DION
Greece.
A town of Pieria at the S entrance into Macedonia, named for its proximity to a
shrine of Olympian Zeus (Steph. Byz.); local tradition
(
Paus. 9.3) held that Orpheus died and was buried
there. Town and shrine were brought into prominence
by King Archelaos (Diod., 17.16.3; schol. Dem. 19.192),
who instituted a dramatic festival in honor of Zeus and
the Muses. Philip celebrated the destruction of Olynthos
at Dion (
Diod. 16.15). Alexander held a nine-day festival there (
Diod. 17.16.3-4; Arr.
Anab. 1.11.1) before
the campaign into Persia, and later commissioned Lysippos' statues of the Macedonian Companions who fell at
the Graniko (ibid. 1.16.4). Dion was fostered by the
Antigonids, and prospered until the Aitolians sacked it
in 219 B.C. (Polyb. 4.2). It had recovered by 169 B.C.
(
Livy 44.7), and Metellus Macedonicus found Lysippos
statues still there in 147 (Vell. Pat. 1.1 1.3; Plin.,
HN
34.64). In Imperial times it was resettled as Colonia
Julia Diensis, and flourished while its neighbor Pydna
declined. It was sacked in the late 4th c. A.D., recovered
briefly in the next century, but was soon abandoned
altogether.
The town lies on a gentle slope between the Aegean
shore and the abrupt slopes of Mount Olympos. Until
recently a dense forest and unhealthful swamps impeded
serious investigation, but the site has now been cleared
and drained. The first excavations concentrated on two
lines of paved roadway, on a basilical church building
NW of their intersection, and on several Macedonian
chamber tombs in the vicinity.
The city forms a rectangle, crossed by roads running
roughly N-S and E-W (actually E-NE—W-SW). The
more important axis, paved with large slabs and 5-5.6 m
wide, runs straight from the N to the S wall, and may
continue into the sanctuary area. To the W of this road
the circuit wall stands out over a large moat, which may
have protected the city from flooding more than from
siege. The wall is difficult to trace E of the road. The
foundation courses of the S wall date from the late 4th c.
It is solidly built of large rectangular blocks with numerous rectangular towers at regular intervals. In the center
of the W wall, a structure that may once have served
for a gate was subsequently converted into a sort of
Nymphaion.
On the W side of the N-S road, towards the center
of the city, there is an ornamental facade with a relief
depicting shields and body armor on alternate panels.
Farther S the W side is lined by shops and a bath, the
latter near the passage through the S wall.
The sanctuary area extends S of the city wall, apparently along the line of the N-S road. Well to the W,
towards Mt. Olympos, is a theater built on an artificial
embankment, an odeion, and a stadium. Between the
theater and the line of the road, near a spring, inscriptional and other evidence suggests the existence of cults
of Dionysos, Athena, and Kybele. On the E side of the
road excavations have brought to light naiskoi of Demeter and Asklepios, along with evidence of the cults of
Baubo, Artemis, Hermes, and the Muses; farther out
along the line of the road inscriptions mentioning Olympian Zeus have been found.
Finds are in a small museum in the adjacent village of
Malathria (officially Dion): numerous funerary monuments, cult statues, and architectural fragments. A piece
of Ionic molding dated to the 5th c. B.C. gives evidence
of the embellishment of the city in the time of Archelaos.
The most impressive of the Macedonian chamber
tombs in the vicinity of the theater was dated to the
4th c. B.C. but is now thought to be later. Tombs have
also been found at Karitsa, N of Malathria.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. M. Leake,
Travels in Northern
Greece III (1835) 408-13; L. Heuzey,
Le Mont Olympe
(1860) 113-28
M; id. & H. Daumet,
Mission en Macédoine (1876) 267-72; G. Soteriades, Excavation reports,
Praktika (1928) 59; (1929) 69-82
I; (1930) 36-51 (tomb)
I; (1931) 43-55
I; C. Mabreveas, “Neai Eidēseis
ek Diou tou Pierikou, Ē Thesis tou ierou tou Dios,”
ArchEph (1937) II 527-33; id., Excavation report,
Praktika (1956) 13 1-38
I; G. Bakalakis, Excavation reports,
ArchDelt 19, 2 (1964) 344-49
PI; 21, 2 (1966) 346-49
I;
23, 2 (1968) 342-44
I; “Chronique des Fouilles,”
BCH 52 (1928) 490; 53 (1929) 510; 54 (1930) 498-500; 55 (1931) 494-95; 58 (1934) 256; 80 (1956) 311-13; 81 (1957) 597-98; 90 (1966) 862-64
P; 94 (1970) 1060;
Ergon (1955) 48-50, 123-25; (1956) 50-52.
P. A. MACKAY
