- Potidaea
Potidaea (Greek: Ποτίδαια Potidaia, modern transliteration: Potidea) was a
colony founded by theCorinth ians around600 BCE in the narrowest point inPallene (now Kassandra) in the western point ofChalcidice in what was known asThrace . Potidaea maintained trade with Macedonia.While besieged by the Persians in 479 BC, the town was saved by the earliest recorded tsunami in history. [Smid, T. C.: "'Tsunamis' in Greek Literature", "Greece & Rome", 2nd Ser., Vol. 17, No. 1 (Apr., 1970), pp. 100-104 (102f.)]
Herodotus reports how the Persians attackers who tried to exploit an unusual retreat of the water were suddenly surprised by "a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the place say, than any one of the many that had been before". [Herodot: [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hdt.+8.129.1 "The Histories", 8.129] ]During the
Delian League conflicts occurred betweenAthens andCorinth . However, the Corinthians sent a supreme magistrate each year. Potidaea was inevitably involved in all of the conflicts between Athens and Corinth.The people revolted against the Athenians in
432 BCE , but it was besieged during thePeloponnesian War and taken in theBattle of Potidaea in430 BCE . The Athenians preserved the city until404 BCE , when it was passed intoChalcidice .The Athenians retook the city in
363 BCE , but in356 BCE Potidaea fell into the hands ofPhilip II of Macedon . Potidaea was destroyed and her territory handed to the Olynthians.Cassander built a city in the same site and was namedCassandreia .The modern settlement of
Nea Potidea is near this ancient site.Trivia
*Gabrielle, a fictional character in "" was born in Potidaea.
References
ee also
*
Delian League
*Peloponnesian Wars External links
*http://alexander.macedonia.culture.gr/2/21/211/21116/e211pa08.html
*http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0839904.html
* [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/macedonia/potidaea/i.html Greek Coinage of Potidaea]
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