Megalopoli () is a town in the southwestern part of the regional unit of Arcadia, southern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It is located in the same site as ancient Megalopolis ( literally ''large/great city''). When it was founded in 371 BCE, it was the first large urbanization in rustic Arcadia. Its theatre had a capacity of 20,000 visitors, making it one of the largest ancient Greek theatres. Today Megalopoli has several schools, shops, churches, hotels and other services. The population of Megalopoli in 2021 was 5,344 residents. Megalopolis drachm

Geography

Megalopoli is situated in a wide valley, surrounded by mountains: the

Taygetus The Taygetus, Taugetus, Taygetos or Taÿgetus () is a mountain range on the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The highest mountain of the range is Mount Taygetus, also known as "Profitis Ilias", or "Prophet Elias" (Elijah). The name is o ...

to the south, the Mainalo to the north, the Tsemperou to the southeast and the Lykaion to the west. Its elevation is 430 m above sea level. The river

Alfeios The Alpheios (, , Latin Alpheus), sometimes spelled Alfeiós, is the main stream of the Alpheios Valley drainage system, a dendritic type, originating on the north slopes of Mount Taygetus, located in the center of the Peloponnesus of Greece, a ...

flows through this valley, coming from the east and flowing to the north, passing south and west of the town. Its tributary Elissonas passes north of the town. The large

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

deposits around Megalopoli are being exploited by

open-pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

. The Megalopoli Power Plant, 3 km northwest of the town centre, has produced electricity from this lignite since 1969.

History

The area of Megalopolis features

deposits, which are prone to catching fire in summer and can smoulder and scorch the earth for weeks. In antiquity, it was often identified as the site of the mythical Gigantomachy where the Greek giants were defeated and killed in a decisive battle with the gods, possibly inspired by enormous bones dug up from around the area taken as giants' bones, as mentioned by Ancient Greek writers such as Pausanias. These have been conjectured in modern times to be those of

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

fossil animals which are still often unearthed from the area today, such as those of the extinct straight-tusked elephant. These animal bones and lignite deposits come from sediments which were deposited around 900-150,000 years ago, when the Megalopolis area contained a large shallow lake. Evidence has been found from these deposits for the inhabiting of the area by the extinct human species ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of ''Homo'' during the Middle Pleis ...

'' around 500-400,000 years ago, with evidence for the butchery of straight-tusked elephants and the extinct large hippopotamus '' Hippopotamus antiquus'' by these hominins. Megalopolis is known for its ancient ruins situated northwest of the town centre, on both banks of the river Elisson. The ruins include an ancient theatre that used to hold up to 20,000 people and was tall. Other landmarks include the Thersileon with 67 pillars and a temple (). The city was founded through a synodical of twenty to forty neighbouring communities between 371 and 368 BC by the Arcadian League in an attempt to form a political counterweight to

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

. Megalopolis was a member of the Arcadian League after its foundation until the dissolution of the federation in 362 BC. In 353 BC, when Thebes had her hands full with the so-called Sacred War, the Spartans made an attempt to reduce Megalopolis; but the Thebans sent assistance and the city was rescued. In 331 BC, Megalopolis was invaded by the

ns and there was a battle with the Macedonians that came to Megalopolis' help. In 317 BC at the start of the Second War of the Diadochi, Polyperchon, the new Regent of the Macedonian Empire, besieged Megalopolis which had sided with his enemy

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 ...

.Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica'' XVIII 68,2-72,1. The siege failed. In the 270s BC, Aristodemus the Good managed to take control over the city as a tyrant backed by Macedon. In 235 BC, the second tyrant of the city, Lydiades, gave up control over the polis and the city became a member of the

Achaean League The Achaean League () was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era confederation of polis, Greek city-states on the northern and central Peloponnese. The league was named after the region of Achaea (ancient region), Achaea in the northwestern Pelopon ...

