ACHARNAI
(Menidi) Attica, Greece.
In the
first year of the Peloponnesian War, Archidamos encamped the Spartans at Acharnai, the largest of the
Attic demes, 60 stades distant from Athens (
Thuc.
2.19.2, 21.2). In 404-403 B.C. the army of the Thirty
Tyrants also camped here in an action designed to guard
against Thrasyboulos at Phyle (
Diod. 14.32.6). From
these two notices it is therefore clear that the deme was
located S of Mt. Parnes in the general neighborhood of
the modern villages of Menidi and Epano Liosia. That
Acharnai was in fact either at, or near, the former can
be plausibly argued from the number of inscriptions
concerned with Acharnaians found in the churches and
houses of Menidi.
Proof of this identification, in the form of foundations
of buildings, is entirely lacking today, though in the
early 19th c. the remains “of a considerable town” could
be observed 1 km to the W of Menidi beneath the hill
on which is the church dedicated to the Forty Saints.
Thus some scholars have felt free to look elsewhere for
the inhabited center of Acharnai. Despite the claims
made for a broad, fortified hill called Yerovouno, 2 km
SW of Menidi, no compelling alternative has been advanced, and the weight of evidence still makes Menidi
the best choice for the location of Acharnai. There is
perhaps still hope that some remains from the Sanctuaries of Apollo Argyieus and Herakles, mentioned by
Pausanias (
1.31.6), may yet be discovered. As for Ares
and Athena Areia, their temple may have been the one
moved to the marketplace of Athens and there reinstalled in Augustan times.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Dodwell,
A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece . . . (1819) I 521-22; A.
Milchhöfer, “Antikenbericht aus Attika,”
AthMitt 13
(1888) 337-43; M. N. Tod,
Greek Historical Inscriptions (1933-48) II 204; E. Kirsten, “Acharnai,”
Kl.Pauly
(1964) I 43; E. Vanderpool, “The Acharnian Aqueduct,”
Χαριστήριον εἰς Ἀναστάσιον Κ. Ὀρλάνδον (1965) 166-75
M.
C.W.J. ELIOT
