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Crossing the river: observations on routes and bridges in Laconia from the Archaic to Byzantine periods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Pamela Armstrong ,
W. G. Cavanagh  and
Graham Shipley
Pamela Armstrong
Affiliation:
Oxford
W. G. Cavanagh
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Graham Shipley
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
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Abstract

The bridges that served the city of Sparta are known to us from archaeological evidence, inscriptions, and references in the historical sources. These are brought together to examine changes in the activity of bridge-building from the Archaic to Byzantine periods. The conclusions from this analysis are associated with the findings of the Laconia Survey. Some topographical issues arising from the survey results are also examined.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 87 , November 1992 , pp. 293 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1992

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References

1 This paper springs from an initial idea by WGC. An earlier version was delivered in May 1991 at a conference on ‘Land Routes in Greece from Prehistoric to Post-Byzantine Times’ organized by the Canadian Archaeological Institute at Athens. Responsibility for the whole is shared by the three authors, all of whom took part in revising and coordinating the text. The initial groundwork, however, was done separately. DGJS drafting the introduction and the section on antiquity. PA the Byzantine material, and WGC the geographical and archaeological information. The final text was prepared by DGJS, who thanks Jan Verstraete for assistance with word-processing at the BSA. The authors are grateful to Professor J. H. Crouwel and Dr D. R. Shipley for detailed and constructive comments on earlier drafts.

Thanks are due to the Archaeological Service of the Greek Ministry of Culture and Science, and to Dr Th. Spyropoulos (Ephor for Lakonia and Arkadia), for their permissions and assistance during the Laconia Survey. Mrs Kourinou and Mrs Rozaki, successive Epimeletriai in the Lakonia Ephoreia, have been especially helpful. The Greek Army Geographical Service supplied us with the relevant sheets of the 1 : 5.000 and 1 : 50.000 map series, and with aerial photographs. Fig. 1 is the work of David Taylor. The authors wish to thank, severally or collectively, the following bodies for financial support given to the Laconia Survey or to their individual work: Managing Committee, British School at Athens; Society of Antiquaries, London; University of Amsterdam Faculty of Arts; Allard Pierson Foundation; Amsterdam University Society; Dutch Philological Research Fund; Dutch Organization for the Advance of Pure Research (ZWO); Craven Committee, University of Oxford; Faculty of Classics. University of Cambridge; Governing Body, St Catharine's College, Cambridge; Research Board, University of Leicester; Research Fund Committee, British Academy.

Special abbreviation: SAGT = Pritchett, W. K., Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, i–vi (University of California Publications: Classical Studies, 1; 4; 22; 28; 31; 33; Berkeley, etc., 1965–1989) and vii (Amsterdam, 1991).Google Scholar

2 Leake, W. M., Travels in the Morea (London, 1830), i. 125Google Scholar; Jochmus, A., ‘Commentaries’ Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 27 (1857), 1–53, map opp. p. 47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Details to be published by Fiselier, J., ‘Landscape history of the Laconia Survey area’, in Cavanagh, W. G. and Crouwel, J. H. (eds.), The Laconia Survey (forthcoming BSA supp. vol.).Google Scholar

4 Bintliff, J., Natural Environment and Human Settlement in Prehistoric Greece, i–ii (Oxford, 1977), 372–6 and map 3Google Scholar; Fiselier (n. 3).

5 Leake (n. 2), i. 125–6.

6 Note the evidence of revetments, paving-stones, and cuttings in Hammond, N. G. L., ‘The main road from Boeotia to the Peloponnese through the northern Megarid’, BSA 49 (1954), 103–22.Google Scholar

7 For simple descriptions of these two models see e.g. Goodall, B., The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography (Harmondsworth, Middx, 1987), 47, 69Google Scholar, and articles cross-referred to there.

8 In references to bridges and routes, capital letters denote bridges, arabic numbers routes. All are discussed in detail in the Appendix.

9 Xen. Hell. vi. 5, 27–30.

10 Höper, H.-J., ‘Die Brücke von Xerokambion (Lakonien)’, Boreas, 4 (1981), 97–105.Google Scholar

11 Cf. Bölte, F., ‘Sparta: Geographie’, RE (2nd ser.) iii (1929), cols. 1294–373, at 1333 and 1347Google Scholar (referring to Doukas, P. Ch., ‘Η Σπάϱτη διὰ μέσου τῶν αἰώνων (New York, 1922), 18; 57Google Scholar): large quarry with white marble, 0.5 hrs w of Goranoi. See most recently Palagia, O., ‘Seven pilasters of Herakles from Sparta’, in Walker, S. and Cameron, A. (eds), The Greek Renaissance in the Roman Empire: Papers from the 10th British Museum Classical Colloquium (BICS supp. 55; London, 1989), 122–9, at p. 123; pl. 47, fig. 8.Google Scholar

12 Bridge J, repaired by Julius Paulinus in the 3rd cent. AD, possibly erected in Augustan times, should be identified either with A or with a successor of G.

