![Thessaly](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Thessaly.jpg)
Cierium or Kierion ( grc, Κιέριον) was a town and
polis
''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
(city-state) in the district of
Thessaliotis
Thessaliotis ( grc, Θεσσαλιῶτις) was one of the four districts into which ancient Thessaly was divided. The others were Pelasgiotis, Histiaeotis, and Phthiotis. Thessaliotis corresponded to the central plain of Thessaly and the upper c ...
in
ancient Thessaly
Thessaly or Thessalia (Attic Greek: , ''Thessalía'' or , ''Thettalía'') was one of the traditional regions of Ancient Greece. During the Mycenaean period, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, a name that continued to be used for one of the major tribes ...
, which according to some ancient commentators, such as
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...
was the successor to the
Homeric
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
Arne
Arne may refer to:
Places
* Arne, Dorset, England, a village
** Arne RSPB reserve, a nature reserve adjacent to the village
* Arné, Hautes-Pyrénées, Midi-Pyrénées, France
* Arne (Boeotia), an ancient city in Boeotia, Greece
* Arne (Thessa ...
, the chief town of the Aeolian Boeotians in Thessaly, from which they emigrated to
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 lar ...
.
History
According to
Thucydides
Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
, the
Boeotians
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 la ...
had occupied the territory of
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 lar ...
when, sixty years after the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...
, they had been expelled from the city of Arne by the
Thessalians
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessa ...
.
Archemachus of Euboea and other authors add that only a few Boeotians decided to stay in Arne and remain as servants of the Thessalians and were called ''
penestae.'' Stephanus of Byzantium identified this Arne located in Thessaly with the city of Cierium, which was accepted by
William Smith, writing in the 19th century, and by some current researchers, others place Arne at
Magoula Makria
Magoula ( el, Μαγούλα) is a district of modern Sparta city in Laconia, Greece. It is the former seat of the Mystras municipality. It is basically the evolution of a small village that has been attached to the growing Sparta city. It is an ...
. a site nearby, but not at, Cierium.
In the
Second Macedonian War
The Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC) was fought between Macedon, led by Philip V of Macedon, and Rome, allied with Pergamon and Rhodes. Philip was defeated and was forced to abandon all possessions in southern Greece, Thrace and Asia Min ...
, in the year 198 BCE after the capture of
Phaloria
Phaloria or Phaloreia ( grc, Φαλώρεια) or Phalore (Φαλώρη) was a town and polis (city-state) of Histiaeotis in ancient Thessaly, apparently between Tricca and the Macedonian frontier.
In the Second Macedonian War, in 198 BCE, ...
by Roman troops and their allies, the cities of Cierium and of
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
sent embassies that offered the surrender of their cities and thus obtained clemency.
In the
Roman–Seleucid War
The Seleucid War (192–188 BC), also known as the War of Antiochos or the Syrian War, was a military conflict between two coalitions led by the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire. The fighting took place in modern day southern Greece, the A ...
, Cieriumwas taken by the army of
Antiochus III the Great
Antiochus III the Great (; grc-gre, Ἀντίoχoς Μέγας ; c. 2413 July 187 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king and the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 222 to 187 BC. He ruled over the region of Syria and large parts of the re ...
, together with
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
and adjacent fortresses. Shortly thereafter Roman consul
Manius Acilius Glabrio, in his advance through Thessalian territory, received delegates from the cities of Metropolis and Cierium that again, as in the Second Macedonian War, offered to surrender their cities shortly before the
Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae ( ; grc, Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, label=Greek, ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting o ...
.
The site of Cierium is in the modern village of
Pyrgos Kieriou (Πύργος Κιερίου), in the municipal unit of
Arni Arni may refer to:
Municipalities
* Arni, Tiruvannamalai, a town in Tamil Nadu, India
* Arni, Maharashtra, in Yavatmal district, Maharashtra State, India
* Arni, Karditsa, a municipality in the Karditsa regional unit, Greece
* Arni, Aargau, a mun ...
, municipality of
Sofades
Sofades ( el, Σοφάδες) is a town and municipality in Thessaly, central Greece belonging to the regional unit of Karditsa. Its 2011 census population was 6,056 people and 18,864 for the municipality, including a large Romani community. Its el ...
