'' (, ), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his firsthand observations. ''Description of Greece'' provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology. Biography Not much is known about Pausanias apart from what historians can piece together from his own writing. However, it is mostly certain that he was born c. 110 AD into a Greek family and was probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor. From c. 150 until his death in 180, Pausanias travelled through the mainland of Greece, writing about various monuments, sacred spaces, and significant geographical sites along the way. In writing ''Description of Greece'', Pausanias sought to put together a lasting written account of "all things Greek", or ''panta ta hellenika''. Living in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temenos
A ''temenos'' (Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy grove, or holy precinct. A ''temenos'' enclosed a sacred space called a ''hieron''. It was usually surrounded by a wall, ditch, or line of stones. All things inside of the demarkated area belonged to the designated god. Greeks could find asylum within a sanctuary and be under the protection of the deity and could not be moved against their will. Etymology The word derives from the Greek verb (''temnō''), "I cut". The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek , ''te-me-no'', written in Linear B syllabic script. The Latin language equivalent was ''fanum''. In religious discourse in English, ''temenos'' has also come to refer to a territory, plane, receptacle or field of deity or divinity. Examples * The race-course of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tholos (architecture)
A tholos (pl. ''tholoi''), from Ancient Greek θόλος, meaning "dome"), in Latin tholus (pl. ''tholi''), is an architectural feature that was widely used in the classical world. It is a round structure, usually built upon a couple of steps (a podium), with a ring of columns supporting a domed roof. It differs from a monopteros (Ancient Greek:ὁ μονόπτερος from the Polytonic: μόνος, ''only, single, alone'', and , ''wing''), a circular colonnade supporting a roof but without any walls, which therefore does not have a cella. It is not to be confused with the tholos tombs (or "beehive tombs") of Late Bronze Age Greece. Classical world Greece In Greece, the tholos is a round temple of Greek peripteral design completely encircled by a colonnade. A famous tholos can be seen in Delphi, the Tholos of Delphi. It has been dated to 370–360 BC. Its role remains unclear. The Philippeion in the Altis of Olympia was an Ionic circular memorial in limestone and marble, a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