13 SAGT. iii. 153–7.

14 For a discussion of the use of wheeled vehicles in antiquity, see SAGT iii. 181–96. On wheel-ruts as evidence for ancient roads, see ibid. 167–81; Pikoulas, I., ‘Η Tabula Peutingeriana καὶ ἡ χεϱσόνησος τοῦ Μαλέα’, Horos, 2 (1984), 175–88Google Scholar; id., ‘Συμβολὴ στὴν τοπογραφία τῆς Σϰιρίτιδος’, Horos, 5 (1987), 121–48.

15 CIG 8704.

16 The complete text can be found in Feissel, D. and Philippidis-Braat, A., ‘Inventaires en vue d'un recueil des inscriptions historiques de Byzance, III: inscriptions du Péloponnèse’, Travaux et mémoires, 9 (1985), 267–395Google Scholar, at pp. 301–2.

17 Blouet, A., with Ravoisié, A., Poirot, A., Trézel, F., and de Gournay, F., Expédition scientifique de Morée ordonnée par le gouvernement français (Paris, 3 vols., 1831–1938), ii. 64–6, pl. 46 zGoogle Scholar; pl. 49 vi–vii (cf. pl. 45).

18 A diachronic survey of bridges in the Byzantine world and beyond can be found in Millet, G., ‘Église et pont à Byzance’, Vyzantina–metabyzantina, 1(2) (1949), 103–11.Google Scholar For the Justinianic legislation see a Lingenthal, C. E. Zachariae, Jus Graeco-romanorum, ii. 377Google Scholar; Zepos, I. and Zepos, P., Jus Graeco-romanum (Athens, 1931).Google Scholar

19 See e.g. Rouillard, G. and Collomp, P. (eds), Actes du Athos: Actes de Lavra, i (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar, nos. 9. 26; 37. 100; and comments by Andréadès, A., ‘Deux livres récents sur les finances byzantines’, BZ 28 (1928), 287–323, at p. 311.Google Scholar

20 In AD 254 Ephrem built two bridges and inscribed the fact on each of them; see BCH 26 (1902), 166. In AD 579 Bp Paul of Ankara built a bridge and recorded the deed in an inscription; see BCH 7 (1883), 22, no. 11. It was usually the duty of the state to build bridges; see Tactical Constitution (Patrologia Graeca, ed. Migne, cvii, col. 1032), where a general states that men serving under him should be subject only to τοὺς δημοσίους φόϱους (i.e. regular taxes), and not to ‘such as those attached to the building of castles, roads, bridges, and boats’.

21 Monastic typika (foundation charters stipulating the organization of a monastery and the rules to be followed in it, often in minute detail) are relatively common, and many have survived. Our inscription can form only a section of the complete foundation charter.

22 Lampsides, O., Ὁ ἐϰ Πόντου Ὃσιος Νίϰων ὁ μετανοεῖτε (Ἀϱχεῖον Πόντου. supp. 13; Athens, 1982).Google Scholar

23 See Pritchett, W. K., Ancient Greek Military Practices, i (University of California: Classical Studies, 7; 1971; = The Greek State at War, i), ch. 2, e.g. pp. 44–5Google Scholar; SAGT iii. 153–8, etc. For helots as baggage animals cf. Thuc. iv. 26.

24 PECS 164 (dated to 5th Cent. BC).

25 Cf. SAGT iii. 157–8: ‘commercial traffic over mountain barriers between cities was often restricted to what could be carried by animals’; and similar remarks elsewhere in SAGT.

26 LSAG 2 202, no. 66; cf. pl. 39 and p. 446.

27 We here differ from Cartledge, P. and Spawforth, A., Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of Two Cities (London, 1989), 140Google Scholar, in regarding the Sparta–Gytheion highway marked on the Peutinger Table as the main road running from the s gate of Sparta to Amyklai and beyond, not (as they and Bölte thought) a road running sw from a city gate and along the w side of the plain via Xirokambi. See discussion of Xirokambi, above.

28 Cartledge and Spawforth (n. 27), 139–40.

29 Kahrstedt, U., Das wirtschaftliche Gesicht Griechenlands in der Kaiserzeit (Bern, 1954), 193Google Scholar, posits as many as four bridges serving Sparta in the Roman period: two over the Magoula, Paulinus' bridge, and the old bridge to Therapne, which he believes was still in operation.

