MANTINEA B.
Arkadia, Greece.
Located in
the plain N of modern Tripolis and off the road to
Olympia. Mentioned as “lovely” by Homer (
Il. 2.607),
it was formed by the synoecism of five villages at some
unknown date (
Strab. 8.3.2). As an ally of Sparta, Mantinea took part with 500 hoplites in the battle of Thermopylai (
Hdt. 7.202), but came too late for Plataia
(
Hdt. 9.77). Mantinea split with Sparta in 420 (
Thuc.
5.29) when interests collided, and was disbanded by
Sparta in 385. After the battle of Leuktra in 371 the city
was reconstituted, and was a member of the Arkadian
League until 362 (
Xen. Hell. 7.5), at which time it returned to friendship with Sparta. In 223 Antigonos Doson
destroyed the city which was then refounded under the
name of Antigoneia, a name which it retained until
Hadrian's time. Numerous battles took place in the
vicinity (418:
Thuc. 5.64-81; 362:
Xen. Hell. 7.5; 207:
Polyb. 11.11-19). Pausanias describes the city (8.8.3-8.12), thus disproving Strabo (
8.8.2), who included it
among states no longer extant.
The 4th c. city—the most ancient site was at Ptolis, securely identified with the hill Gourtsouli—is located nearly in the middle of the plain, and was originally bisected
by the Ophis river. Later, after Agesipolis had taken the
city in 385 (
Xen. Hell. 5.2.4-7) by damming the river
and thus causing the sun-dried bricks of the walls to collapse, the river was diverted so as to flow around the
city. The circuit of the walls, 3942 m long and roughly
oval in shape, is preserved for nearly its entire extent.
Originally built up in mudbrick, only the socle of the
inner and outer curtain remains, at a height varying between 1-1.8 m with a width of 4.2-4.7 m. Over 100 towers (estimates vary as to the original number) are built
out from the wall, and there are at least nine, and possibly ten, gates. Most of the gates are so constructed that
one is forced to approach through towers into a passage
between sections of the wall. Excavators have cleared the
agora (85 x 150 m) with colonnades around it, and the
remains of a 4th c. theater at its W end. Though rebuilt
and remodeled at various times, it may well be one of
the earlier Greek theaters.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Fougères,
Mantinée et l'Arcadie orientale (1898);
RE 14 (1930) 1290-1344; R. Scranton,
Greek Walls (1941) passim; O. Dilke in
BSA 45 (1950)
on theater, with references; R. Martin,
Recherches sur
l'agora grecque (Paris, 1951) passim; T. Karagiorgas in
Deltion 18.2 (1963) 88-89 (Gourtsouli); W. K. Pritchett,
Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, Part II (1969)
37-72; F. W. Winter,
Greek Fortifications (1971) passim.
W. F. WYATT, JR.
