A post for fellow history nerds!
On a lonely hillside in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, lies the archeological treasure-trove of Philippi. Wandering the ruins of this ancient city is truly walking in the footsteps of history. This settlement witnessed fates decided, histories written, empires rise and fall.
The first settlers here were from the island of Thasos, founding the city under its original name Crenides in 360 BC. It flourished during the Hellenistic period of antiquity.
The Macedon monarch King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, renamed the city Philippi, after its inhabitants sought his help when Thracians attacked the city. Though it remained independent, the Macedons gained great power and influence in Philippi following this.
Philippi was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 168 BC, when the Romans defeated the Macedon king at the Battle of Pydna. The town became a bustling centre of Roman commerce and activity, greatly aided by the construction of a major trade route which passed through it, the Via Egnatia- fragments of this ancient road still exist today, and visitors can walk along it.
Over a hundred years later, in 42 BC, the city would play centre stage to the infamous battle at which Octavian and Mark Antony defeated Julius Caesar's killers, Brutus and Cassius, thus achieving their revenge and setting in motion the end of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Empire. Subsequently, Philippi became an prominent Roman colony.
The Apostle Paul passed through here in around 50 AD (it seemed he got around alright). He shared the early good news and befriended members of the community. A woman by the name of Lydia, a trader in precious cloth, heard him speak and was baptized, becoming the first recognized Christian convert on European soil. Following some skirmishes with the local authorities, a visit to the Roman prison, a miraculously well-timed earthquake and prison break out, a chat and baptism with the prison jailer and more confrontations with the Roman governors, Paul and his traveling companions went on their way to Thessaloniki and into the rest of Greece.
Before Christianity was recognized as Rome's official religion by Constantine in 313 AD, the early Philippian Christians were persecuted here. However, following the split of the Eastern Empire and the rise of Constantinople, Christianity was officialized and the remains of three mighty Basilicas have been found in the city centre (excavations are still ongoing). Philippi continued to grow as a hub of trade, culture and religion during the Byzantine period.
The late Mediaeval ages saw it go into steady decline however, until it was completely abandoned in the 14th century, subsequent to the Ottoman conquest.
The skeleton of the once mighty Philippi remained popular in the following centuries amongst early tourists and curious European vagabonds, my predecessors. Today this UNESCO World Heritage site attracts visitors from all over the world. Ironically, this wonder of the ancient world is quite subtlety concealed on the outskirts of a dusty, frontier-style town, and on the particular day my dad and I visited, we had the ruins practically to ourselves.
An enchanting experience for me. A profound time to ponder. I couldn't help but spend several hours wandering about the columns, fallen stones, running my fingers along inscriptions written millennia ago, feeling the paving stones of a bygone era beneath my feet, absorbing these vast, empty spaces, wondering what to make of it all. Came, saw, conquered, abandoned. Void. Decay and reminiscence. Visions and dreams, people built and people left, people lived and people died here. A vessel for thought. Traces that remain are cold stone, but what happened here goes way beyond rocky ruins, and influenced the development of a whole continent and the fates of whole civilizations.
So very interesting