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Apollonia of Mygdonia

Αρχαιολογία

• Μανωλεδάκης, Μανώλης

This study examines the place of the city known as «Apollonia of Mygdonia» or «the myg- donian Apollonia». In the modern literature the prevalent opinion is that this city is Apollonia that was situated to the south of Lake Volvi, the only one with this name in the region of central Macedonia that has been identified and archaeologically researched (near the place «Boudroumia»). There are several ancient written sources that report the place-name «Apollonia» in the region of central Macedonia and today there is no unanimity on whether all of them refer to the same city or to more homonymous ones. In any case, «Apollonia of Mygdonia» is mentioned only by one writer, the geographer Ptolemy (Klaudios Ptolemaios). However, according to Apollonia’s coordinates given by Ptolemy (which are examined here), this town was situated to the NW of Thessaloniki, far enough from Volvi. To this we could add the information given by another geographer, Strabo, that Apollonia was one of the twenty-six towns which took part in the foundation of Thessaloniki by Cassander and which were situated «in the Thermaic Gulf and in Crousis», namely very far from the region of Volvi. Indeed, if the six from these towns that Strabo mentions (Apollonia, Chalastra, Therme, Gareskos, Aenea and Kissos) are reported in geographic order, as has sometimes been argued, then this Apollonia’s place coincides considerably with the place of Ptolemy’s «mygdonian Apollonia». So we conclude that there should have been also a second Apollonia in central Macedonia, which is indeed the only one called «mygdonian» in the ancient literature. Therefore, this determination should be rather disconnected from Apollonia of Volvi (even if the latter also belonged geographically to Mygdonia).

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Τοπογραφία
• Archaeological site location

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