30 But a religious one: we refer to the Eleusinian Mysteries and the γεφυϱισμός (ritual insulting) of famous persons at the Ilissos bridge in Attica (Hsch. s.v. γεφυρίς, γεφυϱισταί; cf. Plut. Sull. 6; 13; Strab. ix. 400). Mylonas, G. E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, NJ, 1962 [dated 1961]), 256; 280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Monemvasia was in fact the only gateway to Laconia in the 9th cent. The central and W. Peloponnese were firmly held by Slavs; rehellenization of Laconia, both by military and by other means, was centred on Monemvasia, Methone, and Korone, and did not reach Sparta until the end of the 9th cent.; see Huxley, G., Monemvasia and the Slavs (Athens, 1988), 13–14Google Scholar; Woodward, A. M., ‘Sparta: the theatre’, BSA 26 (1923–1925), 119–58Google Scholar, at pp. 156–7. But St Nikon, a century later, travels with seeming ease to Argos, Nafplion, Megalopolis, and Corinth, whereas he never goes to Monemvasia.

32 Chatzidakis, M., Mystras: The Medieval City and the Castle (Athens, 1885), 13.Google Scholar

33 See e.g. Bölte (n. 11); SAGT iii. 167–81, esp. 169–70, 178–80; iv. 3.

34 Loring, W., ‘Some ancient routes in the Peloponnese’, JHS 15 (1895), 25–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 42.

35 SAGT iv. 3–4; 9–11; pls. 2–4; Cavanagh, W. G. and Crouwel, J. H., ‘Laconia Survey 1983–1986’, Lak. spoud. 9 (1988), 77–88Google Scholar, at p. 82 and fig. 5.

36 On the r. bank of the Evrotas (outside the LS area), and a little to the N of the Kopanos bridge, Loring observed ‘polygonal walls’ and pottery, ‘perhaps a small fort’; Loring (n. 34), 42 and map, pl. 1. Evidently this was the same site as Vischer's, W. ‘Wachtpost’ (Erinnerungen und Eindrücke aus Griechenland (Basel, 1857), 401).Google Scholar Cf. also Mahaffy, J. P., Rambles and Studies in Greece (London, 1887), 381Google Scholar (‘a quaint high mediaeval bridge at the head of the vale ol Sparta’).

37 CIG 8704; Feissel and Philippidis-Braat (n. 16), 300–3.

38 Blouet et al. (n. 17), 65–6, pls. 46 z, 49 vi–vii. Cf. Leake (n. 2), i. 151.

39 Wace, A. J. B., ‘The city wall’, BSA 13 (1906–1907), 5–16, at p. 9.Google Scholar

40 Dickins, G., ‘Topographical conclusions’, BSA 12 (1905–1906), 431–9Google Scholar, at p. 437. Suggestions (e.g. by Vischer (n. 36), 379) that the structure is multi-period are not as firmly based as Wace and Dickins' careful considerations.

41 Dickins (n. 40), 437—8.

42 Wace (n. 39), 9. More recently, excavations near the Chymofix factory uncovered a street some 4 m broad, bounded on either side with rows of stones. This road was constructed in the early Hellenistic period (Steinhauer, G., ‘Ἀποστϱαγγιστιϰὸς χάνδαξ παϱὰ τὴν γεφύϱαν τοῦ Εὐϱώτα’, A. Delt. 27 (1972)Google Scholar, Chr. 242–6, at p.244). It ran parallel with the city walls, however, and therefore at right angles to the road observed by Dickins and Wace. The safest inference would not associate this road with the bridge.

43 Leake (n. 2), i. 157.

44 The Aphetaïs is discussed by Bölte (n. 11), 1361. (Stibbe, C., ‘Beobachtungen zur Topographie des antiken Sparta’, BA Besch., 64 (1989), 61–99Google Scholar, at p. 69, has mistaken its position for that of the Ag. Ioannis bridge to the N.)

45 Wace (n. 39), 6.

46 Liv. xxxiv. 38. 2; Papachatzis, N. D., Παυσανίου Ἑλλάδος πεϱιήγησις, vol. ii (Athens, 1976), 345.Google Scholar

47 Liv. xxxiv. 38. 5.

48 Leake (n. 2), i. 150 and pl. 2; Blouet et al. (n. 17), 62.

49 de Boblaye, E. Puillon (1835), Recherches sur les ruines de la Marée (Paris, 1836), 84.Google Scholar

50 Blouet et al. (n. 17), ii. 58.

51 Höper (n. 10); cf. Papachatzis (n. 46), 398–400. pls. 405–6.

52 Wace (n. 39), 6–7; Bölte (n. 11), 1370.

53 Hsch., s.v. Ἑλένεια, ϰάνναϑϱα; cf. Xen. Ages. 8. 7; Bölte, F., ‘Thornax’, RE (2nd ser.) vi (1937), cols. 347–9.Google Scholar Wace and Bölte's view has not passed uncontested; Stibbe (n. 44), 97–8, has returned to the opinion that Xenophon's bridge was a predecessor on the same site as C, evidently on the grounds that the orientation of C in relation to the city walls implies that its line predates them. A Byzantine date for C circumvents this argument: the bridge will postdate the walls.