, periphery of
Karditsa
Karditsa ( el, Καρδίτσα ) is a city in western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The city of Karditsa is the capital of Karditsa regional unit of region of Thessaly.
Inhabitation is attested from 9000 BC. Karditsa ls linked with GR-30, the ...
,
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...
.
Rediscovery and situation
The site of Cierium was first discovered by
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
Mediterrane ...
, who from inscriptions and coins found on the spot has proved that it was sited by the modern villages of Pyrgos Kieriou and
Mataragka (Ματαράγκα), between the
Enipeus or
Apidanus, and a tributary of that river. The territory of Cierium adjoined that of Metropolis; and we learn from an inscription cited by Leake that the adjustment of their boundaries was a frequent subject of discussion between the two people.
William Smith cites as evidence of the identification of Arne with Cierium an inscription, which mentions
Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...
Cuerius (Κουέριος), a name evidently connected with the river
Cuarius
Cuarius ( grc, Κουάριος), also Latinised as Curalius, 'Cuerius'', or Coralius, was a river of ancient Thessaly. It is noted by Strabo as flowing past the ancient cities of Cierium and Iton
Iton () is a river in Normandy, France, left tr ...
or Coralius in Boeotia.
[ The expelled Boeotians gave this name to the river, and founded upon its banks a temple of ]Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
Itonia in memory of their former abode in Thessaly. Smith concludes that the river upon which Cierium stood was called Cuerius, Cuarius or Curalius, more especially as Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
mentions a river Curalius in Thessaly, flowing through the territory of Pharcadon
Pharcadon or Pharkadon ( grc, Φαρκαδών or Φαρκηδών) was a city and polis (city-state) of Histiaeotis in ancient Thessaly, situated to the left of the Peneius, between Pelinnaeum and Atrax.
In 200 BCE, during the Second Maced ...
in Histiaeotis
Histiaeotis ( grc, Ἱστιαιῶτις, Histiaiōtis) or ''Hestiaeotis'' (Ἑστιαιῶτις - Hestiaiōtis) was a northwest district of ancient Thessaly, part of the Thessalian tetrarchy, roughly corresponding to modern Trikala regiona ...
past the temple of Athena Itonia into the Peneius
In Greek mythology, Peneus (; Ancient Greek: Πηνειός) was a Thessalian river god, one of the three thousand Rivers (Potamoi), a child of Oceanus and Tethys.
Family
The nymph Creusa bore him one son, Hypseus, who was King of the Lapi ...
; in which the only inaccuracy appears to be that he makes it flow directly into the Peneius. Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
also appears to speak of this temple of Athena Itonia, since he describes it as situated between Pherae
Pherae (Greek: Φεραί) was a city and polis (city-state) in southeastern Ancient Thessaly. One of the oldest Thessalian cities, it was located in the southeast corner of Pelasgiotis. According to Strabo, it was near Lake Boebeïs 90 stadia ...
and Larissa
Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...
, which is sufficient to indicate the site of Cierium. Leake supposes with much probability that the name of Arne may have been disused by the Thessalian conquerors because it was of Boeotian origin, and that the new appellation may have been taken from the neighbouring river, since it was not an uncommon custom to derive the name of a town from the river upon which it stood.[
Cierium is not mentioned under this name in history; but it occurs under the form Pierium, which is undoubtedly only another appellation of the same place, π and κ being, according to Smith, often interchangeable.][ Pierium was probably the general, and Cierium the local form. Pierium is first mentioned by Thucydides. It is called Piera and Pieria by Livy, in both of which passages it is mentioned in connection with Metropolis. In an Armenian translation of ]Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...
we find the name of Amyntas of Pieria in the list of the strategoi
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek to mean military general. In the Hellenist ...
who governed Thessaly after the battle of Battle of Cynoscephalae
The Battle of Cynoscephalae ( el, Μάχη τῶν Κυνὸς Κεφαλῶν) was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Phili ...
(197 BCE). Claudius Aelianus
Claudius Aelianus ( grc, Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, Greek transliteration ''Kláudios Ailianós''; c. 175c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus ...
speaks of Pierus in Thessaly.[Claudius Aelianus, ''N. An.'' 3.37.][
]
References
{{reflist
Populated places in ancient Thessaly
Former populated places in Greece
Archaeological sites in Greece
Thessaliotis
Thessalian city-states