87-120

The topography and the town-planning of Syrian Tetrapolis in the Hellenistic period

Αρχαιολογία

• Βήτας, Δημήτρης

Alexander the Great, during his campaign in the East, founded many new cities in the conquered lands, in order to establish his sovereign there. The same tactic was followed later by his successors, by Antigone the One-Eyed initially, and afterwards by the Seleucides, who inherited the biggest part of Alexander’s kingdom. This policy was aiming to attract as many immigrants as possible from the Hellenic area and to settle them in the lands of the East. The reinforcement of the Hellenic element was of vital significance for the Seleucids in their effort to govern a kingdom so vast and uneven. Those immigrants would convert the cities into hearths of Hellenism, where, later, many natives (Persians, Phoenicians, Syrians, etc.) would have been accreted and Hellenised. So, through this procedure, the Seleucid kingdom would become more homogeneous.This research is aiming to investigate some aspects of the Macedonian colonisation in the East, through the study of the town-planning history of the most important Seleucid cities, Antioch on the Orontes, Seleucia in Pieria, Apamea on the Orontes and Laodicea, known as Syrian Tetrapolis. These four cities were built nearly simultaneously in 301 B.C. by Seleucus I Nicator, indicating his agonizing effort to acquire an access to Mediterranean. An opening to the sea would allow to the Seleucid king to keep contact with the Greek world and not to stay cut off in the depths of East.It is however very interesting, through the study of the plan and the function of these cities to try to analyse the policy of the Seleucids. Why did they build those cities? How did they look like? Were they built for the Greeks or for the natives? Finally, were they Greek cities or just Hellenising?Hopefully, the answers to the questions above will contribute to the topic of the Macedonian colonisation with some new information. However, it would be more important if those answers give a new impulse for further research on the penetration of the Hellenism in the East, a very important topic relatively to the history and civilisation of the Hellenistic kingdoms.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Ιστορία, Αρχαία
• Architecture, Classical
• Τοπογραφία

Το θέμα αποτελεί περίληψη της διπλωματικής διατριβής που συνέγραψε υπό την επίβλεψη του καθηγητή P. Gros για την απόκτηση διπλώματος DEA από το Πανεπιστήμιο Aix-Marseille I. Για τις υποδείξεις και παρατηρήσεις της στο παρόν κείμενο ευχαριστεί την καθηγήτρια Κλασικής Αρχαιολογίας Μπ. Σμιτ-Δούνα, Περιέχει εικόνες , κατόψεις και σχέδια