54 Proposed by Bölte (n. 11), col. 1321.

55 Steinhauer (n. 42), 242 and n. 6, has argued that the gate serving the road to Barnosthenes was located virtually under the modern Tripolis road. A road on the narrow section between the embankment and the city walls could suit Livy's description. However, the gate itself has not been found; and the careful stonework, thought to imply the presence of a gate, seems similar to that observed by Wace in the towers of this part of the wall. We would urge caution against accepting the existence of a gate here.

56 Blouet et al. (n. 17), pl. v; Bölte (n. 11), 1352, 1361; Stibbe (n. 44), 82.

57 Wilhelm, A., ‘Inschrift zu Ehren des Paulinus aus Sparta’, SB der deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1913, 858–63Google Scholar; Spawforth, A. J. S., ‘Notes on the third century AD in Spartan epigraphy’, BSA 79 (1984), 263–88.Google Scholar

58 Cartledge and Spawforth (n. 27), 131; Spawforth (n. 57); Wilhelm (n. 57).

59 Bölte (n. 11), 1358; 1370–2.

60 Cartledge and Spawforth (n. 27), 131; 216, no. 5.

61 Bölte (n. 11), 1341–7.

62 See Loring (n. 34), 1; more recently, SAGT iv, ch. 1.

63 Wace (n. 39), 9.

64 Gell, W., Itinerary of the Morea (London, 1817), 214–16Google Scholar; Blouet et al. (n. 17), 58.

65 Leake (n. 2), i. 125–6 (from Tegea); ii. 522 (from Agioi Saranda); Jochmus (n. 2), map opp. p. 47.

66 Blouet et al. (n. 17), ii. 58–60.

67 We have already seen that Leake had problems crossing the Kelephina in March. Note also Curtius', E. comments on Kelephina the ‘murderess’, Peloponnesiaka (Gotha, 1852), ii. 262.Google Scholar

68 Curtius (n. 67), ii. 259: ‘Die alte Heerstrassc nach Argos … durchschnitt als aufgeschütteter Damm die Niederung zwischen Eurotas und Oinus’. Note Plb. v. 22, φϱάσσειν τὸν ποταμόν.

69 Leake (n. 2), ii. 513.

70 Catling, H. W., ‘A sanctuary of Zeus Messapeus: excavations at Aphyssou, Tsakona, 1989’, BSA 85 (1990), 15–35Google Scholar; Catling, R. W. V. and Shipley, D. G. J., ‘Zeus Messapeus: an early sixth-century inscribed cup from Lakonia’, BSA 84 (1989), 187–200.Google Scholar

71 Plb. v. 18. 1–4. Jochmus (n. 2), 46–53, places the battle between Philopoimen and Nabis (Liv. xxxv. 27–30) here; but it makes better sense for Philopoimen to have marched on Sparta by the usual route from Karyai.

72 AR [6] (1959–60), 9.

73 Wace (n. 39), 13.

74 Blouet et al. (n. 17), 58. The route is marked on Curtius' map (Curtius (n. 67), pl. x).

75 Blouet et al. (n. 17), 62; pl. 45; marked on Curtius' map; cf. Boblaye (n. 49), 84.

76 Paus. iii. 10. 8; Hdt. i. 69; Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 27; Hsch., s.v. ἱεϱὸν Ἀπόλλωνος ἐν τῇ Λαϰωνιϰῇ; Steph. Byz., s.v. Θόϱναξ; cf. Strab. viii. 363 (Amyklai).

77 Bölte (n. 53).

78 Boblaye (n. 49), 75.

79 Blouet et al. (n. 17), pl. 45.

80 AR 36 (1989–90), 24.

81 Blouet et al. (n. 17), 62.

82 H. W. Catling (n. 70).

83 Jochmus (n. 2), 45 and map opp. p. 47.

84 Waterhouse, H. and Simpson, R. Hope, ‘Prehistoric Laconia, part I’, BSA 55 (1960), 67–107, at p. 82.Google Scholar

85 The site is briefly mentioned by Cavanagh and Crouwel (n. 35).