DAULIS
or Daulia, Phokis, Greece.
A city on
the E slope of Parnassos overlooking the “schize hodos”
leading to Arachova and Delphi as well as the approach
to Boiotian Kephissos (Soph.
Oed. tyr. 734).
The city goes back to the Mycenaean period and is
mentioned by Homer (
Il. 2.520). In the Median wars
Daulis was burned by the Persians as were the nearby
cities of Panopeus and Lilaia. In 395 the Thebans failed
to seize the city (
Hell. Oxy. 18 (13). 6) although they
sacked the whole region; then in 346 it was destroyed
by Philip (
Paus. 10.3.1). In 220 the Aitolians tried in
vain to recapture Ambrysos and Daulis (Polyb. 4.25.2)
which they had lost about 225, and in 198 Flamininus
seized the city from Philip V (
Livy 32.18.7).
Daulis was built on a table-shaped acropolis (468 m
high). Its ramparts, which are well preserved, were quadrangular and built of polygonal masonry, and rendered
the city almost impregnable (
Livy 32.18; cf.
Paus.
10.4.7). Daulis had a Sanctuary of Athena, a cult of
Athena Soteira, for which there is epigraphical evidence,
and a Sanctuary of Isis. Inside the acropolis is the
Church of Haghii Theodori, built with the reused ancient
stones.
Daulis is not to be confused with Daulis in Epeiros.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. G. Frazer,
Paus. Des. Gr. (1895) for
description of ramparts; E. Schober, “Phokis” (diss.,
Iena 1924) 27-28; R. Placeière,
Les Aitoliens à Delphes
(1937) 287, 289; A. Bon in
BCH 61 (1937) 143-44
IP;
A. Philippson & E. Kirsten,
GL (1951) I.2 431; E. Meyer
in
Kl. Pauly (1964) s.v.; R. Hope Simpson,
A Gazetteer
and Atlas of Mycenaean Sites (1965) III, no. 441; id. &
J. F. Lazenby,
The Catalogue of the Ships in Homer's
Iliad (1970) 42; N.G.L. Hammond,
Epirus (1967) 657
(for Daulis in Epeiros); for Pausanias, beyond the Frazer
ed., see that of N. Papachatzis (1969) V 261-64
I, 247,
plan 157.
Y. BÉQUIGNON