. In 222 BC, the Spartan king

Cleomenes III Cleomenes III () was one of the two kings of Sparta from 235 BC, 235 to 222 BC. He was a member of the Agiad dynasty and succeeded his father, Leonidas II. He is known for his attempts to reform the Spartan state. From 229 to 222 BC, Cleomen ...

burnt down the city, but it was rebuilt in the years after the destruction. As a member of the Achaean League, Megalopolis had a profound influence on the federal politics and it was the hometown of several notable Achaean figures such as Philopoemen, Lykortas and

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

. Rome conquered Megalopolis during the

Third Macedonian War The Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) was a war fought between the Roman Republic and King Perseus of Macedon. In 179 BC, King Philip V of Macedon died and was succeeded by his ambitious son Perseus. He was anti-Roman and stirred anti-Roman fe ...

in 146 BCE, as part of their conquest of Greece. The city remained populated under the Romans but by the 6th century it was almost completely abandoned. During the Byzantine era, and later also the Ottoman, the town on the same place was called Sináno (Σινάνο). It was renamed Megalopoli after the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

. Megalopoli retained a rural character until the early 1960s, when with the help of Megalopoli-born Prof.

Leonidas Zervas Leonidas Zervas (, ; 21 May 1902 – 10 July 1980) was a Greeks, Greek Organic chemistry, organic chemist who made seminal contributions in Peptide synthesis, peptide chemical synthesis. Together with his mentor Max Bergmann they laid the founda ...

(then Minister of Industry) the Greek

Public Power Corporation The Public Power Corporation S.A. (, abbreviated PPC, or DEIInfoCuriaCommission of the European Communities v Hellenic Republic Case C-394/02, published 2 June 2005, accessed 5 October 2022) is the largest electric power company in Greece. PPC ...

started mining

in the Megalopoli Mine and the construction of the Megalopoli Power Plant followed soon. The Megalopoli Mine is one of the largest lignite mines in Greece. The town was struck by the massive Arcadia

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

of 5 April 1965, in which 17 inhabitants died and 80% of residences were demolished or rendered uninhabitable.

Municipality

The municipality Megalopoli was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following three former municipalities, that became municipal units: * Falaisia * Gortyna *Megalopoli The municipality has an area of 722.629 km², the municipal unit 331.498 km².

Subdivisions

The municipal unit of Megalopoli is subdivided into the following communities (villages within the community in brackets): * Anthochori * Ano Karyes * Chirades * Choremis (Choremis, Apiditsa) * Chranoi * Gefyra * Isaris (Isaris, Petrovouni, Chrousa) * Isoma Karyon * Karatoulas * Kastanochori * Kato Karyes * Lykaio * Lykochia * Lykosoura * Makrysi (Makrysi, Kato Makrysi) * Mallota * Marathoussa *Megalopoli (Megalopoli, Oresteio) * Nea Ekklisoula * Neochori Lykosouras * Paradeisia (Paradeisia, Fanaiti) * Perivolia (Perivolia, Vrysoules) * Plaka * Rapsommati * Souli (Souli, Derveni) * Soulos * Thoknia * Trilofo (Trilofo, Palaiomoiri) * Tripotamo * Vangos * Vastas

Province

The province of Megalopoli () was one of the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

of the Messenia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Megalopoli, except the municipal unit Gortyna. It was abolished in 2006.

Population

Notable people

* Chaeron of Megalopolis (4th century BC), envoy of

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon (; 382 BC – October 336 BC) was the king (''basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

* Cercidas (3rd century BC), Cynic philosopher and poet * Philopoemen (253–183 BC), general and statesman *

(c. 203–120 BC), historian *

(1902–1980), Greek chemist

References

External links

3rd Megalopolis Public School
(in Greek) {{Authority control Municipalities of Peloponnese (region) Populated places in Arcadia, Peloponnese 371 BC Populated places established in the 4th century BC Arcadian city-states Theban hegemony Provinces of Greece 370s BC establishments