Non-fiction ~ research article
Published in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, November 1895
Available to buy online here
ABSTRACT:
Aegosthena, now more generally known as Porto Germano, lies on one of
the easternmost bays of the Corinthian gulf, and on the northern
frontier of the Megarid. Its remoteness from ordinary routes—for between
it and Velia, itself an ultima Thule, rise 2,000 feet of
pine-clad mountains—accounts for the fact that it is to this day
practically unknown, and also perhaps for the very scanty mention of it
in ancient literature. There was a shrine of Melampus there, the
Spartans passed it in their retreat from Leuctra, and that is all. But
the same remoteness has preserved for us a Greek fortified town in
better condition and greater completeness than any other, not even
excepting Messene.
The town was divided into two parts, the Acropolis defended on all sides
by a line of walls and towers, and the lower town fortified on the
north, from the Acropolis down to the sea, by a similar line, still
remaining in good condition. We are, I think, both by the exigencies of
its position and also by certain scanty remains bound to assume the
existence of a corresponding south wall, of which mention will be made
later. The style of building both in the Acropolis and the long wall is
the same.
It sounds a hoot.
THE CRITICS
Josiah Ober, in Fortress Attica: Defense of the Athenian Land Frontier, 404-322 B.C. (1985) (which also sounds an absolute hoot), calls it 'still the basic work'.
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