How does a “city” come into being during the Imperial period in the province of Achaea? The case of Aetolian Kallipolis
Abstract
In the 1970s, one of the most extensive rescue excavations ever undertaken in Greece was conducted in eastern Aitolia. Kallipolis, a city that had emerged through the synoecism of neighboring komai in the early Hellenistic period, was brought to light over a substantial area through the systematic investigation of its principal structural components: the circuit wall, sanctuaries, cemeteries, and its densely built residential core.
The Hellenistic city appears to have been abandoned in the mid-160s BC, possibly as a consequence of civil strife triggered in the aftermath of the Battle of Pydna. Excavation further revealed two clearly differentiated settlement phases dating to the Imperial period, separated by a destruction horizon attributed to the Heruli. Both phases comprise a settlement of considerable extent, from which numerous domestic structures and part of the associated necropolis have been uncovered. Contemporary scholarship has classified this settlement as a polis.
Yet the systematic study of the archaeological record indicates that Imperial Kallipolis lacks the expected urban political and administrative institutions traditionally associated with a city. The earliest construction erected atop the Hellenistic ruins was a mansio, a waystation of high architectural quality incorporating a bath complex, intended to accommodate travelers crossing the Daphnos plain en route to and from the central Greek mainland.
The subsequent development of the settlement around this initial nucleus finds close parallels in comparable, well-documented cases from other provinces of the Roman Empire.